1st year meat bird sales questions

[Humm8823]

Hey all - I want to apologize if this has already been talked about but I am not able to find anything on it. This is our first year raising meat birds. They are a ranger chicks. The first 3 weeks they were raised indoors and the rest of their time has been spent outside in an outdoor tractor with 3 square foot per bird. They are not organic or GMO but have been non-medicated and non-hormone chickens.

Our questions are:
1) would they be considered free range or pasture?

2) we were thinking of charging $5/pound. Now that we are coming up to our butcher dates, we are getting some pushback on price. We live in rural MN. We are not looking to gouge anyone but would like to do what is fair and still make somewhat of a profit.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Free Ranged or Pasture Raised is a marketing term, and mostly meaningless.

You might find this instructive. Ask USDA.

Pricing is local. No one in my area would pay $5/lb for chicken - its an economically depressed area, we all have lots of land, and the local supermarket offers birds at $1.79/lb - $2.29/lb. When you struggle to put meat on the table, you don't voluntarily pay 3x the price. If I drove 40 miles south? Entirely different story - inside a couple square miles of enclave, where I might get $6/lb if I could also afford to sell as certified organic (which of course I can't).

 

[RiverOtter]

Your state department of agriculture has legal definitions of what can be sold as free range vs pastures. Generally, birds raised in a tractor are pastured.

As far as price - do the math. what did chicks, feed, and butchering cost you? Unless this is an actual, licensed business, don't even get into time, electric and tractor cost. So, chicks + feed + butchering cost = your cost of production. Add 10% to that and that's the lowest you can afford to sell it for.

Now, not gonna lie, it's probably more than you thought and likely more than your neighbors can afford. Economics of scale and the fact that chicken is often sold as a loss-leader product are working against you. If you want to make a profit selling chicken you have to seriously, seriously market and focus on a crowd with major disposable income - you need the fad diet, paleo/keto/Zone/Atkins folks.