By Charlie Reeve
Heavier birds at point of slaughter continue to drive up total UK poultry meat production, with volumes up year on year.
Defra figures show total UK poultry meat production lifted to 181,900 tonnes during January, up considerably on the previous month and by 1.3% compared to the same month last year.
This is despite broiler slaughterings falling by 2.3% year on year to 96.6m birds.
Average liveweights per bird at point of slaughter in England & Wales reached an all-time record high of 2.5kg in January 2026.
Monthly boiling fowl slaughterings were up from 2.5m birds to 2.6m birds in January compared with the previous month, while turkey slaughterings stood at 0.5m birds.
Chick Placings
Broiler chick placings were up by 0.1% in January at 96.6m chicks, remaining below the 100 million bird threshold.
Meanwhile, turkey poult placings shot up by 25% in January on year earlier levels to 600,000 chicks.
Egg prices and production
Farmgate egg prices in the UK lifted by 1.2% on year earlier levels to average 148 pence per dozen during the final quarter of 2025.
This left them roughly in line with the third quarter of the year.
More than 270m dozen eggs were produced for human consumption during the final quarter of the year, a rise of 7% on the year and 1.6% on the previous quarter.
Finally, the production of egg products totalled 18,000 tonnes, an increase of 34.5% on year earlier levels.