price of chicken meat

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Farmers deserve to make a living wage, just like anybody else. I make no apologies. People are free to pay my prices, or they are free to shop Walmart for lesser quality. Free choice. That's what's great about this country!

Just don't expect me to work for free.

You and I agree with this!!!!

What I don't agree with is the use of lies, misinformation, manufactured 'facts', and inuendo to show that one system is better than the other simply to play on the emotions of the naive/ignorant public.

 

[Buster52]

Except one system IS better than the other. I truly believe that. If I didn't, I wouldn't be doing this. Others are free to come to a different conclusion.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Except one system IS better than the other. I truly believe that. If I didn't, I wouldn't be doing this. Others are free to come to a different conclusion.

That is your opinion. I happen to believe that we need both systems to meet the needs of all animal protein consumers.

 

[LilRedRoo]

You and I agree with this!!!!

What I don't agree with is the use of lies, misinformation, manufactured 'facts', and inuendo to show that one system is better than the other simply to play on the emotions of the naive/ignorant public.

Better than or not is a matter of subjectivity and preference. The reality is that there are differences in one system compared to another, and that some people prefer one system over another.

One example would be a certain grower who adds various additives that may or not seem attractive or healthy to me (personal preference) to their feed and concentrates 10's of thousands of birds in a house with less than 1sq.ft/bird. Finding out what else goes into the feed, and having seen what the conditions are inside those houses, I can then decide that I am okay with it...

...or that I prefer to feed them free range on several acres of pasture, over-night them in a coop with 4sq.ft/bird and then I have to decide whether to buy that pasture and build the coop, or pay someone else to use theirs.

Certainly not all mass growers feed arsenic, hormones or recycled chicken "product," and not all of their feed configurations are the same, but there ARE significant differences between various systems (rather than manufactured facts to serve as innuendo to play on naïve emotion). And there ARE significant differences in the end product. Facts exist, they are different, and consumers make a decision based on that.

 

[Bossroo]

Farmers deserve to make a living wage, just like anybody else. I make no apologies. People are free to pay my prices, or they are free to shop Walmart for lesser quality. Free choice. That's what's great about this country!

Just don't expect me to work for free.

While I agree with you that farmers deserve to make a living wage as I too have been in the full time farming thing for over 40 years. However how does anyone know what goes on in a backyard operation where there are NO professional Government inspections as to the quality of one's product other than a glimpse in time that someone writes about with their own propaganda spin such as on here. How do we know what a chicken eats while it is free ranging or how balanced a diet it consumes. It is an omnivore opportunistic scavenger after all. So, how do we know that someone has a higher quality chicken than Walmart other than their own say so? I don't expect you or anyone else to work for free, but by raising one's prices, especially in this economy, one does take away another's purchasing power for other necessities of life , therefore a decrease in their personal earned wages. In the Seattle, Wa. area, in this past election, there was a proposal on the ballot to raise the minimum wage to $15 / hour, which is quite a huge amount higher than the Federal minimum wage standard. This might be fine and dandy for the minimum wage earner, but what does it do to the small business owner who suddenly has a major increase in their product's costs while just down the road a similar business isn't saddled with a similar expense. Since most people can't or are unwilling to suddenly pay a higher price for their product, just how long can this business owner's employee stay employed as well as the business to stay in business. What rational are you using to increase your prices for your chickens especially in this economy ?

 

[LilRedRoo]

What rational are you using to increase your prices for your chickens especially in this economy ?

Here is the rational that we used with a homeschool group a while back; it was related to eggs, but you could change the inputs and outputs for broilers just as easily. Folks with large numbers of birds would want to find their daily feed consumption in a way that is pretty accurate; keep in mind this was just an excercise for kids who all had relatively small flocks. We had also already calculated feed costs by this point. In this example the price per pound of feed was 22.7 cents. Layers were free range with available feed supplement.

