California egg production tumbles
CALIFORNIA - Like Humpty Dumpty, California egg ranchers have taken a tumble. Egg production in the state failed to crack 5 billion in 2006, marking the lowest output since 1958. High-priced real estate and feed, and government regulations have thinned chicken flocks that once numbered more than 40 million birds in the early 1970s. USDA data for 2006 show California's poultry ranches produced 4.9 billion eggs.