New subscriber! I really enjoy the channel. After years of abusing donuts, carbs and all things sugar, I’ve discovered farmers markets and organic foods. I’ve lost 45 pounds in eight months, dropped all my meds and I’m healthier than I’ve been since I was 20. A large part of my food budget now goes to local organic farmers. My health is worth the additional cost.
Man that is AWESOME!! Congrats on the new lifestyle. Thank you so much for supporting local farms and farmers. I know its not the cheapest way to eat but it is head and shoulders above the industrial food system stuff. Appreciate ya'll watching.
Great job laying out the numbers clearly and concisely. Based on my small layer chicken tractor, the hardest labor was building the tractor. Raising them (for eggs only) has been a breeze. I’m looking forward to trying boilers later. - Alex
You are a gem good sir. My husband and I desperately want to try and live a self-sustainable lifestyle and maybe we won't ever get to the point of sellin like ya'll do but the fact you got the figures and that it is possible it does encourage me further to think that we could not only provide good healthy food to our family but be able to fund that blessing to by selling to our community that good healthy food! You got yourself a subscriber out of me :) can't wait to see more of your stuff!
We tried out pastured poultry this year for the first time, and its worked out fantastic. I've been posting videos on my channel and documenting the process. We are selling while birds only so far, and I will be making a video here soon on our numbers. I'm glad you are sharing this.
Thanks. Give cut-ups a try and see how that goes. Once we started doing that out sales started to take off. Its just a little more work and you can charge a more premium price for the product. Appreciate ya'll watching!
Well the last four years have changed even more quickly. Chicken feed and everything else is so much more now. People have less disposable money too. Had to bail out.
so you were losing money or just not making enough? how much land do you have, what are you doing now that is making more money on less inputs with same amount of land? Or did you bail because you didn't commit? thanks for the insights
Wow! What a great video! I've watch hundreds if not thousands of videos promoting and talking about profitiablity of pasture raised chickens and I have to say this was the best video with the best breakdown with an ability to understand and comprehend the entire explaination. Once again, great video! Keep doing what you are doing. You are making a difference!
How hard was it to set up to do the butchering? In other words to become legal? In Florida you are not allowed to butcher for other people without becoming USDA certified. I don't know if you did a video on this or it is even required in NC but would love to see a video on the subject. Enjoyed the video as well straight forward and to the point enjoyed it~
Don’t give up! Just one day at a time. Learn the lessons and arrive to improve. Anyone can do this but you gotta keep going. Keep us posted on how you are doing! Appreciate y’all watching
Thanks for your video. Interested in doing this in Central Florida but curious how you sell your chicken? How/where do you find buyers of the finished product? Are there any USDA food safety inspections that are required?
I appreciate the breakdown in prices, this is very illuminating. I think more than anything people will struggle with identifying selling opportunity. I mean, assuming a 20 acre farm production - that is a LOT of chicken to move. CSA would be quite the stretch. Unless you struck a deal with a supermarket, which would eat into profits some, it seems that raising the chickens would be easier than selling them. Again, thanks for the video and explanation!
Its 2022 and the prices have went crazy so all videos are obsolete when it comes to making money and cost . But you have the best videos I have seen your to the point . Must add the cost that you eat . Becouse if you payed for it from a different job its money made .
Thanks for all your thoughts and time. Great info ! I will say you 100% have to calculate labor in the WHOLE process regardless if it’s yours or anyone else’s. Also storage cost, trips back in forth to market etc. Again well done video 👍🏼
Thanks for the video. I think it’s important to note that at 20 acres pumping that many birds you are most likely going to saturate your market and your prices would need to decrease as you would run out of demand at those premium prices
Thank you so much for the video. We just downsized our farm and bought 5 acres close to my family. We will do a few cows, a few sheep, some layers, broilers, and the racken house that Salatin uses. Farming is definitely a viable full time job when managed wisely
@@Beepbopboop19 made an offer but didn’t get the land unfortunately. We have a small garden currently. We have been harvesting kale, herbs, strawberries, pickling cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and other season veggies
I really like how you get into the details of the business side of things. Really appreciate the transparency. To be fair though, 20 acres of this operation would significantly raise your labor costs. So it's not profit Because your own labor doesn't scale up to a 20 acre operation of this :)
Great information. We just started raising meat chickens. We have 1 chicken tractor so far. I have the material to build another. The farm to table is just getting to our area. We will see what next year has in store. Thanks again.
@sheraton park farms you are a godsend. Love your videos. Easy to follow and understand and to the point. Just purchased 15 acres and going to start a self sustainable lifestyle. We planning on raising chickens, and thanks to you…going to raise some pasture pigs. We’ve started with tilapias and thats doing well. I have so many questions and learning to do…your video makes my life easier. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Greeting from Costa Rica.
Just make me excited. We are close to having all our licenses in place. Still have to go before our board of county commissioners. We been feeding ourselves for years. We’ve never made a dime. It’s going to be a long winter getting ready spring!
