As US consumers shift from beef to chicken due to elevated supermarket prices, exacerbated by a rapid decline in US cattle herds, one of the world’s largest chicken producers has issued a dire warning that chicken prices could soon increase.
Bloomberg reports that Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. and the industry as a whole have developed ‘hatchery issues’, which means a large number of eggs in incubators aren’t hatching.
On Thursday, Pilgrim’s Chief Executive Officer Fabio Sandri told investors during an earnings call that the hatchery issues stem from a new breed of rooster (Frankenchickens?) that requires closer management, indicating this is the primary cause of the decline in fertility rates industrywide.
“We don’t have the housing to separate the males by weight. We don’t have the labor to individually weigh all those males to make sure that they are at the optimal weight for reproduction,” Sandri said.
Pilgrim said because of hatchery issues, chicken production nationwide is projected to grow much less than the US Department of Agriculture’s 1.5% estimate.
USDA data shows that the number of eggs hatched began dropping right after the Covid pandemic in late 2020, from 81.5% to now 76.5%. That compares with averages above 80% over the last decade.
“The hurdle to expand production comes at a time when consumers are turning to poultry as they seek cheaper alternatives to beef,” Bloomberg noted.
Retail prices of chicken boneless breast, measured by USDA, surged from about $3 a pound in early 2020 to $4.75 a pound in September 2022, primarily due to commercial farms culling large flocks due to the bird flu. Prices have since subsided to about $4.1 a pound but risk moving higher on lower production trends.
Meanwhile, consumers have been shocked by skyrocketing beef prices as the nation’s herd size recently plunged to 73-year lows.
And the UN’s global food index risks turning back up as stagflationary threats emerge in the US economy.
Meat prices are becoming super expensive for working poor households. Bill Gates is getting his wish…
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
And who paid them to start using these new chickens? And who will be happily paying them to watch us all starve?
But I gots ta have muh fake cick’n nuggets and fake boneless wings, muh kids won’t eat anything else. We can barely afford dat shit now, what we gonna do?
‘Splain “hatchery issues” to me so I can understand.
Where chicks hatch out of eggs.
Hatchery issues, chicks are not hatching out of eggs. Eggs are rotting. Less chicks =less chickens for meat = higher prices. Do I need to make it simpler for you?
So, all of a sudden eggs no longer hatch in hatcheries because? Is there a history of this and do you even notice sarc on occasion?
Chicken nuggets soon to be enhanced by cricket protein.
Yeah, how are they going to get you to eat bugs if beef, pork, poultry and fish are available to you?
That photo of that chicken is about right. I don’t know what they did to them but they grow so fast their legs can’t support them. Seen vids of chicken breasts being all stringy because of their rapid growth. I quit eating store bought chickens several month ago because of the stench of them after cooking and non taste. Gross!
Standard hens (usually Rocks) are crossed with Cornish males and the hybrid chicks bodies grow so super fast they can’t even walk around normally, and they are butchered at a couple months or they just up and die. As for the fertility and hatching rates, we all noticed that problem several years ago and think the feed producers began adding something to the commercial feed. I am trying to use more whole corn, letting my chickens graze, and not using the main producer’s feed brands (I buy off brands locally and more scratch feeds). The hatch rate is still down a little.
rhs, I never knew you were a chicken producer. Why was this hatching problem not brought to the forefront? I don’t remember HSF having hatching problems on the farm but suspect his flock is total free range.
We quit using feed for poultry about five or six years ago and noticed no change whatsoever in their overall health, except that they live a little longer. The difference in eggs was noticeable, both in flavor, size and the coloring of the yolk. Way darker orange than before.
We let the broody hens handle the hatching but we do own a brooder if we want to bump up the numbers of chickens. If the hens nest on the eggs the fail rate is about 10%, slightly higher with a brooder.
YMMV
We use bantam hens for hatching our layers. works great
First batch of birds we had, cornish giants, we gave a mix of commercial feed and COB. They grew like stank and probably close to 30% died because of their outgrowing their organs. They were always free ranged on a quarter acre.
Second batch I started with zero commercial feeds and went to COB only but the oats just went straight thru them so I bought corn, cracked wheat and barley mix, for all our livestock.
The free ranging and limited CWB mix slowed their growth immensely and we would lose maybe 5 birds out of 100. Far tastier too. Anyrate, this has been what we experienced.
AND, because we didn’t have room in the deep freeze for all of them the ones that lived a little longer were huge, and able to fly. How big… 12 – 14lbs, i kid you not
They added antibiotics and vaxxes to the chicken feed.
Gardasil for chickens.
Same results.
Malthusian destruction of food supply. Maybe Anony/Ass above will get it also.
Must be vaxxes because antibiotics have not phased hatching prior.
There may have been a test run last year….
01/26/2023
CLAIM: Tractor Supply chicken feed allegedly laced with ingredients causing chickens to stop laying eggs; company board members tied to WEF, Jeffrey Epstein
CLAIM: The popular Tractor Supply chain of farm stores has reportedly reformulated its “Producer’s Pride” chicken feed, causing hens that eat it to no longer produce eggs.
Multiple online sources, many of them hen farmers, say that ever since Tractor Supply changed the Producer’s Pride formulation, their birds have gone desolate. This could be because of a reduction in the amount of protein contained in the feed, or it could be caused by other factors such as aflatoxin contamination…
There is also talk — although unproven — that Tractor Supply may have tampered with its Producer’s Pride formulation to deliberately cause an egg-laying crisis. Its board of directors is composed of 10 people, some of whom are tied to globalist entities like the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Joy Brown, a former executive at Vanguard, a $5 trillion index fund, is one of them. Vanguard is one of the “big three” index funds – BlackRock and State Street are the other two – boasting major financial support from the WEF and possibly even the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in China.
https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-01-26-tractor-supply-chicken-feed-laced-stop-eggs.html
Yes, I read that article when it came out so which is it, the feed makes chickens stop laying or the feed cause the already “laid” eggs to rot and not hatch? If hens don’t lay eggs where do the unhatched eggs come from?
Or is this cover for hyper-inflation/greed drastically raising the price of poultry? Muh chicken dinner went up at KFC so it must be rotten eggs that were never laid. OK.
I was scared when that came out because I supplement my flock with TC food. They never stopped laying. I believe it was a scare tactic. I don’t know why but….. My flock free ranges and my one little girl hatched 4 babies today. It was like Christmas morning. God at work. Perfection. My eggs are sought after all around where I am. I specifically got a heritage breed that are good layers even through the winter; and are good moms. I cannot even eat an egg from the grocery store anymore. Completely different.
Look up your town ordinances. I’m gifting 2 or 3 hens to all my kids this year and helping with coops.
Our family have chickens and they are having no problems. I too prefer fresh eggs straight out the chicken’s behind. There is a lot of greed in food pricing today. Best of luck GM. 🙂
I don’t raise chickens, just beef cattle, but I followed that story in a side-eye sorta way.
What was super funny is that people switched to Purina feeds and the chickens started laying again, so it’s gotta be the feed! Except that Purina makes the Producer’s Pride feed for TSCO.
From what I read, most of the complaints were from new chicken owners who didn’t understand that chickens don’t lay during the dead of winter unless you force them to with unnatural lighting.
Pilgrim’s Pride may have some problems but the Claxton Chicken hatchery is running full production. There is no chicken shortage in Georgia.
None in my back yard either. Cluck a doodle do. Every single morning.
Forgive me if I am skeptical of this claim.