The Athens Banner-Herald reports that Mike Lacy, head of the University of Georgia's poultry science department, says trade issues with China and efforts to raise more chickens in Russia mean the overseas market for U.S. exports has shrunk.
Lacy says a 5-pound chicken eats nine pounds of feed in the six-and-a-half weeks it takes to grow to maturity.
Mike Giles, president of the Gainesville-based Georgia Poultry Federation, says the cost of feed, which makes up more than half of poultry farmers' overhead, has risen by 70 percent over the past year.
Nevertheless, Giles says the long-term outlook for Georgia's industry is good.
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