For those who breed turkeys..

[Lotsapaints]

he he they sell them for 100.00 in Fresno mail order and they don't even weigh 10lbs I couldn't believe it either

 

[SED]

I saw today online where someone was selling them (dressed) for $6.00 per pound!!! I would love to sell some 30lb turkeys for that price!!!LOL

 

[MrChicken207]

this cousin does raise some of his own feed. he farms grain, hay, and potatoes. The pigs often get sub-standard tablestock potatoes(stuff he can't sell to the distributers) all of his animals get fed his hay and grain too. That way he does cut down on some of his costs. I do know he isn't getting rich on it all.

 

[Tunastopper]

This all reminds me of my Brother In Law. For years he would not take a job because he had built some fireplaces and was paid $50 a hour. Nobody wanted to pay him $50 a hour so he went without a job for a few years until he got hungry enough to lower his price.

You might find a few willing to pay big. The thing about turkeys is some people will find a niche market to sell to. But most of us are not even paying the bills.

I wants sold a horse for $30,000. I have had better horses that I could not give away.

 

[ziggywiggy]

Quote:
You have to draw the line somewhere though. I will not sell any poult over 8 weeks for less than $15.00( which is already a bargain price). I will eat lots and lots of turkeys before I will sell that cheap. If you don't draw a line, people will expect the low prices all the time and in the long run that will hurt all of us.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Same way here Ziggy, the price starts at $10 for poults and goes up as they age. I have no problems sitting down to a turkey dinner.

Steve

 

[Lagerdogger]

We must be pretty lucky around here. We live near a small town of about 2000. We started selling eggs at $1.00/doz, and people liked them so much we raised the price to $2/doz, and we never had enough even when we were up to 50 hens. When we started growing cornish crosses, people liked our eggs so much, they were more than willing to buy our chickens. This year we sold 100 for an average of $15 each, and had to turn people away. I don't do many turkeys, but this year I had started looking for buyers for 16 birds at $4/lb. I had them all sold before last thanksgiving, five months before they hatched! We just sold the health issues, no medications, no additives, and stressed that these were heritage turkeys, not broad-breasted commercial turkeys. The people that wanted one really wanted one and rarely hesitated at the price. Of course, many people said "what, are you mad!?"

Kind of ironic that I could find people willing to pay for heritage turkeys in a town that was built on raising commercial turkeys (our school's team name is the Gobblers). It also ironic that I get a commercial turkey from my union every thanksgiving

 

[Tunastopper]

Quote:
Have you ever figured out how much profit your making per turkey or dozen eggs? I had a friend raise turkeys for Thankgiving. It got cazy for her to try to store the turkeys for Thankgiving and have them all ready in time. It is alot of work.

 

[MrChicken207]

Wow. The supermarket eggs here go for about $2 a dozen. The locally raised organic eggs that are sold ath the supermarket are about $3.50 a dozen. I've seen the birds. they look like either sex-links or production reds, and they're in a yard. must have been 150 or so. I think you might even be able to get more tha $2 a dozen for yours.

 

[ziggywiggy]

Quote:
I agree. I get $3.00 a dozen and can't keep up with demand. That's the only for sure money I get from poultry. Everything else is hit or miss.