2011 Pastured Chicken Season Statistics

With a big collective exhale we are happy to announce that the 2011 pastured chicken season (through the swampy spring, the scorching summer and the violent storms) successfully came to it's official close with the last of the pickups yesterday!

7 week old pastured chickens

First and foremost - we have to again thank everyone who helped the farm process the chickens on all the major processing dates this summer.  Without your help - we wouldn't have been able to deliver all those chickens to the hands of our awesome customers (and thank you to the folks that have emailed us to let us know how much you are enjoying your fresh, pastured chickens!).

How much (work, feed, weight, time, cost) is in our pastured chickens?

So what do the numbers for the entire season look like - pretty interesting, actually:

Total number of Cornish Cross chickens that moved through our farm and pasture in 2011 : 312

• We ran 2 batches on pasture in 3 pens.  3 weeks in brooder and 4 weeks on pasture for 7 weeks from hatch to processing.

Total mortality rate: 2.6% (6 in the first batch, 2 in the second - the highest rate we have ever had)

• The first batch arrived late in the day, was "lost" by the USPS and the box clearly had been treated poorly and been rained on.  The second batch came on time and in great shape.  Suggests shipping trauma played a role in mortality as the second batch also had to deal with extreme heat while on pasture but fared better.

Total time in hours spent "doing things dedicated to / related to the chickens" over the 11 week period - approx. 10-11 hours / week (total of 120 hours)

• 50 hours moving pens and feeding chickens


• 40 hours of "brooder" time (feeding / water / cleaning / heat / etc)


• 30 hours "general" - fixing pens, cleaning / moving litter, acquiring / moving feed, processing, etc.

All the chickens this year consumed local milled and local grown feed from Pinecreek Feed in Lyons, NY (same every year - very sustainable).  In addition to all the pasture, bugs and critters, the birds put away over 5200 pounds (2.5 tons!) of that feed.  Over the course of the season, grain prices skyrocketed (and we priced our birds per pound back in at the time of the pre-order in March - ouch) - the average cost for an 80# bag of local feed over the growing season was a whopping $19 / bag (or $0.24/pound)  So - doing the math...  5200 pound of feed @ $.24 / pound = $1250 in feed alone.

The chickens themselves cost $420 for all of them, shipped here, ready to go.

All that feed and pasture and hard work gets turned into the best tasting chickens going around here...  so how much tasty Cornish Cross meat did we produce this year?  The answer is really dependent on the two different batches.  We definitely saw smaller birds in the July batch which we guess was the result of their high stress levels in shipping.

So let's talk Feed Conversion Rates (Ratios) - if we had 5200 pounds of "pay for" feed and that went to 300 chickens (we used 300 for the balance of the calculations since we lost 8 and there are other legitimate reasons we rounded to 300) , that's 17.3# of feed per bird (@ $.24/pound, thats about $4.15/per bird).

• In the July batch we produced 651.5 pounds of chicken for an average weight of 4.4 pounds per bird.


• In the August batch we produced 671.2 pounds of chicken for an average weight of 4.54 pounds per bird.


• That's a total of 1,322.7 pounds of chicken.  Said another way - well over half a ton of pastured poultry goodness!

The feed conversion ratio (FCR), feed conversion rate, or feed conversion efficiency (FCE) - the coveted number that demonstrates efficiency in the poultry business (or any animal growing business) is calculated as the total weight of the feed / the total weight of the meat.  In our case our feed conversion ratio (FCR) is 3.9 : 1.  Meaning, for every 3.9 pound of feed put infront of a broiler we make 1 pound of meat...  By comparison, tasteless, gross, arsenic fed, confinement factory chicken is about 2:1.  SO...  nobody can say that pastured poultry is efficient but you can say good things take time!

What's the summary on the pastured poultry enterprise?

