Pastured Poultry Profits - Is A 6 Figure Income Possible?

Summary

In this video, Chuck from Sheraton Park Farms discusses the profitability of raising pastured broilers on a small scale. He shares the costs, feed conversion rates, and potential profits from processing 125 chickens. Chuck compares his 2020 numbers to Joel Salatin's 1993 book, 'Pastured Poultry Profits,' and calculates the potential net income from raising broilers on different acreages. He emphasizes the scalability and hard work involved in this type of farming, concluding that pastured poultry can be profitable with the right market and management.

Takeaways

• 📈 The speaker discusses the profitability of raising pastured broilers on a small-scale farm, comparing current numbers to those from Joel Salatin's 1993 book.
• 🐓 In a recent batch, 125 broilers were processed with only a 2.4% loss rate, which the speaker considers very successful.
• 💰 The cost to produce the broilers was $901.48, which includes chicks, feed, labor, and other inputs.
• 📊 The feed conversion rate was 2.52, meaning it took 2.52 pounds of feed to produce one pound of sellable product.
• 💲 The total retail value of the processed birds was $3,632.09, with a potential profit of $2,730 if all were sold at full retail price.
• 🔢 The speaker calculates that with four chicken tractors, they can cover 0.27 acres per batch, which can yield a profit of $2,730 in under two months.
• 🌱 The profitability and scalability of the operation are emphasized, with the potential to net $10,920 on one acre, $65,400 on five acres, and $218,400 on 20 acres in 2020.
• ⏱ The speaker notes that these numbers are based on a single pass of the birds across the property and do not account for reusing the same space.
• 👨‍🌾 The work involved in pastured poultry farming is acknowledged as being hard but enjoyable, and the speaker expresses satisfaction with this lifestyle.
• 📖 The speaker contrasts the book's 1993 numbers with current figures, highlighting how the business model has evolved and remains profitable with adjustments for the modern market.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video script?

The main topic of the video script is the profitability of raising pastured broilers (chickens) on a farm, specifically comparing the potential earnings in 2020 to those outlined by Joel Salatin in his 1993 book.

What is the name of the farm featured in the script?

The farm featured in the script is called Sheraton Park Farms.

How many chickens were processed in the batch discussed in the script?

In the batch discussed, 125 pastured chickens were processed.

What was the loss rate of the chickens in the batch?

The loss rate of the chickens was 2.4%, with only three birds lost out of 128.

What are the costs included in the cost of production for the chickens?

The costs included in the cost of production are the cost of chicks, shipping, shavings, feed, and labor involved in processing.

What is the total retail value of the processed chickens mentioned in the script?

The total retail value of the processed chickens is $3,632.09.

What is the feed conversion rate for the batch of chickens discussed?

The feed conversion rate for the batch is 2.52 pounds of feed for every pound of sellable product.

How much potential profit could be made from processing 125 pastured chickens according to the script?

The potential profit from processing 125 pastured chickens is $2,730.61.

How much space does one batch of pastured broilers cover according to the script?

One batch of pastured broilers covers approximately a quarter of an acre.

What is the potential net profit for running pasture broilers on 20 acres according to the calculations in the script?

The potential net profit for running pasture broilers on 20 acres is $218,400.

What does the author suggest about the scalability of pasture poultry farming?

The author suggests that pasture poultry farming is scalable, meaning it can be expanded or reduced depending on available resources such as land and infrastructure.

Outlines

00:00

🐔 Farming Profits with Pastured Poultry

Chuck from Sheraton Park Farms discusses the financial aspects of raising pastured broilers on a small scale. He details the process of raising 125 chickens, from receiving day-old chicks to selling the processed birds at local markets. The discussion includes feed conversion rates, cost of inputs such as chicks, feed, and labor, and potential profit. Chuck also compares his 2020 numbers to those in Joel Salatin's 1993 book, 'Pastured Poultry Profits,' which claimed the potential to net $25,000 in six months on 20 acres. Chuck highlights the importance of scalability in this type of farming and addresses the labor-intensive nature of the work.

05:04

📊 Analyzing Pastured Poultry Production Costs and Revenue

In this segment, the focus is on the cost and revenue analysis for a batch of 125 pastured chickens. The total sellable product weight is calculated, along with the amount of feed required to produce it. A feed conversion rate of 2.52 is determined, meaning for every 2.52 pounds of feed, one pound of sellable product is obtained. The total retail value of the chickens is detailed, including the price per pound for various cuts like wings, breasts, leg thigh quarters, halves, and livers. The potential profit after accounting for the cost of production is revealed, demonstrating the financial viability of small-scale pastured poultry farming.