Hi I'm from the Greensboro area..My family are house painters.Roach James was my Dad.Anyways Love watching y'all S farm.I REMB back N day of having be up reaL early to kill N clean hogs.. 🤷💯❤️ Watching the farM thaks for sharing 🙏🙏
This is very interesting especially since I have the 20 acres. Plus some. What I would really like to see is more discussion about the marketing side. I am researching, and I find a lot of analysis like yours. But everyone assumes you will sell what you produce. I'm in the southeast. No big mega urban centers. Think Little Rock, Memphis, Jackson, Huntsville size populations. I'd love to hear concrete examples of how you market fresh poultry other than an on-farm store like Joel S.
Great detailed information and thank-you for making the video. But you left out an important detail that I think many of us contemplating larger scale free-range or chicken tractor production on our land wonder...who buys your products and how much more demand is there for it as you substantially increase production potentially?
I'm a tell you right now boss, you do a wonderful job making these videos with such great details, I appreciate your time and effort. Keep it up!! Subscriber in Jamaica respect.
Great video Chuck! We raised pastured poultry in NC about 4 years ago using a lot of your concepts. Definitely a tough life, but worth it! Way to document the numbers and show the nuts and bolts of doing this! Just subbed!
@@jmora6529 it’s a big commitment. Whether it’s cold, raining, or blazing hot, you still have to work with the birds. We didn’t have anyone else who could help, so there was no availabilities to take a vacation or go out of town. We had some financial issues pop up and had to sell the farm. We’re back on some land now though and have some egg layers which we really enjoy.
Thanks for all the great content you are putting out! I live in Michigan and am currently working on finding property to lease to start raising both, pasture Hogs and Chickens. One of my biggest set backs is trying to make sure I have somewhere to sell them when they are ready. Thinking about putting in the money to start the operation and not being able to sell everything can be overwhelming. what are the best ways to market your product and who to sell to?
Start marketing before you ever get the first animal on your farm. Get folks excited about your farm, how you are raising animals, building soil and producing a quality product. Get your website up and going, its amazingly cheap and easy to do these days and it adds legitimacy to your business. Let all your family and friends know what you are doing and get them on board as cheerleaders and to help spread the word. Marketing is tough and it something that requires constant maintenance but you can certainly do it!
@ Howlinhairy on the Prairie love this video too, Oh and do they sell eggs too i didn't see that factored in, i definitely want to sell eggs. How are you doing and hope to hear from you?
Would you agree with the 500 birds per acre per year in regards to the amount of fertilization on acre can handle? I believe that was Joels number from the book but dont have it handy. From your numbers, that would only allow one pass, 125 per 1/4. Still great numbers but curious if you have tried two passes? Overall, excellent video. I still think this the best opportunity for beginners and something I am going to pursue next year.
Hey I enjoyed your video. Appreciate all the numbers and explanations. The part I have not been able to find quite as much info on is what kind of licensing etc. an individual needs to be able to butcher and sell your products at farmers markets or even to restaurants and grocery stores. So if you need content ideas I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Great video! First of your videos that I have watch....just subscribed! We just bought a small farm in the upper Shenandoah Valley and hope to build out the same type farm operation as you. Thanks again - this video is very helpful!
Great info. I'm looking to get out of the weekly grind and I've been selling hogs on foot at 350lbs And fresh eggs but I want to do more I'm a little short on property
How many times in a year can you reuse the ground? Could you do 4 cycles on 5 acres to get the same numbers? I’ve heard too much nitrogen builds up and will kill the grass.
What is the cost to process the chicken? Packing material? Do you need a commercial kitchen or a special permit to sell home grown chickens to the public? Thank you
Thank you, I enjoyed the non-sensationalized production. I have a question about your tractor construction. In one of your videos you have one of your Suscovic tractors made from mostly metal electrical conduit. Can you comment on your thoughts on that construction? Is it lighter, or more durable? Are there any problems with rusting or corrosion of the frames? Maybe you could post a video going over the pros an cons of the different construction methods. Just spitballing here, but maybe the overall size could be increased and keep the weight the same. More birds per structure=less labor per bird.
The big thing is having a place or way to sell items produced, investment up front I think would be recovered especially if you mixed it up with turkey! Awesome video, thanks for sharing! God bless
British Columbia residents can apply to grow up to 2,000 chickens per year for farm direct marketing. The permit administration fee is $20 and permit holders must report their placement and slaughter records. In BC, all meat offered for sale must be processed at a provincially or federally inspected and approved facility. It makes it pretty hard for the small farmer to compete and almost impossible to get a butcher date
Thanks for the information. I feel that chicken farming like this will generate more and more income. Companies like fresh future meats just raised 347 million to make cell-grown meat. naturally raised meat will be like gold.
How did you get into processing and selling your own product from a legal standpoint point I know this may vary state by state but the information I’ve been able to find seems a little vague. In general what is required to legally sell meat you produce?
Curious.... I haven't found this answer yet. But use your 4 in this video. How often to you pull each tractor ahead, then how long ( on average) will it take for that pasture to be grazable?? Thanks an awsome video
If you only have one acre of land to run 500 chickens. Can you then go back over the same acre of land with an additional 500 chickens 3 more times back to back? That is the confusing part I think. Love your videos! You do a wonderful job of explaining things. Thanks again.
Good question. That of going to be a heavy nitrogen load on the ground. We try to give a spot at least a year of rest before we run chickens across it again. You might give it a try one season and see what happens. If there is any way, ask around and see if someone has a pasture or field you could lease. You may be surprised at what the offer of some locally grown chicken as a trade could drum up.