1) Estimate daily costs of investment spread across a 20 year life span
a. Coop, fencing, property costs, taxes et cetera…about $x,xxx.xx (use your own investment figures for this number)
b. Divide that by 20 (years) then by 365 (days per year) to come up with the daily cost of the investment over the next 20 years
c. The land is there, so at the most the coop and fence may need repairs/replacing – I have already factored this into step “a”, so you don’t have to try to make that projected future cost.
d. Average Daily Investment = ____________________ ($x.xxx per day, rounded to the 1000th)

2) Determine average daily consumption/food cost
a. Fill the feeder and weigh it; record this number
i. Feeder Weight Full - ____________________
b. 3 full days later weigh it; record this number (example, fill and weigh 3:30 pm on Wednesday, then weigh 3:30 pm on Saturday).
i. Feeder Weight 3 Days Later - ____________________
c. Subtract to get the difference, then divide by 3 to get the average for those 3 days.
i. Average Daily Consumption - ____________________
d. Multiply this by the .227 from above (price per pound) to come up with daily food cost
e. Average Daily Food Cost for Layers = ____________________

3) Determine cost invested in eggs
a. Keep record of how many eggs are laid per day and come up with an average
i. Average Number of Eggs per Day - ____________________
b. Add the costs from items 1 and 2; this is total cost per day to have eggs
i. Average Daily Cost = ____________________
c. Divide this by the average daily egg count; this gives you the cost per egg
d. Average Cost per Egg = ____________________
e. Multiply by 12 for Cost per Dozen = ____________________

4) Determine retail price
a. Typical goals in retail range widely depending on your area. Keep in mind your labor and the water costs were never factored in.
b. Using profit goals of 25%, 50% and 75%, multiply them by your cost to come up with the “mark-up” per dozen.
i. Mark-Up 25% amount - ____________________
ii. Mark-Up 50% amount - ____________________
iii. Mark-Up 75% amount - ____________________
c. Add your mark-up to your cost per dozen eggs; this is the price you should be charging
i. Price per Dozen 1 - ____________________
ii. Price per Dozen 2 - ____________________
iii. Price per Dozen 3 - ____________________

5) Extra Credit : Calculate your income (profit) per month using each of the 3 scenarios, and determine if your labor is covered in your current price. You’ll have to do this without hints for extra credit, but keep in mind how many hours you spend "chicken-ing" and what your hourly wage is based on your profit.
i. Monthly Profit 1 - ____________________
ii. Monthly Profit 2 - ____________________
iii. Monthly Profit 3 - ____________________

 

[Bossroo]

In accounting one should also include a provision for a loss ...

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Quote: Not to be picky, but you have markup and profit confused. If you want a 25% profit then you DIVIDE the cost of production by .75 which is (1-.25).


Here is an example.

Cost = 4.35/dozen
4.35 / .75 = $5.80

Check: 5.80 - 4.35 = 1.45
1.45/5.80 = 25%


Simply adding 25% to the cost of production would not yield a profit of 25%.

4.35 * .25 = 1.09
4.35 + 1.09 = 5.44
1.09/5.44 = 20.03%

This is a simple concept taught in 5th or 6th grade math, but one that is hard to implement especially if you don't work with market, margin, and profit on a regular basis.

Jim

 

[LilRedRoo]

Thanks for the correction Lazy J. I'll let Melinda know so she can get the corrected formula to the kiddos. They are all in the K-3rd grade range and not really exposed to this type of problem solving, but it never hurts to start thinking about life in general at any age. Of the kids able to calculate the portion of thier parent's property used for their layers, and based on their egg production and feeding, one came up with just over $1.25 a dozen for the cost. Another child had more than $4.00 invested in a dozen (the rest were in between those).

 

[Ruthster55]

In addition to the actual pricing calculations, there is a consideration of whether the society values the article produced or not. This is a cultural thing.

I have recently spent time outside the country in a location where there is still a strong local food tradition. (No, I am not in France). I hear food-related conversations more frequently than in the US. Food isn't something to be gulped down in five minutes between work assignments.

Unlike the US, people rarely eat in their car or at their desk at work. They sometimes eat potato chips etc. on buses.

People usually reserve their special meal for Sunday afternoon. One local non-poultry specialty costs around 6 to 8 dollars per pound, bones included. This is only eaten a few times a year, at graduations, etc.

Also, people eat heritage breed chickens among other things. Usually, heritage breed chicken is served as an ingredient in soup. Frequently eaten are naked necks, barred rocks, and mutts. People will spend considerably more money on Sunday meals than on the other days of the week.

Sunday is NOT a work day. Most stores, except for a couple of supermarkets, are closed on Sunday. Transport runs the same as the other days of the week.

I doubt that anyone in the US who doesn't spend the time for a special meal once in a while will appreciate pastured or heritage poultry.

However, for those who do appreciate cooking and eating, there is a market.