Whole goose prices

[Tiramisu]

If anyone has their geese processed and sold whole, what do you set your prices at? I checked online and it seems to be from $100 to $300, which seems really expensive. I don't want to undersell, but we also need to sell most of them off as we do not have the room to store all of them and we need to cut down the flock size for winter. We have 14 birds to be done and they are about 2 years old.

 

[AGeese]

Are you only planning to process them or are you willing to rehome too?

 

[Alagirl]

I am looking at Euro prices. it's almost 20 per kilo - 10 per pound. Holy shnikies, so yeah, 100+ for a heavy bird seem to be possible!

edited to fix math.....

 

[Tiramisu]

Are you only planning to process them or are you willing to rehome too?

I have tried to sell them at $15, most I see listed are going at $30 or more. I never get any responses. It's all males I need to reduce from the flock. Date is set for processing now, I have interest from people to buy them once done, I just need to get a price set. No geese or duck meat is sold around us, so I can't get much of an idea on what a decent price to sell at, and what I've found online varies a lot. I am thinking of $60 to $80, to ensure I sell off enough so we have space to store what's left.

 

[AGeese]

I wonder what turkey goes for in your area, maybe somewhere around that?

 

[gooseapplefarms]

It's unusual to process meat birds at that age. Many people believe geese are tough after 1 year of age, I don't have any experience in this area.
Personally, I would try to sell as many as possible as breeding pairs.

 

[Alagirl]

It's unusual to process meat birds at that age. Many people believe geese are tough after 1 year of age, I don't have any experience in this area.
Personally, I would try to sell as many as possible as breeding pairs.

I mean male geese are known to .....well, you know.
But I do not think they actually produce.
(As I recall the OP wants to cull some males)

 

[JRies]

Getting a processor this year was near to impossible. Most processors in Colorado do not have a poultry license, The ones that do have a poultry day when 1000 pluss are scedualed they call you. But them just mumble the word goose and well you here we dont do geese... The processors here were willg to field dress them for me. Geese have incredible oils and pin feather's and there are a few processors that will take them on but be ready to finish the job pulling pin feathers.... My decision this year was to learn how to do it and had a friend come work with me... The meat was for me and friends so I didn't need roasters. We field dressed 10 boys for breasts and legs in about 3 hours.
So yes you find someone to process clean and a customer 10 dollars a pound is fare... Because you will be paying most of it to the processor and then probably finishing the job to make it roaster ready...
Im sorry most people may not agree with me but when we stop understanding that geese are livestock and just like chickens have a purpose on the table we end there reason for existence, quality breading.
I felt it was better to save my boys this year from having one bad day of being driven 3 hours in the back of a pick up to the processor, watching there fate in front of them, Till it was there time. Just to get field dressed anyway.
They got to play in the pond get caught and just have a bad moment...

 

[Tiramisu]

They were processed on Friday. After reading more, I decided to just keep them. They were smaller than I was expecting, so they fit in the big freezer. I was mainly worried that we did not have the space (we share the freezer with is mom), I would have liked to sell them to make a little bit back on them, but it will save us on feed costs and time in winter, almost all were males that went down. I counted for some females possibly going, since some of the male pilgrims and female emdens are hard to tell apart, but we hopefully have more females left than males now. That's why I couldn't sell breeding pairs to reduce the flock, because most I could do was 2 or 3 pairs, going beyond that would basically be selling almost all I had and still being stuck with extra males.


I've never had goose, or cooked it, so I will have to attempt cooking one up and see how the meat is. If it is tough, I can just process it for dog food, and if it's good, it's less meat to buy for the next year. It was $7.50 per bird, which I don't think is too bad, I am just glad it is done and it will be more manageable during winter/mating season now.