Let’s Talk About Money: Why Buying Local Isn’t Cheap
The most common objection I see to buying local, farm-to-table meat is the price.
I get it, we are used to seeing grocery store prices from factory-farmed meat. There are many different things I can think of that small farms have to deal with, that factory farms don’t. But I want to highlight just a few of the main reasons why our prices are different…
More Love and Labor
I always say, animals that are satisfying one our most essential needs (food!) deserve to be treated with respect. We are prioritizing things like…
Moving the coop daily.
Scrubbing water dishes daily.
Taking time to observe daily. I stand and watch for any signs of illness, and to ensure general well being. Because of the care I take in maintaining a clean environment, illness isn’t much of an issue. But if there is a problem, I want to make sure it’s addressed immediately.
A whole lot of DIY. I’m very lucky to have a dad/lead ranch hand that provides knowledge and experience in a lot of handywork, yet we still regularly get our butts kicked by the trial and error we have to go through. We keep trying though because we care about doing this right, and we don’t have the resources or money that big factory farms have for help.
More Land
I currently run 150 birds per mobile 10’x30’ foot coop. When you’re practicing rotational grazing like this, the most important part is leaving them in one area for the right amount of time, and allowing for the right amount of rest between grazing. We want to keep the soil and our animals fresh and healthy, so an average rest period can be 30-45 days, sometimes up to 60 days depending on weather and time of year. So if we want to plan for the max, lets calculate those stats…
300 sq ft x 60 days = 18,000 sq ft (36,000 sq ft for 2x daily moves)
36,000 sq ft or 0.83 acres of useable pasture for just 150 chickens. I can assure you a CAFO (Confinement Animal Farming Operation) is not providing that much space, or even access to the outdoors. And to put 150 chickens into perspective… the average American eats about 100 pounds or 25ish whole chickens per year. 150 is nothin’ if we want to really provide for the community!
More Community Reliance
We shop small too! Not only do we want to support other small businesses, we don’t have a choice.
To bring you chicken that is fed NON-GMO without questions in ingredients, we pick-up a custom feed mix from our local feed mill that we trust.
To get these birds processed, we don’t have access to huge, cheap, processing facilities. We take them to a small, family owned facility that we know will do things humanely and cleanly.
There is higher cost in all of it.
More Transparency
We take the time to educate you, with posts just like this one. It’s important to us that you feel confident in your choice to shop with us, and never have to question where your meat is coming from.
In order to sustain a business, and maintain our ethics, we have to charge sustainable prices. Thank you for caring as much as we do about choosing pasture-raised, and supporting small farms.
