Ethanol Side Effects: Part 1

Increased feed prices are translating into somewhat smaller chickens at the supermarket, based on a conversation recently with a poultry producer in central Mississippi. She contracts with the processor, who supplies the birds and feed, and the processor schedules when to take the birds to the plant.

"We have been feeding out to 6 pounds, but now we're told that the birds will be shipped at 5 pounds," she said.

The way things work, the older and larger the chicken, the more feed it costs per ounce to add additional weight. Getting the chicken up to 5 pounds takes X amount of grain per pound. Pushing the bird to 6 pounds means more grain per pound than it took to, say, move the chicken from 4 pounds to 5 pounds. That last pound, in other words, has become uneconomical to produce due to the cost of feed.

The faster turnaround is bad news for producers since they are paid by the pound.

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