December rounded off a confident end to the year for the broiler sector, completing three successive months of strong growth.

Total chick numbers for December were up by 4.5m compared with a year earlier, amounting to an increase of 5.1%.

See also: Feed markets start the year well balanced

This followed an earlier rise in broiler chick numbers of 6.0% and 7.3% in October and November respectively.

It proved to be the strongest quarter of the year, as the industry averaged expansion of six per cent year-on-year, across the three months overall.

Previously, the pattern of day-old placings from January to September had been more erratic.

Positive year

A cutback of one per cent in the first quarter was followed by expansion of 4.1% in the second, and then a slight increase of 0.7% in the third.

Even so, the end result was a much more positive year for the industry, after two years of contraction.

Chick numbers were up by 27.5m for the year as a whole, amounting to an increase of 2.4% compared with 2023.

Stocking densities

The final total for 2024 reached 1168m, the same as in 2020, but down 19m on 2021.

How these trends will be affected by the move to lower stocking densities under the Better Chicken Commitment will be a point of interest moving through 2025.

Extra capacity will be needed just to maintain bird numbers and finishing weights, making continued expansion difficult.

M&S and Morrisons have already switched to the 30 kg/sq m limit for their fresh chicken, Lidl have promised it for this month, Tesco by mid-year, and Waitrose by the year-end (according to CIWF).

Turkeys

For the turkey sector, placings of day-old poults were marginally higher in December than a year earlier, registering a rise of 0.4%.

However, it brought to a close a disappointing year for UK production. Total poult placings were down by a million on 2023, to 9.75m.