“Ten years ago, about 95% of all the commercial layers were kept in cages,” Anderson said. We have protocols in place to humanely depopulate and stop the spread and help the industry if there is an outbreak in North Carolina.”Īnother key Extension effort includes guiding the industry through the transition toward cage-free production, which also adds to production costs. “In the last seven years my research area has been associated with depopulation of infected or potentially infected flocks. “It is extremely virulent,” Anderson said. With HPAI an ongoing threat, biosecurity education is a focus of Extension programs. We develop programs and work with companies to answer questions and solve problems.” We have programs that help the industry train their personnel - how to evaluate egg quality, how to make eggs better, safer, what impact production has on quality. They’re just multiplied by a factor of a million or two. “I work with people that have four chickens in their backyard up to people that have 4 million laying hens in a single complex. “We work with everybody in the industry,” Anderson said. 1 in the nation for total poultry and egg sales - thanks in large part to the work of Extension agents and specialists. That’s contributed to what producers have to charge for their product just to pay the bills.”ĭespite the challenges, the industry remains strong in North Carolina - No. Natural gas and propane, which producers need to heat houses and provide inputs into processing, have all gone up. Not only that, the price for a young bird has gone up, utilities have gone up. Three years ago we were paying $300 a ton for feed. “Feed itself accounts for 70-75% of what goes into producing a dozen eggs. “If you look at grain prices, corn, soybean meal, those commodities are very high,” Anderson said. There have been no confirmed cases of HPAI among commercial poultry operations or backyard flocks in North Carolina this year, but the state’s poultry industry faces the issue of higher feed costs. “That is the primary reason for egg prices being what they are today, that there are 45 million fewer birds producing eggs,” Anderson said. Nationally, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) depopulated 43-45 million laying hens in 2022, contributing to a shortage of eggs and a spike in prices. There are major issues affecting producers that impact consumers. “These have been tough times for the egg industry and the poultry industry nationwide,” NC State Extension poultry specialist Ken Anderson said. But the lighthearted campaign did underline a serious issue. The potato people were just having fun - and garnering some free publicity - with the “spuds instead of eggs” campaign. Eating eggs was once forbidden during Lent, the 40-day period before Easter, so they were eagerly anticipated on Easter Sunday. They are ideal for the season because they represent new life and rebirth. But there’s a reason that tradition favors eggs. Potatoes are great for a lot of things - French fries, baked and served with lots of butter, cheese and sour cream, mashed with a touch of garlic. Prices are so high that Potatoes USA even suggested that folks decorate and hunt taters this year. Egg prices have dropped a little from record highs in January, but were still up 55% in February compared to a year ago. The cost of a dozen eggs made the traditional event almost seem like a luxury. Buy a few dozen eggs, decorate them in fun, colorful patterns, hide them in the yard, and watch children delightedly race around trying to fill their baskets with as many as possible. Estoy de Acuerdo / I agreeĮaster egg hunts, the annual kid-centric events beloved by families, communities and churches, used to be relatively inexpensive. Please note that some applications and/or services may not function as expected when translated. NC State Extension does not guarantee the accuracy of the translated text. As with any Internet translation, the conversion is not context-sensitive and may not translate the text to its original meaning. To the extent there is any conflict between the English text and the translation, English controls.Ĭlicking on the translation link activates a free translation service to convert the page to Spanish. Por favor, tenga en cuenta que algunas aplicaciones y/o servicios pueden no funcionar como se espera cuando se traducen.Įnglish is the controlling language of this page. NC State Extension no garantiza la exactitud del texto traducido. Al igual que con cualquier traducción por Internet, la conversión no es sensible al contexto y puede que no traduzca el texto en su significado original. En la medida en que haya algún conflicto entre la traducción al inglés y la traducción, el inglés prevalece.Īl hacer clic en el enlace de traducción se activa un servicio de traducción gratuito para convertir la página al español. El inglés es el idioma de control de esta página.
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