selling fat meat birds

[what did I do]

Does anyone sell meat birds either fattened or frozen? Does it work? We are farmers so we have the grain to feed them. We would feed the grain we can't sell to e the elevator. We raised our first meat birds last year and right now we have 50. Hubby thinks we should get more birds to make a profit off the grain we cant sell. What do you get for a finished bird? Is this a nutty idea? I don't mind the birds but butchering is a lot of work. We might be able to get the hutterites (sp?) To butcher for us.

I think I'm going off the deep end.

 

[silkiechicken]

It may greatly depend on who you're selling to, the volume, and location... but out this way, to sell to the public, there are hoops to jump through with processors and where you can legally sell the birds.

 

[SowdersHomestead]

Check out Joel Salatin. He is a big advocate of what you are trying to do. Adding profit to the farm through poultry. His book Pastured Poultry Profits is basically a step by step guide for doing so. His books can be found at http://www.polyfacefarms.com/books-dvds/.

Good luck

 

[Bossroo]

Beside all of the Governement rules and regulations, there is the investments in buying the chicks, feed ( grains alone, especially of one type, are not enough for efficient feed to meat conversion especially if not a Cornish X ( ie. heritage / dual purpose) equating to additional TIME and LABOR ), housing, electricity for heat / lighting, water, predator control, labor for feeding, processing facilities, labor for processing, freezing and storage of processed birds , shipping, marketing, and always the killer... LIABILITY INSURANCE. The reality of the market place is, the big boys are working on a fraction percentage on the dollar, can you compete with that? I would be money ahead if I was to direct market unsold grain to small / hobby farmers to feed their own livestock.

 

[Buster52]

I'm finding it isn't all that difficult, at least here in Oklahoma. I'd look up poultry exemption laws in your state. The USDA exemption from inspection is 20,000 birds per calendar year, but what states allow varies from state to state. Oklahoma it is 1,000.

A decent processing setup is around $2,500, to just get you by, unless you build your own plucker and scalder. I wouldn't try to do large amounts without a setup. Unless you pay yourself a salary or your time would make more doing something else, your labor is free. Without the advantage of growing my own grains, purchasing and raising the birds costs me about $5 each. I am selling them for around $15 and up, and raising them on pasture to add to their nutrition and joy of life. That's potentially $10,000 a year profit. Almost pays the mortgage. I market them at the local farmers market, taking pre orders there for on-farm pickup and payment. If I buy and license a refrigeration unit, I can sell directly at the market.

I would second the suggestion to check out the Salatin book. You can get it at your local library. If they don't have it, ask them to interlibrary loan it for you.

If I think of anything more I will let you know. Meanwhile, I say go for it and have fun.

 

[what did I do]

Thanks for all the info. I'm going to see if I can look up our laws to see what they say. We were only thinking of a 100 or so to start out with. Besides farming we have a cow calf operation so we know a little about feeding but it is the marketing that might leave us with a bunch of fat chickens. LOL. We normally have never sold animals except to buyers. This year we fattened a few cows to sell and the people loved them - yellow field pea fattened beef is great. We did trade barley for half a pig. We do sell a few eggs and could sell many more if we wanted to. But the meat birds are only short term so we wouldn't have them to care for in the winter.

I guess we will see how these chicks do and if people want more. I'm not looking forward to butchering a bunch of chickens.

Please keep the info coming.

 

[Buster52]

Well, possible bad news. Looks like Montana does not allow an exemption except for your own use. Although the below is dated 2001. Might want to double check with your state...

MONTANA
The Law.
In Montana, the Board of Livestock as directed by the Montana Department of Livestock does poultry inspection.1 Exempt from inspection are persons who slaughter livestock or poultry or prepare or process livestock or poultry products for their own personal or household use. Custom slaughterers are also exempt so long as the meat is kept separate from carcasses, parts, or meat food products prepared for sale, are plainly marked “Not for Sale”, and are prepared and packaged in a sanitary manner.

Agency Contact. Those wishing additional information concerning poultry inspection within the state of Montana should contact:

Montana Department of Agriculture
P.O. Box 200201
Helena, MT 59620-0201
406-444-3144
406-444-5409 (fax)
HACCP

Montana Department of Livestock
Meat, Milk & Eggs Inspection Division
P.O. Box 202001
Helena, MT 59620
406-444-5293
406-444-1929 (fax)
1 MONT.

Source: http://www.sustainablepoultry.ncat.org/downloads/legalissues.pdf

 

[what did I do]

Well, possible bad news. Looks like Montana does not allow an exemption except for your own use. Although the below is dated 2001. Might want to double check with your state...

MONTANA

The Law.
In Montana, the Board of Livestock as directed by the Montana Department of Livestock does poultry inspection.1 Exempt from inspection are persons who slaughter livestock or poultry or prepare or process livestock or poultry products for their own personal or household use. Custom slaughterers are also exempt so long as the meat is kept separate from carcasses, parts, or meat food products prepared for sale, are plainly marked “Not for Sale”, and are prepared and packaged in a sanitary manner.

Agency Contact. Those wishing additional information concerning poultry inspection within the state of Montana should contact:

Montana Department of Agriculture

P.O. Box 200201

Helena, MT 59620-0201

406-444-3144

406-444-5409 (fax)

HACCP

Montana Department of Livestock

Meat, Milk & Eggs Inspection Division

P.O. Box 202001

Helena, MT 59620

406-444-5293

406-444-1929 (fax)

1 MONT.

Source: http://www.sustainablepoultry.ncat.org/downloads/legalissues.pdf

Thanks, that makes since. We would just have to keep things clean an mark the packages "Not For Sell " our beef comes packaged with a stamp "Not For Sell " . This is to protect us from a lawsuit. The people we would sell to would be people who buy local meat, milk, and other farm products. This also tells me that we could have the Hutterites process them.

 

[Buster52]

Yeah, I left out the possibility of having them processed at an inspected facility. I'm so used to the mindset of doing it myself, but in fact lots of people have them processed elsewhere. It would eat into your per-bird profit, unless you charge more, but it opens the possibility of selling as many birds as you wanted.

We are just starting, but once we reach a point where we are ready to move beyond 1,000 bird annual limit, we may opt to have any additional birds processed at an inspected site.

 

[WmMike]

Here are USDA standards.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/oppde/rdad/fsisnotices/poultry_slaughter_exemption_0406.pdf

Mike