Poultry Industry News, Comments & More

Monthly Turkey Production and Prices, January 28th 2022

Poult Production and Placement:

The January 13th 2022 edition of the USDA Turkey Hatchery Report, issued monthly, documented 27.03 million eggs in incubators on January 1st 2022 compared to 26.86 million eggs on January 1st 2022* The January set was up 0.7 percent (178,000 eggs) from January 2021 and 437,000 eggs (1.6 percent) higher than the previous month of December 2022.

A total of 22.94 million poults were hatched during December 2022 up 640,000 poults (2.9 percent) compared to 22.30 million in December 2021*. The December 2022 hatch was up 324,000 poults (1.4 percent) from the previous month of November 2022.

A total of 21.00 million poults were placed on farms in the U.S. in December 2022, compared to 20.31 million in December 2021*. The December placement was 2.8 percent, (690,000 poults) more than the month of December 2021. This data confirms disposal of 1.94 million poults during the month. Approximately 8.5 percent of the December 2022 hatch was not placed.

For the twelve-month period January 2021 through December 2022 inclusive, 272,544 million poults were hatched and 253,920 million were placed. This confirms disposal of 18.62 million poults over the 12-month period, corresponding to 6.8 percent of all poults hatched.

* USDA revision from previous monthly report.

Turkey Production:

The January 27th edition of the new-format USDA Turkey Market News Report documented the following provisional data for turkeys slaughtered under Federal inspection:-

• For the processing week ending January 21st 2022, 1.378 million hens were processed at 18.1 lbs. live. This was 13.6 percent less than the 1,595 hens processed during the corresponding week in December 2022 and 4.9 percent less than the 1.449 million processed during the corresponding week in January 2022. Hen slaughter year-to-date has attained 4.74 million, 2.9 percent more than for the corresponding period in 2022.

Ready to cook (RTC) weight for hens over the most recent week was 20.1 million lbs. (9,126 metric tons). This quantity was 6.1 percent less than the corresponding week in December 2022 and 2.8 percent more than the 20.65 million lbs. during the corresponding week in January 2022. Dressing percentage was a nominal 80.5 percent. For 2023 to date hen production attained 67.65 million lbs. (30.75 metric tons). This quantity is 3.5 percent more than for the corresponding period in 2022.

• For the processing week ending January 21st 2023, 2.001 million toms were processed at 44.3 lbs. live. This was 4.9 percent less than the 2.104 million toms processed during the corresponding week in December 2022, unchanged from the corresponding week in January 2022. Year-to-date 5.53 million toms have been slaughtered, 5.3 percent less than for the corresponding period in 2022.

Ready to cook (RTC) weight for toms during the most recent week was 71.29 million lbs. (32,406 metric tons). This quantity was 2.7 percent less than the corresponding week in December 2022 and 0.4 percent more than the 71.1 million lbs. during the corresponding week in January 2022. Dressing percentage was a nominal 80.5 percent. For 2023 to date tom production attained 198.9 million lbs. (90,431 metric tons). This quantity is 5.9 percent less than the corresponding period in 2022.

The National average frozen hen price for conventional birds during the week ending January 27th was 172 cents per lb., unchanged from the corresponding week in December 2022 and up approximately 52 cents per lb. from the three-year average of approximately 120 cents per lb. The following prices rounded to nearest cent were documented in the new format report for domestic and export trading on January 27th 2022:-

Inventories:

On January 23rd 2023 cold storage holdings at selected centers amounted to 58,029 lbs., 11.5 percent more than the inventory of 52,027 lbs. on January 1st 2023.

The January 25th 2022 edition of the USDA Cold Storage Report issued monthly, documented a total turkey stock of 189.7 million lbs. (86,234 metric tons) on December 31st 2022, equivalent to 2.0 weeks of normal seasonal production and up 14.4 percent compared to the inventory on December 31st 2022. The December 31st 2022 value was 35.3 percent above the November 30th 2022 level. This change is consistent with season.

• The Whole Turkey category of 68.6 million lbs. representing 36.1 percent of total storage of 189.7 million lbs. on December 31st 2022 was 94.5 percent higher than the adjusted inventory for the previous month and 7.8 percent higher than on December 31st
• Tom carcasses in storage increased by 9.7 percent from December 31st 2021 to 37.7 million lbs. on November 30th Tom carcasses increased 96.3 percent during December 2022 compared to the previous month of November.
• Hen carcasses in storage increased by 5.6 percent from December 31st 2021 to 30.9 million lbs. on December 31st Hen carcasses increased 92.4 percent during December 2022 compared to the previous month of November.
• Breasts in storage increased 31.6 percent from December 31st 2021 to 32.2 million lbs. on December 31st 2022 and up by 15.8 percent from the previous month of November.
• The “Other” and “Unclassified” categories collectively amounted to 82.1 million lbs. or 43.3 percent of inventory on December 31st The magnitude of these two non-specified categories suggests that the USDA should attempt to classify product more accurately as to specific product.

December 2022 Production

According to the USDA Poultry Slaughter Report released on January 25th 2023 covering, December 2022, comprising 23 working days:-

• During December 2022, 16.0 million young turkeys were processed. (1.4 percent less than in December 2021);
• Total live weight in December 2022 attained 512.1 million lbs. (3.5 percent less than in December 2021);
• Average live weight in December 2022 was 32.1 lbs. (2.1 percent less than December 2021);
• RTC attained 409.7 million lbs. (down 3.2 percent from December 2021) with a yield of 80.0 percent.
• The proportion of frozen product in December 2022 attained 39.9 percent of total RTC produced.
• During December 2022 ante-mortem condemnation attained 0.29 percent of live weight, (Unchanged from December 2021).
• During December 2022, 1.17 percent of RTC weight was condemned (1.20 percent in December 2021)

Comments:

The year-to-date export data for turkey products and provisional production and consumption data for 2023 is posted in this edition.

U.S. exports of turkey products in 2021 attained 249,045 metric tons, down 3.9 percent from 2020 (259,127 metric tons in 2020). Value increased 14.0 percent to $666 million ($584 million in 2020). Unit price increased 18.6 percent from 2020 to $2,674 per ton.

For the eleven months of 2022 turkey exports fell 24.9 percent to 171,442 metric tons compared to the corresponding period in 2021. Value declined by 2.0 percent to $591 million with a 30.6 percent increase in unit value to $3,447 per ton.

As of mid-January 2023 losses of turkeys depleted as a result of HPAI attained approximately 9.7 million birds on 221 farms in seven states. This volume is equivalent to a 2.5 week combined hen and tom production to date that has averaged 3.9 million per week.