June 4, 2007

US poultry production for April up 2 percent on-year

US production of wholesome poultry for April is up to 3.376 billion pounds compared to 3.307 billion pounds the same period last year, up 2 percent.

However this is down 1.7 percent from March figures of 3.436 billion pounds.

For the year to date, certified wholesome poultry is down 2 percent at 13.509 billion pounds.

Chickens made up the bulk of the total at 2.903 billion pounds, turkeys accounted for 462.257 million and ducks made up most of the remainder at 11.032 million.

Live weight of all poultry was 4.590 billion pounds, down 1 percent  from last month but up 4 percent  from last year.

Chickens made up most of the total here at 3.990 billion pounds, turkeys were placed at 584.332 million and ducks 15.361 million.

For the first four months of 2007, the live weight is 18.319 billion pounds, basically unchanged from a year ago.

The number of chickens slaughtered was down 2 percent from a month ago but up 3 percent from a year ago at 724.392 million head; year to date is down 1 percent  at 2.900 billion.

The average live weight of all chickens was 5.51 pounds per bird, up 1 percent  from both last month and last year. Young chickens, the bulk of the slaughter, averaged 5.50 pounds.

During April 2007, there were 21 weekdays and 4 Saturdays, compared to 20 weekdays and 5 Saturdays in April 2006.