10:05

🌱 Scaling Pastured Poultry Farming for Profit

Chuck explores the scalability of pastured poultry farming, using his farm's experience to project potential profits on different scales. He calculates the potential net income from running pastured broilers on one acre, five acres, ten acres, and twenty acres, based on the profit made from a quarter-acre batch. He emphasizes that these numbers are based on the assumption of selling all products at full retail price and that there are many variables to consider, such as market prices and the ability to invest in infrastructure. The discussion concludes with an affirmation of the profitability and scalability of pastured poultry farming, despite its demanding nature.

Keywords

💡Pastured Rollers

Pastured rollers, in the context of the video, refers to a method of raising chickens where they are allowed to roam freely in a pasture. This is a sustainable and natural way of raising poultry that emphasizes the birds' welfare and often results in higher quality meat. The video discusses the profitability of this method, indicating that the speaker has processed 125 pastured chickens and is analyzing the financial outcomes of this approach.

💡Feed Conversion Rate

Feed conversion rate (FCR) is a measure of how efficiently poultry converts feed into body weight. It is calculated by dividing the amount of feed consumed by the amount of weight gained. In the video, a FCR of 2.52 is mentioned, meaning that for every 2.52 pounds of feed, the chickens produce one pound of sellable product. This is a key metric in assessing the efficiency of poultry farming.

💡Cost of Goods

Cost of goods sold (COGS) refers to the direct costs attributable to the production of the goods sold in a company. In the video, the speaker calculates the COGS for raising the pastured chickens, which includes the cost of chicks, feed, labor, and other inputs. The COGS is a critical figure in determining the profitability of the farming operation, as it is subtracted from the total revenue to arrive at the profit.

💡Potential Profit

Potential profit in the video refers to the estimated net income that could be earned if all the chickens are sold at the retail price. The speaker calculates a potential profit of $2,730 based on the retail value of the chickens and the COGS. This figure is significant as it indicates the financial viability of the pastured poultry farming method discussed.

💡Scalability

Scalability in the context of the video means the ability to increase or decrease the size of the farming operation according to available resources, market demand, and other factors. The speaker discusses how the pastured poultry farming method can be scaled up or down, which is important for adapting to changing conditions and maximizing profitability.

💡Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin is a well-known farmer and author in the field of sustainable agriculture. His book 'Pastured Poultry Profits,' written in 1993, is mentioned in the video as a reference point for comparing the profitability of pastured poultry farming then and now. The video discusses how the numbers from Salatin's book may have evolved over time due to changes in the market and farming practices.

💡Chicken Tractors

Chicken tractors are mobile pens used to confine poultry to a specific area of a pasture, allowing them to graze and forage while also providing shelter. The video mentions the use of John Ciscovich-style chicken tractors, which are a specific design that the speaker uses to raise their pastured chickens. These tractors are part of the farming method being discussed for their efficiency and impact on profitability.

💡Sellable Product

Sellable product refers to the parts of the chickens that are packaged and sold to customers, such as wings, breasts, leg quarters, and livers. The video details the retail value of each type of sellable product, which contributes to the total revenue from the sale of the chickens. Understanding the value of different parts is crucial for maximizing the financial return from poultry farming.

💡Retail Value

Retail value in the video refers to the price at which the various cuts of the chickens are sold to customers. The speaker provides a breakdown of the retail value for wings, breasts, leg quarters, halves, and livers, which collectively contribute to the total potential revenue. This is an important figure as it directly influences the potential profit from the sale of the pastured chickens.

💡Farming Season

Farming season refers to the period during the year when farming activities, such as raising poultry, can take place due to favorable weather conditions. The video mentions that the profitability of pastured poultry farming can be influenced by the length of the farming season, as it affects how many batches of chickens can be raised and sold within a year.

💡Labor

Labor in the context of the video refers to the human effort required to raise the chickens, including tasks like processing and managing the birds. The speaker notes that they do not currently calculate their labor costs into the COGS, viewing it as an investment into the farm. Labor is a significant factor in the overall cost and profitability of the farming operation.

Highlights

Pastured broilers on 20 acres can yield significant profit, with potential earnings compared to Joel Salatin's 1993 numbers.

The speaker, Chuck, discusses the process of raising pastured chickens, including feed conversion rates and cost of goods.

A batch of 125 pastured chickens was processed, with only three losses, indicating a 2.4% loss rate.

Cost to produce the chickens included chicks, shipping, shavings, feed, and labor, totaling $901.48.

The retail value of the processed chickens' parts was calculated, with prices ranging from $7.99 to $10.99 per pound.

A total sellable product weight of 377.19 pounds was achieved from 950 pounds of feed, resulting in a feed conversion rate of 2.52.

The potential profit from selling the processed chickens at full retail price is $2,730.

The speaker details the scalability of pastured poultry farming, emphasizing the importance of context and resources.

