That has prompted the NFU for England and Wales, the British Poultry Council and the British Egg Industry Council to write a joint letter to retailers asking them to recognise the effect the latest rise in feed prices has had on the cost of poultry production.
The letter states: "In the UK the poultry industry uses in excess of 5.5 million tonnes of compound feed in laying hen, broiler, turkey and breeder farming systems every year.
"Feed is the largest single cost item for poultry production accounting for approximately 60% of total costs."
The British Retail Consortium more or less cold-shouldered the appeal with its director general, Stephen Robertson saying: "Yet again the farming lobby groups are targeting retailers and overlooking the fact that supermarkets are not the sole outlet for all British produce."
Peter Logie of NFU Scotland told The Herald that feed wheat had risen from £162 per tonne in mid-March to about £213 today (+31%), while soy-bean meal for August delivery was up from £311/t to £440 in the same period (+41%).
According to the Scottish Egg Producer Retailers Association (SEPRA), the price paid by egg packers has gone up by 5p/dozen (around 6-7%), but with feed prices up by about £60/t since March the cost of production has risen by over 9p/dozen, leaving producers more than 4p/dozen worse off.
That has led to hatcheries having to gas day-old-chicks as a result of orders being cancelled.
The Scottish laying flock produced 1.12 million eggs last year, and the total output of the flock was around £53m.
Scotland's broiler output last year was 134,000 tonnes, worth about £111.7m.
According to Turiff producer, Robert Hay, a lot of broiler producers are under contracts with large processors like Vion that have a formula to take account of variations in feed costs.
Nevertheless, he is concerned about the future "with the way feed keeps on rising and poultry prices remain static in the supermarkets".
Wallets Marts had 59 store cattle forward in Castle Douglas yesterday when bullocks averaged 186p per kg and heifers levelled at 179p.
In the rough ring 2 OTM clean heifers averaged £1070.30, 3 beef bulls levelled at £1043, and 60 cows averaged £740.14.
John Swan Ltd sold 23 prime bullocks in St Boswells yesterday to average 211p (+4.2p on the week), while 41 prime heifers levelled at 212.2p (+0.2p).
In the rough ring, 54 beef-type OTM cattle averaged 137.3p (-2.3p).
There were also 1953 prime lambs that averaged 197.1p (-5.4p), while 838 cast ewes levelled at £65.92.
