2. Small Annual slaughter between 250,000 and 1,100,000 pounds, 

 live weight, or peak slaughter of 3,000 pounds or more, live weight, 

 per week. 



3. Medium. Annual slaughter between 2,000,000 and 8,000,000 pounds, 

 live weight. 



4. Large. Annual slaughter of 11,000,000 pounds, and over, live weight. 



Of the 204 units contacted, 44, classified as small, medium, and large 

 accounted for 98 percent of recorded slaughter. These same units accounted 

 for 97 percent of the volume of chickens eviscerated in the same plants, and 

 99 percent of the volume of broilers and fryers, 93 percent of the volume 

 of heavy young chickens, and 96 percent of the volume of fowl and roosters 

 slaughtered. Generally, very small units eviscerated a substantially higher 

 percentage of their slaughter than other size groups. 



Areas 1, 2, and 5 have considerably fewer units than Areas 3, 4, and 6. 

 yet Area 1 lies at one extreme in tenns of total volume and Areas 2 and 5 

 at the other. Areas 4 and 6 are the most heavily populated and have larger 

 numbers of poultry and egg stores and other types who process. Area 3, 

 together with Areas 4 and 6, shows a relatively large number of producer- 

 processors, generally oriented toward fowl and heavier classes of chickens. 



The average size of slaughtering units, by areas, can be calculated from 

 Table 4. In Area 1, the average unit slaughters less than 25,000 pounds 



Table 4. Number of Slaughtering Units Contacted, by Size Group and Area 



annually. In Areas 3, 4, and 6, average annual slaughter per plant is be- 

 tween 700,000 and 800,000 pounds; in Area 5, almost 3 million pounds; 

 in Area 2, over 6 million pounds. 



All of the slaughterers in Area 1 are in the very small grouping. Eightv 

 percent of the units in Areas 4 and 6 are very small, largely because of 

 the number of poultry and egg stores. In Areas 3 and 5, 75 percent of the 

 units are very small, while in Area 2 only half of the units are very small. 



17 



