Producer Profile: Charles and Laura Rich
Charles Rich, his wife Laura, two teenage daughters and a few helpers raised a little over 11,000 birds in 2002 on their farm in northern Alabama. The Rich’s do 7 batches of broilers a year, with the first batch processed in April and the last in October. A typical batch is anywhere from 1500 – 2000+ birds.
Broiler Production System
Charles uses a mixture of the typical Salatin type pull pen and the Day Range or Mini-barn system. The pull pens have anywhere from 90 birds to a pen in the spring and fall and 80 birds in the summer. The pens used now are constructed exactly like those Joel uses, but Charles is experimenting with other designs. The mini-barns were built with floors, with plans to brood the chicks inside, but this did not work and the cleaning of the chip bedding has proved to be too much work. Charles is now working on removing the floors. The mini-barns are surrounded with poultry netting and moved as needed. The mini-barn has less death loss and produces a higher quality bird, and Charles thinks that it is more “free range”.
Charles uses the bell type waters exclusively. He tried a nipple system, but did not like it, feeling that the birds were not getting enough to drink and the waterers were problematic. (See “Watering System Comparisons, GRIT #24).
Birds are purchased as straight runs and harvested at 8 weeks. Overall death loss runs around 5% to 8%, but is improving.
Charles believes brooding is THE single most important aspect of this system. The Rich’s currently place chicks in battery brooders for the first weeks and then move them onto fresh wood chips. They do not clean out the wood chips after each batch, but aerate and put a fresh layer on top. The further they go into the season the more aerobic the bedding becomes, and Charles notices a ton of bugs in the litter. The brooder heat source is gas fried pancake brooders. Again, only bell type waters are used. Charles is currently building a hoop house to do brooding in.
Feed
Charles uses Jeff Maddox at The Fertrell Company exclusively for his ration mix, and says they “don’t know how we would make it without him and his vast knowledge of nutrition.” Feed runs $.15 to $.16 per pound and is bought bulk and delivered to the silo. Feed is regularly tested for mold and toxins and overall feed quality.
Labor and Processing
Daily labor is family with some outside help from time to time. Daily chores take about 2 hours. Charles spends about 10 more hours each week with miscellaneous chores.
The family processes the birds themselves with 8 people. Charles, Laura, daughters 15 and 12 plus 4 other helpers (including 3 other young home-schooled boys/girls) do the processing work. Charles figures it cost about $1 per bird for processing, bagging and waiting on customers, cleanup etc., and that they lose about 2 birds per 100 in the processing. The use of killing cones and a shackle system allows them to do about 200 birds an hour.
Marketing
All sales are on farm. State law does not allow sales at farmers markets, and they do not deliver. Word of mouth is the most effective marketing tool and they offer incentives for referrals. They also advertise in the local health magazine and once a year in the paper of the largest town nearby, though Charles adds that newspaper advertising is very hard to evaluate. The Rich’s send out newsletters and notify email customers when there is something on the web that might be interesting. They also contact newspaper editors and request to be interviewed when some issue presents itself.
Record Keeping
Charles keeps accurate records of all feed used, death loss and expenses on a daily basis per batch. At the end of each batch he does a spreadsheet analysis of every ratio he can think of: total sales, number harvested, number purchased, pounds harvested, number sold, number rejected, feed used, feed cost, chick cost, direct processing cost (labor, deprecation of equipment, etc), gross profit, profit per bird, percent mortality, feed per pound of birds sold, feed per bird and feed conversion ratio.
A spreadsheet is used to keep track of orders. Customers are tracked using a Contact database. The Rich’s know who is buying what and when they bought it
The Bottom Line
Since pastured poultry is a superior product, Charles finds the concept easy to sell. But, the cost and the trip to the farm are prohibitive for the consumer. The Rich’s have resisted offering delivery because they feel it will increase sales without increasing profits, and it will take them away from the farm. They already find they’re so busy that it is hard to get everything done.
Words from Charles on Challenges: “Niche markets are always tough. You run wide open to stay in place. Keeping customers excited and motivated is a constant job. Growth is hard to finance. New brooder space, new field pens, better processing equipment, crashes, and mistakes all eat into the profit.”