Guidance

Poultry valuation tables: introduction

Updated 15 October 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 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 September 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.

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 June 2024, published prices for key feed raw materials for poultry have decreased for conventional production. As a result, most of the compound feed prices used in these tables are slightly lower than they were in June. For organic, the picture is more mixed, with some compound prices increasing and others reducing.   

Overall, the cost of day-old poultry stock has generally remained stable since the last update, although there have been some slight price decreases for certain species. There has been little change in the value of end-of-lay stock.  

A comprehensive review of heat, electricity, insurance and several miscellaneous costs has been carried out and changes made accordingly. Seasonal poultry prices and prices obtained by direct-sellers of poultry meat have been reviewed, together with changes in processing costs. The relevant tables have been adjusted accordingly.

Next update

The next update will be published at the end of November 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