Man it's like y'all locked a guy just a month.....

Not sure but hopefully there are some areas/ regions not affected by the avian flu that are at full production and doing great. Would like to find out from someone in the business. Interesting story/ market currently.

Had a SeTx Aggie farm neighbor who graduated with my dad in 57/ poultry science degree. He moved home and built a large egg farm from scratch on his family land and operated it for several decades. Remember him saying what a tough business it was to make a consistent profit in. Eventually they closed it and his grandson has cattle there now.

The real indicator is how many limo drop offs you see at the GWCC at IPPE next week.

cupofjoe04 said:

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I seriously doubt their profit margins are increasing. No one is getting rich off of this. This is a product of supply and demand, where supply has significantly decreased due to the deaths of almost 60 million birds due to avian flu. Demand has remained the same, or even increased with the holidays. The result- significantly higher prices for the remaining supply.

My guess is that they are hurting just like the rest of us.

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Somebody is getting rich.

Egg production was down 5% in November.
I'm interested in seeing final numbers for 2022.

Yet retail egg prices are up $2 - $3 a dozen ( >100%) compared to prices in last 3-4 years.

American egg production totaled 8.87 billion in November 2022, down five percent from the same time last year. Production included 7.62 billion table eggs and 1.25 billion hatching eggs, of which 1.16 billion were broiler-type and 92.1 million were egg-type.

(In 2021, around 9.2 billion dozen of eggs were produced, a slight decrease from production the previous year. )

So assuming a Dec 2022 10% reduction from Nov 2022 7.62B table eggs that's still 571 million dozens a month.

Compared to historical egg retail prices that is $571M to $1.1B increase in revenue a month

I'm sure there's some gaps in my analysis but I bet it's in the ballpark.

I bought Premium Eggland eggs tonight at $5.43 / dozen at our little H-E-B. Supplies were plentiful of all types and brands

Animal Eight 84 said:

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I'm sure there's some gaps in my analysis

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Yes - feed and labor costs. Corn and beans are way up. Energy prices are up.

I'm glad you included hatching eggs in your post. The infrastructure to support a modern multi-age layer complex. The breeder hens need feed and labor too. And the hatcheries need electricity and gas.

And yet you paid $5.43 / dozen so they aren't over priced and the market has no input to cause the price to drop. If those eggs go unpurchased then the price will come down fast. They have a finite shelf life and HEB won't let them go bad before selling.

$4-$5/ doz still seems like a good deal to me. Obviously not as cheap as they were, but for 12 of them, and how versatile and nutritious they are, my egg purchasing hasn't changed any. They'd probably have to double again for me to slow down.

Can't believe no one has cued the Biden "I did that!" pic yet.

OB definitely slacking!