If you raise meat chickens and turkeys to sell, what do you charge?

[anthonyjames]

I already sold the 18 I had alloted for $4.50 lb processed or live. 2 I am keeping for my family.

When I was raising turkeys I averaged 22 lbs a bird. At your price per pound.... $99.00

Mine I told them would between 18 - 22 lbs. But I did tell them if they went over 18lbs I would charge them at $81 rate. And they were fine with it. Also, when I took orders for the turkeys I asked for a 30% deposit and told them if they cancelled their order after I had the turkeys on hand I would only return 50% of their deposit.

The other reason I want to raise a few before I sell the others is I am going to purchase a supermarket turkey and roast one next to mine and have a taste test with people to see what they prefer.

Also, you are not trying to compete with a supermarket turkey. Your turkeys will have flavor that cannot be described. The other thing is you are not mass producing, you are small scale and local who treats their animals humanely and with a better feed.

Who knows maybe I am getting lucky but other people in my area sell their turkeys for the same rate and sell out ever year.

If you look at Brunty Farms he is selling his for $4 a lb​

 

[snewman]

Good input, everyone. Anthonyjames, what you described is kind of what I was thinking of doing; if people were interested I'd have them pay some sort of deposit, and have a clear price per pound for the final purchase. That way, if they back out I'm at least not out all the money of buying the poults. Of course, I'd still have all the extra birds...I really don't expect to get rich off of this, just hoping to support my little poultry problem.

FYI, I looked up free range turkey online and found igourmet.com; they sell a 14lb free range heritage breed turkey for $169.99! Holy crap! I was thinking $50 or so, and even then my friends might laugh at me. But Madison WI (near me) is a pretty progressive town, with a growing urban chicken population and concern about locally and humanely grown foods, so maybe there's a decent market. We'll see.

 

[anthonyjames]

Snewman,

You are not that far from me. I am due east and north about 2 hours. So you should not have any issues. The other question is if you are processing yourself? If you are you can charge less. But in my opinion if I process my self or have to take them in to a state processor I want to be covered. And in WI here are our laws

IF UNDER 1000

To sell from your property, you can slaughter and sell birds without inspection. You must maintain possession of the birds until sold and you can only sell directly to the customer (can not be resold). You must label the birds as “not inspected, and have net weight, and your name and address.

Farmers Market, birds must be slaughtered at a licensed plant. Bird don’t have to be inspected if they are not they must be labeled as “not inspected”, your name address, and net weight. You must also have a mobile retail food license. It is also a good idea to check with municipality as they may have further requirements beyond the state requirements in regard to farmers markets.

Retail/ Restaurants, birds must be slaughtered at a licensed plant and inspected bird by bird and must a full label. You will also need to register as a meat distributer.
Small note on this: Some restaurants will by pass the inspection and come to me and pick up as they do right now for quail and rabbits. But they have seen how I raise them and feel pretty confident at what they are selling their customers.

Note to sell birds out side of the state of Wisconsin you need to be federally inspected

Hope this helps

 

[CARS]

I really don't think anyone is going to pay that price around here. We are all kinda tight wads

I suppose it wouldn't hurt to put up a couple signs on some boards in town and see what happens. I am 99% sure that I will not get a single phone call (unless they are asking if it is a typo!)

Good for you though!!! I wish/hope to find clients like you have.

 

[lorieMN]

I know a guy near Fargo ND that is getting $12 per USDA processed broilers.But he cannot buy them as cheap as I can,and he has to haul them to Detroit Lakes to be processed,,so that takes some time and gas money.

 

[snewman]

I checked out the http://www.heritagefoodsusa.com/index.html link and they sell a 22 lb turkey for $194.00! Even appreciating from personal experience the value of eating food raised in a humane and healthy way, I would never be able to cough that up. I have four 22-34 lb turkeys still in my freezer. Apparently I'm sitting on a gold mine!

Anthonyjames, thank you for the info on WI laws. That will come in handy. I thought this year I might just start with a few friends who have expressed an interest and see how that goes. If there aren't many, I might open up the invitation a little, but I don't want to get in over my head. I process them myself (all by myself, my DH wants NOTHING to do with it and I haven't found any friends who are interested in that aspect either), so it can be time-consuming. We had a 44 lb (dressed weight) tom for Thanksgiving this year, and he took me a good long time to clean. My back was killing me after all six!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

10 years ago I was getting 5.00 for a RIR rooster about 20 weeks old and 8.00 for a white broiler from local oriental people that have this fear of purchasing store bought meats. I know I could get more now, if I would want to set aside a large section of my yard for meat production, but I'm not sure I want to get into that again. My dad called it the 'oriental connection.' The thing is I wouldn't be able to satisfy their needs after a while. I eventually ran out of roosters and they started looking at my hens. If you have the right connection, you can easily get back your cost and get paid a little for your troubles.

 

[CTChickenMom]

Quote:
Wow! 44 pounds! That is one big turkey. I bet your oven was exhausted after that one! How long did it take to cook? Yikes, all those turkey sandwiches...mmm!

How do you figure price per pound? Is that found from other places around you selling them?

 

[CARS]

Quote:
According to my calculator, about 16 hours

 

[Hillsvale]

Quote:
Heritage farm up the road from me charge 3.99 per pound. Turkey, chicken... our standard turkey price on the shelf is 1.69 frozen (non butterball which by the way is magarine not butter) and chicken breasts go for about 7.00 per pound..

It shocks me how a US processer can sell a bird for 39 and 69 cents a pound!... no wonder the birds living conditions are so appauling, they need to to make money! ick