Small Farmonomics: Poultry

The Need for Feed

In a business class years ago, I remember my professor telling the class, "Look and see where they are putting in Starbucks; that is a location that is either doing well or is up and coming." The statement stuck with me because of its simplicity, and it has proven true. I still observe where new Starbucks locations are opening, and it is almost always in developing areas.

Now, take a look at the map below that I have compiled, and replace the coffee shops with corporate mega farms, also known as CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), and an interesting map begins to form.

There are seven CAFOs within a 36-square-mile area near LBH, and each location appears to be fairly large, processing several million poultry per year. Further south in the Fresno area, there are more Foster Farms and Petaluma Poultry contracted farmers as well. There could be multiple reasons why there are so many CAFOs in the same area, but I suspect the two main reasons are the presence of processing plants in Fresno and the availability of inexpensive feed nearby.

Big poultry companies utilize contract farmers to raise chickens on their land, and the companies are providing the chicks and the feed. I suspect that these companies save on feed transportation costs by sourcing feed from Modesto Milling, which is organically certified, allowing them to add the "Organic" aspect to the final poultry product.

The reason this is important is that I also have access to Modesto Milling's organic feed, and when purchased in bulk, it is significantly cheaper than buying feed bags from my local store or having bulk feed shipped via freight. In fact, it is 44% cheaper per pound! It is likely that I am still paying around 10-20% more than someone buying on a corporate account, but hey, I am not raising 3 million birds in gross sheds, nor do I want to!

To be clear, feed is the number one cost of raising the birds, and with it being both very reasonably priced and organic, it allows us to be much more competitive than someone who has to ship their feed. I foresee the poultry aspect of Last Bastion Homestead as being a core component of our dream for the land and the inexpensive feed costs is a big reason for that decision.