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To: gnarledmaw
Why aren't all these animals just being sent to other processors? Why indeed. I think we all know why.

Some of the bigger, Henry Ford assembly line style processors can run 50-60,000 pigs through a day. How many small processors would that take? Keep in mind that most small processors already have enough work to keep them in business. Plenty of small processors where I live now but I used to live in the suburbs. No processors and a lot more people per sq mile.

Pretty much works the same with all businesses. Bigger eventually overtakes the small ones. Walmart is literally the only "department" store for most rural people. No more Woolworths, K-Mart, Sears etc. Same with auto parts stores. Half a dozen large chains now. There's efficiency and buying power in large operations.

Chicken operations. They call them vertically integrated. Tyson owns the birds, the feed, the processing plants and makes the rules. The "producers" own the building, the land it's on, the manure and any birds that die before Tyson comes to pick them up. It's all very efficient. I've raised a batch of meat birds before. Cost $5-6.00 between buying the day old chicks and the feed. If I were to add my labor, they would be $15.00 whole chickens. If I were able to find a small processor to do the chickens, they would be $30 whole chickens or $40 cut up and packaged as pieces.

25 posted on 05/07/2020 5:53:15 AM PDT by Pollard (shadowbanned)
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To: Pollard

I actually know of a person in the Colorado Rockies that raises Pastured Poultry. He sells his self processed birds for $30 each and people buy them.


26 posted on 05/07/2020 5:55:32 AM PDT by Pollard (shadowbanned)
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