Easing meat birds to show at fair for 4h or FFA questions

[chey5545]

im thinking about expanding into the meat market raising. Is it worth doing? I’m thinking about doing turkeys and or chickens.

 

[rjohns39]

im thinking about expanding into the meat market raising. Is it worth doing? I’m thinking about doing turkeys and or chickens.

I no longer buy poultry of any kind from the store because mine is way better. Is it worth it? For me it is, but my birds do cost significantly more than what I'd pay at the store.

 

[lomine]

I think it would depend on your market and costs. For instance, if you have a lot of good land that you can use you won't have to spend as much on supplemental feed so each bird won't cost you as much to raise. But if you have to buy a lot of feed it may cost you more to raise a bird then you would get from selling it. Of course that will also depend on if there is a market for the meat in your area and how much people are willing to pay.

You should also look into your local laws. For example, in CO you can only sell a certain amount of meat under the cottage food act but you can't sell to restaurants.

 

[rjohns39]

Just for estimating purposes, in a perfect setup (I've only seen one), it takes 2 pounds of feed to get a pound of meat. My conversion rates are about 3.6:1, but 140 birds dressed out to 820+ pounds with an average of about 6lbs each. That was with CX birds. My heritage turkeys take 24 weeks to dress weight and are still small. I haven't tried BB turkeys yet.

 

[Arielle2]

I raise turkeys and chickens. I keep breeding birds so that means NOT commercial type birds. I have raised broad breasted turkeys-- do the math on the cost of feeding. Atypical commercial feed will net a bird that tastes like the grocery birds FOR A LOT MORE MONEY. I raised one batch of broiler cornish birds and they were fun--very different raising techniques than heritage type birds. Again, expensive meat. Having said all this, that makes raising any of the heritage types even more expensive......

You need to want to raise them for more than money. I could not get buyers for a $100 turkeys. Other people have better luck as I have read---depends on the economy in your area.

I continue to raise birds because I want a cleaner food source. And I can be absolutely sure of NO antibiotics, and no growth addatives, etc.Grass fed lends a better taste but using commercial feed in no way is organic.

If you are doing a few for yourself , great. Otherwise buy from large scale producers of organic meat. THey can buy organic grains at a FAR better price point when feeding 50,000 birds.

 

[oldrooster]

Ariellee2 is telling you right, you have to look into what the market will pay because in some instances you would be lucky to break even, it really is an economic factor. because in some areas I'm sure someone is getting free roosters and maybe even some extra or spent hens for free and figuring some feed, fuel, time and cost of processing they might get 6-10 dollars for 3-5 spent. just enough to call it a part time job that does not have a boss breathing down their neck and you may need to charge 15 to break even depending on your costs. I would not be surprised if someone hasn't figured out how much it costs to mow their yard and buy store bought chickens to eat vs raising chickens in tractors to figure the break even point to eat the meat they raise or to sell..