GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 833 



Thanks to efficiencies that have lowered production costs, chicken 

 is no longer a luxury in the American home. It has become more 

 competitively priced in relation to other foods and under normal 

 conditions, the broiler producer who created this situation receives 

 a fair profit on his labor and investment. 



As the best minds in the broiler industry have considered its future, 

 they have given careful study to its past. They fully realize that 

 had production controls been in effect for this industry 15 years ago, 

 the system of producing poultry meat that has enabled growers to 

 shift their production to more economical and profitable units as 

 well as provide the consumer with a product of better quality, would 

 have been hopelessly crippled even before it had an opportunity to 

 get started, and benefits resulting to thousands of producers from 

 the achievements of this industry would have been lost. 



But changing economic conditions direct the attention of the 

 leaders of this industry to the situation broiler growers face in this 

 and future years. 



Here are some of its opportunities: 



1. As the number of eggs produced per hen increases, the number 

 of hens required to supply the consumer demand for eggs would 

 decrease. Fewer hens would create a gap in the poultry meat picture 

 to be filled in the future, as in the past, by the broiler producer. The 

 United States Department of Agriculture as well as the land-grant 

 colleges recognize that not only has the rate of lay per hen increased 

 considerably in the past, but that a great deal of further improvement 

 can also be made in this direction in the future. 



2. Commercially produced broilers still find a market, primarily 

 in larger cities and towns. Throughout much of the year, it is still im- 

 possible to buy a top quality broiler or fryer in thousands of the small 

 towns. Yet when birds of this type are available consumers, buy 

 them every month throughout the year. Therefore, greater perfec- 

 tion of our present distribution system should make it possible to 

 more effectively tap this large unclaimed market. 



3. The rapidly grown, soft-meated broiler meets a highly favorable 

 consumer reaction, and when birds of this type are available there is 

 every indication that an increase in the annual per capita consump- 

 tion of poultry meat results. 



In view of these examples of opportunity it is the desire of the broiler 

 industry to avoid a production strait-jacket that would impede its 

 progress. 



While the need for a flexible production program is apparent, it 

 should also be recognized that there is a real need for price supports in 

 the broiler industry. Such price supports should have a stabilizing 

 influence during periods of adverse marketing to prevent wide varia- 

 tion in production. Such variations in production offer opportunities 

 for certain middlemen to swell their profits by increasing their operat- 

 ing margins, on the poultry they have bought when plentiful supplies 

 had forced prices down, so that only a small portion of the lower 

 producer price is passed along to the consumers when the poultry is 

 sold. Under such donditions in the past, there have been short periods 

 when producers not only lost all return from the labor expended on 

 broiler production, but also had received a price for birds which fell 

 short of paying for such items as feed, chicks, and fuel by 5 to 7 cents 

 a pound. 



