The USDA says domestic poultry production during January was down 9% on the year at 4.111 billion pounds. Most of that was chicken at 3.654 billion pounds, also down 9% on the year, with turkey at 447.032 million pounds, a drop of 13%.
Average weights generally steady with a year ago, so the big issue was processing, with the chicken slaughter decreasing by 9% to 754.328 million head and the turkey slaughter was 13% lower at 16.739 million head, at least partially due to weather in some areas, which should also show up in February’s totals.
