Broiler-Type Eggs Set in the United States Up 1 Percent

Mar 20, 2014

Broiler-Type Eggs Set in the United States Up 1 Percent

Hatcheries in the United States weekly program set 209 million eggs in incubators during the week ending March 15, 2014, up 1 percent from a year ago. Hatcheries in the 19 State weekly program set 201 million eggs in incubators during the week ending March 15, 2014, up 1 percent from the year earlier. Average hatchability for chicks hatched during the week in the United States was 83 percent. Average hatchability is calculated by dividing chicks hatched during the week by eggs set three weeks earlier.

Broiler-Type Chicks Placed in the United States Down 1 Percent

Broiler growers in the United States weekly program placed 169 million chicks for meat production during the week ending March 15, 2014, down 1 percentfrom a year ago. Broiler growers in the 19 State weekly program placed 163 million chicks for meat production during the week ending March 15, 2014, down 1 percent from the year earlier. Cumulative placements from December 29, 2013 through March 15, 2014 for the United States were 1.86 billion. Cumulative placements were up slightly from the same period a year earlier.

Source: USDA

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.