Poultry certified wholesome during August 2003 (ready-to-cook weight) totaled 3.23 billion pounds, down 4 percent from the amount certified in August 2002. Updated totals for July 2003 show that 3.44 billion pounds were certified.

The preliminary total live weight of poultry inspected during August 2003 was 4.34 billion pounds, down 4 percent from a year ago. Young chickens inspected totaled 3.69 billion pounds, down 4 percent from August 2002, and mature chickens at 68.4 million pounds, were down 16 percent from the previous year. Turkey inspections totaled 570 million pounds, down 7 percent, and ducks totaled 12.4 million pounds, down 5 percent.

Young chickens slaughtered during August 2003 averaged 5.14 pounds per bird, up 2 percent from August 2002. The average live weight of mature chickens was 5.86 pounds per bird, up 6 percent from a year ago. Turkeys slaughtered during August 2003 averaged 25.8 pounds per bird, up 1 percent from August 2002.

Ante-mortem condemnations during August 2003 totaled 20.3 million pounds. Condemnations were 0.47 percent of the live weight inspected, compared to 0.48 percent a year earlier. Post-mortem condemnations, at 41.9 million pounds (N.Y. dressed weight), were 1.07 percent of quantities inspected, compared with 1.14 percent a year earlier.

Young Chickens: Live Weight Slaughtered, By Month, 2000-2003

Young Turkeys: Live Weight Slaughtered, By Month, 2000-2003

Poultry Slaughter Estimates

Data Sources:Primary data for poultry slaughter estimates are obtained from the Poultry Inspection Form (FSIS 6000-21). This form is completed by inspectors of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), USDA for all Federally Inspected (FI) plants. Over 99 percent of the total U.S. slaughter for any species is under FI. The FSIS 6000-21 forms collect number of head slaughtered daily under FI by species and class as well as condemnations and total live and dressed weights. Approximately 350 plants in the U.S. are operated under Federal Inspection.

Revision Policy: Revisions are generally the result of late reports received by FSIS from plants and are usually less than one-half of 1 percent of the preliminary totals. Revisions for the previous month and year-to-date totals are published in each monthly release. Final data are published in the annual summary released in April and reflect any late reports or corrections which occurred after the monthly revision were published.

Procedures and Reliability: Plant inspectors submit forms (FSIS 6000-21) weekly summarizing the plant's activity. When inconsistencies in the data are detected, the reports are returned to the inspectors for correction. Inspectors correct or validate the report and resubmit it. The reports cover weekly activities through Saturday night and reported data are allocated to the appropriate month as it enters the database.

A NASS computer program provides a review of current data with historical data for each plant. An edit provides checks for the detection of errors such as invalid plant information, duplication, and erroneous data. Data are summarized weekly and accumulated to monthly totals for this release.

Data for major slaughter plants with missing reports are adjusted prior to publication to assure that all plants slaughtering a significant portion of a specific class are accounted for each week. Estimates for missing weeks are made only after verifying that the plant was in operation. Adjustments are based on either the previous week's information or a week determined to be similar to the one missing. Late reports replace imputed data as they become available. While there is a varying degree of incompleteness from month to month, it has only a minimal impact on the published totals.

Poultry slaughter estimates are based on a census of operating plants and, therefore, have no sampling error. However, they may be subject to errors such as omissions, duplications, and mistakes in reporting, recording, and processing the data. These errors are minimized through strict quality controls in the edit and summarization process, and a careful review of all reported data for consistency and reasonableness.

State data are published for selected states for young chickens and young turkeys. State data are not published if less than three plants operate for a species in a State, or if one plant has 60 percent or more of the total live weight for that species. Data for all states not published are included in the “Other States” category. Also included in this category are data for published states that are confidential (denoted by an *). Data for all states are included in the U.S. totals. For 2002, young chickens were killed in 34 states, young turkeys in 21 states.

To view the full report, including tables, please click here (PDF format, 21 pages)

Source: USDA NASS - Poultry Slaughter - 3rd October 2003