News

June poultry production up 6%

USDA reports domestic poultry production for June 2014 was up 6% on the year at 3.744 billion pounds.

The preliminary live weight was also up 6% at 4.95 billion pounds, with young chickens accounting for 4.264 billion pounds of the total. All chickens were 4.332 billion pounds, 7% larger, with turkeys at 606.242 million pounds, a 2% rise.

Young chickens averaged 5.99 pounds per bird, 2% heavier than in July 2014, while mature chickens averaged 5.71 pounds, 2% lighter. Turkeys averaged 30.09 pounds per bird, slightly less than a year ago.

Ante-mortem condemnations of 10.984 million pounds were 0.22% of the inspected live weight and post-mortem condemnations of 35.873 million pounds were 0.95% of total production.

For January to June 2014, U.S. poultry production is 21.98 billion pounds, a little more than this time last year.