Statewide Iowa — The state’s egg industry continues to come back from last year’s bird flu epidemic.
Iowa egg production during April 2016 was 1.09 billion eggs, down 17 percent from last year, but up 2 percent from last month, according to the latest Chickens and Eggs report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
The average number of all layers on hand during April 2016 was 49.2 million, down 12 percent from last year, but up 3 percent from last month. Eggs per 100 layers for April were 2,203, down 5 percent from last year, and down 1 percent from last month.
At this time last year, the industry was on a decline due to avian influenza. While flocks aren’t yet at the levels they were last year at this time, if the current slope on the graph continues, that should happen next month. But if the same slope continues, it looks like it will be several more months until the industry is back at 2014 numbers of around 60 million layers, according to the report. Even though the state’s egg industry sustained catastrophic losses in 2015, the state is still number one in egg production, beating second-place Ohio by 334 million eggs last month.
