BUSINESS SEGMENT AND GEOGRAPHIC REPORTING (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 30, 2012

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Schedule of Revenue from External Customers and Long-Lived Assets, by Geographical Areas [Table Text Block]

Net sales to customers by customer location and long-lived assets are as follows:

	2012		2011		2010
	(In thousands)
Net sales to customers by customer location:
United States	$	6,600,206	$	6,108,797	$	5,740,563
Mexico		988,712		827,186		669,870
Asia		262,455		353,368		223,240
North America		111,305		88,900		82,026
Europe		79,101		82,261		130,635
Africa		62,642		56,741		23,363
South America		13,775		14,224		8,252
Pacific		3,186		4,221		3,680
Total	$	8,121,382	$	7,535,698	$	6,881,629

	December 30, 2012		December 25, 2011
	(In thousands)
Long-lived assets(a):
United States	$	1,106,482	$	1,157,410
Mexico		83,439		84,342
Total	$	1,189,921	$	1,241,752

(a) For this disclosure, we exclude financial instruments, deferred tax assets and intangible assets in accordance with ASC 280-10-50-41, Segment Reporting. Long-lived assets, as used in ASC 280-10-50-41, implies hard assets that cannot be readily removed.

Schedule of Product Information [Table Text Block]

The following table sets forth, for the periods beginning with 2010, net sales attributable to each of our primary product lines and markets served with those products. We based the table on our internal sales reports and their classification of product types.

	2012		2011		2010
U.S. chicken:	(In thousands)
Prepared chicken	$	2,239,289	$	2,135,337	$	2,262,107
Fresh chicken		3,583,854		3,160,429		2,834,972
Export and other chicken by-products		817,723		808,038		581,303
Total U.S. chicken		6,640,866		6,103,804		5,678,382
Mexico chicken		758,023		720,333		615,433
Total chicken		7,398,889		6,824,137		6,293,815
Other products:
U.S.		608,619		674,923		558,675
Mexico		113,874		36,638		29,139
Total other products		722,493		711,561		587,814
Total net sales	$	8,121,382	$	7,535,698	$	6,881,629