Well, let's take the costs:

• $1.40 per chick (including a coccidiosis vaccination this year - which added $0.25/per bird)


• $4.15 in feed per bird results in a 4.5 pound bird average weight


• $0.23/per BPA free plastic shrink bag


• $.03/per hog ring clip on each bag


• .4 hours of time per bird to grow them the way we do (which is why we are looking at a day range system for next year)


• there's electricity, water, and other supplies that can be consumed over the course of several years like pens, feeders, waterers, buckets, etc. (that's $2.50/per bird/per year)


• There's fuel to get the feed, propane to heat the scalder water, the breakfast and lunch we feed the processing help at each processing day, and all the specilized equipment that we need for processing (did you see the shiny new stainless steel tables and on-demand water heater this year?) - this amortized out over the life of the equipment is about $4/per bird/per year


• "Free" helper chickens donated to our processing day labor to say thanks which boils down to about $0.87/per sold chicken


• Total costs / expenses per chicken: $13.18 in costs + nearly half an hour in labor / per bird

We set our chicken price before feed went crazy at $3.59/pound (we won't EVER do that again).  With the average weight being 4.5 pounds, that sets the average price per chicken at $16.15.

The bottom line:

With an average selling price of $16.15 and expense of $13.18 - our net per bird is $2.97.

In sales terms - our gross profit is a paltry 18%.  Stated another way - for every dollar of sales, we get to keep only 18 cents.

And since we put in .4 hours / bird in terms of effort, (Minimum wage is $7.25/hour) we are making $7.43 per hour.

Conclusion:

We were not too smart to price by the pound this year before the feed price spike.  It really buried our margins.  If you were to take these numbers to anyone to try and secure funding for a "business" - they would laugh you out of the room.  Conversations around profitability don't start until you are north of 35% margin...  by comparison most retail products are in the 50-100% margin world.

In terms of efficiency - I think it's safe to say "we are not".  At a FRC of almost 4 we are DOUBLE that of "conventional" poultry.  The real truth is our FCR is likely even higher as the equation can't account for all the pasture and insects the chickens also consume in their diet.

Closing Thoughts:

While everyone likes "cheap" food - do you really want a system where the farmer who is growing the very thing you consume is making LESS than the people at a fast food restaurant flipping ammonia dipped burgers?

An even bigger thought to ponder - if you are working towards or supporting a sustainable farm model...  and the farm can't make enough on an enterprise to pay the bills AND live a good life (who thinks farmers should be poor) - if sustainable farming isn't financially sustainable...  then can you REALLY call it sustainable?

In 2010 we did not vaccinate but ran the birds for 7 weeks and the average weight was 4.6 pounds.

In 2008 and 2009 we did not vaccinate our birds and ran them for 8 weeks, not 7.  The average weight was 5.5 pounds per bird then.

Update on Friday, February 10, 2012 at 9:55AM by Andy

This is a follow-up that was inspired by a great question about managing feed waste.  As the comment pointed out feed is the single most expensive input into any livestock operation so understanding and controlling feed waste is the most powerful thing you can do to remain profitable and to increase your margins.

The thing, is animals are kinda like you and me…  there are things in their feed they like and things they like less.  So in the process of getting to the “yummy” parts they very indiscriminately spill the “undesirable” components all over everything…  and it’s your nickel getting ground into the ground.  Feed waste is a real issue.  It’s also something that we think gets managed pretty easily once you start to look at it as a cost center but from the animals perspective.

Provided by Welp HatcheryWith regards to broiler chickens one thing we use as a guideline is this feed table from our hatchery (Welp).  It sets the expectation about how much feed we should be providing to the chickens as they grow.  The first thing this table shows is that Cornish Cross broilers are NOT like laying hens and fat old roosters - they are built to grow fast and furious and the amount of feed needed accounts for their calories and protein they have to consume.

