Global Pig Production Benchmarks 2025: What the Data Reveals About Productivity, Survival and Efficiency
- 10 hours ago
- 5 min read
The 2025 InterPIG report, based on 2024 production data from 23 countries, offers one of the most comprehensive international snapshots of commercial pig production available. Systems from Austria to the USA, including Brazil, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and the UK, are represented.
As always with international benchmarking, no single figure tells the whole story: genetics, feed costs, labour, welfare legislation, health pressures and market specifications all differ. But the data clearly shows where performance gaps exist and what the most efficient systems are doing differently.
Global Pig Production Benchmarks 2025 at a Glance
The table below summarises the most commercially relevant metrics across the 23 systems in the dataset. For output metrics (pigs weaned, growth rate, lean meat), higher is better. For efficiency and cost metrics (FCR, mortality, cost/kg), lower is better.
Metric | Median | Best (System/Value) | Worst (System/Value) |
Pigs born alive/litter | 14.8 | Denmark33 (19.3) | Canada West (11.9) |
Pre-weaning mortality (%) | 12.70% | Brazil SC (7.8%) | Hungary (16.2%) |
Pigs weaned/litter | 13 | Denmark33 (17.0) | Canada West (10.5) |
Pigs weaned/sow/year | 30.1 | Denmark33 (38.7) | GB Outdoor (24.6) |
Finishing DLG (g/day) | 872 | Denmark33 (1,124) | Italy (700) |
Finishing FCR | 2.6 | Brazil SC (2.27) | Italy (3.74) |
Total cost (€/kg CW) | €1.90 | Brazil MT (€1.10) | Ukraine (€2.90) |
Net profit (€/kg CW) | €0.10 | Portugal (€0.60) | Ukraine (-€0.40) |
Lean meat/sow/year (kg) | 1,556 | Denmark33 (1,976) | Ukraine (1,177) |
*CW = cold weight. Denmark33 refers to Denmark's high-prolificacy system.
Sow Productivity and Piglet Survival: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Pigs weaned per sow per year is one of the most widely used whole-farm indicators because it captures reproductive output, farrowing room performance and lactation survival in a single number. The 2025 dataset median sits at 30.1, with a spread from 24.6 (Great Britain outdoor) to 38.7 (Denmark33). The top European systems, Denmark33, France33, the Netherlands, are not only producing more piglets; they are retaining more of them through to weaning.
A key driver of this output is pigs born alive per litter, where the correlation with pigs weaned per sow/year is approximately 0.92. But prolificacy alone is not enough. High litter sizes create competition for colostrum and increase the biological pressure on each piglet. This is precisely where pre-weaning mortality becomes critical.
Pre-weaning mortality in the dataset ranges from 7.8% (Brazil SC) to 16.2% (Hungary), with a median of 12.7%. To put the commercial impact in perspective: a farm farrowing 100,000 pigs born alive per year retains roughly 8,400 more piglets at the low-mortality end of the range versus the high-mortality end before any nursery or finishing losses are counted.
Pre-weaning mortality is not just a farrowing-room metric. It reflects sow condition, litter size management, birth weight distribution, temperature control, colostrum access, pathogen pressure and the piglet's capacity to consume, hydrate and develop gut function in the first days of life.
Post-Weaning Performance and Feed Efficiency: Where Biology Becomes Economics
Saving more piglets before weaning only generates value if they perform well afterwards. The 2025 data shows wide variation across both nursery and finishing phases. Rearing daily liveweight gain ranges from 283 g/day to 512 g/day, while rearing FCR spans 1.40 to 1.92 and rearing mortality varies from 1.4% to 7.7%. In finishing, growth ranges from 700 g/day (Italy) to 1,124 g/day (Denmark33), with FCR between 2.27 (Brazil SC) and 3.74 (Italy).
