WASHINGTON — The egg industry segment continues to make inroads to bounce back in production from last year’s table egg losses with larger layer inventories for the first half of 2026, USDA reports.
“Table egg production in February 2026 totaled 597.3 million dozen, up 5.1 percent year over year,” USDA’s Economic Research Service states in its most recent “Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook” report.
“This is primarily the result of a 5.9 percent larger average table egg layer inventory (312.9 million hens), as the average lay rate in February was 81.8 eggs per 100 layers per day, down 0.7 eggs from the same month last year,” ERS said.
The egg industry, however, continues to suffer losses from the continuing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza.
“In the month of February, 9.47 million commercial table egg layers were lost to (HPAI), but the layer inventory on March 1 increased by 5.8 million birds month over month to 315.8 million,” ERS added. “This likely reflects the increased availability of replacements in the pullet flock. On February 1, replacement pullet inventory was 144.9 million, the highest level on record. On March 1, that inventory had declined about 1 million to 143.9 million pullets. Because the pullet flock includes immature laying hens ranging in age from a few days to 5 months, as well as broiler-type laying birds, only a fraction of the flock is available for replacement at any given time.”
The department added that this flock fraction has been adequate in recent months to make up for bird flu losses and regular turnover of flocks. ERS added that egg-type hatching egg layers provided this record-high amount of replacement pullets, which are at their highest level in 18 years.
“Reflecting expectations for a quickly recovering table egg laying flock, first quarter estimated production was adjusted upwards to (1.915 billion) dozen, and second quarter projected production was adjusted upward to (1.960 billion) dozen,” the report said. “The third and fourth quarter table egg production projections are unchanged (2.000) and (2.025 billion) dozen, respectively.”
The total table egg production for this year is now 7.9 billion dozen, which is up 5.4 percent from last year, ERS said, adding that if additional bird flu confirmations do not detrimentally affect the table egg flock.
Anticipated table egg prices for the year are also adjusted lower by the department because of expected production increases.
“The second quarter price is adjusted down to 80 cents per dozen, the third quarter to 85 cents, and the fourth quarter to ($1.20) per dozen,” ERS said. “This results in a new annual average price projection of ($1.02.6) per dozen. This would be the lowest annual average price since 2019.”
“Monthly average retail egg prices have continued to decrease,” ERS added. “The February average price for a dozen eggs reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics was $2.50, down 58 percent, or $3.40 from February 2025.”
Production stats
The total egg production in the nation was 9.22 billion in March, which is 5 percent more than last year, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service notes in its most recent “Chickens and Eggs” report.
“Production included 7.91 billion table eggs, 1.31 billion hatching eggs, of which 1.20 billion were broiler-type and 115 million were egg-type,” the report said. “The average number of layers during March 2026 totaled 376 million, up 5 percent from last year. March egg production per 100 layers was 2,454 eggs, down slightly from March 2025.”
For April 1, total layers in the U.S. were 373 million, and increase of 4 percent from 2025, NASS noted. This number included 307 million table or market type egg layers, 61.2 million broiler-type hatching egg layers, and 4.08 million that were for hatching-egg production.
“Rate of lay per day on April 1, 2026, averaged 79.2 eggs per 100 layers, up slightly from April 1, 2025,” NASS said. “Egg-type chicks hatched during March 2026 totaled 59.2 million, down 3 percent from March 2025. Eggs in incubators totaled 60 million on April 1, 2026, down 3 percent from a year ago.”
