Advice on pricing for meat sale

[sewhorsey]

Hi all,

I am starting a small venture to provide meat birds to a small CSA starting in my area, outside of Philadelphia.

They will be day-ranging on some pasture and fed a feed grown organically, but not yet certified. I am using the colored rangers from JM Hatchery.

My cost per bird for the grow out will be 8.00. What is a typical and fair profit margin?

Assuming the birds dress out at 4 pounds, would 11.00 a bird be appropriate? Or am I cheating the customer or myself?

Thanks for your input! Amy

 

[Bossroo]

Check out carefully what the organic certification costs will be as that will be significant. Also one will have to have the birds butchered at a State or USDA inspected facility wich will also increase the cost.

 

[henhaven1]

Hi,
I'm Bob and I don't think 11 is out of line at all. We get 3 per lb for whole and more for cut. We raise pesticide, hormone and antibiotic
free birds that are farm raised. I have heard that organic fed dressed birds(funny word dressed-should be undressed) are fetching as much as $4/lb. I still pluck by hand but maybe next year I'll build the plucker of my dreams. Good luck at the markket.

 

[sewhorsey]

Hi there,

I will home processing these birds and will not be going for organic certification. Because I am only providing 200 birds, I am not regulated by the state or feds.

I am deciding between 2.75 and 3.00 a pound at this point.

I won't claim the birds are "organic", but I can claim they are home raised, without antibiotics, on pasture, and fed a sustainable produced feed. I figure that will count for something.

I will make the rounds of the local pastured poultry producers and see what they are asking as well.

Thanks for the help!!

 

[jjparke]

Just because you show a profit on paper per bird doesn't mean you actually make one or if it's even worth while. Think of what you do for a living- what is your hourly wage? Would you work for less than that? Do you figure any labor into the raising and selling of your chickens? $3 even $4 a head "profit" is not worth it to me to sell. To keep yes but not sell. That would be like paying myself $.08 cents an hour.

 

[sewhorsey]

Oh, I know I am actually losing if I factor in the time and effort I spend...It is a form of community service. I am an at home mom and this small venture feels useful to me. I do want to cover all of the expenses, however. ;P

I hope to one day have a small farm with enough diversified things happening that we can have a wee income from it.

Best wishes, Amy

P.S. I guess I could just charge 32.00 a bird...I bet they would sell to somebody with money to burn, it's all in the marketing.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Haha... if farmers included all of their time the products would be worth a small fortune!!

No your right in line.... but I'm stumped why your cost are $8.00 / bird? You should make about $5-6 / bird profit.

Don't undercut yourself but you still want to keep your product reasonable.

I would say $12.00 / bird and try to find our why your cost are so high? Looks to me you may have to learn how to process the birds yourself? It may be worth it to learn...

Good luck... looking foward to hear your set-up.

 

[jaku]

I'd say if your cost is $8, then $11 is more than fair. My cost is around $6-7, and I charge $10 for my birds.

 

[sewhorsey]

Hi Jeff,

My cost is due to the small scale of the operation.

30 birds coming in once a month at $68.00 a batch from the hatchery.

Feeding them an organically produced feed for the 11 week grow out (these are colored rangers) will cost approximately 1,175.00.

When I added up all the numbers I got 476.00 for 7 batches of 30 birds, plus the 1,175 for feed. I divided that number by 200 and got 8.25.

If I could mangage 50 birds a batch, my cost would decrease, but I really can't.

I am processing myself on my property with hand me down coolers and a killing cone adapted from my dog's old head cone.

Best wishes, Amy

 

[Brunty_Farms]

So your feed cost is about $0.37 / lb? A 50 lb bag cost you.... around $18.35 or so?

That is a lot for food, especially if your feeding them organic and not getting them certified. What is your reason for feeding the organic? You could get feed from the mill with out any antibiotics or animal by-products for about half that price.

So cost for feed per bird is $5.92 / bird.... Cost per chick (this one hurts too) $2.26 / bird. Processing (even though your doing it yourself it's still going to cost money) *these are hidden cost that people don't think about* Ice... Electric...Knives... Bags... $1.25 / bird.

So your total cost per bird is $9.43 for a 4 lb dressed weight bird @ $3.00 / lb = $12.00 (I would go no less)

Ways to cut cost....

Go with a cheaper feed. Like stated if your not certified you can still get quality feed. Use soy, corn, fish meal and so on, you can get a special ground feed for a decent price. Some mills will special blend for 500 lbs (which is perfect for you) That will give you about 20 lbs extra. $120 will get you 10 bags (this is on the high end) I pay $10.00

$4.00 / bird is now your feed cost.

Chicks are another big one. Try to find some other locals that want to go into a chick order or try craigslist. If you can get to that 100 mark your now down to about $1.20 / chick

Processing is still the same at a $1.25 + chick + feed = $6.45 / bird (still charge $3.00 / lb) This time around you get a $5.55 profit x 30 = $166.50 / batch is your profit.

One thing you can do to is... just keep plugging away at it. As you get more customers you will grow and order more birds... get better discounts on feed... and better equipment for processing.

But by all means don't undercut yourself. Where are you from?

*but to answer your question... your right with everyone else if you charge $3.00 / lb.... organic or not. *