Death By a Thousand Cuts

I walked out to the mailbox yesterday and got the mail out.  As I walked back to the house, I opened a letter from our electric company.  We had just received a bill.  What could this be?  I'll share it with you:

I'm not picking on the electric company.  All of their costs have risen.  They are in the business of making money.  They must pass along the increases.  There's several issues at play, though.  First, I love my job, but wages aren't keeping up with rising prices.  Not just my company but others that I talk to.  Our company just had open enrollment for benefits for 2025.  Health insurance is up by $60 per month.  Deductibles and co-pays are higher and if your service provider is out of network, you'll owe even more.  And yet, our local hospital in our small town just announced a $23 million expansion project.

Homeowner's insurance has increased substantially over the past several years.  I'm understanding that with the renewals coming, it will be yet another double digit percentage increase.  You can shop around, but from what I'm hearing, it's of no benefit.  Every company has increased.  I know of three people that have canceled their property insurance because they cannot afford it.  They can't make their budgets work.  These are widows and retired people that I know.  Imagine that!  People who worked and paid taxes their entire lives and now live on a fixed income and live very frugally and yet, the cost of living has risen such that they can't afford to insure their home.  If a storm comes through or they have a house fire, they have no home.  Our little church can't afford property coverage and we have opted to self-insure, setting a percentage aside each month to fund damage repairs when a hurricane comes through. 

Although we don't grocery shop much, Tricia did shop for ingredients for "Dinner on the Grounds" at church Sunday, and she came in with four little bags and was flabbergasted at the price of their contents.  I've listed a few items, but really, every good and service has increased.  Sadly, many people have run up the balances on their credit cards.  Where does it end?  When does it end?

The wealthy can afford to pay the increases.  The poor are subsidized by the government for food, shelter, medical.  It's really hurting the middle class, though, who don't have disposal income to draw from to pay for the increased costs.  

Families can't print money.  Families must live within a set budget.  Families cannot give away their money prior to making sure that members of their family are taken care of.  Families must make hard decisions.  Make a budget and live within its boundaries.  Live on a cash basis.  If you don't have cash to purchase it, don't purchase it.  Get out of any debt.  Cut out the "fat" in your life.  Do I really need those subscriptions?  $5 coffee?  Gym membership?  With each purchase, ask yourself, "Can I afford it?"  Grow your own food.  Get in shape - physically, mentally, and financially.  Hold your loved ones tight.  Last, but not least, find a small country church and attend regularly.  Read God's Word and grow, living by the wisdom found therein.  Trust in Him.  He'll see you through.

2020 Meat Birds - By the Numbers

I promised to finish up on our segment of butchering our meat birds by giving a little recap of our costs and other figures we always track every year.

Ordered      50
Received    50
Mortality     3  (6% mortality rate)
Butchered  47

Date Mailed                3/23/2020
Date of Slaughter       5/16/2020
Days old @ slaughter             56
Weeks old @ slaughter            8

For comparative purposes, our Total Costs last year on 47 birds were $443.24, yielding a cost per bird of $9.43.  Much better this year!  Last year we fed 16 bags of feed.  This year we fed only 14.5.  Much better conversion of feed to meat as last year each bird consumed 17 pounds of feed and this year each bird consumed only 15.4 pounds of feed.

2020
Total pounds Cornish Cross Carcass whole            230.40 lbs.
Average pounds per bird                                              4.9  lbs.
Cost per pound                                                           $1.60

For comparative purposes, here are the numbers from 2019:
Total pounds Cornish Cross Carcass whole            193.10 lbs.
Average pounds per bird                                              4.11  lbs.
Cost per pound                                                           $2.30

On the same # of birds (47), we produced 37.3 pounds more of meat in 2020 over 2019.  Our cost per pound was $0.70 per pound cheaper in 2020 over 2019.

Overall one of our best years and I attribute it to two things:
#1   Purchasing the birds later in the year.  (2019 we got them on 2/28.  2020 on 3/23)  Getting them later meant that the birds were warmer.  Their calories were not expended keeping warm, but in growing.
#2   We put them on grass from day 1.  They were able to scratch and do "chicken things" like eat grass, bugs, and worms to supplement the feed we kept in front of them.

2014 Cornish Cross Meat Birds - By the Numbers

Things change quickly don't they?  In just 10 short weeks, our Cornish Cross Chickens went from this:

1 day old - a few ounces

To this:

10 weeks old - 6 pounds

To this:

Change indeed

In what I promise to be the last post on Cornish Cross Meat Birds for a long time, this is the post where we look at the numbers and examine the hard facts about the birds. I think it is helpful to do this as it serves as a basis of comparison from year to year - sort of like a measuring stick.  It may not provide all the answers you need, but at least starts you asking the right questions.

Date of Receipt:           01/03/2014

Date of Slaughter:       03/15/2014

Days old at Slaughter:               73

Weeks old at Slaughter:       10.43
Number of Birds Slaughtered:  92

Expenses:

• Purchased birds:                  $40.00  (101 birds at $0.40 per bird)
• Propane                                $10.00
• Waterer/Feeders                   $14.50
• Bulbs for Heat Lamp            $19.55
• Fixed costs                            $37.50
• Ice                                         $  8.75
• Ziploc Bags                            $  6.13
• Feed  (40 bags @ $17.48)   $699.20 {50 lb bags}

Total Cost:                                    $835.63

Losses: 9 birds or 8.91% mortality rate - unfortunately, most of the losses occurred at the latter part of the ten week growing period, AFTER they had consumed a lot of feed.  If they are going to die, you want them to die early on.

The math:

Cost per bird:                   $9.08

Cost per pound:                $2.22

Feed consumed per bird:   21.74 pounds

Feed cost per bird:            $7.60

Feed cost per pound:         $0.35

At $9.08 per bird, those are some expensive birds.  Notice the expenses DON'T include labor and it is a lot of work for 10 weeks to care for, then butcher, then cut them up. If you were to sell them, you would need to find clintele that placed a premium on a natural, quality bird versus the 'factory birds' you get at the grocery store.

Total pounds Cornish Cross carcasses whole:  376.07 pounds

Average pounds per bird:  92 birds:                      4.09 pounds

This is very interesting information.  Our records from 3 prior batches show that the size or average pounds per bird was not materially different from prior harvests.  All other expenses compared to prior years were not materially different.  I have to tip my hat to Parsley's Feed Store in Jennings as the feed cost per bag of Chick Grower remains the same price since 2012!

But the Huge difference was the Feed Consumed per bird:  This year each bird consumed on average 21.75 pounds of feed.  Last year each bird consumed on average only 12 pounds of feed!!!  We experienced almost a doubling in the amount of feed the birds ate while harvesting a bird yielding the same carcass weight. Our feed cost per bird went from $4.20 per bird last year to $7.60 per bird this year - with NO CHANGE in the cost of feed!  How can this be?

I certainly don't have an answer.  I can tell you that the winter of 2014 was colder and wetter for longer than the 2013 crop year, which may have encouraged them to eat more this year to stay warm?  Or perhaps the colder weather hindered grass growth which supplements their diets, causing them to eat more feed?  Fact is, those are guesses and I just don't know.  It remains a mystery.

Sometimes life throws you curve balls and you just have to choke up, stay in the batter's box and keep swinging for the fences.  And that's what we'll do.

In the end, we have a better, more high quality bird than what you can buy in the store and we'll have some nice chickens to eat on all year long that were harvested right off of the pasture of Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  Sure, you can purchase a cheaper bird, but you can't purchase a better bird.  These chickens will provide some mighty fine eating - and there's no mystery there!