The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has raised its forecast for U.S. broiler, turkey and egg production in 2017.
The agency released its latest projections for 2017 production in its World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report, issued on October 12.
Broiler production
The projections for U.S. broiler production in 2017 in the October WASDE report called for 41.44 billion pounds of production, up from the 41.29 billion pounds projected in the September WASDE report.
USDA stated in the report that the broiler production forecast was raised in October on expectations of increased slaughter later in the year based on hatchery data.
Turkey production
The turkey production forecast in the October report is increased, although only by a small amount. The September WASDE report called for 5,998,000 pounds of turkey production, while the October report called for 6,008,000 pounds.
The forecast was raised as higher third-quarter slaughter more than offset expected declines in fourth-quarter slaughter.
Egg production
The 2017 egg production forecast is raised from last month on higher hatching egg production.
The September WASDE report projected that 8.77 million dozen eggs would be produced in the U.S. in 2017, but the October report projected that an additional 10,000 dozen eggs would be produced this year.
2018 production estimates
USDA held its broiler production estimates for 2018 steady, forecasting 42.28 billion pounds in both the September and October WASDE reports. Egg production estimates for 2018 also held steady with an estimated 8.89 million dozen forecast.
The projections for U.S. turkey production in 2018 were lowered in the October WASDE report, slipping from 6.18 billion pounds to 6.14 billion pounds. The agency, in the report, stated that the forecasts for 2018 turkey production were lowered based on slow recovery in demand, which is expected to slow the pace of industry expansion.
The next WASDE report will be issued on November 9.