Using John Ciscovich-style chicken tractors, the speaker calculates the amount of land used and the potential profit per acre.

A potential net profit of $10,920 is estimated for one acre in 56 days, considering the current market and operational costs.

The speaker projects that on 20 acres, a farmer could net a potential profit of $218,400 with pastured poultry in 2020.

The discussion includes a comparison of the profitability of pastured poultry farming in 2020 versus 1993, highlighting changes in the industry.

The speaker emphasizes the hard work involved in pastured poultry farming and the satisfaction derived from the lifestyle.

The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to subscribe, share, and engage with the content on local farming and sustainable living.

Transcripts

what can you net how much money can you

make

with pastured rollers on 20 acres

in 2020 compared to joel salafin's

1993 number how much money can you make

you could make a potential well hey

friends and neighbors this is chuck out

at sheraton park farms welcome back to

the farm

so we're out here with our pasture

broilers today and

about a week ago we processed 125 of our

pastured chickens that we sell at local

farmers markets and

directly here off the farm so what i

want to do today is i want to go through

those numbers i want to talk about what

our feed conversion was what our

cost of goods cost of input was to raise

those birds and then what our potential

profit

is going to be on that group of chickens

also for those of you that are

interested in pasture poultry or you're

raising pasture poultry or you just have

an interest in this kind of

this kind of farming you've probably

seen or you've got a copy of this book

this is joel salton's pastured poultry

profits and the tagline on this says

net 25 000 in six months

on 20 acres this book was written

in 1993 it's almost 30 years old so

i want to talk about why i think those

numbers are off

can you make money with pasture poultry

and if so

how much stick around let's talk about

that

okay so first thing i want to talk about

is what were our numbers on this

last batch of chickens that

we processed so the birds that we done

they were born on july the 7th

and then they were processed on

september the 7th so they were

just a little over eight weeks old

almost nine weeks old

um we got 128 of those birds in the mail

and then we processed 125 so we only

lost three

super happy with that that's uh that's a

great number

to only lose three um we we managed the

brooder correctly

didn't have any predator issues at all

out on pasture so we only had a 2.4

loss on those birds so super super happy

with that

now what was our cost to produce those

birds in other words how much did it

cost us

to get those birds from day old chicks

to packaged

in the freezer ready to sell so

when we calculate our cost to produce

our cost of

cost input we include the cost of

chicks shipping shavings feed and then

labor and our labor we calculate that

based

on folks that come in and help us do the

processing

saunder and i right now we still don't

um calculate any of our labor in this

um being in the third year we still

consider that

our investment into the farm we're

almost to the point now that we do need

to start adding our labor into

the whole process but anyway enough

about that cost to produce

901.48 cents 901.48 we'll come back to

that in just a minute

so when we process birds what do we put

together in other words what's our

packaging what

what do we have for sale and what's the

price on that

on this batch of birds we did not do

any whole birds in other words we didn't

leave any birds whole and package those

in the shrink bags

everything was cut up in one way or the

other we also did not keep out any backs

so sometimes we do keep out back

sometimes we keep out feet

we're going to keep out feet that just

became a tedious

process so we elected not to keep out

feet this time we left them not to keep

out backs

we do wings uh our wings are 7.99 a

pound

we do breasts breasts are 10.99 a pound

we did go up on rest a little bit this

time based on the usda report

and what pasture poultry is bringing in

north carolina right now we did go up

just a little bit

on breasts so breasts are 10.99 a pound

leg thigh quarters that's the leg in the

thigh together 8.99 a pound

we did keep some chicken halves cut the

backbone out

uh split it down the middle so you get

half chicken

uh we kept out some halves 7.99 a pound

and we keep out livers we got a lot of

folks around here that really enjoy

chicken livers so

total retail on those individual things

um wings uh all the wings we have in the

freezer

313 dollars and 29 cents breast

1793 dollars and two cents

leg five quarters 1 379.97

halves 72.7 cents

livers 73.74 cents

so that's how much that's the retail

value of each of those individual cuts

in the freezer

so how much sellable weight how much

sellable product

is there in those breasts leg thigh

quarters

livers wings halves all that stuff

what's the total sellable weight

total sellable product weight 377.19

pounds

377.19 pounds now how much feed did it

take us to get there that's always

something that we

that we talk about and something that we

think is important it took us 950 pounds

of feed

almost half a ton took us 950 pounds of

feed

to get 377.19 pounds of sellable product

that translates into a feed conversion

rate of 2.52

so for every 2.52 pounds of feed

that we fed those birds we ended up with

one pound

of sellable product that could have been

better

had we kept out backs had we kept out

feet but for this particular batch

2.52 pounds of feed for every pound of

sellable product

now stop beating around the bush what's

