Is pastured poultry profitable? Free batch and season profit planner

Does a batch of pastured chickens pay you for your time?

Enter your batch size, losses, feed, processing and prices. The planner works out profit per batch, per bird and per hour of your own labour, the dressed price per pound you need to break even, and how the season changes with mortality, feed price, sales channel and flock size.

Planning arithmetic on your own numbers and stated assumptions.

1. Your batches

Batches per season

Chicks placed per batch

Birds lost per batch (%)

Weeks to finish a batch (for reference)

Dressed weight per bird (lb)

Birds lost still ate part of a bird’s feed; the planner counts half. Weeks to finish is shown for your reference and does not change the numbers.

2. What you sell

Share sold direct to customers (%)

Direct price per dressed lb ($)

Wholesale / restaurant price per lb ($)

3. What it costs

Cost per chick ($)

Feed eaten per finished bird (lb)

Feed price per lb ($)

Processing per bird ($)

Bedding, fuel, supplements per batch ($)

Your hours per batch (moves, water, feed, processing day, sales)

What your hour is worth ($)

Insurance, licences, other fixed ($/yr)

Equipment you buy: pens, brooder, feeders, trailer ($)

Equipment life (years)

Questions people ask

Is raising pastured chickens profitable?

It can be, but the margin per bird is thin and labour is the swing factor. The planner shows profit before and after paying yourself, so you can see the hourly return on your own time, not just a profit figure.

How much does it cost to raise a pastured broiler?

Chicks, feed, processing, bedding and fuel, then your time. Feed is usually the largest line. The planner prices each batch and gives a break-even price per dressed pound.

How many batches a year can I run?

That depends on your climate and brooding set-up. Enter the number you will actually run; the planner multiplies one batch out to a season and spreads equipment over its life.

Is this agricultural or financial advice?

No. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type in. Licensing, processing rules, avian disease, predators, insurance, sales-tax and labelling are out of scope.

Not decided

Licensing and on-farm or custom processing rules, avian disease and biosecurity, predators and weather, pasture and rotation, insurance, sales-tax and labelling rules, local demand for your price, and tax treatment of farm income. Feed, chick and processing prices vary a lot by region and season; the defaults are placeholders, not forecasts.

Running other farm ventures? See the backyard egg profit calculator, the sheep and goat flock profit planner, the apiary profit planner and the u-pick farm profit planner.