Chicken production in the U.S. dropped in 2003, the first production decline in nearly 30 years. Even so, industry officials note the amount of chicken product actually increased last year due to the increased size of the average bird.
According to USDA, the number of chickens fell from 8.791 billion in 2002 to 8.681 billion in 2003. At the same time, there was an increase in ready-to-cook chicken product from 31.895 billion pounds to 32.399 billion pounds.
The National Chicken Council has projected a 3.9 percent increase for read-to-cook chicken in 2004.