Salatin - Pastured Poultry Profits

PASTURED POULTRY PROFITS

by

Joel Salatin

Copyright 1996 by Joel Salatin

Contents

Foreword

March 19, 1991

I n this book a proven production model is described, which is capable of producing an income from a small acreage equal or superior to that of most off-farm jobs. However, this production model is capable of producing more than money. It is capable of producing a very high quality of life as anyone who has ever visited Joel and Teresas farm can attest.

As much as I admire Joel Salatins agricultural engineering abilities, I admire even more his steadfast refusal to compromise his familys quality of life. Probably the greatest lesson we can learn from Joels success is that if we produce a high enough quality product the marketplace will bend and adapt itself to meet our needs, wants and desires. We just need to have faith and stand our ground.

This production model should be viewed as a whole. All of the recommendations contained in this book are the results of many years of costly trial and error and should not be dismissed lightly in your initial efforts. This model will not return the same dollars if it is done on a non-seasonal basis, or if the chickens are sold in any method other than live and direct. Most of the disappointments with pastured poultry have come from people who thought they could come up with an easier production or marketing model than Joel is using.

As Joel points out, you should start off producing no more chickens than you and your family can consume until you are sure you can produce a superior product. The first person you have to sell on your chicken is you. Your best advertising will be the exceptional taste of your chicken. Give some to your friends and neighbors and let your business grow slowly from word of mouth referrals. Start small and give yourself plenty of time to see if pastured poultry truly fits your needs and life-style before investing a lot of capital.

Due to the necessity to condition the pasture for the chickens and to rotate the land where the chickens are grazed, this production model is best used in combination with some form of ruminant livestock production. In addition to poultry, Joel also sells excellent grass-fed beef.

All of us interested in seeing an American rural revival should thank Joel and Teresa Salatin for going to the effort and expense to share their experiences and recommendations for pastured poultry with you.

Allan Nation

Editor, The Stockman Grass Farmer

Introduction

A couple working six months per year for 50 hours per week on 20 acres can net $25, 000-$30, 000 per year with an investment equivalent to the price of one new medium-sized tractor.

Seldom has agriculture held out such a plum. In a day when main-line farm experts predict the continued demise of the family farm, the pastured poultry opportunity shines like a beacon in the night, guiding the way to a brighter future.

Ive pastured poultry in portable pens since the late 1960s, when I was scarcely a teenager. It worked then, and it works now.

Because so many people have sought information on our model, I have attempted to put it in writing so that it may be duplicated throughout the world. For the health of the rural economy, the health of the environment, the health of the poultry consuming public, and the health of farm families, we offer this proposal.

We encourage continued refinements and innovation to this system, and trust that our role as catalyst will encourage thousands of enterprising farm families.

About Polyface Farm

Polyface, Inc. is a closely held incorporated family farm established by my parents, William T. and Lucille Salatin. Located just southwest of Staunton, Virginia, in the scenic Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the farm is currently operated by my mother and my family: wife, Teresa Wenger Salatin; son, Daniel and daughter, Rachel.

My grandfather, Frederick Salatin, was a charter subscriber to Organic Gardening and Farming magazine, and was a master gardener and craftsman from Indiana. Dad and Mom moved to Virginia in 1961 and carried the organic farming torch from Grandpa. I am the privileged third generation to continue the principles based on the belief that God created the Earth and established humanity as its steward, to nurture, protect and embellish. This philosophy precludes the use of toxic chemicals, debasing substances, and erosive practices, and instills instead an insatiable thirst for agricultural truth.

The truth manifests itself in natural principles of plant and animal life. The farm should capitalize on these laws rather than fight against them.

Roughly 550 acres, the farm is about 100 acres open land and the balance wooded. We produce organic grass-fattened beef, home-grown broilers, firewood, eggs, rabbits and vegetables. Full-time farmers who are not independently wealthy, we rely on the farm for our sustenance and have developed production, processing and marketing systems that make an end run around conventional agricultures roadblocks. We can hardly imagine being more enthusiastic about farming, and trust that these pages will encourage and inspire farmers of all ages to go forward with renewed optimism.

Joel Salatin

July 1993

WHY
PASTURED
POULTRY?

Chapter 1

The Pastured Poultry Opportunity

A couple working 50 hours a week for six months a year on 20 acres can NET $25, 000-$30, 000. What other agricultural enterprise can do that?

Read that first paragraph again. Let it sink in. There are certain times in the history of any culture when golden opportunities go begging. This is one of those times. All the indicators point to pastured, home processed poultry as one of this centurys best family farm enterprises.

Per capita consumption of red meats is down while poultry and fish are on a dramatic incline. Who would have predicted in 1900 that poultry would surpass beef in per capita consumption? It has. And the lines on the chart continue their divergent paths. Americans are buying chicken.

But there is a catch. The poultry industrys factory farming methodology, its automated processing plants with concomitant Salmonella and sickness outbreaks among consumers have completely adulterated the product. Media attention on the vertically integrated poultry industry is unprecedented. National TV news programs and magazine articles, and a crusade from animal rights activists against inhumane confinement, have left many consumers rightfully concerned about the safety and environmental costs of poultry products in the supermarket.

If there were an alternative - some cleanly, humanely produced poultry -consumers would flock to it, no pun intended. Many consumers have turned vegetarian in the face of perceived filth and animal cruelty. Justified or not, this reaction further contracts the pool of consumers who otherwise would patronize the meat counter.

Nutritional perceptions, coupled with new environmental sensitivities, are creating a generation clamoring for natural, organic, ecological, biological, regenerative food. Call it what you will, everyone knows deep down what these ideas mean, in spite of ongoing academic debates over definitions.

The fact is that many consumers want to exit conventional food channels, some of necessity, some of conviction, some of mistrust, and some simply because somewhere theyve tasted clean food and found it memorable. Pastured poultry offers an alternative to all of these consumers.

Pastured chickens, because they eat high amounts of forage, can be clinically shown to be far lower in saturated fat than conventionally produced birds. Raised without the negatives - antibiotics, steroids, fecal air and artificial light-but with the positives - probiotics, kelp meal, natural vitamins, fresh air and sunshine, clean pasture paddocks and in small groups - pastured birds offer a completely different meat to the consumer.