Post-weaning metric | Best three systems in dataset |
Rearing Daily Liveweight Gain (g/day) | Great Britain (OUT) (512), Great Britain (IN) (512), Ireland (509) |
Rearing Feed Conversion Ratio | Brazil (SC) (1.40), Denmark33 (1.51), Brazil (MT) (1.58) |
Rearing Mortality (%) | Brazil (MT) (1.4), Brazil (SC) (1.9), Hungary (1.9) |
Finishing Daily Liveweight Gain (g/day) | Denmark33 (1124), Denmark (1076), Sweden (1024) |
Finishing Feed Conversion Ratio | Brazil (SC) (2.27), Denmark33 (2.37), Spain (2.40) |
Finishing Mortality (%) | Ukraine (1.4), Sweden (1.5), Brazil (SC) (1.7) |
Feed efficiency is where technical performance converts most directly into financial results. Total feed consumption per slaughter pig ranges from around 291 kg to 626 kg — more than double between the best and worst systems. Feed cost per kg cold weight ranges from €0.70 to €1.40, while total cost per kg cold weight spans €1.10 to €2.90. Small differences in FCR, multiplied across thousands of pigs, create very large cost differentials at farm level.
A piglet that survives to weaning but enters the nursery with poor gut function, low voluntary intake or weak uniformity may still consume more feed, take more days to reach slaughter weight and deliver a lower-quality carcase. The data reinforces that nursery adaptation and finishing performance must be managed as a continuum, not as separate phases.
Lean Meat Production per Sow: The Integrated Performance Metric
Lean meat production per sow per year is a useful single figure because it integrates reproductive output, survival, growth and carcase quality into one commercially relevant result. Across the 2025 dataset, the range is 1,177 kg (Ukraine) to 1,976 kg (Denmark33), with a median of 1,556 kg. The top performers, Denmark33, France33, the Netherlands, Italy, combine high sow output with strong grow-finish performance and efficient feed use.
For producers, this metric provides a practical lens for performance discussions: improving piglet survival is valuable, but the highest-value outcome is improving survival, growth rate, uniformity and feed efficiency together as part of a connected chain.
What the Data Means in Practice
Several practical conclusions emerge from the 2025 benchmarks:
Benchmark against the right peer group. Comparisons are most useful when systems share similar market weights, health environments, welfare requirements and cost structures. Identifying the next realistic performance step is more valuable than chasing an unrealistic target from a different context.
Focus on piglet retention, not only prolificacy. High pigs born alive creates the opportunity. Pre-weaning survival captures it. Farms should track the timing and cause of losses, not only total mortality percentage.
Treat weaning as a biological transition, not just a date. The first days after weaning set the trajectory for gut integrity, voluntary feed intake, immune resilience and subsequent growth. Problems that emerge in finishing often have their roots in the nursery transition.
Use FCR as a whole-system indicator. Feed conversion reflects genetics, health status, diet quality, environment, mortality, slaughter weight and uniformity simultaneously. Review it alongside growth and mortality, not in isolation.
Connect early-life performance to finishing economics. Slow nursery adaptation typically means more days to market, higher feed consumption per kg gain and greater variation at slaughter, costs that often appear weeks after the biological cause.
Where Tonisity Fits Into the Performance Conversation
The InterPIG dataset does not evaluate individual products, but it reinforces a principle central to Tonisity's approach: small biological differences in early life create large commercial differences across the entire production chain. From colostrum intake and first-day hydration through to nursery adaptation and gut development at weaning, the decisions and interventions made in the first days of a pig's life influence outcomes that show up weeks and months later in growth curves, FCR and slaughter uniformity.
For producers looking to close the gap between their current benchmarks and the top-performing systems in the 2025 dataset, the evidence points consistently toward the same levers: early voluntary intake, gut function support, hydration and resilience during the major biological transitions of the production cycle.
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Methodology note: Analysis based on InterPIG 2025 report (2024 production data), Table 1. European decimal commas converted to numeric values; non-reported entries treated as missing. The purpose is to identify useful technical and commercial signals for producers and industry professionals, not to make definitive judgments about any individual country or system. Correlation does not imply causation.
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