Egg production on New York farms totaled 98 million eggs in March 2008, up 5 percent from last year, according to Stephen Ropel, Director of USDA=s National Agricultural Statistics Service, New York office.

The number of hens and pullets of laying age, at 4.01 million, increased 5 percent from March 2007 and the rate of lay increased 1 percent to 2,446 eggs per 100 layers.

A dozen eggs brought New York poultry farmers an average of $1.31 for eggs sold in March, up 6 cents from February and up 58 cents from March 2007.

U.S. egg production totaled 7.68 billion during March 2008, down 2 percent from last year. Production included 6.53 billion table eggs, and 1.15 billion hatching eggs, of which 1.08 billion were broiler-type and 67 million were egg-type. The total number of layers during March 2008 averaged 342 million, down 2 percent from last year.  March egg production per 100 layers was 2,244 eggs, up slightly from March 2007.

U.S. Egg-type chicks hatched during March 2008 totaled 39.5 million, up 3 percent from March 2007. Eggs in incubators totaled 37.6 million on April 1, 2008, down 2 percent from a year ago. The information in this release is available by free email subscription by subscribing to New York reports at www.nass.usda.gov/ny.

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4-23-08