Meat + Poultry - January 2008 - 61

Courtesy of Gold Kist/Pilgrim's Pride

The era of Big Bird
The eight-pound chicken is changing
processing and the industry
By Steve Bjerklie
meatpoultry@sosland.com

B

ack in October, Tyson Foods
confirmed what the poultry industry had been buzzing about
for weeks: the processing giant had
been issuing new contracts to its poultry
growers since August, with higher perpound rates being paid for larger birds
for some of its processing plants. In effect, Tyson raised the standard size for
birds from 6.5 pounds to eight pounds
for at least two of its operations. The
ripple effects across the industry of such
a move reach into barns, the distribution network, product development and
into processing. No question about it,
the Big Bird era has arrived.
In truth, chickens have been bulking up for years, even decades, all the
way back to the dawn of modern poul68

I

MEAT&POULTRY

I

January 2008

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try processing. A look at the history of
market live weights shows that 41 years
ago, in 1967, the average live weight of a
chicken at slaughter in the U.S. was just
3.5 pounds, according to the U.S. Dept.

"In 1967, the average
live weight of a chicken
at slaughter in the U.S.
was just 3.5 pounds."
of Agriculture. By the 1980s the weight
had increased to more than four pounds,
and in the 1990s it jumped to more than
four-and-a-half pounds. Matching the
climb in live weight was an increase in
chicken consumption, from 24 pounds

www.MEATPOULTRY.com

annually in 1960 to 72 pounds per capita annually 35 years later.
Also matching the trend line toward
larger birds was a trend in what happened inside processing plants. As recently as 1980, half the chickens raised
and processed in the U.S. were still sold
whole, and in this regard the chicken
processing industry even just a generation ago still wasn't much removed from
the days when nearly all chicken was
sold whole, out of wooden barrels. In
1980, according to USDA figures, 40 percent of chicken was cut up, and just a
scant 10 percent was further processed.
The big roasted chicken, as whole and
obvious as a Thanksgiving turkey, was
still king of the industry.
Today, according to the National



http://www.MEATPOULTRY.com

Meat + Poultry - January 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meat + Poultry - January 2008

Contents
Meat + Poultry - January 2008 - 1
Meat + Poultry - January 2008 - 2
Meat + Poultry - January 2008 - 3
Meat + Poultry - January 2008 - Contents
Meat + Poultry - January 2008 - 5
Meat + Poultry - January 2008 - 6
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