Record number of Wisconsin laying hens recorded in Dec. 2017

MADISON – Wisconsin laying hens produced 171 million eggs during the month of December last year, up 17 percent over 2016, according to the latest Chickens and Eggs report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The average number of all layers on hand during December 2017 was 6.83 million. This record high number is up slightly from November 2017 and up 21 percent from last year.

Eggs per 100 layers for December were 2,505, up 9 percent from last month but down 3 percent from last year.

Nationally, egg production totaled 9.07 billion during December 2017, down slightly from last year. Production included 7.94 billion table eggs, and 1.14 billion hatching eggs, of which 1.06 billion were broiler-type and 80.3 million were egg-type.

According to recent Midwest regional market reports, producer prices for eggs are 6 cents higher for large eggs and just 2 cents higher for medium. At this time, demand for eggs is fairly good.