WASHINGTON – Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas were the top three states in 2010 for processing broilers (young meat chickens) under federal inspection, according to the “Poultry Slaughter 2010 Summary,” issued last week by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the National Chicken Council’s March 4 Washington Report relayed.

The top-three states accounted for 36.3% of the total lbs., liveweight, of broilers processed in the US in 2010. Last year, there were 8,649,536,000 broilers processed under federal inspection with a liveweight of 49,315,928,000 lbs. compared with 8,519,970,000 broilers weighing 47,613,466,000 lbs. in 2009, an increase of 1.5% in number of broilers and an increase of 3.6% in lbs. Only three of the 26 states identified by NASS in the report had a decrease in lbs. processed in 2010 compared with 2009: Georgia (-1.6%), New York (-5.7%) and New Jersey (-1.3%).


The following states experienced double-digit gains on a percentage increase basis – Florida (32.3%), Oklahoma (19.2%), and Louisiana (12.6%).