WASHINGTON D.C. — The United States Department of Agriculture had a mixture of good and bad news regarding egg production in their March 2025 outlook for dairy, poultry and livestock. Table egg layers for example were at their lowest recorded point since Nov. 2015 with 291.5 million hens.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has killed 50.7 million egg laying hens since Oct. 2024 through March 10th, 2025. Mississippi had a new outbreak in Noxubee County affecting 47,700 birds in a commercial broiler breeder. A further 1.8 million pullets, young hens who are not yet producing eggs, died from HPAI.

Pullets are crucial in poultry recovery from HPAI because they replace the birds lost to the disease. USDA reports the current pullet flock is at 129.8 million birds.

“Even with an above-average supply of replacement birds, the industry is expected to require time to fully recover the egg-laying flock,” USDA reports.

As a result, projected egg production was lowered for the first, second, third and fourth quarters of 2025. However there is some good news. USDA reports wholesale egg prices in New York, numbers used to write their reports, dropped in March. A slight surprise with Easter coming up.

USDA reports egg prices reached a peak of $8.53 average price per dozen in New York on Feb. 25. Afterwards, prices began to fall and reached a low of $6.68 per dozen by March 10th. Reflecting the price trend, average cost of eggs was projected to reach $7 per dozen by the end of the first quarter, $3.90 per dozen in the second quarter, $2.90 per dozen in the third quarter and $3.15 in the fourth quarter.

Overall, egg prices are still forecast to have a higher annual average per dozen at $4.24, 121 cents higher than the 2024 average.