JACKSON — United States Department of Agriculture released a report on the market outlook for Dairy, Livestock and Poultry Tuesday afternoon. The report is released once a month and provides insight into market conditions for goods such as chicken, turkey, beef, pork, dairy and eggs. 

USDA did report egg production projections were adjusted down due to low inventory and egg laying birds. Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza continues to plague egg and poultry production. Outbreaks continue to impact the number of egg laying birds across the US with 304.3 million egg laying birds in stock as of the end of January. 

According to the USD, this is the lowest number of egg laying birds since August 1, 2024 and the lowest first of the month inventory since the start of HPAI in 2022. Egg layer losses totaled 18.8 million in the month of January. USDA reports this is the most egg layers lost in a single month since the start of the outbreaks in 2022. 

As of February 7, 2025, 116.9 million egg laying birds have been depopulated due to HPAI since February 2022. 

“While the industry was able to replace many of the birds lost along the way, the inventory of table egg layers on the first of January 2025 was still 27.3 million birds shy of the same inventory measure on the first of January 2022,” USDA reports. 

The good news, USDA reports the industry is producing more replacement egg layers than typical to make up for the losses. Egg production is forecast to be 1.4 percent lower than 2024 with 7,650 million dozen eggs. 

HPAI outbreaks and a busy holiday season have also combined in a perfect recipe for high egg prices. USDA reports 42.8 million egg layers were depopulated due to HPAI from October 15 to February 7, 2025.

According to the USDA, the weekly average for egg prices in New York for a dozen large eggs was $7.46 in the last week of January. Readers should note USDA uses the weekly average from New York in writing the report. The average cost of $7.46 per dozen large eggs is up $4.52 from the same week in 2024. USDA reports egg prices reached $8.01 during the week of February 10. 

Egg prices are still forecast to drop in the second quarter according to the USDA. Average prices of eggs are forecast to be $4.25 in the second quarter, $3 in the third quarter and $3.25 in the fourth quarter.