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Monthly Turkey Production and Prices, August 25th 2024

Poult Production and Placement:

The September 13th 2024 edition of the USDA Turkey Hatchery Report, issued monthly, documented 24.98 million eggs in incubators on September 1st 2024 compared to 26.64 million eggs on September 1st 2023* The September 2024 set was down 1.65 million eggs (6.2 percent) from September 2023 and 0.12 million eggs (0.5 percent) more than the previous month of July 2024.

A total of 21.01 million poults were hatched during August 2024 down 2.44 million poults (10.4 percent) compared to 23.45 million in August 2023*. The August 2024 hatch was down 0.11 million poults (0.5 percent) from the previous month of July.

A total of 20.28 million poults were placed on farms in the U.S. in August 2024, compared to 22.43 million in August 2023*. The August 2024 placement was 0.70 million poults (3.4 percent) less than in July 2024. This data confirms disposal of 0.73 million poults during the month. Approximately 3.5 percent of the August 2024 hatch was not placed.

For the twelve-month period September 2023 through August 2024 inclusive, 255.99 million poults were hatched and 238.94 million were placed. This confirms disposal of 17.05 million poults over the 12-month period, corresponding to 6.7 percent of all poults hatched.

* USDA revision from previous monthly report.

Turkey Production:

The September 19th 2024 edition of the Turkey Market News Reports documented the following provisional data for turkeys slaughtered under Federal inspection:-

• For the processing week ending September 14th 2024, 1.511 million hens were processed at 17.5 lbs. live. This was 10.3 percent less than the 1.683 million hens processed during the corresponding week in August 2024 and 16.4 percent less than the 1.808 million processed during the corresponding week in September 2023. Hen slaughter year-to-date has attained 58.58 million, 12.1 percent less than for the corresponding period in 2023.
• Ready to cook (RTC) weight for hens over the most recent week was 21.27 million lbs. (9,670 metric tons). This quantity was 10.7 percent less than the 23.82 million lbs. for corresponding week in September 2024 and 5.7 percent less than the 25.27 million lbs. during the corresponding week in August 2023. Dressing percentage was a nominal 80.5 percent. For 2024 to date RTC hen production attained 800.54 million lbs. (363,880 metric tons). This quantity is 13.1 percent less than for the corresponding period in 2023.
• For the processing week ending September 14th 2024, 2.203 million toms were processed at 42.6 lbs. live. This was 1.9 percent more than the 2.161 million toms processed during the corresponding week in September 2024 and 8.7 percent more than the 2.027 million during the corresponding week in August 2023. Year-to-date 73.60 million toms have been processed, less than 0.3 percent more than for the corresponding period in 2023.
• Ready to cook (RTC) weight for toms during the most recent week was 75.6 million lbs. (34,347 metric tons). This quantity was 0.1 percent more than the 75.5 million lbs. processed during the corresponding week in August 2024 and 8.8 percent less than the 69.4 million lbs. during the corresponding week in September 2023. Dressing percentage was a nominal 80.5 percent. For 2024 to date RTC tom production attained 2,6334 million lbs. (1.197 million metric tons). This quantity is 1.0 percent more than the corresponding period in 2023.

Wholesale Prices

The National average frozen hen price (8 to 16 lbs.) for conventional birds during the week ending August 30th was 124.0 cents per lb., 15 cents per lb. higher than the previous month in 2024 and down 8 cents per lb. from the three-year average of approximately 148 cents per lb. The following prices rounded to the nearest cent were documented in the new format report for domestic and export trading for August 2024 as reported on September 6th:-

Inventories:

On September 19th 2024 cold storage holdings at selected centers amounted to 106,051 lbs., 2.5 percent less than the inventory of 108,766 lbs. on September 1st 2024.

August Frozen Inventory

The September 26th edition of the USDA Cold Storage Report issued monthly, documented a total turkey stock of 456.3 million lbs. (207,422 metric tons) on August 31st 2024, equivalent to 2.5 weeks of normal seasonal RTE combined production of toms and hens and up 2.1 percent compared to the inventory on August 31st 2023. The August 2024 value was 0.2 percent below the July 31st 2024 inventory. This change is consistent with seasonal demand.