the

what's the final numbers look like total

retail value

of all of that product that we put in

the freezer

three thousand six hundred thirty two

dollars and nine cents let me say that

again

total retail value of all of that

product that we put in the freezer all

the breasts all the wings all the legs

everything three thousand six hundred

thirty two dollars and nine cents

if you remember a minute ago i said our

cost of goods or cost of produce

901.48 cents

901.48 that leaves us with a potential

profit

if we sell everything full on retail and

we always give some stuff away

we eat some of it so you know we'll not

realize this number completely but

if we were to sell everything full-on

retail

dollars and 2730. cents that's our

potential profit on 125

pasture-raised chickens

so taking that number that

two thousand seven hundred thirty

dollars

um and sixty one cents let's use that

number let's let's kind of play with

that for just a minute

so as you all know we use these john

ciscovich style

chicken tractors and these things

measure out six feet

by 12 feet so one chicken tractor

takes up 72 square feet

and we run four of them that last batch

that we had 125 birds on

with the potential profit of two

thousand seven hundred thirty dollars we

ran

four saskovic style chicken tractors

so four ciscode-style chicken tractors

will cover 288

square feet per day we had those birds

out on pasture for six weeks so they

were out on pasture for 42 days

so if we take 288 square feet per day

we multiply that by 42 days

we cover 12 096

square feet per batch of

pasture raised brawlers if we divide

12 096 by 43

560 which is the square foot of an acre

we get 0.27 acres so when we run

a batch of pastured rollers four chicken

tractors across the field for six weeks

we cover ease of figuring a quarter acre

so if we cover a quarter acre

with this group of chickens and our

potential profit is two thousand

seven hundred and thirty dollars on a

quarter acre

in 56 days so that's counting

two weeks in the brooder so we can make

twenty seven hundred

thirty dollars on a quarter acre in a

little under two months

now this is scalable

it's scalable up it's scalable down and

that's a key point that joel makes in

his book

is that this type of enterprise should

be scalable

you can go up you can go down depending

on your context and what resources you

have available in terms of land

the money to purchase materials to build

tractors

uh and all those kinds of things but i

want to play with the numbers just a

little bit

just to see what we could do

with pasture broilers on 20 acres

in 2020 as opposed to 1993.

so using those same numbers if we were

to run

pasture broilers across an acre so we

would either have to use four

tractors four times or 16 tractors once

going across an acre we could net now

this is not gross

this is net remember this is based on

our on our profit

we could net 10 920

basically in 56 days in two months

now there are a lot of variables here

can you get those prices for chicken in

your area do you have a market

do you have the ability to to

purchase build the infrastructure

and enough infrastructure to do this on

a large scale is either going to take

a really big investment up front or

you're going to have to build into it

and that's really what we're doing we're

kind of building into this we started

out first year i think we had maybe

three or four chicken tractors and we've

got

we've got nine now so we are continuing

to scale up a little bit

but using those same numbers what could

you do on five acres

well on five acres you could potentially

net

six 54 dollars again using that two

thousand seven hundred and thirty dollar

profit that we're figuring

on 125 birds how about ten acres

one hundred nine thousand two hundred

dollars net

on 10 acres pastured chicken

using the numbers that we shared earlier

and finally

what can you net how much money can you

make

with pasture broilers on 20 acres

in 2020 compared to joel salafin's

1993 number how much money can you make

you could make a potential of 218

400 net on 20 acres

with pasture poultry and again a lot of

variables involved in that

in terms of what your growing season

looks like he says do it in six months

if you've got a longer grow

growing season you know potentially you

could make more if you've got a shorter

growing season potentially you could

make less depending upon how much you

want to work and how many chickens you

want to be

operating on at a time and again that's

only i didn't mention this earlier

but that's only running these chickens

across the property one time that's not

doubling back and reusing any space that

you've already

used on chickens so in the end

is pasture poultry profitable absolutely

it's profitable

is it scalable absolutely is it it is

scalable

um can you make money at it yeah you can

make money at it um

but it's a lot of work um you know we

talked about this

in circles around here and and i've

heard other folks mention it

um this this kind of living and

this kind of farming is not easy um and

i think sometimes maybe

we do it a little bit a little bit of an

injustice because we can cram a day's

worth of work into a 15 or a 20 minute

youtube video so

it is tough work but it's very enjoyable

and

i certainly wouldn't certainly wouldn't

do anything different

so there we are the latest numbers from

sheraton park farms and how we're doing

on our pasture poultry

and also uh you know a little bit of a

discussion across my book

a little bit of a discussion about

you know joel's numbers and i think

where they have uh

evolved into in 2020 so uh listen

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i'll see you on the next video thanks