@@SheratonParkFarms Thank you for responding. We have almost 10 acres. 4 acres of pasture (I used to have horses), and the rest is woods loaded with briars and such. My grandfather always said we could make a living on our property and with times the way they are (currently unemployed) I thought I could raise some chickens and maybe some pigs to sell. But I am REALLY not understanding how many chickens I can run thru the summer to make the most of the land. I don't want to get more than I can handle but at the same time I want to do as much as I can with the little bit of land I have. Thanks again for taking time to respond to my question! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
@@slimpickens0000 They should be moved every day. Depending on the number of chickens in the tractor may need to be moved twice. Once is the minimum though.
I would like to ask you and the other viewers here if they have found a wholesale outlet for selling their pastured poultry? Organic, non-GMO pastured poultry? Co-ops or other ways for marketing? I'm thinking that a larger scale operation may be challenged to market so many chickens and I'm interested to know if other people have overcome this part. Thanks for your video!!!
So we direct market to customers, sell wholesale to small local grocery stores and also do bulk orders for customers. Another idea we have had, but never really pursued, is to do custom batches for events. For example someone is doing a big wedding or cookout, we could do enough chicken to supply that event and have it ready in 8 weeks if you didn't have it in stock.
Most people will be selling while chickens. I'm wondering how much we can get for those? We have 1 acre I'd love to do this n just sell the live broilers ready to process
I have approx 4000sqft. Rest is in severe flood zone, that's where garden is. I've no clue what's happening in the next week or year it's crazy. Soon as I get my propane & real estate taxes the chickens will be ordered about 50 at a time
I think you did a great job rehashing the numbers--back of a napkin kinda math. I've been going through the numbers and processes of both John Suscovich and Joel's. A few comments and questions, please. When you say you process them-- does that mean you do the slaughter house stuff? Or another way: I guess you do the killing, cleaning, packaging etc yourself? In my reasearch, I find that there is no way to make money on chickens if you send the out for processing and packing. In fact, it seems to me the only way to every recoup your fixed investment and to make a meager tiny margin at all would be to do all the processing and packaging yourself and do it in such tremendous volumn that it would make trying to do your own processing a full-time job. Even with that you'd have to be salesman of the century to being able to go direct to retail with that volumn. John Suscovich uses $24 per chix as his sale per chicken-- I do not know where on God's good earth you could sell a 4-6 lb chicken for $24. I have unfortunitly come to the conclusion thatand chickens I raise would be for personal consumption only by going out the the coup and pulling one out to east that night. The only way I could see perhaps barely making a penny out of this business is to buy your initial batch with the intent to build out and to complement the meat business with breeding your own inputs and having a large egg producing operation--to produce your chicks and to sell eggs. To keep growning that until you can matach in scale a Hugh operationof meat chicks. Hmmp!
I love the videos but everyone should keep in mind that as the scale of your operation goes up so does your labor cost. What about fuel for your tractor or 4-wheeler to carry around water and feed? At a scale of 20 acres I don't see you doing all of this manually. Would you personally be able to handle 20 acres of meat chickens by yourself? If not how many people would you need to hire to help move the chicken tractors, feed them, water them, and most importantly process them for sale? I think it is a great idea and yes, you could make a significant income from raising meat birds but there is more to it than just adding up each acre. Taking his 125 birds per 1/4 acre, that is 20,000 birds, and that is only after 2 months. A lot of work to process that many. Not saying it can't be done if you have all the right equipment, which can be expensive at scale. So let's say you have a week to process before starting the next batch. Even if you worked 7 days straight you would have to process 2857 birds a day. So now we have to figure in all the electricity, water, etc. to process that many that quickly because you would really have to have some industrial equipment for that kind of scale. It is fun think think about what ifs, but make sure to try and calculate all the costs when scaling up. Moving 4 or 5 chicken tractors a day by hand is child's play. Moving over 667 chicken tractors would be quite a task.
Is the manpower included in the scaling up? One person can manage a certain amount of chicken tractor. Base on your experience, how many chicken tractor is manageable for a single person?
Thanks for all of the info! Is it possible to make any kind of profit on just 4 chickens? It’s all I’m allowed living in basically the city here on 1 acre.
You have to find folks that will buy. Get the word out to family, friends and co-workers that you are raising chickens for meat and they will be for sale. Get them to talk to their family, friends and co-workers. Word of mouth is your biggest advertisement. Find a local farmer's market or two and get hooked up as a vendor. Start a Facebook page for your farm and advertise there. Craigslist, believe it or not, is not a bad place to advertise as well.
Just came across your videos we are also in North Carolina Eastern nc. We are just before starting to raise pigs . What would you recommend as a good number to start with? They will free range in the woods we want them to clear some woods out for us , then sell for slaughter .
I'm sitting on 120 acres and this is really tempting. I inherited an old family farm, the one I grew up on, and a majority of it is currently being leased out to keep ag exemption. I have chickens I keep for me and the family, which is easy because I work at home as a computer programmer, but this way of life will be the death of me. I want my future children to not have to experience this but also be financially stable. The chickens we keep are kept in one place and I've had, at most, 20. How would one get started doing this? Where do you sell your product once it's processed?
So start small with meat chickens. Get 25-30, build a pasture shelter/tractor and start growing them. Its really not that difficult. We sell at farmers' markets and also here on the farm. You can do it!
