The true cost of backyard eggs!

[Highcotton]

I have read several posts like this one and it amazes me that no one has mentioned government intervention. All us backyard chicken raisers are computing our costs based in the real world. Those store bought WallyWorld eggs are not.

Consider --

* States compete for the likes of Tyson and Perdue. Need a fecal lagoon or a composting system? Here ya go Tyson, Perdue we'll cut ya check for the installation compliments of the state taxpayers.
* Need to double your CAFO facility to compete or meet a contract? Hey, here's a USDA grant or a zero interest loan to build it.
* These same outfits when they are dickering also get 5 or 10yr abatement's on their real estate taxes as well.
* Mr. WallyWorld needs a loss leader to get the folks in the stores. Eggs have traditionally been just that item. Drive it down to $.89-1.20/dz. Yeah we are losing .75c on every sale but our markup on OJ and sausage will fully make up for that.
* Finally your are competing against other consumers. Every time some one swipes a EBT card you are paying for the privilege on behalf of someone. That represents a portion of your tax bill as well.

The industrial producers are externalizing their costs on the back of the consumer. Sadly the consumer does not make the connection of what they paid for the eggs is not the full cost to them. That very same consumer also provided the grant money, the zero interest loan money, the increased real estate taxes they must pay and the EBT card.

In many ways the backyard chicken raiser is competing with himself thanks to sweet heart deals.
(I apologize if this seems too political, but it is a fair assessment.)

The workers for the jobs created are imported from Mexico and the taxpayers don't even get a low paying job.

 

[aggiemae]

The workers for the jobs created are imported from Mexico and the taxpayers don't even get a low paying job.

Um.. It'as easy to spout baseless opinions on the internet but if someone is working in a factory farm they do pay taxes and I am going to bet that most white Americans wouldn't take a job slaughtering chickens same as we don't want to pick or plant our own produce or muck out our own stalls.

How do I know this? Because we have a small house breeding stable. We have 10 full time empolyee. We pay well above minimum wage and even provide health insurance but seldom get any applications from the very people you seem to believe can't get these jobs because they are being "stolen" BY "illegals".

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

The workers for the jobs created are imported from Mexico and the taxpayers don't even get a low paying job.

The workers are imported from Mexico because no Americans will take those jobs. I grew up on a dairy farm, and almost all of our labor was Hispanic. They weren't illegals; an agency got them work visas and brought them over.

Americans will not take farm jobs. Americans don't want to work long hours in the heat or cold and poop. They just don't. My Dad advertizes for workers in the paper and on the internet. He would hire an American in a heartbeat--so fast their heads would spin. He'd even pay them more than the Hispanics because they can speak English. But they never last even a whole week, and some walk out after less than a day. This is in spite of the fact that we start English-speaking workers at $9.00/hr--over $1.50 more per hour than people get at fast food, WalMart, or even places like Bath and Body Works or other stores in the mall. Agricultural jobs are not necessarily low-paying jobs.

We hired a guy just a month ago to feed cows. Most of that job is spent on a skid loader or tractor, and there's very little physical labor. The hours stink--gotta get to work at 4am--but it's one of the easiest jobs on the farm. After being there about four hours, he told Dad he was done for the day. Never mind that the job wasn't done, he was just leaving. He was extremely offended that Dad told him that if he left without completing the job, not to bother coming back. He left, then showed up for work the next morning. He was completely bewildered when Dad escorted him off the farm and informed him that yes, he really had been fired when he left the day before.

It really frustrates me when people spout this nonsense that "illegals are taking our jobs!" That's just simple ignorance. Americans simply do not want these jobs. They don't apply for them, and they don't keep them when the do get them. But the jobs still have to be done. You should be grateful that Hispanics are willing to do these jobs.

I'm not saying that illegal immigration isn't a problem. They do things like drive without licenses, work the system to get tax refunds when they shouldn't, run up bills then disappear to Mexico instead of paying--but them taking our jobs isn't one of them.

 

[maruadventurer]

lbejaran,

You should not be depressed. Your at home costs for eggs reflect market costs. If you could tap into the govt largess your unit price for egg production would drop in kind. Your primary disadvantage is economy of scale on feed costs.

