October 11

10/11 – Chicken supplies remain tight, and prices are historically high. But there may be a bit of light at the end of the chicken coop. Slaughter weights for July-Aug-Sept (13 weeks) were 1.25% above a year ago. That’s a good thing because the number of heads slaughtered was down 0.48% for the same period. The net production gain was 0.77% for Q3. Inconsistent labor, steep feed costs, and severe weather have all had negative impacts on poultry production. Labor is especially affecting further processed products, including sized breast meat and tenders. USDA weighted average boneless skinless breast is finally back under $2.00 (at $1.91) while harder to process breast tenders remain sky-high at $2.82. The total cold storage inventory of chicken breast meat at the end of August was 162M pounds, 20.5% lower than a year ago and 7.8% lower than the 5-year average.