Hi Chuck, sorry if I missed it.. but do you have a video on processing? Do you do it on farm ? What is your freezer set up like? Do you have high electric cost for storing birds till they sell? Thank you!
Another great video. Thanks for making these. You nailed it there toward the end. That was based on one pass. Even if you didn't start a new batch until you processed the last batch, a 6 or especially an 8 week recovery period should be more than enough. I would think most people in most places could probably get through at least 3 if not 4 rotations per year at 8 weeks? Btw, I'm curious, Dr Ken Anderson (the NC State University poultry science professor and extension specialist) suggests a 4-week rest, but his arrangement is much different. He provides 30 sq ft per bird for 28 days and rotates back and forth between two paddocks. He does 4 weeks on and 4 weeks rest. They also go from whichever paddock they are in, back to a central coop at night, so they are not sleeping and thus pooping/peeing at night in the paddock. So I would think that may have the advantage of recovering quicker, but that may not be true? Compared to his 28 days in his setup, how long would you say it takes the spot a chicken tractor was sitting to recover from the time you move it off?
The recommendation is that you only do one pass on a spot once per year due to nitrogen load. The soil can only absorb so much nitrogen and any excess with be washed off (potentially contaminating ground water). So we intentionally only go over a spot one time per year. Our per square foot works out to 2.4 square foot per day so he is stocking a little more dense than we are. I've also noticed that the manure load can get heavy during the day and isn't restricted to night time which is another reason for the daily moves. We can see an improvement in the ground they come off of in as little as 3 days with no sign of manure on a spot within about 2 weeks or so.
First time watching your videos. No distracting music or production, just raw information. Appreciate it. Greetings from Japan
Thanks for watching! Appreciate the feedback.
Seriously. No bullshit just numbers love it
Exactly! Distracting background music is so annoying.
I have 14 acres of land with potential business opportunities available. We have four chickens so far. Thank you helping encourage possibilities.
New subscriber! I really enjoy the channel. After years of abusing donuts, carbs and all things sugar, I’ve discovered farmers markets and organic foods. I’ve lost 45 pounds in eight months, dropped all my meds and I’m healthier than I’ve been since I was 20. A large part of my food budget now goes to local organic farmers. My health is worth the additional cost.
Man that is AWESOME!! Congrats on the new lifestyle. Thank you so much for supporting local farms and farmers. I know its not the cheapest way to eat but it is head and shoulders above the industrial food system stuff.
Appreciate ya'll watching.
Great job laying out the numbers clearly and concisely.
Based on my small layer chicken tractor, the hardest labor was building the tractor. Raising them (for eggs only) has been a breeze. I’m looking forward to trying boilers later. - Alex
Good deal. Broilers are a lot of fun to raise.
how are you doing? any update?
You are a gem good sir. My husband and I desperately want to try and live a self-sustainable lifestyle and maybe we won't ever get to the point of sellin like ya'll do but the fact you got the figures and that it is possible it does encourage me further to think that we could not only provide good healthy food to our family but be able to fund that blessing to by selling to our community that good healthy food! You got yourself a subscriber out of me :) can't wait to see more of your stuff!
Thanks so much for the kind words. Appreciate y’all watching
We tried out pastured poultry this year for the first time, and its worked out fantastic. I've been posting videos on my channel and documenting the process. We are selling while birds only so far, and I will be making a video here soon on our numbers. I'm glad you are sharing this.
Thanks. Give cut-ups a try and see how that goes. Once we started doing that out sales started to take off. Its just a little more work and you can charge a more premium price for the product. Appreciate ya'll watching!
still working out? Thanks!
Well the last four years have changed even more quickly. Chicken feed and everything else is so much more now. People have less disposable money too. Had to bail out.
so you were losing money or just not making enough? how much land do you have, what are you doing now that is making more money on less inputs with same amount of land? Or did you bail because you didn't commit? thanks for the insights
Wow! What a great video! I've watch hundreds if not thousands of videos promoting and talking about profitiablity of pasture raised chickens and I have to say this was the best video with the best breakdown with an ability to understand and comprehend the entire explaination. Once again, great video! Keep doing what you are doing. You are making a difference!
Research and join First Trade Markets platform to earn 6 or 7 figures once you get started
How hard was it to set up to do the butchering? In other words to become legal? In Florida you are not allowed to butcher for other people without becoming USDA certified. I don't know if you did a video on this or it is even required in NC but would love to see a video on the subject. Enjoyed the video as well straight forward and to the point enjoyed it~
Potentially. But.. you have to have a buying market, large enough, that is willing to pay those prices.
Man you and Joel have made me think very hard.
Chickens are a lot of work but they can be profitable!
do it- do your research and go! we are starting in the spring this year
@@ymdcastro how is it going?
Thank you for this video you have convinced me to keep going with my poultry endeavour...
Don’t give up! Just one day at a time. Learn the lessons and arrive to improve. Anyone can do this but you gotta keep going. Keep us posted on how you are doing! Appreciate y’all watching
Where do you sell your processed chickens?
any updates?
Thanks for your video. Interested in doing this in Central Florida but curious how you sell your chicken? How/where do you find buyers of the finished product? Are there any USDA food safety inspections that are required?
