Commissioner of Agriculture Dr. Ryan Quarles has proclaimed October as Pork Month in Kentucky to celebrate the more than 860,000 swine produced annually — an important commodity for the state’s agriculture community.
In a release, Commissioner Quarles said this month we celebrate our agriculture producers who work hard to raise pork, a healthy lean meat. He added that pork plays an important role in our state. But more than anything, he added, we celebrate the farmers that put in the work to bring us this valuable, nutritious commodity.
According to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA), pork is an important product to the national diet with the average American consuming about 50 pounds of pork per year. Pork sales reportedly make up 25 percent of total cash receipts for Kentucky agriculture. The sale of market hogs and pigs brought Kentucky farmers $170.24 million in 2021, up 33.3 percent from the previous year.
In 2021, officials report $170.24 million of gross cash receipts from hog markets represented only a portion of the total economic activity supported by the industry. The largest single category of expenditure is feed. With 863,458 head produced annually, 8.1 million bushels of corn valued at $38.16 million and 53.5 thousand tons of soybean meal valued at $17.28 million are used in Kentucky.
Overall, officials report an estimated $459.77 million of personal income and $646.18 million of gross national product are supported by the Kentucky pork industry based on 2021 levels of production.
With more than 1,800 swine operations across the commonwealth, Kentucky ranks 17th in the nation for total swine production. KDA indicates the number of swine operations has increased by more than 500 since 2017, largely due to individual farmers wanting to add swine to their operations during the pandemic.
At the end of 2021, according to Comer’s office, Kentucky had approximately 435,000 total head of market hogs on feed, representing only a portion of the more than 860,000 hogs and pigs Kentucky farmers sold at market last year.
