https://www.farminguk.com/News/Free...-supermarket-shelves-around-Europe_45370.html
Aside from all the politics in this story and the hope that DEFRA will put the industry before common sense and continue to persecute the backyard keeper......I'm struggling with the maths. Chicken maths is notoriously complicated and a whole different discipline to normal maths, mainly as they keep moving around. But anyway.
Story states that free range producers are losing £4.08 per bird. They state income of 88p per doz. So I'm trying to work this out.
My half breed mungrels will easily do 280-300 eggs in their first year. They cost me near on £5 to raise to laying. I have done the numbers on this several times. This is with feed at around £6 per bag (20kg) which I'm sure is more than the big boys pay, probably way more. The brown hen the big boys use will also eat less and lay more eggs than my mungrels. That's a given. Let's say 320 eggs in year 1.
So, my maths.
Hatch 2 eggs. Sex linked so one is brown, one is white. Mince the white one (boy). Raise the brown one to point of lay. Use my figure of £5 for feed. I suspect the industry does it closer to £3. Then it starts laying.
320 eggs later at a price of 88p per dozen is around £23.50 of income. Maybe say £22 if you take a bit of mortality etc. into it. This bird will eat (my mungrels) about 40kg of feed in this time. So say £12 in feed (high street prices).
So each hen earns £22 less £5 to raise and £12 to feed = £5 gross profit. I'm sure these figures are way out in terms of feed cost alone. But in a 16,000 bird unit, that's a gross of £80k including feed.
How does each hen lose the producer £4.08? Labour? Water? Debt?
Aside from all the politics in this story and the hope that DEFRA will put the industry before common sense and continue to persecute the backyard keeper......I'm struggling with the maths. Chicken maths is notoriously complicated and a whole different discipline to normal maths, mainly as they keep moving around. But anyway.
Story states that free range producers are losing £4.08 per bird. They state income of 88p per doz. So I'm trying to work this out.
My half breed mungrels will easily do 280-300 eggs in their first year. They cost me near on £5 to raise to laying. I have done the numbers on this several times. This is with feed at around £6 per bag (20kg) which I'm sure is more than the big boys pay, probably way more. The brown hen the big boys use will also eat less and lay more eggs than my mungrels. That's a given. Let's say 320 eggs in year 1.
So, my maths.
Hatch 2 eggs. Sex linked so one is brown, one is white. Mince the white one (boy). Raise the brown one to point of lay. Use my figure of £5 for feed. I suspect the industry does it closer to £3. Then it starts laying.
320 eggs later at a price of 88p per dozen is around £23.50 of income. Maybe say £22 if you take a bit of mortality etc. into it. This bird will eat (my mungrels) about 40kg of feed in this time. So say £12 in feed (high street prices).
So each hen earns £22 less £5 to raise and £12 to feed = £5 gross profit. I'm sure these figures are way out in terms of feed cost alone. But in a 16,000 bird unit, that's a gross of £80k including feed.
How does each hen lose the producer £4.08? Labour? Water? Debt?
