Calling Meat Poultry Producers (Chicken, Turkey, Duck, Goose, ect.)

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That sound great!!!

Yeah, my only worry is that it will be too big/expensive a task to comply, then I'll be on their "radar" if there's ever an issue, and I'll have a hard time pleading ignorance if I ever have to talk to him again!
 
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Easy enough. I charge $____ per bird and I will bring them to _______ and they charge $2.00 per bird. Talk with the processor maybe they can pay the processing when they pick up or you can collect the money and write the processor a check or just make sure you get a receipt so you can say you only sold the live bird not responsible for the processing.

Personally I would never pay $2.00 for processing. It would have brought the cost of my birds up to $6.50 and I would have to write a check for $200 and that is just painful.

We process our own, we do have a plucker that is brought over, and the cost of the chicks, food and bedding is divided by the number of birds that we butcher. I don't charge for my time because I am doing it for the health aspect not a business. Around here people get any where from $8-15 per bird for free range not even organic.
 
Organic free range chickens are going online for $16.95 for a 3.3lb bird.

I get $8 each for live cockerals from passing Mexicans.

Why would you want to charge only $6.50 per bird?
 
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I am not in it for the money I just want the chicken that I know what went into it. I have a group of people who come over and we process 100 birds in about 4 hours and it is all done. We split the entire cost of the birds (Chicks, feed, bedding). I think having the group help makes it a fun mornings with alot of joking and talking and not even like work.
 
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Haha, well, I learned a lot of things, so I guess it went pretty well. First, and most importantly, (speaking for Michigan,) if you're processing on a small level, there is no point getting certified, and you won't be able to afford it.

*He estimated the cost to legitimize my garage/workshop/barn/processing area would be $3-5000. I would need to run hot and cold water, (hose water won't do,) hook it into my septic system (assuming I didn't need to change my 2 year old tanks out for bigger ones to handle water on a commercial level.) Dumping your wastewater on the ground is a no-no.
*There has to be a dedicated area for the processing, meaning I would have to divide my garage in half with a solid wall, which would mean no more storing all my misc. garage items in the middle of the floor. EVERYTHING has to be washable, which would mean covering it with FRP board at $27/sheet.
*Garage floor would need to be sealed.

But... he DID say a few good things that I will choose to read a bit more into. Again, this was an inspector from the Michigan Department of Agriculture, so this applies to Michigan only.

*While I didn't ask him about selling them, (I didn't want to get into his thoughts on the Salatin model,) he said that processing birds for others is fine, especially on a small scale. He said I "might want to avoid" selling them to people I don't know. Most of my birds go to friends, coworkers, etc, so that was good news.

*He mentioned an example of deer processors, which is quite close to the Salatin model, other than obviously the deer aren't raised on site- he said that unless you are offering custom services with a different level of processing, such as jerky, sausage, etc, processing is generally considered a contract between the processor and customer, and they wouldn't really get involved.

*There are simply too few inspectors for them to get involved in issues of small operations, and in Michigan, this is only going to get worse (better??.) Due to the state budget, HIS office is getting closed, which means even more area to be spread out between inspectors. They barely have enough time/money to do the huge corporations.

*So, at no point did he tell me I couldn't do what I've been doing, but he did literally tell me on several occasions not to bother trying to comply and get a license.


I think I'll just read up a bit more on the laws, do what I can to comply on the level I'm willing to spend, (as the law is there because it's obviously more sanitary,) revise my contract, and add some labels to my birds. Other than that, I'm happy with the way I'm doing it.

My only question is, I wonder if I can get the insurance that others have mentioned here without a state license?? I would guess not.
 
What region are you in Jaku? Furthermore, how do mobile processing units get approved? The article said that you can dump wastewater on a farmers field.
 
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I'm in Central/West Michigan. I asked him about both, and he said as far as wastewater, it's a DEQ issue, and technically, yes- you CAN get a permit to dump wastewater on the ground, but trying to get one is a different story. As far as the mobile units, he said that he wasn't too familiar with them. A lot of what he said about the water/septic stuff were county health code/inspection issues, not something the MDA would deal with, but that to get certified, I would first have to be ok'd by DEQ and the health department. My question is how in the heck the Amish do it?? I'd love to ask them, but none of the Amish I've met were all too chatty!
 
The folks I know who process many birds at their farm have a very neat large composting system and they compost the offal in giant concrete 3-sided "bins". They continually add the correct mixture to keep it composting. It never smells, it composts amazing fast and I never see any runoff at all.

Also, the guy basically told you, it was nuts to contemplate paying $3-5,000 to start-up. You'd never pay that investment back on poultry! I'm sorry, but the whole system is geared towards forcing us to eat hormone filled, bland-tasting, factory-farm raised store-bought chicken. It's ridiculous.
 

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