Guidance

Poultry valuation tables: introduction

Updated 10 April 2024

The government has powers to cull (kill) animals to control the spread of some animal diseases.

For bird flu and Newcastle disease, you’ll get compensation for any healthy birds that are culled by the government. Read guidance on compensation for certain diseases in poultry and other captive birds.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) uses poultry valuation tables (or specialist valuers for specialist stock) to determine compensation for poultry culled. These tables are produced for the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) by the agricultural and environmental consultancy, ADAS.

Poultry valuation tables are reviewed and updated regularly to ensure they reflect current costs for different types of birds and different production systems. Normally, these reviews are undertaken quarterly, with new tables being issued late in March, June, September and December each year. Due to the recent volatility in production costs and the number of avian influenza cases in Great Britain, these timings have been changed to include updates in November and January, rather than in December.

The current valuation tables are based on costs and other information gathered in March 2024.

Types of poultry included

The poultry valuation tables include information about:

• broilers
• laying hens
• turkeys
• ducks and geese
• game birds (pheasants, partridges and mallards)

The tables also include information about production systems, such as indoor, free range and organic.

Index

The poultry valuation tables include information about:

Meat Producing Chickens (EDO357)

• tab 1 - commercial broilers
• tab 2 - free range table chicken - 56 day rear (slow growing strains)
• tab 3 - free range table chicken - 56 day rear (broiler strains)
• tab 4 - organic table chicken - 81 day rear - direct sales
• tab 5 - organic table chicken - 70 day rear
• tab 6 - table chickens with on-farm processing
• tab 7 - better chicken commitment (BCC) broilers

Meat producing turkeys (EDO358)

• tab 1 - white turkeys (stags) kept in pole barns
• tab 2 - white turkeys (hens) kept in pole barns
• tab 3 - bronze turkeys (stags) kept in pole barns
• tab 4 - bronze turkeys (hens) kept in pole barns
• tab 5 - bronze turkeys (stags) free range
• tab 6 - bronze turkeys (hens) free range
• tab 7 - turkeys organic free range stags
• tab 8 - commercial turkeys for processing
• tab 9 - commercial turkey hens for Christmas sales (frozen)
• tab 10 - commercial turkey hens for Christmas sales (fresh)
• tab 11 - turkeys organic free range hens
• tab 12 - white turkeys (stags) free range - valuation card
• tab 13 - white turkeys (hens) free range - valuation card
• tab 14 - commercial turkey stags for Christmas sales (fresh)

Meat producing water fowl (EDO359)

• tab 1 - table ducks
• tab 2 - table geese - extensively reared

Meat producing game (EDO360)

• tab 1 - pheasants in release pens
• tab 2 - partridges in release pens

Pullets (EDO361)

• tab 1 - cage reared pullets
• tab 2 - litter reared pullets

Table egg birds (EDO362)

• tab 1 - cage egg layers
• tab 2 - barn egg layers
• tab 3 - free range egg layers
• tab 4 - organic free range egg layers
• tab 5 - domestic poultry keeper egg layers

Breeding birds (EDO363)

• tab 1 - broiler breeder rearing
• tab 2 - broiler breeder layers
• tab 3 - layer breeder rearing
• tab 4 - layer breeder layers
• tab 5 - turkey breeders (0 to 28 weeks)
• tab 6 - partridge rearing
• tab 7 - pheasant rearing
• tab 8 - pheasants pre-breeders (overwintered future breeders)
• tab 9 - pheasants breeders - caught-up
• tab 10 - pheasants breeders - overwintered
• tab 11 - duck breeder rearing
• tab 12 - duck breeder layers
• tab 13 - mallard pre-breeders
• tab 14 - mallard breeders
• tab 15 - partridge pre-breeders (overwintered future breeders)
• tab 16 - partridges breeders - overwintered - year 1
• tab 17 - partridges breeders - overwintered - year 2
• tab 18 - turkey breeders (29 to 56 weeks)

Data sources

Numerous sources are used to gather data on current costs. These include published information as well as intelligence provided confidentially by a range of different industry stakeholders, such as feed compounders, breed companies, suppliers of fuels and other materials and poultry producers. Where possible for each cost item, information is gathered from a range of different sources, so that overall sector trends can be established.

Data summary

Since the last update in January 2024, published prices for key feed raw materials for poultry have decreased for conventional production and to a lesser extent for organic. Most of the compound feed prices used in these tables are slightly lower than they were previously. A larger review of feed prices and other costs for the game bird sector has been completed this time and changes have been made as appropriate.

The cost of day-old poultry stock has remained generally stable across all sectors, although there have been some price increases. Costs of LPG for heating and other fuels have increased but the cost of electricity has decreased. Labour costs have been reviewed and an annual increase has been applied to all valuation tables in line with changes in national wage rates which apply from April 2024.

Miscellaneous costs have been reviewed for all tables and small changes have been made to reflect general price inflation.

Next update

The next update will be published at the end of June 2024.

Contact

For further information, email Mailys.Chezaud@adas.co.uk

Methodologies used in developing the poultry valuation tables

How the tables are calculated

For most table poultry species and for rearing birds, the valuation at each flock age is calculated from the costs incurred for a typical flock, to that point. Throughout the production cycle, a small fixed financial margin is added to the production costs to reflect notional market value and this is indicated by the higher of the two lines. (Figure 1). Costs at the time of stocking are derived from the cost of the chick or poult and the house ‘set-up’ costs.

Figure 1. Valuation principles for table birds and replacement layers

For egg laying flocks, valuations are based on typical costs incurred and the expected final value of the bird at the time of depopulation. After transfer to the laying house, the valuation rises to a peak value when egg revenue begins to flow. From this point, the value of the bird is depreciated on a straight-line basis to the expected end-of-lay value (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Valuation principles for egg laying birds

Some table bird enterprises (for example, geese and seasonal turkey production) attain a very high market value at normal slaughter ages relative to their costs of production. In order to address this issue and arrive at valuations that are fair and reasonable for this type of enterprise, valuation principles have been developed that are based on costs of production (with a fixed margin) up to the point at which the birds can normally be marketed; once the birds are at an age when they are mature enough to be slaughtered and offered for sale through regular channels, the valuations are based on expected marketing method (to butchers or farm gate sales) and typical sales price, less slaughter, processing and distribution costs  (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Valuation principles for high value birds