Great question I wonder too!
I appreciate the breakdown in prices, this is very illuminating. I think more than anything people will struggle with identifying selling opportunity. I mean, assuming a 20 acre farm production - that is a LOT of chicken to move. CSA would be quite the stretch. Unless you struck a deal with a supermarket, which would eat into profits some, it seems that raising the chickens would be easier than selling them. Again, thanks for the video and explanation!
Its 2022 and the prices have went crazy so all videos are obsolete when it comes to making money and cost . But you have the best videos I have seen your to the point . Must add the cost that you eat . Becouse if you payed for it from a different job its money made .
Thanks for all your thoughts and time. Great info
! I will say you 100% have to calculate labor in the WHOLE process regardless if it’s yours or anyone else’s. Also storage cost, trips back in forth to market etc.
Again well done video 👍🏼
Great point!
Thanks for the video. I think it’s important to note that at 20 acres pumping that many birds you are most likely going to saturate your market and your prices would need to decrease as you would run out of demand at those premium prices
Can you elaborate? people need to eat, its not like people are buying a years worth of chicken at a time? Maybe some are, but most are not.
Thank you so much for the video. We just downsized our farm and bought 5 acres close to my family. We will do a few cows, a few sheep, some layers, broilers, and the racken house that Salatin uses. Farming is definitely a viable full time job when managed wisely
Nice! Congrats on the new 5! Agreed. It has to be approached as a business and not a hobby but it can be very viable. Appreciate y’all watching
This gives me hope, we are thinking about making an offer on some land to get started
@@cassidydavis4421 did you do it? Hows it going?
@@Beepbopboop19 made an offer but didn’t get the land unfortunately. We have a small garden currently. We have been harvesting kale, herbs, strawberries, pickling cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and other season veggies
I really like how you get into the details of the business side of things. Really appreciate the transparency. To be fair though, 20 acres of this operation would significantly raise your labor costs. So it's not profit Because your own labor doesn't scale up to a 20 acre operation of this :)
Thanks. Appreciate y’all watching
Using equipments and systems you can scale labor time.
What a great update to pastured poultry profits! I'll be using your video to help convince my dad to start raising broilers with me!
Thanks. Appreciate ya'll watching.
7:10 to 9:10 is when he goes over square footage of the tractors + birds per tractor + acreage to get his profit number.
Great information. We just started raising meat chickens. We have 1 chicken tractor so far. I have the material to build another. The farm to table is just getting to our area. We will see what next year has in store. Thanks again.
Nice! Hang in there and grow your operation and customer base year after year. It’ll grow faster than you think! Appreciate y’all watching
any update? how is it going?
@sheraton park farms you are a godsend. Love your videos. Easy to follow and understand and to the point. Just purchased 15 acres and going to start a self sustainable lifestyle. We planning on raising chickens, and thanks to you…going to raise some pasture pigs. We’ve started with tilapias and thats doing well. I have so many questions and learning to do…your video makes my life easier. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Greeting from Costa Rica.
Just make me excited. We are close to having all our licenses in place. Still have to go before our board of county commissioners. We been feeding ourselves for years. We’ve never made a dime. It’s going to be a long winter getting ready spring!
Nice! Congrats. Hope the application to the BOC goes well.
Hi I'm from the Greensboro area..My family are house painters.Roach James was my Dad.Anyways Love watching y'all S farm.I REMB back N day of having be up reaL early to kill N clean hogs.. 🤷💯❤️ Watching the farM thaks for sharing 🙏🙏
What feed are you using? Non GMO, Organic, Conventional?
This is very interesting especially since I have the 20 acres. Plus some. What I would really like to see is more discussion about the marketing side. I am researching, and I find a lot of analysis like yours. But everyone assumes you will sell what you produce. I'm in the southeast. No big mega urban centers. Think Little Rock, Memphis, Jackson, Huntsville size populations. I'd love to hear concrete examples of how you market fresh poultry other than an on-farm store like Joel S.
Great detailed information and thank-you for making the video. But you left out an important detail that I think many of us contemplating larger scale free-range or chicken tractor production on our land wonder...who buys your products and how much more demand is there for it as you substantially increase production potentially?
I'm a tell you right now boss, you do a wonderful job making these videos with such great details, I appreciate your time and effort. Keep it up!! Subscriber in Jamaica respect.
Research and join First Trade Markets platform to earn 6 or 7 figures once you get started
I loved your video , I want to quite my construction job and raise chickens . I don't mind hard work .
Thank you sir, that was very educative.
Great video Chuck! We raised pastured poultry in NC about 4 years ago using a lot of your concepts. Definitely a tough life, but worth it! Way to document the numbers and show the nuts and bolts of doing this! Just subbed!
What was tough about it, and why did you give it up? (Curious)
@@jmora6529 it’s a big commitment. Whether it’s cold, raining, or blazing hot, you still have to work with the birds. We didn’t have anyone else who could help, so there was no availabilities to take a vacation or go out of town. We had some financial issues pop up and had to sell the farm. We’re back on some land now though and have some egg layers which we really enjoy.
Thanks for all the great content you are putting out! I live in Michigan and am currently working on finding property to lease to start raising both, pasture Hogs and Chickens. One of my biggest set backs is trying to make sure I have somewhere to sell them when they are ready. Thinking about putting in the money to start the operation and not being able to sell everything can be overwhelming. what are the best ways to market your product and who to sell to?
