poultry business plan

poultry business plan

Hey, I have a question about a business proposal my wife and I are considering and wanted to run it by you guys to see if you had any insight.

Primarily the goal of the business is to help out with deferring taxes and write off some of our equipment and infrastructure on a small family farm.

I have found a void in the availability of locally raised meat chickens in the area. It seems like people want free range, humane meat and are willing to pay for it. I just started with the Cornish X this spring and have had endless inquires from friends asking if we'd have any extra we like to sell after they are butchered. We don't, I only got enough for my family for the year but it did get me thinking. Next year I could get more with the goal of starting a small family farm business.


We were thinking of taking orders in the early spring for meat birds and delivering on the orders in the late spring.

-A $5 dollar per bird deposit would be collected with an agreement to deliver the bird in a set number of weeks after processing.
-The price would be based on the going rate per pound with a $5 "processing fee". The profit per bird would be rather small but the write off my make it worth while.
-Processing will be hired out to a local usda approved slaughter house that charges $5 per bird (processed,packaged,frozen).

The majority of the needed infrastructure is already in place coop, brooders, available pasture. I'd need to assemble more chicken tractors but have a surplus of materials to build them.

My major initial investment would be chicken wire for the tractors and a large chest freezer to store the processed birds before they are either delivered or picked up and a few more water and feeders.

The customer base is primarily urban upper middle class. I'd like to set a 4 bird minimum so I'm not dealing with lots of people who want one bird each. I'd like to keep the cap at 100 birds for the first year.

I'd like to use the business as a means to justify writing off a used pickup truck as well as our existing equipment and infrastructure (ie. barn, tractor, fencing, coops... etc.) I also imaging the fridge, some of the electric bill, fuel... I'm sure my accountant will be able to fill in all the blanks as far as the write offs go.


So have any of your followed this path and attempted to find a way to turn a small profit and write off some of their farm on taxes? Any advice?

Are CSAs popular around you and would you be able to become a contributing rancher to the cause? You get some payment upfront, your have built in customers, you have the guidance of career farmers and ranchers... Sounds like it might eliminate some of the risks and give you a good blueprint to follow.

We started very similarly to what you describe...

It started as a way to grow our own food as well as grow some for friends, that was 3 years ago.

In that short amount of time our business has grown incredibly just by word of mouth. We did just start a buying club for chickens kinda like you have in mind.

It's my full time job now, It has replaced my full time job. Oh yeah, the tax benefits are pretty great too.

Question to me $5 a bird for processing seems high is there any kind of a volume break? What would the final price per bird or pound come to?

Rock Ranch said:

Question to me $5 a bird for processing seems high is there any kind of a volume break? What would the final price per bird or pound come to?

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I really haven't looked into a volume discount. I'll be there on Saturday getting my current birds done and had planed on inquiring.

I would need to do some research on what people are paying at whole foods or similar stores for chicken and go from there. I already seem to have quite a bit of interest from coworkers at both my work and my wives. Beyond the supermarkets there isn't any around here selling fresh chicken. That's the whole reason we even started raising them.

The math comes out to around $5 profit per bird which isn't much. I'm lined up to earn less than $500 if all goes well but writing off my home as a working farm could save me thousands in taxes so that's where the money is I hope. I own quite a bit of land so my taxes are rather high and it's all zoned agricultural.

Eventually I hope to turn my property into a modest little farm and make a small profit but that is a work in progress. Every year we expand a little but it's a gradual thing.

rule4 said:

I really haven't looked into a volume discount. I'll be there on Saturday getting my current birds done and had planed on inquiring.

I would need to do some research on what people are paying at whole foods or similar stores for chicken and go from there. I already seem to have quite a bit of interest from coworkers at both my work and my wives. Beyond the supermarkets there isn't any around here selling fresh chicken. That's the whole reason we even started raising them.

The math comes out to around $5 profit per bird which isn't much. I'm lined up to earn less than $500 if all goes well but writing off my home as a working farm could save me thousands in taxes so that's where the money is I hope. I own quite a bit of land so my taxes are rather high and it's all zoned agricultural.

Eventually I hope to turn my property into a modest little farm and make a small profit but that is a work in progress. Every year we expand a little but it's a gradual thing.

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A few things to consider...

First, there's a income threshold in order to change your property taxes from residential to agriculture. Make sure you check with your town and see what that is, here is 10k profit.

Next, you must be profitable. It's a bunnies and should be treated as such, under valuing your products is the kiss of death to small farms and food producers. Don't be ashamed to make a decent profit, especially considering you are providing some of the best food on the planet. There's a difference between greedy and fair, nobody expects to go to work for free. $5 bucks a bird is just not enough, there are always other options. Selling pieces is very profitable, $9.99/lb is the going rate for boneless skinless beasts for example. If you sell by the piece you have other products available that most peoe don't even think about. One is the backs of all those chickens, I sell them to a dog rescue that makes raw dog food for $2/lb. and the list goes on.


Another thing to think about: if your going to raise chickens, you should also raise turkeys. They are the most profitable animals you can have on the farm. Start by doing them for the holidays and go from there, your coworkers that buy chickens will want a fresh turkey for thanksgiving I promise. I designed my tractors so I can also raise turkeys in them, this triples my profit without any additional inferstructure. If I could figure out how to raise turkeys all year long I would. Lol

Turkeys are a good idea. I've actually been researching turkey pens the last few months. I think it would be great to offer turkeys for the holidays. It's funny because I have had people ask me if I'd consider raising turkeys a few times now.

The $5 a bird processing couldn't of been easier. I dropped them off and picked up the meat a few hours later. I'll definitely be going with this route again.

I'll be giving the whole "Subscription Meat Chicken" business a try this coming spring. Just in some casual conversations with some of our friends who take eggs from us we already have an unbelievable demand for chickens. We will be trying for under 100 birds and see how it goes. I imagine I will more or less break even but be able to live out my dream of playing farmer. It really has nothing to do with money and more to do with providing good food that was raised humanely.

I suppose I should make a few more chicken tractors this fall. Hopefully field will be nice and fertilized come next summer.


Thanks for all the replies.