Opportunities in poultry

[yin ewe]

And what do the cooling fans run on? Our 32k bird house was pulling 23kw an hour the other morning whilst egg collecting, housed birds on a relatively mild day needs a fair bit of air movement.

Naturally ventilated house, 2 gable fans.

 

[yin ewe]

We get paid a price for our eggs, our of which we pay all the bills. Unfortunately the packer can vary their egg prices on a whim.

Egg price here is tied to meal price £5/ton increase is an extra 1p/dozen.

 

[Daniel]

Egg price here is tied to meal price £5/ton increase is an extra 1p/dozen.

That’s a good rule of thumb.

 

[Bossfarmer]

interesting how the contracts vary, bit like the milk job then?

 

[R J]

a lot of 39000 free range bird sheds gone up the last 3 years, what sort of margin are these guys making? surely not £8/bird net?

They will be 32000 units not 39000

 

[Frodo]

Yes profit is per crop not per year. Profit quoted has pullet, meal and medication etc, taken out. The cost of labour, electric, repairs (under guarantee for 1st crop) bank repayment and bedding (have only used 10 bales of shavings since November) is the responsibility of the farmer.

You seem to have missed Insurance, accountancy, dead bird disposal, range maintenance, water, and a pile of other costs from your gross margin figures.

Genuinely pleased for you if you are happy with the margin you are making, but can assure you free range egg production is not a land of milk and honey for all producers (or even omelettes and Nutella crepes)

 

[yin ewe]

You seem to have missed Insurance, accountancy, dead bird disposal, range maintenance, water, and a pile of other costs from your gross margin figures.

Genuinely pleased for you if you are happy with the margin you are making, but can assure you free range egg production is not a land of milk and honey for all producers (or even omelettes and Nutella crepes)

Yes there are more costs than I listed, it's not a get rich quick scheme but nothing in farming is.
IMO it's the best return on investment in farming at the moment. As a rough comparison I spend more than double the time on our 65 milk cows and take less wages from them.