By Charlie Reeve
Total UK poultry meat production dropped by 4.5% in February on the same month last year to stand at 151,200 tonnes.
Defra says these changes can differ from the changes to total slaughter numbers when there are changes to dressed carcase weights.
Average weights of birds at point of slaughter plummeted from an all-time high of 2.5kg in January to 2.2 kg.
Average slaughter weights were also 5% lower than the same month last year, which drove much of the decline in total meat production.
Meanwhile, broiler slaughterings were actually marginally up on year earlier levels at 88 million birds.
Monthly boiling fowl slaughterings dropped from 2.6m birds in January to 2.2m birds in February, while turkey slaughterings stood on at 0.5m birds, which represented an annual increase of 18%.
Chick placings
Broiler chick placings increased by 2.9% on the same month last year in February, taking it to 91.2m chicks.
UK commercial layer chick placings increased by 3.3% to 3m chicks.
Meanwhile, turkey poult placings shot up again in February, lifting by 34% on year earlier levels to 600,000 chicks.
Egg prices and production
UK farmgate egg prices rose by 1.2% compared with year earlier levels to average 148 pence per dozen during the final quarter of 2025, roughly in line with the previous quarter.
A total of 273m dozen eggs were produced for human consumption during the final quarter of the year, marking a 7% increase year-on-year and a 1.6% rise from the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, output of egg products reached 18,000 tonnes, up 35% compared with the same period a year earlier.