Click here to download the latest Arkansas Fact card: "Positive Impact on Arkansas"
• Arkansas is 2nd in the nation for broiler (chicken) production raising over 1 billion chickens per year.*
• Arkansas is 4th in the nation for turkey production raising over 30 million turkeys per year.*
• Arkansas is 10th in the nation for egg production producing nearly 3 billion eggs per year.*
• Over 6,000 farms in Arkansas produce some type of pouItry.**
• Out of Arkansas' 53 broiler producing counties, Washington County is the largest in single-day inventory and Benton County is next. Other top producers are Yell, Hempstead, Howard and Carroll counties.**
• Poultry is the largest agricultural product In Arkansas in terms of cash receipts, providing 47% of the total in 2010.***
• Poultry contributed $3.6 billion to Arkansas' economy in 2010.***
• Over 42,000 Arkansans work directly for the poultry industry.
• Poultry accounts for 1 in 4 agricultural jobs in Arkansas.
• Chickens and turkeys are never given hormones. This is illegal and not allowed by the USDA.
• Antibiotics to keep chickens and turkeys healthy and safe to eat are allowed by the USDA in limited doses for a limited time.
• Arkansas is home to poultry and egg companies: Butterball LLC, Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., Cargill, Inc., Cobb-Vantress,Inc., Foster Farms, George's Inc., Keith Smith Co., Inc, O.K. Foods, Inc., Peco Foods, Pilgrim's Pride Corp., Simmons Foods,Inc., Tyson Foods, Inc., Wayne Farms LLC, Boar's Head Brand, Caldwell
Foods, LLC, England Farms, Inc., Mountaire Corp., Ozark Mountain Poultry, and Twin River Foods.
• A hen lays 240 eggs per year. It takes about 24 hours for a hen to lay an egg. There are no nutritional differences between brown and white eggs.
• Very young hens lay double yoke eggs which are safe to eat.
• A standard truck carries 800 cases of eggs (24.000 dozen).
• On average, nearly 80 lbs of chicken,181bs of turkey and 20 dozen eggs are consumed per person in the U.S. every year.
*USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service - Poultry Production and Value, April 26, 2012.
**USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service - 2007 Census of Agriculture, February 4, 2009.
***Source: Economic Research Service, USDA. Web site: www.ers.usda.gov/data/farmincome/finfidmu.htm
Information Contact: Ted Covey, tcovey@ers.usda.gov.