What we do, using this as a baseline, is the following.  In the morning move the pen.  They start immediately eating fresh greens and critters.  After all pens are moved, then we dispense about 1/2 the days food.  They immediately toss it all over.  But when we return in the afternoon for a second feeding - IF we got the numbers right - the pasture has been gently picked through and not ripped up and there’s almost no waste.  If we underestimated - things are torn up and we know we need to up the amount in the second feeding because they are hungry.  If there is a bunch of visible feed left they didn’t forage for - we back off in the second feeding because they haven’t had the initial pangs of hunger motivate them to forage. (Contrary to what many others say about Cornish Cross birds as foragers - we think ours do a great job).

Of course this is more complex than just following the above table as weather, pasture condition, temperature and a multitude of other things change the required inputs…  but it DOES give a great baseline to know where you should be.

One final note - every year things “change” so I’m constantly re-learning and readjusting the amount of feed on any given day to find that balance…  but keeping an eye on total feed waste is absolutely important.

Comments

[Dave Mills]

Hi, thanks for the info about meat birds. We have black star hens right now and are selling eggs in a Seattle market. I am going to get into meat birds and put them in the green houses so they can feed on the produce on a cycle method. Where do you come up with the $16.15 selling price? The feed around here is at $20.00 for 50lbs for organic, which would probably be about 1/3 the feed consumtion. Do you think that the extra price for cut up birds is worth the extra time vs selling whole birds? Thanks, Dave

[Andy]

Dave,
The $16.15 comes from a price per pound of $3.59 and an average dressed selling weight of 4.5#. (3.59 X 4.5 = 16.15).
Be careful in your assumption about only having to provide 1/3 of their feed... Even if you put them in a greenhouse with plant material there (be careful of overheating in the summer) - AT BEST a meat breed will only consume 20-30% of it's diet from the vegetation and insect population the rest needs to be supplied. I know some folks (and we have tried) non-standard meet breeds and yes - they do pull a little more "from the local land" but they take so much longer to get to size that there isn't really an savings in feed prices... chickens eat a LOT and it adds up.
And the "cut up or not to cut up" question is a great one... We have dabbled in the cutting and here's my thoughts: (all opinion, mind you and based on the PROPORTIONS Of meat in Cornish Cross - if you were doing this with any other bird you could not make the economics work... read on to see what I'm saying) Cutting up chickens is a lot of work. Now, if you are going to do it, suddenly everyone wants white meat. The rule of thumb is you need to price the boneless skinless breast meat such that it's TOTAL cost to the consumer pays for the entire bird sold as a whole - and the math for the above article puts the cost per pound for our boneless skinless breasts at around $11 / pound. The reason this only works with Cornish Cross is because of the size of their breasts - if you tried to do this with a heritage meat chicken you would be charging $19 pound for breast meat that the consumer would argue its NOT white enough. Also - you then have to manage the thighs, legs and stock cuts... you really shouldn't be selling them from the freezer after processing to fully comply with the USDA on farm exemption... there's a litany of reasons why we don't cut things up... but at the end there's one BIG reason for us - we are trying to farm and be more sustainable. Teaching our customers how to use the WHOLE chicken has been fun and rewarding for both us and the customer. Think of ways to cross sell your other on farm items for soups, stuffings, bastings, etc.

[Phil]

I wish I were as diligent a record keeper as you are. I’m impressed and motivated. I guess I have some question about the feed consumption of the Cornish x birds. You said your average feed per bird was 17.3 # per bird over a 7 week period. That is 5.65 +_ ounces per day. Given that the babies probably only consumed a portion of that daily for the first couple of weeks, that put the daily consumption of each bird in the later week to ½ # +_ per day, not including pasture? What I’m wondering is what you consider your feed "waste factor "is, or do these birds just eat more than my largest, laziest, most gluttonous rooster? Given your feed is the largest cost factor of your operation, feed waste would be the first place I would look to reduce/ conserve costs. Even operating as small a poultry buisness as I do, I found controlling feed waste to be an important issue of becoming more profitable.

Philip

[Andy]

GREAT question (sorry it took so long to get back here to acknowledge it).
Gonna put together a followup post on this topic of feed expectations and waste.