News

Poultry production posts 2% year to year increase

According to USDA, domestic poultry production for March 2014 was 3.602 billion pounds, 2% more than in March 2013.

The preliminary live weight was 4.765 billion pounds, also up 2%, with most of the total young chickens. Young chickens averaged 5.98 pounds per bird and mature chickens averaged 5.57 pounds, while turkeys averaged 31.1 pounds.

Ante-mortem condemnations were 10.972 million pounds, 0.23% of the live weight, and post-mortem condemnations were 37.848 million pounds, 1.04% of total production.

For the year to date, U.S. poultry production is 10.766 billion pounds, slightly ahead of the year ago pace.