The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates chicken production this year will reach a record high of 38.45 billion pounds on a ready-to-cook weight basis, about 1.7 percent above 2013, a percentage increase comparable to last year’s rate. Total U.S. broiler slaughter data for the week ending Sept. 20, 2014, was estimated by USDA’s Poultry Market News Service to be 160,134,000 broilers, no change from the same week a year earlier.
Current favorable market conditions would normally stimulate production to be somewhat higher, that is, a percentage increase more aligned with the long-run annual average of 4 percent. So why are chicken producers not stepping up production to better match the long-term average of 4 percent? We would if we could, but we can’t. We would like to produce more pounds of chicken, but unfortunately we are not there yet.