Start marketing before you ever get the first animal on your farm. Get folks excited about your farm, how you are raising animals, building soil and producing a quality product. Get your website up and going, its amazingly cheap and easy to do these days and it adds legitimacy to your business. Let all your family and friends know what you are doing and get them on board as cheerleaders and to help spread the word. Marketing is tough and it something that requires constant maintenance but you can certainly do it!
I really enjoy this type of information. Thanks for putting it out.
Thanks Howlinhairy. There is a lot of opportunity out there for folks who don’t mind putting a little sweat into it. Appreciate y’all watching.
@ Howlinhairy on the Prairie love this video too, Oh and do they sell eggs too i didn't see that factored in, i definitely want to sell eggs. How are you doing and hope to hear from you?
@@lydiaann4490 I believe they do.
@@howlinhairyontheprairie8261 Thanks very much and would you mind if we can be friends?
Would you agree with the 500 birds per acre per year in regards to the amount of fertilization on acre can handle? I believe that was Joels number from the book but dont have it handy. From your numbers, that would only allow one pass, 125 per 1/4. Still great numbers but curious if you have tried two passes? Overall, excellent video. I still think this the best opportunity for beginners and something I am going to pursue next year.
Hey I enjoyed your video. Appreciate all the numbers and explanations. The part I have not been able to find quite as much info on is what kind of licensing etc. an individual needs to be able to butcher and sell your products at farmers markets or even to restaurants and grocery stores. So if you need content ideas I’d love to hear your thoughts.
One of the best video I’ve seen regarding the breakdown of everything. Thank you!
I like the intros on your videos. You leave the audience hangin. Good intro chuck
Thanks. I appreciate the feedback. I try hard to give the viewer a good experience. Thanks for watching
Inflations a MOTHER! great video. Starting my operation next month :D
Nice. Keep us posted on how it goes. Thanks for watching
It's ARTIFICIAL INFLATION, thank the Fed.
@@dbram32 Yea the libs are annoying.... Hopefully red states become a country called Liberty or something
Wow great video. You process on your property. Do you have to have permits or licenses? Do you have a video about this?
This video is great, my question is how do you sell to the public legally? We are In New Jersey and we’ve been trying to figure that part out .
Great video! First of your videos that I have watch....just subscribed! We just bought a small farm in the upper Shenandoah Valley and hope to build out the same type farm operation as you. Thanks again - this video is very helpful!
That is awesome! Good luck on your new venture. Keep us posted on how its going. Thanks for watching.
Great no BS video. 👍
Another great video we hope to do chickens in our future we have do 60 for our family the past few years.
Great info. I'm looking to get out of the weekly grind and I've been selling hogs on foot at 350lbs
And fresh eggs but I want to do more I'm a little short on property
Thank you. Hope it was helpful. Appreciate ya'll watching.
How many times in a year can you reuse the ground? Could you do 4 cycles on 5 acres to get the same numbers? I’ve heard too much nitrogen builds up and will kill the grass.
Thanks so much for the clear and quality information
Or a net of almost $22 per bird?! ($2730/125=$21.84) Whew! That’s amazing.
Yes and it is all about marketing the product to the right customers.
What is the cost to process the chicken? Packing material? Do you need a commercial kitchen or a special permit to sell home grown chickens to the public? Thank you
Great job! Very good assessment and apples to apples comparison.
What do y'all do in your area during winter? Guessing you get snow.
Thank you, I enjoyed the non-sensationalized production. I have a question about your tractor construction. In one of your videos you have one of your Suscovic tractors made from mostly metal electrical conduit. Can you comment on your thoughts on that construction? Is it lighter, or more durable? Are there any problems with rusting or corrosion of the frames? Maybe you could post a video going over the pros an cons of the different construction methods. Just spitballing here, but maybe the overall size could be increased and keep the weight the same. More birds per structure=less labor per bird.
Very nice. I just started reading his book and had the same question when reading that opening chapter. Great translation!
hello, it's okay I'm here from Brazil with you have a website that sells this book that you showed I found it interesting
Yes. amzn.to/2PudhVo
The big thing is having a place or way to sell items produced, investment up front I think would be recovered especially if you mixed it up with turkey! Awesome video, thanks for sharing! God bless
Yes, exactly
British Columbia residents can apply to grow up to 2,000 chickens per year for farm direct marketing. The permit administration fee is $20 and permit holders must report their placement and slaughter records. In BC, all meat offered for sale must be processed at a provincially or federally inspected and approved facility. It makes it pretty hard for the small farmer to compete and almost impossible to get a butcher date
Wow! Those are some pretty restrictive rules.
Great facts and break down on all the numbers .
By my math your getting around $30 per head, I guess due to parting them out vs selling whole?
I’d like to know how you marketed everything.
Thanks for the information. I feel that chicken farming like this will generate more and more income. Companies like fresh future meats just raised 347 million to make cell-grown meat. naturally raised meat will be like gold.
How did you get into processing and selling your own product from a legal standpoint point I know this may vary state by state but the information I’ve been able to find seems a little vague. In general what is required to legally sell meat you produce?
This is a great video. Thank you for putting this together.
