Millions of birds have been destroyed in Ohio as the state's egg farmers continue to deal with the outbreak of bird flu. The outbreak started in 2022 and has gotten significantly worse in recent months. There are some signs that the egg market might be starting to see light at the end of the tunnel but some farmers may never recover from it.
Ty Higgins, Senior Director of Communications and Media Relations for the Ohio Farm Bureau, said this bird flu outbreak has been especially hard on egg farmers in western Ohio.
“I grew up in the 80’s on a dairy farm. I know what low morale looks like in agriculture. I’ve never seen morale like this from farmers in Western Ohio,” Higgins said. “They are losing their livelihoods. Some will be able to bounce back and repopulate once this is all said and done. But I know several farmers who simply won’t be able to recover financially and will have to file bankruptcy and won’t be able to farm.”
The wholesale price of eggs has been declining steadily during the past couple of weeks. According to the latest USDA report, the average wholesale cost of large white eggs was $4.15 per dozen — about half of what it was just a few weeks ago. But many consumers are still complaining that the breakfast table staple is still too expensive. And with Easter just around the corner, egg demand will be even higher.
Higgins said eggs are still a high-value protein. “And I understand, I’m a consumer myself, $5 eggs is hard to swallow. No pun intended,” Higgins said. “But let’s also think about what the farmer is going on the back side of this as well and the challenges they are dealing with.”
Higgins said eggs are being imported from other countries. And he added the USDA is putting $1 billion into research and helping with repopulation of egg-laying birds.
Gov. Mike DeWine has talked to U.S. Department of Agriculture Director Brooke Rollins about the losses. He said he’s asked her to subsidize farmers who lost birds earlier in this outbreak equally to farmers who have lost eggs more recently, noting the latter are getting more compensation from the feds.
“Many of our farmers already had a lot of devastation. Millions of bird destroyed, based on the old numbers,” DeWine said. “I’ve asked her to look at whether or not they could backdate those basically so there are farmers who had to destroy all of these birds would be compensated at the same rate as the farmers who are losing all of these birds today.”
DeWine said he has invited federal ag leaders to come to Ohio to see the devastation of the egg farming industry first-hand.
READ MORE:
- Ohio leads the nation in bird flu cases. What’s being done about it?
- This is why Canada has plenty of eggs — and the U.S. doesn't
- DeWine urges federal bird flu research, with over 30% of Ohio's egg laying hens killed
