Pilgrim's Pride Corp. President and CEO Clint Rivers hopes to see the chicken industry continue to cut production to help the industry return to profitability.

"I'd like to see a 3 to 4 percent [industry-wide] cut," Rivers said during BMO Capital Markets' Agriculture and Protein Conference in New York on Thursday. "The cuts need to be fairly deep."

Several chicken companies, including Pilgrim's Pride, Fieldale Farms Corp., Simmons Foods and Cagle's, have announced production cuts already in 2008.

Rivers added, however, that many companies might not make the cuts that would help put industry-wide supply and demand into better balance. "There are a lot of smaller players out there that probably won't make production cuts," he said.

Regardless, Rivers stressed preparedness for what the grain markets might bring. "Last year, we placed birds for $4 corn, and we had $6 corn," he said. "Today our industry is placing for $6 corn, and corn could [go up to] $8."

Shares of Pilgrim's Pride were $24.35, up 13 cents, in midday trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.