LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the Poultry Production and Value report, showing a 19% decrease in the combined value of production rom broilers, and eggs, and value of sales from chickens.

“Raising broilers and other poultry is the Commonwealth’s largest agricultural enterprise, regularly generating over a billion dollars of revenue to farmers each year,” said David Knopf, director of the NASS Eastern Mountain Regional Office in Kentucky. “Revenues in 2020 were negatively impacted by much lower broiler prices.”

The combined value of production from broilers and eggs, and the value of sales from chickens in 2020, was $856 million, down 19 percent from $1.1 billion in 2019.

There were 299.0 million broilers produced in Kentucky during 2020, down slightly from the 299.2 million broilers produced in 2019. Total live weight was 1.94 billion pounds, up from 1.91 billion pounds in 2019. Value of production totaled $709 million, down 24 percent from the 2019 value of $931 million. Kentucky ranks 7th in U.S. broiler production by state.

The number of chickens sold for slaughter (excluding broilers) totaled 5.08 million head, up 4 percent from the 2019 total of 4.87 million head sold. The number of pounds sold was 30.7 million pounds, up 9 percent from the 2019 number of 28.3 million pounds sold. Value of sales totaled $614.1 thousand, down from $1.16 million in 2019.

Egg production in Kentucky totaled 1.58 billion eggs during 2020, up 7 percent from the 2019 production of 1.48 billion eggs. The total value of production was $146 million, up 19 percent from the 2019 total of $122 million.

— USDA NASS Eastern Mountain Regional Field Office

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