News

September poultry production up slightly on year

U.S. poultry production in September 2016 was a little bit larger than in September 2015 at 4.009 billion pounds. Chicken slaughter, production, and average weights were all close to year ago levels, while those same categories for turkey were up ahead of expected holiday demand later this year.

Chicken production totaled 3.501 billion pounds with a slaughter of 757.343 million head and an average live weight for all types of 6.15 pounds per bird. Young chickens also averaged 6.15 pounds and mature chickens were pegged at 6.2 pounds.

Turkey production was 496.382 million pounds with a slaughter of 20.247 million head and an average live weight for all types at 30.63 pounds per bird. Young turkeys averaged 30.65 pounds and old turkeys averaged 28.82 pounds.

The preliminary live weight for all poultry was 5.292 billion pounds, up 19 million on the year. Ante-mortem condemnations of 12.907 million pounds represented 0.24% of the preliminary live weight and post-mortem condemnations of 38.266 million pounds was 0.95% of total production.

The most recent USDA cold storage report indicated good demand for chicken and reflected that holiday build-up for turkey.

For the first three quarters of 2016, U.S. poultry production was 2% ahead of the 2015 pace at 35.611 billion pounds.