 

[maruadventurer]

aggiemae,

Don't be a generalist yourself. I am 62 and I have a deal with a local stable. Yes I will muck up all their manure as it heads for my garden in its time. Yes its a mess but every fork load I shovel in the trailer is $$. Yes a grubby little capitalist I am.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

aggiemae,

Don't be a generalist yourself. I am 62 and I have a deal with a local stable. Yes I will muck up all their manure as it heads for my garden in its time. Yes its a mess but every fork load I shovel in the trailer is $$. Yes a grubby little capitalist I am.

And yet you have not applied to muck stalls as your full time job. What you do to improve your garden for cheap doesn't really have anything to do with what people do for a living. It's an apples-to-oranges comparison.

 

[maruadventurer]

Considering that over my life I have --

* Hauled pitch up a ladder by hand as a job.
* broke bricks and concrete on a constrution job.
* Hauled rebar.
* Driven truck, unloaded same by hand.
* Dug ditches.

ALL as full time jobs one time of another. I have done my share. Its as much the willingness as it is the longevity that counts.

Fact is most American would not even muck out if they had a garden. They would just go down to HomeDepot and buy a bag of ferts.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Fact is most American would not even muck out if they had a garden. They would just go down to HomeDepot and buy a bag of ferts.

Oh my gosh, yes! I see *bags of poop* for sale at Home Depot, here in an area that is filled with livestock and horse farms. Drives me nuts.

 

[aggiemae]

It really frustrates me when people spout this nonsense that "illegals are taking our jobs!" That's just simple ignorance. Americans simply do not want these jobs. They don't apply for them, and they don't keep them when the do get them. But the jobs still have to be done. You should be grateful that Hispanics are willing to do these jobs.

I'm not saying that illegal immigration isn't a problem. They do things like drive without licenses, work the system to get tax refunds when they shouldn't, run up bills then disappear to Mexico instead of paying--but them taking our jobs isn't one of them.

I agree that the jobs done by undocumented workers are those that most of use would refuse even in the current economy and I think you and I are mostly on the same page in this regard.

As for legality... "they" do things like driving without a licence and because they are unable to get a license when it requires proof of "legal" residency they also drive without insurance). Bottom line is that we should not be putting any one in the situation of having to break the law in order to feed their family. All working poor are eligible for a tax refund If the worked in question has paid taxes shouldn't that boost apply to everyone who is living in poverty despite having one or even two full time jobs?

As for running up bills and not paying them, I work in an emergency room, do you have any ideal how many "legal" (white) Americans use the ER as the primary care doctor? The cost of using common sense and treating a cold or head lice is about $10.00 vs $15.00 to $500.00 ID YOUR tax dollars to use the ER.

In reality "illegal immigration" is no more or less a problem now that it has been in the past 50 years, it's just a BS hat button talking point used by "conservatives" to distract us from real issues.

As for backyard eggs. We have eight hens, the number we need to keep us in eggs during the winter and we have plenty of extra to trade/share in the summer. Factoring in the cost of the coop brooder and equipment the cost is pretty high for the first five or so years. Organic free range eggs are $4.50-$6.00 a dozen at the farmers market so I figure it will be 6 years until we break even after than we are in the black even with replacing the hens as they stop laying.

 

[aggiemae]

aggiemae,

Don't be a generalist yourself. I am 62 and I have a deal with a local stable. Yes I will muck up all their manure as it heads for my garden in its time. Yes its a mess but every fork load I shovel in the trailer is $$. Yes a grubby little capitalist I am.

I too have done the jobs it takes to run a working farm. At age 60 I still do all the yard work and we have almost an acre. But I think we are the exception. Growing up on a dairy farm and later co owning a horse ranch I have never seen a white american adult last more than one season doing "stoop labor" (picking planting love crops like strawberries or lettuce) or doing ranch work. Did I mention that we pay more than minimum wage and provide health insurance and even so, despite all the political taking heads clamoring the vivify "illegals" all of our employees are from south of the boarder and, though I wish it where otherwise, many of them are undocumented.