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May poultry production up 8% on year

U.S. poultry production was up sharply in May.

The USDA says production of 4.585 billion pounds was up 8% on the year, with a 7% increase for chicken to 4.085 billion pounds and an 18% jump in turkey to 487.532 million pounds.

The chicken slaughter was up 5% from last year at 829.837 million head and the turkey slaughter was 15% higher at 19.104 million head, with average live weights generally above a year ago, the exceptions being heavyweight chickens and old turkeys. All chickens averaged 6.52 pounds per bird, 0.1 higher, and all turkeys averaged 31.97 pounds, a gain of 0.86.

Ante-mortem condemnations were 12.313 million pounds, slightly lower than last year, representing 0.20% of the total live weight, and post-mortem condemnations were 27.385 million head, 5% above May 2022, or 0.59% of monthly production.

The USDA’s updated 2023 poultry production projection is out July 12^th.