Thanks. Appreciate y’all watching
Curious.... I haven't found this answer yet. But use your 4 in this video. How often to you pull each tractor ahead, then how long ( on average) will it take for that pasture to be grazable?? Thanks an awsome video
We love every day. Try to give pasture about 6 months rest before coming back to an area.
Best info on this subject I’ve seen. Thanks .
Research and join First Trade Markets platform to earn 6 or 7 figures once you get started
Would love an update with post cvid inflation.
I've been watching you for a while now and I love how you explain things and gave me some different and new ideas
If you only have one acre of land to run 500 chickens. Can you then go back over the same acre of land with an additional 500 chickens 3 more times back to back? That is the confusing part I think. Love your videos! You do a wonderful job of explaining things. Thanks again.
Good question. That of going to be a heavy nitrogen load on the ground. We try to give a spot at least a year of rest before we run chickens across it again. You might give it a try one season and see what happens. If there is any way, ask around and see if someone has a pasture or field you could lease. You may be surprised at what the offer of some locally grown chicken as a trade could drum up.
@@SheratonParkFarms Thank you for responding. We have almost 10 acres. 4 acres of pasture (I used to have horses), and the rest is woods loaded with briars and such. My grandfather always said we could make a living on our property and with times the way they are (currently unemployed) I thought I could raise some chickens and maybe some pigs to sell. But I am REALLY not understanding how many chickens I can run thru the summer to make the most of the land. I don't want to get more than I can handle but at the same time I want to do as much as I can with the little bit of land I have. Thanks again for taking time to respond to my question! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
How long do you keep each tractor in the same spot before moving it?
@@slimpickens0000 They should be moved every day. Depending on the number of chickens in the tractor may need to be moved twice. Once is the minimum though.
This is AWESOME!!!! Thanks so much for your numbers! Success to you!
Research and join First Trade Markets platform to earn 6 or 7 figures once you get started
Thank you for this video. How are you handling the inspections and food permits?
I live in Georgia and would need several different state licenses to raise and sell the food chickens. Have you calculated that expense in.
Awesome info thank you so much .. Thanks for your time and in out !! Awesome content !!
I would like to ask you and the other viewers here if they have found a wholesale outlet for selling their pastured poultry? Organic, non-GMO pastured poultry? Co-ops or other ways for marketing? I'm thinking that a larger scale operation may be challenged to market so many chickens and I'm interested to know if other people have overcome this part. Thanks for your video!!!
So we direct market to customers, sell wholesale to small local grocery stores and also do bulk orders for customers. Another idea we have had, but never really pursued, is to do custom batches for events. For example someone is doing a big wedding or cookout, we could do enough chicken to supply that event and have it ready in 8 weeks if you didn't have it in stock.
@@SheratonParkFarms Thank you for the reply! Good information!
Most people will be selling while chickens. I'm wondering how much we can get for those? We have 1 acre I'd love to do this n just sell the live broilers ready to process
I have approx 4000sqft. Rest is in severe flood zone, that's where garden is. I've no clue what's happening in the next week or year it's crazy. Soon as I get my propane & real estate taxes the chickens will be ordered about 50 at a time
Awesome. Good luck with your venture.
Maybe I missed something but did you factor in multiplying those numbers by 3 to factor 6 months instead of just 2?
Appreciate the straight forward and very educational information!!!
Research and join First Trade Markets platform to earn 6 or 7 figures once you get started
Did you include the cost of buying the chickens? Didn’t hear that cost.
I think you did a great job rehashing the numbers--back of a napkin kinda math. I've been going through the numbers and processes of both John Suscovich and Joel's. A few comments and questions, please. When you say you process them-- does that mean you do the slaughter house stuff? Or another way: I guess you do the killing, cleaning, packaging etc yourself? In my reasearch, I find that there is no way to make money on chickens if you send the out for processing and packing. In fact, it seems to me the only way to every recoup your fixed investment and to make a meager tiny margin at all would be to do all the processing and packaging yourself and do it in such tremendous volumn that it would make trying to do your own processing a full-time job. Even with that you'd have to be salesman of the century to being able to go direct to retail with that volumn. John Suscovich uses $24 per chix as his sale per chicken-- I do not know where on God's good earth you could sell a 4-6 lb chicken for $24. I have unfortunitly come to the conclusion thatand chickens I raise would be for personal consumption only by going out the the coup and pulling one out to east that night. The only way I could see perhaps barely making a penny out of this business is to buy your initial batch with the intent to build out and to complement the meat business with breeding your own inputs and having a large egg producing operation--to produce your chicks and to sell eggs. To keep growning that until you can matach in scale a Hugh operationof meat chicks. Hmmp!
How do you get electric heat lamps inside of your mobile chicken tractors?
Love it. Learning so much
I love the videos but everyone should keep in mind that as the scale of your operation goes up so does your labor cost. What about fuel for your tractor or 4-wheeler to carry around water and feed? At a scale of 20 acres I don't see you doing all of this manually. Would you personally be able to handle 20 acres of meat chickens by yourself? If not how many people would you need to hire to help move the chicken tractors, feed them, water them, and most importantly process them for sale? I think it is a great idea and yes, you could make a significant income from raising meat birds but there is more to it than just adding up each acre. Taking his 125 birds per 1/4 acre, that is 20,000 birds, and that is only after 2 months. A lot of work to process that many. Not saying it can't be done if you have all the right equipment, which can be expensive at scale. So let's say you have a week to process before starting the next batch. Even if you worked 7 days straight you would have to process 2857 birds a day. So now we have to figure in all the electricity, water, etc. to process that many that quickly because you would really have to have some industrial equipment for that kind of scale. It is fun think think about what ifs, but make sure to try and calculate all the costs when scaling up. Moving 4 or 5 chicken tractors a day by hand is child's play. Moving over 667 chicken tractors would be quite a task.
