The number of broilers produced during 1997 totaled a record high 720 million head, up 7 percent from 1996.
Production of broilers amounted to 3.31 billion pounds and averaged 37.0 cents per pound. Cash receipts for
commercial broilers in 1997 totaled $1.23 billion, up 2 percent from the previous year.

The total number of eggs produced in 1997 amounted to 1.55 billion, up 2 percent from a year earlier.
Hatching eggs accounted for 68 percent of this total. The 1997 average price received for all eggs amounted
to $1.13 per dozen, down 8 cents from the record high set a year earlier.

Poultry (broilers, eggs, and farm chickens) led all agricultural commodities, including forest products, in cash
receipts in 1997 for the third consecutive year, and accounted for 29 percent of this total.