Market Farming

["Michaele Blakely" <mjb AT premier1.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: <CAVM AT aol.com>
To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2000 3:00 PM
Subject: Re: Small farm poultry

Actually, there are quite a few mf's on the pastured poultry list, myself as
one.  My impression is that a vast majority intergrate their poultry in with
their farming. However to discuss farming with the poultry list could be
considered off topic, so maybe that's why it's not discussed.  As far as
methods, amount of money, who and how the processing is handled, and the
scale of each farm varies considerably. It depends upon scale and
state/county regs as far as how product is processed and sold.
One of the topics on this list is addressing records and the productivity of
different methods as well as general health of the birds
My size of scale is small.  I have never gone over 800 birds.  This year I
am planning 1000, but we will see.  I use the cornish crosses in pens to
build soil tilth in my vegetable fields.  From what I am seeing on the list
in comparison of the records that are now being shared I'm thinking that the
increased soil fertility is definitely influencing the nutritional value
these birds are getting from grazing on the cover crops.  I recently sent in
my records to our list for comparison. I took a flock that was grown in a
place that had minimal soil development, in a stressful time (hot and dry),
I padded costs and downplayed weight of birds by one lb. and still came out
with a cost of $5.39 a bird and a profit of $7.43 a bird.  What I didn't
include in those figures was labor cost of 8 weeks caring for the birds and
electricity for brooding.  Labor is minimal the way I have it set up.  It
takes about 15 minutes a day, and the electricity is tied in with greenhouse
costs. I also do all the processing and packing myself, so that money I
spent for that actually went to me.  Years ago I figured things out and
decided if I reached over the 50% cost level I needed to worry, so I spot
check.  And as this is a means of creating good soil it is taking away the
cost of fertilization and other things I might spend time and money doing to
get my plants growing well.
I think if you are really wanting to do this, get involved with the PP list
and do a lot of research before you start.  Read every book you can get your
hands on, talk to as many farmers as you can in your area who are doing
similar things.  My figures won't look like the next person's.  I approached
doing chickens as a means of soil fertilization and the idea that I did not
want to LOSE money in the process.  It's grown from there, however doing it
the way I do it means I am not going to get any bigger.  So I won't make any
MORE money.