Many small farms are puzzled when it comes to how to make their egg production a profitable part of their farm. Many farms resign themselves to considering eggs a “loss leader” for their business, knowing that they do not make much money on the eggs, but their customers love them, come to buy eggs, and wind up buying their other farm products. As the weather turns cold this holiday season, now is the time to take a step back and look at some key numbers that can help turn your egg production into a profitable enterprise of your farm.
One key decision you have to make that will effect the profitability of your egg production is how you will source the layers that you will use. When sourcing egg layers, you have the choice of growing them out yourself from chicks, or buying 17-20 week old pullets that are ready to lay. When growing out your own chicks, you know the quality and care given to those chicks, but you also have increased labor costs. You also need to figure out a way to raise your layers during the winter, if you want them to begin laying at the beginning of your farm market season in the spring.
When buying started pullets, you harness the savings of someone else raising many chickens at once. However, many started pullets have been raised in industrial conditions with conventional feeds, and have had their beaks. This can translate to a laying flock which is not as vibrant and healthy as you would like, and does not match the growing standards for your farm.
Let’s analyze the cost of raising pullets to 20 weeks old, the point at which they will be ready to lay. These figures will use the price for Novo Gen Pullets from Freedom Ranger Hatchery (the price for 500 and 1,000 is a guess and not actual pricing from them). It also uses a price for $18/bag, and $16/bag feed. A flock of 500 would used approximately 4 tons of feed over these 20 weeks.
If you were to use bulk feed to raise the larger quantities, and decrease feed cost by another $2 per 50 lbs, that would decrease the final cost of the 20 week old pullet by about $0.60/bird.
According to these numbers, in order to be able to raise a pullet to 20 weeks for less than $10, you would need to either not pay yourself for your labor, in which case it is not a business but it is a hobby, or you would need to raise over a 1,000 chickens and be able to handle those kind of numbers with your infrastructure from brooding, to feed storage, and field management.
This is how the cost of raising a pullet translates to your cost per dozen eggs produced.
Harnessing the power of scale is a great way to increase profits, and this can be done by the small farm by purchasing started pullets. By decreasing the cost of a started pullet to $10.95/each, a farm can increase their profits by $0.60 for every dozen eggs sold. Most small farms are not going to raise 1,000 or more pullets, so started pullets can provide an advantage in time and money.
Dawson Gap Farm has found a solution for the small farm seeking to produce eggs by sourcing a quality breed of started pullet, that will be raised on Hiland Naturals Feed, will be treated humanely, and will have a full beak. This way a small farm can harness the power of scale, while knowing that their started pullets are raised without GMO or chemical pesticides and herbicides. A small farm can now get 100, quality, non-gmo chickens ready to lay for $10.95 each and increase their profits by $0.60 on every dozen eggs they sell.
Started pullets must be ordered to be able to take advantage of the opportunity to get started in Mid-April with chickens ready to start laying. Contact Dawson Gap for details on how you can place your order!
Ready to Lay Pullets will be offered at the following prices: 1-99 $11.95/ea, 100-299 $10.95/ea, and 300+ $9.95/ea. They will be available for pick up at Dawson Gap Farm in Mid April 2018, and delivery is available for an additional fee.
NovoGen Brown Layer:
Prolific Egg Layer
50% production at week 20
Peak production 93-95% lay rate
Excellent Feed Conversion
Easy to manage, calm disposition
Excellent shell strength with dark brown egg shell coloring
The NovoGen brown has been bred to adapt to different conditions allowing them to produce well in housing or to thrive on free range