Thank you for this one, I appreciate it, What you put out is very easy to understand thank you.
Thanks yet again!
I think something else that needs addressed in this is the cost of the infrastructure, what you pay yourself in labor.
Good point. I’m taking into consideration that the infrastructure is paid for but no labor outside of processing labor.
If you measure in % of the value of the 20 acres it probably hasn't changed much in 30 years.
Is the manpower included in the scaling up? One person can manage a certain amount of chicken tractor. Base on your experience, how many chicken tractor is manageable for a single person?
Thanks for all of the info! Is it possible to make any kind of profit on just 4 chickens? It’s all I’m allowed living in basically the city here on 1 acre.
I've been reading one of Joel's books. The thing i dont quite understand is how do y'all sell them? How do you go about it? Where do you go?
You have to find folks that will buy. Get the word out to family, friends and co-workers that you are raising chickens for meat and they will be for sale. Get them to talk to their family, friends and co-workers. Word of mouth is your biggest advertisement. Find a local farmer's market or two and get hooked up as a vendor. Start a Facebook page for your farm and advertise there. Craigslist, believe it or not, is not a bad place to advertise as well.
@@SheratonParkFarms Thank you for the advice, I appreciate it!
Look for producer only farmer's markets in a big city near you.
Just came across your videos we are also in North Carolina Eastern nc. We are just before starting to raise pigs . What would you recommend as a good number to start with? They will free range in the woods we want them to clear some woods out for us , then sell for slaughter .
Did you count packaging cost, cost to operate freezers , cost of chicken tractors or other hidden cost
Thanks for the very informative video!
Good overview. Thank you! 👍🏻🐓
Good video! Very informative. Thanks !
Thanks. Hope it was helpful.
Wow that's expensive 10,99 a pound my uncle owns a really big farm and sells his for 5 bucks a pound and I live in n.c
are they grain fed or grass pasture raised?
Sorry, I'm confused. What is the recovery time for each tractor position used?
How often do you move your chicken tractors?
Every day.
Do you have a number of how much feed is offset when compared to a confined space and 100% provided feed? It doesn't seem like much of a difference.
I'm sitting on 120 acres and this is really tempting.
I inherited an old family farm, the one I grew up on, and a majority of it is currently being leased out to keep ag exemption. I have chickens I keep for me and the family, which is easy because I work at home as a computer programmer, but this way of life will be the death of me. I want my future children to not have to experience this but also be financially stable. The chickens we keep are kept in one place and I've had, at most, 20. How would one get started doing this? Where do you sell your product once it's processed?
Honestly make the move! I would advise you to make a lot of research before you start look on Farm Up. He has some good videos that would help you!
So start small with meat chickens. Get 25-30, build a pasture shelter/tractor and start growing them. Its really not that difficult. We sell at farmers' markets and also here on the farm. You can do it!
7:00 profit
Hi Chuck, sorry if I missed it.. but do you have a video on processing? Do you do it on farm ? What is your freezer set up like? Do you have high electric cost for storing birds till they sell? Thank you!
Hey David. I do have a couple of videos on processing and also 2 on my freezer. Haven’t done one in the coat to operate the freezer yet.
I think his one shows our setup. ruclips.net/video/7bxQYy0OcRc/видео.html
Excellent video! Appreciate the efforts!
Thank you. Appreciate the feedback. Thanks for watching
Another great video. Thanks for making these.
You nailed it there toward the end. That was based on one pass. Even if you didn't start a new batch until you processed the last batch, a 6 or especially an 8 week recovery period should be more than enough. I would think most people in most places could probably get through at least 3 if not 4 rotations per year at 8 weeks?
Btw, I'm curious, Dr Ken Anderson (the NC State University poultry science professor and extension specialist) suggests a 4-week rest, but his arrangement is much different. He provides 30 sq ft per bird for 28 days and rotates back and forth between two paddocks. He does 4 weeks on and 4 weeks rest. They also go from whichever paddock they are in, back to a central coop at night, so they are not sleeping and thus pooping/peeing at night in the paddock. So I would think that may have the advantage of recovering quicker, but that may not be true? Compared to his 28 days in his setup, how long would you say it takes the spot a chicken tractor was sitting to recover from the time you move it off?
The recommendation is that you only do one pass on a spot once per year due to nitrogen load. The soil can only absorb so much nitrogen and any excess with be washed off (potentially contaminating ground water). So we intentionally only go over a spot one time per year.
Our per square foot works out to 2.4 square foot per day so he is stocking a little more dense than we are. I've also noticed that the manure load can get heavy during the day and isn't restricted to night time which is another reason for the daily moves. We can see an improvement in the ground they come off of in as little as 3 days with no sign of manure on a spot within about 2 weeks or so.