US poultry output increases

The US Department of Agriculture has reported that US processors produced 3.76 billion pounds (1.7 billions kilograms) of ready-to-cook chicken, turkey and duck meat in May this year. This was a 6 percent increase compared with the same period last year.

Totals for April 2006 were unchanged with 3.31 billion pounds of poultry meat produced.

The USDA added that the preliminary total live weight of poultry inspected during May 2006 was 5.03 billion pounds - also up 6 percent from 4.73 billion pounds inspected in the same period last year.

The following is a breakdown of poultry by class:

- Young chickens inspected totalled 4.32 billion pounds - up 6 percent from May 2005.

- Mature chickens, at 72.3 million pounds, were down slightly from the previous year.

- Turkey inspections totalled 625 million pounds, an increase of 7 percent from one year ago.

- Ducks totalled 17.1 million pounds - up 10 percent from last year.

Young chickens slaughtered during May 2006 averaged 5.49 pounds per bird - up 2 percent from May 2005, USDA said. The average live weight of mature chickens was 6.11 pounds per bird, up 9 percent from the same period last year. Turkeys slaughtered during May 2006 averaged 28.6 pounds per bird - 1 percent above May 2005.

Editor WorldPoultry