Egg prices triple from last year: How Oklahoma egg farmers are being impacted

Egg prices are on the rise, in some areas the cost is tripling or even quadrupling from how much they cost this time last year.

One local farmer told Fox 25 that he has not yet raised prices but as the price of chicken feed continues to rise, he may have to soon.

"If you look at December 2021 compared to December 2022. In some places, it was high as four times as much," said Agricultural Economist at Oklahoma State University, Rodney Holcomb.

The reason for the price climb is not only inflation but also the bird flu.

"Everything related to food grows, because of inflation cost, energy prices went up which affect everything," Holcomb said. "The fact that feed grain prices went up also impacted. The more it costs to feed the chickens than means the more it's going to cost for the eggs. On top of all that we had the worst impact of avian flu that we've had since 2015."

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Egg farmers here in Oklahoma say they have not been impacted by the bird flu, but have been hurt by the rising cost of feed and fuel.

"Our feed cost has gone up quite a bit...the diesel the cover crop prices in the feed cost have gone up," said Mike Best with Locavores Fork Farm in Piedmont. "We try to absorb as much as that as we can, but we've gotten to a point this year that... if we keep doing what we're doing, we're gonna have to raise prices."

Even some farmers are looking into other options as prices climb.

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"So I'm actually looking at going into raising quail instead," Best said.

Stephanie Kramer has been farming eggs since 2017 and says that recently there have been times when she has had trouble finding feed.

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"There are times when I will have to travel a little further outside the city area to go get my feed, I might have to use feed that doesn't have the protein level that I want," she said.

Despite this, she says she has had no issue with supplying eggs and recommends people shop local for fresh eggs, with better prices.

"It varies depending on the egg size and my egg volume so my egg volume right now is pretty high, so I will sell them at a better price," Kramer said. "So right now for medium and large eggs in a mix that a dozen would be $3."

Experts say the wholesale price of eggs is just starting to drop, and hope that will reflect in grocery store prices soon.

If you would like to purchase local eggs from Kramer's farm, Fitz Farm, you can call (405) 200-7079 to set up an appointment to pick them up.

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