Trying To Make Money On Meat Birds

[kuntrygirl]

Great thread. I'm subscribing.

I'm raising 100 broilers at this time and documenting my feed cost to see how much I would have actually spent at the end of the process.

 

[kuntrygirl]

 


I'd like to know the answer to that question too, since I want a meat flock in the Spring, and hubby is worried about the cost.

Meyer Hatchery has a feed consumption chart available here: http://www.meyerhatchery.com/productinfo.a5w?cat=1020&subcat=5081&prodID=WBRS&grd_prodone_filter=PRODUCT%5fID%20%3d%20%27WBRS%27

According to the chart, on average one of their meaties will consume about 15 lb. of feed.  I do not know the conditions under which the data were obtained; your mileage may vary. 

Thank you for this information. I will share this with other people who are raising broilers at this time.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I found this if anyone is interested.

Broiler Management Guide

http://en.aviagen.com/assets/Tech_Center/AA_Broiler/AA_Broiler_Manual.pdf

 

[LindaB220]

I found this if anyone is interested.

Broiler Management Guide

http://en.aviagen.com/assets/Tech_Center/AA_Broiler/AA_Broiler_Manual.pdf

Quite a set up isn't it?

 

[Ruthster55]

They even have a fancy set-up manual for the broiler parents. Look up Ross 308 parent stock manual. (can't paste a .pdf link from tablet)

Each Cornish X strain is a bit different in its management.

These manuals are for large-scale farmers who have invested tens of thousands of dollars in a climate-controlled broiler house. They then order either broiler chicks or parent stock from the large firm.

This is a very different model from free-range, partial free-range, Label Rouge, or tractors.

However, some techniques like weighing the birds at different ages, are similar.

I happen to be in an area where there is actually a taste preference for non-CornishX chicken. For example, around Christmas, people will actually pay $14-15 for a mature rooster (RIR or BR mix - nothing unusual) for eating purposes. People like eating regular chicken, but for Christmas, a big roo in the stew pot is appreciated. By contrast, people in the US often give away roos for free.

Marketing is more than half the battle in trying to make money from meat chickens. The other big question is feed costs, of course, as well as having good growing conditions and low mortality.

Folks in the US who have access to low-cost non-GMO grains who can custom-blend their own feed have a leg up, because they can market their birds as non-GMO-fed.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I found this if anyone is interested.


Broiler Management Guide

http://en.aviagen.com/assets/Tech_Center/AA_Broiler/AA_Broiler_Manual.pdf

Quite a set up isn't it? 

Yes, by Mr. Ross himself.

 

[kuntrygirl]

They even have a fancy set-up manual for the broiler parents. Look up Ross 308 parent stock manual. (can't paste a .pdf link from tablet)

Each Cornish X strain is a bit different in its management.

These manuals are for large-scale farmers who have invested tens of thousands of dollars in a climate-controlled broiler house. They then order either broiler chicks or parent stock from the large firm.

This is a very different model from free-range, partial free-range, Label Rouge, or tractors.

However, some techniques like weighing the birds at different ages, are similar.

I happen to be in an area where there is actually a taste preference for non-CornishX chicken. For example, around Christmas, people will actually pay $14-15 for a mature rooster (RIR or BR mix - nothing unusual) for eating purposes.

Marketing is more than half the battle in trying to make money from meat chickens.

Yes, that's where I got the link from - from Ross.

 

[Triplecross]

I've read on another BYC post that fermenting their feed will reduce cost and it's better for them. I'm hoping to raise a small flock of CX this spring and am planning on doing the FF system.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I wish I knew how my dad's mother did it during the depression. Dad told me that she had 200 RIR and sold them by the pound live weight. I guess the people that bought them did their own butchering. And maybe there was more demand during the depression, I don't know.

The way your Granny likely sold her RIRs was to the local produce warehouse, all her farm neighbors had their own poultry. Before the Interstate highways there was one or more produce houses in every community, usually near the railroad tracks so that they had quick and easy access to incoming freight as well as a convenient way to express ship out the perishables that the produce house accumulated from local sources, things like butter, green beans, cured pork, fruit in season, eggs, and of course live chickens. In the 50s the local produce houses started going the way of the passenger pigeon, which by the way in the 1800s the produce houses shipped out in their millions.

The produce house either butchered your grandmother's birds themselves and sold them to the grocery stores or else they resold them to local butcher shops in the city who did the butchering. At any rate every produce house had at least one large battery coop to hold their live chickens. I also want to remind you that not until WWII did chickens in the butcher shop or grocery store get very much butchering. Most chickens were sold New York dressed fashion, meaning that just their throats were slit and the feathers were plucked, because it was the best way to display the pretty yellow chicken fat which every housewife was keen to supply to her family. You can't sell chickens that way now, that is if you want to stay out of Leavenworth. If you want to know what a New York dressed chicken looks like watch old comedy routines and be on the lookout for the old rubber chicken gag.

If any of this seems far fetched to you, remember that at this time the upper crust often "hung" wild game birds like ducks and pheasants without the aid of refrigeration or drawing the bird. The idea was to let the game birds hang for up to a month to develop a more intense gamey flavor, or maybe it was to set hung game birds apart from the chickens in the butcher shop that could be a little gamey themselves.

 

[Ruthster55]

In the city near where I live in Latin America, there is more than one commercial chicken processing plant. These plants sell their product to the numerous butcher shops in town. The butcher shops are refrigerated.

Necks, gizzards, feet etc. are easy to obtain because the processing is less centralized than in the US.

Live chickens are also sold at the market. Some are layers or ornamental breeds but some are obviously for eating.

Dressed whole chickens are also sold there, but I do not buy processed chicken there because of the lack of refrigeration. (There is apparently no law prohibiting this, but most consumers purchase from butcher shops and prefer to just purchase fruits and vegetables at the market).