The costs associated with my broilers (an accounting)

[UncleHoot]

Does anyone else like doing the math like this? Or am I just one of those nut-cases?

I purchased 50 cornish cross broilers from Meyer hathery, brooded them for 3 weeks, then put them in the moveable tractor/pen. I had them processed this weekend (58 days old).

cost of brooder ($0)
cost of chicken tractor, or housing ($250 or $42/batch amortized across 6 batches)
cost of feeders/waterers/lamps ($70 or about $12/batch amortized)
cost of pine bedding for use in brooder ($25/batch)
cost of electricity used in brooder for heat lamps (est. $10/batch)
cost of chicks ($53 shipped - received 51 birds)
cost of feed ($224 - 2 bags @ $14.50 and 15 @ $13.00)
cost of processing ($96 - 48 birds)
----
total costs for this batch: $462

avg weight (dressed): just over 5 lbs
selling price: $10.50/chicken (about $2.10/lb)
sold 43: $451.50
Net: -$10.50
chickens remaining: 5

So, what that means to me, is that I raised 5 chickens for my family for $10.50, which seems like a good deal.

 

[Red Tie]

My husband is a controller at a metal stamping plant, he loves to see the accounting of my "ventures"! Hopefully my birds will yeild as well as yours or I'll be hearing about it!

Thank you for sharing,

Jane

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
One thing to keep in mind: If I had let them grow another week, I probably would have gotten almost another pound per bird. Even though the feed conversion ratio goes up past 8 weeks, I have so many other fixed costs that it would have only cost me another $1/bird (or maybe a little more) in order to get that extra pound of meat. That extra week can bring down the cost per pound a little bit, even though the cost of the chickens would go up a little bit.

This time around I didn't have the option of raising to 9+ weeks, unfortunately. Next time I may try to stagger the processing dates.

 

[greyfields]

Nice accounting there!

I try not to look too deeply into the return on broilers. It would discourage me.

 

[newnanchic]

Thatwas a lot of work for just that small amount of money. But the extra birds that your family will enjoy will help offset the $$ amount. Good work ....

 

[Riparian]

At least you dont have to pay for the tractor next time.

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
I certainly could not make a living this way.

I think I've said this before, but for me, it's more about providing a service to the community, and doing something that I enjoy.

However, it's really not that much more effort to raise 50 than it is to raise 5. As greyfields points out, my customers pay me so I can raise my own chickens for free (or nearly so). In that sense, I can actually SAVE money doing what I'd be doing anyway.

 

[Dennis1979]

I am an accountant so doing the math like that makes a lot of sense to me.

I am also very interested in raising my own broilers and really want to get into the numbers regarding the cost. I think the mathematics are easy, it is understanding all the variables that I need to be able to do. Seeing your numbers helps me in that quest, so thanks for sharing.

A couple of questions:
Regarding the $2.00 per bird processing cost, is that to have the birds processed offsite or did you process the birds yourself?
How did you arrive at $2.10# ($10.50 per bird)? My research tells me I should sell the homegrown pastured broiler for $3.00# as an average cost.
Finally, I was blown away that your birds averaged over 5# each. I was thinking more like 4# as a max.

Once again, thanks for sharing your experience.

Dennis

 

[MissPrissy]

UncleHoot, please come be my neighbor.

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
All birds were processed off-site. It was a only 12 mile drive (roundtrip), so I suppose I could be faulted for not adding in gas money, but it wouldn't have been much. It may be significant for others.
If I wanted to truly make money, I'm sure I could try to sell them for more than $2.10/lb, but a lot of the buyers are friends and family, and I wanted something fairly close to my actual costs. So, that price was really based on my costs plus a small profit margin.
I weighed myself, then grabbed 5 bags and I was 27 lbs heavier. I grabbed another 4 and was 21 lbs heavier. Someday, maybe I'll get a real scale, but I was in a hurry.