November 27, 2013

The USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reported that poultry certified wholesome during October totalled 4.05 billion pounds, a 2% increase from a year ago.

NASS said that the preliminary live weight total of all federally inspected poultry increased 2% to 5.35 billion pounds. Young chickens totalled 4.61 billion pounds, up 4% from a year ago, while mature chickens totalled 73.3 million pounds a 6% increase from October 2012.

The revised total for September 2013 was 3.60 billion pounds, up 5% from a year ago. The September revision represented an increase of 839,000 pounds from last month's preliminary pounds certified, NASS reported.

In October, the weight of young chickens slaughtered averaged six pounds per bird, up 1% from a year ago, according to NASS. The average live weight of mature chickens slaughtered increased 2% to 5.92 pounds per bird.

Turkey inspections dropped 11% to 646 million pounds, and ducks rose 6 % to 15.1 million pounds. Turkeys slaughtered during October averaged 29.9 pounds per bird, a 3% rise from a year ago.

According to NASS, ante-mortem condemnations for October totalled 10.7 million pounds. Condemnations were 0.20% of the live weight inspected compared to 0.19% in 2012. Post-mortem condemnations totalled 37.3 million pounds. Post-mortem condemnation was 0.91% of quantities inspected, as compared with 0.87% a year ago.