• The Whole Turkey category of 247.0 million lbs. representing 54.1 percent of total storage on August 31st 2024 was 0.6 percent higher than the adjusted inventory for the previous month and 1.1 percent higher than on August 31st
• Tom carcasses in storage decreased by 1.4 percent from August 31st 2023 to 140.3 million lbs. on August 31st Tom carcasses increased 2.6 percent during August 2024 compared to the previous month of July 2023.
• Hen carcasses in storage increased by 4.4 percent from August 31st 2023 to 106.6 million lbs. on August 31st Hen carcasses decreased 2.0 percent during August 2024 compared to the previous month of July 2024.
• Breasts in storage increased 16.9 percent from August 31st 2023 to 82.1 million lbs. on August 31st 2024 but inventory was down 2.7 percent from the previous month of July 2024.
• The “Other” (7.1 percent of inventory) and “Unclassified” (18.8 percent) categories collectively amounted to 118,211 million lbs. or 28.9 percent of inventory on August 31st The magnitude of these two non-specified categories suggests that the USDA should attempt to classify product more accurately as to specific product.

August 2024 Production

According to the USDA Poultry Slaughter Report released on September 25th covering, August 2024, comprised 23 working days, one more than August 2023. The following values were documented:-

• During August 2024, 16.80 million young turkeys were processed, 3.02 million birds or 15.2 percent less than in August 2023;
• Total live weight in August 2024 attained 542.43 million lbs., 67.11 million lbs. or 11.2 percent less than in August 2023;
• Average live weight in August 2024 was 32.28 lbs., up 1.53 lb. or 5.0 percent compared to August 2023;
• RTC in August 2024 attained 430.99 million lbs., up 55.41 million lbs., or 11.4 percent from August 2023;
• Yield in August 2024 was 79.5 percent compared to 79.8 percent in August 2023.
• The proportion of frozen product in August 2024 attained 36.5 percent of total RTC compared to 35.9 percent in August 2023;
• During August 2024 ante-mortem condemnation attained 0.37 percent of live weight, compared to 0.35 percent in August 2023;
• During August 2024, 1.52 percent of RTC weight was condemned compared to 1.23 percent in August 2023.

Comments:

The ratio of hens to toms slaughtered attained 1.0 to 1.3, year-to-date. On an RTC basis the ratio was 1.0 to 3.3.

Export data for turkey products during 2023 and the provisional production and consumption data for 2024 are posted under the STATISTICS tab. During 2023 volume of turkey exports attained 221,920 metric tons up 20.2 percent from the corresponding months in 2023. Value was down 2.0 percent to $628 million. Unit value was down 18.5 percent to $2,829 per metric ton denoting export of lower priced products.

From January 2022 through late-December 2023 losses of turkeys depleted as a result of HPAI attained approximately 14.1 million birds in eight states. This volume is equivalent to the combined production of toms and hens over 3.8 weeks with a nominal average production of 3.7 million harvested birds per week. Incident cases continued in 2024 with cumulative depletion of approximately 1.4 million birds to date with the most recent losses in California during late September. Migratory waterfowl have completed their Northward migration along all four U.S. flyways over areas with concentrations of turkey production. This presumes local aggregation of non-migratory waterfowl in addition to migratory and resident birds that are reservoirs and disseminators of virus as denoted by cases in backyard flocks in July and August and Florida live markets in September.

USDA Annual Production

The USDA Turkeys Raised report quantified the 2023-2024 turkey production by state as:-

“Production in the United States during 2024 is forecasted at 205 million, down 6 percent from the number raised during 2023. The top six states account for 67 percent of the turkeys produced in the United States during 2024.

• Minnesota, at 33.5 million turkeys, down 13 percent from the previous year.
• North Carolina produced 27.5 million turkeys, down 5 percent from a year ago.
• Arkansas produced 25.0 million turkeys, down 7 percent from last year.
• Indiana produced 20.0 million turkeys, unchanged from last year.
• Missouri produced 15.5 million turkeys, down 9 percent from last year.
• Virginia is down 1 percent from the previous year at 15.4 million turkeys”.