In 2013, young meat chicken (broilers) production totaled 50,340,482,000 pounds, liveweight, 2.0 percent more than the 49,349,564,000 pounds in 2012, according to “Poultry Slaughter” issued on January 23 by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. The number of young chicken slaughtered last year was 8,502,164,000, 0.9 percent above the 8,428,847,000 in 2012. The average liveweight per bird was up 1.2 percent with last year’s weight at 5.92 pounds compared with 5.85 pounds a year earlier.
In 2013 USDA ante-mortem condemnations of young chickens totaled 100,012,000 pounds, 4.0 percent more than 96,144,000 pounds in 2012, and 0.20 percent of the liveweight inspected last year compared with 0.19 percent in 2012. For post-mortem condemnations in 2013, USDA condemned 316,633,000 pounds of carcasses and parts, 7.4 percent above the 294,917,000 pounds in 2012. The post-mortem condemnation rate last year was 0.83 percent of the pounds certified as wholesome plus post-mortem condemnations, compared with 0.79 pounds in 2012.
