Feed cost per pound to raise Cornish X broilers?

[aart]

A well deserved meal of Chicken Curry. Oh Yeah!

Bon Appetit!
You don't let meat rest for rigor to pass before cooking?

 

[jungleexplorer2]

There is plenty to eat later. I was hungry. Been waited a long time to try this.

 

[Jenlyn9483]

Hello there. Nice tractor you have there. I have been raising cornish X for years probably at least 9. I raise them in batches of 12-20 which is what my tractor comfortably holds and what i am comfortable being able to process at one time quickly plus hte cost of feed. Last year after seeing a bunch of post about how the experts raise them I decided to start doing the 12hrs on 12hrs off method of feeding at 4 weeks instead of feeding them twice a day. The broilers still got to the same weight at 8 weeks, no one had a heart attack, I saved a ton on feed and the they did not create near as much manure waste. It turned out that all the extra feed they were eating was not needed by their bodies so it was just waste all the way around. Also the birds where more active and ate more bugs and grass. I just thought i would share this since it made such an impact on my process for the better. in the last 3 weeks i was feeding 11lbs of grain a day to 20 broilers.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Hello there. Nice tractor you have there. I have been raising cornish X for years probably at least 9. I raise them in batches of 12-20 which is what my tractor comfortably holds and what i am comfortable being able to process at one time quickly plus hte cost of feed. Last year after seeing a bunch of post about how the experts raise them I decided to start doing the 12hrs on 12hrs off method of feeding at 4 weeks instead of feeding them twice a day. The broilers still got to the same weight at 8 weeks, no one had a heart attack, I saved a ton on feed and the they did not create near as much manure waste. It turned out that all the extra feed they were eating was not needed by their bodies so it was just waste all the way around. Also the birds where more active and ate more bugs and grass. I just thought i would share this since it made such an impact on my process for the better. in the last 3 weeks i was feeding 11lbs of grain a day to 20 broilers.

This was my first time, so I am still learning. I had not heard about the 12 hour on 12 hour off, but would that not occur naturally if you did not have a light on them at night? I free fed my birds during the day and provided no light at night, so they rested and did not eat. By the end of the 6 weeks, I was feeding 46 birds 20lbs a day. 20 x 16 = 320 ounces 320 divided by 46 = 6.9 ounces per bird per day. Does that sound about right?

 

[Jenlyn9483]

I Raise Cornish during the Winter so I keep a light on them until 6 weeks during cold nights. Even tho its a red light i can see them in there eating food all night. Your feed conversion sounds pretty close to mine at 12 on and 12 off.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

So I process 11 more birds today. Today makes them 7 weeks old. The average weight of each bird was 3.96 lbs dressed weight. With the extra feed cost for one more week, the price per pound went up 3 cents to $1.12 per pound. So feed to meat ratio goes down after 6 weeks.

 

[pachicken]

Okay. So I butchered up 10 birds today. Here are the stats. I weighed all the birds after I had cleaned and cut them up. Here is what I got. These weights are on the bone with skin. I used a calibrated postal scale to do this. 1. Breast = 11.72 pounds 2. Leg Quarters = 10.45 pounds 3. Wings = 3.72 pounds 4. Neck and backs = 7.59 pounds 5. Giblets = 1.52 pounds 6. Feet = 1.78 pounds. TOTAL = 36.78 pounds. Without the feet it is exactly 35 pounds. I eat the feet but not everyone does. So if you divide 35 by 10, you get 3.5lbs per bird on average. Okay here are my cost so far. 50 Two week old Cornish X chicks = $20 3 bags of Naturewise Chick Starter Grower 18% @ $16.99 = $50.97 7 bags of Naturewise MeatBird 22% @ $14.99 = $104.93 TOTAL = $175.90 I paid $20 for 50 birds, but have lost four birds along the way so I am down to 46. So if the average weight is 3.5 lbs per bird, then using that average I get 46 X 3.5 = 161 pounds. If I then divide 175.90 by 161, I get = 1.09 cents per pound. The average price for organic whole chicken is around $2.99 per pound, so at $1.09 per pound, I came out way ahead. I made a video of the butchering process for those that have never done this and want to see how it is done. Here is the birds all vacuum sealed up. A well deserved meal of Chicken Curry. Oh Yeah!

 

[pachicken]

Can you list the link for the video?

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Can you list the link for the video?

I have not finished producing it yet. Just been really busy. When I get it done, I will give you a link.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Well, it took a few days, but at last we got them all done. Out of the 50 chicks we lost 7 birds, so we ended up with 43. After all was said and done we ended up with about 160lbs. So my total cost was $1.25 per pound. We lost three birds in the 10 days after they hit the 6 weeks mark. I am not sure why, but it did get pretty hot and they were stressed by the heat a lot. It cost me an extra $30 to feed them for that 10 extra days and that drove the price per pound up. If I would have butchered them all at 6 weeks, I would have gotten less meat, but my price per pound would have been about $1.10 per pound. It has been a learning process for sure. I now know that there is no benefit to letting the birds go past 6 weeks. Their optimal growth (feed to meat) ratio, appears to be up to 6 weeks. After that, they do gain weight, but at a slower ratio it appears. So they eat more and gain less weight after 6 weeks of age. At least that is what my results from this experiment show.