Book summary “Pastured Poultry Profits”: summary

Introduction

You face a food system dominated by industrial factory farming that degrades the environment, compromises food safety, and distances consumers from the source of their meals.

A pastured poultry enterprise can generate high net income on small acreage through portable pens, on-farm processing, and direct relationship marketing.

Joel Salatin explains how you can net thousands of dollars on twenty acres using low-cost infrastructure. The book outlines a complete production model from brooding chicks to direct sales.

You will discover answers to practical operational questions:

• How do you build and move portable field pens without heavy machinery?
• What feeding practices prevent leg deformities without chemical additives?
• How do you process poultry cleanly and legally on your own farm?
• How do you secure advance orders and build lasting consumer relationships?

1. The Pastured Poultry Opportunity

A pastured poultry enterprise can generate a high net income on a small acreage with modest capital investment and part-time labor.

You can net $25,000 to $30,000 annually on 20 acres. A couple working 50 hours a week for six months a year achieves this result. Each bird requires about 5.5 person minutes in production and 3.5 person minutes in processing. This totals roughly 9 person minutes per bird. Fixed costs run about $1.80 to $2.00 per bird. Machinery investment runs between $10,000 and $15,000. Profit per bird averages about $3.

Economic Potential

The vertically integrated poultry industry relies on concentrated confinement housing and industrial processing. Factory farming separates grain production from poultry growing. This separation creates nutrient overloads, groundwater and air pollution, and toxic bedding with a 12:1 carbon-nitrogen ratio. Birds live in fecal dust, which causes respiratory lesions and requires antibiotics and arsenic.

Automated processing involves stunning and mechanical evisceration that spills feces. Chemical chill tanks cause carcasses to absorb water and fecal sludge.

The author notes that about 9 percent of the weight on department-store chicken is water absorbed from chill tanks. The industry uses up to 40 chlorine baths and seeks irradiation to control bacteria. R-factor disease strains and superbugs emerge from this environment.

Nutritional Benefits

Feeding poultry and livestock on green forage rather than high-energy, low-mineral rations significantly reduces saturated fat. The meat becomes healthier and less greasy. Chlorophyll acts as a detoxifier and is rich in magnesium and B vitamins. Animals fed on fresh pasture consume greens high in vitamins and minerals and low in energy. This diet produces meat with lower saturated fat, yellow fat, and softer grease that does not harden like wax. Forage-fed birds also retain less cooking loss compared to water-soaked conventional birds.

A professional barbecuer noted that conventional chicken carcass weight normally drops 20 percent during cooking. Salatin's pastured chicken lost only 9 percent.

Getting Started

Beginners should start a pastured poultry enterprise on a very small scale. You consume the initial batch yourself to minimize risk and master the learning curve.

Starting small with 50 to 100 broilers spreads capital investment. This scale accommodates inevitable mistakes and prevents catastrophic failure. Beginners should plan to eat or give away the first batch rather than worry about retail sales. Minimal equipment includes a small scalder and tabletop picker. This setup costs about $300 and processes 10-20 birds per hour. The author started with 400 birds, which was too many, and recommends starting with no more than 50 or 100 birds.

• Start with 50 or 100 broilers for your initial batch.
• Plan to eat all the initial birds yourself and give away a few as gifts.
• Wait to start your first batch until postal handling is guaranteed at 50 degrees in nonheated trucks.
• Provide a warm area at 90 degrees Fahrenheit with feed, water, and dry shavings.
• Construct your portable pen prior to receiving the chicks.
• Invest in minimal processing equipment including a 5-gallon neoprene thermostatically controlled scalder and a tabletop picker.

2. Brooding and Feeding Management

Proper brooder hygiene, deep bedding, and natural mineral rations eliminate the need for chemical sanitizers and prevent leg deformities.

Brooder Management

You need 25 square feet of floor space for 100 birds up to 4 weeks of age. Cover the floor with dry wood shavings from fine woodworking shops. Wood shavings from fine woodworking shops are ideal because they are dry and small, allowing scratching and beak cleaning.

Using deep wood shavings with a proper carbon-nitrogen ratio in the brooder creates a self-composting, disease-suppressing environment that eliminates the need for chemical sanitizers. Instead of cleaning out between batches, leaving the litter, wetting it down, aerating, and adding fresh shavings establishes a 30:1 carbon-nitrogen ratio that grows natural antibiotics and beneficial microorganisms.

• Provide roughly 25 square feet of floor space for 100 birds up to 4 weeks of age.
• Cover the floor with dry wood shavings from fine woodworking shops.
• Maintain a carbon-nitrogen ratio of about 30:1 in the bedding.
• Between batches, wet down the litter with water, stir or aerate the bedding, and add a couple of inches of fresh wood shavings on top.
• Section off chicks into groups of no more than 300 using light, short partitions.
• Provide enough linear feeder and waterer space to accommodate 35-50 percent of the flock at once.

Baby chicks must be warmed before eating or drinking, and their feed troughs must be positioned at beak height to prevent crippling. Chicks can survive 72 hours without food or water if warm, but need to get warm first. Constant stretching for high troughs causes leg problems and crippling.

• Let cold chicks get warm before encouraging them to eat or drink.
• Spread out newspapers and sprinkle feed on top for the first day or two to give easy access.
• Remove newspapers after a day or two and allow access to feed troughs.
• Move feeders over a couple of inches as chicks scratch away bedding so the lip hits at about breast height.

Providing natural creek sand, hay chaff, and seasonal greens to chicks stimulates foraging skills, provides minerals, and ensures strong structural development.

• Sprinkle creek sand and aggregate on the newspaper with feed to give chicks grinding stones for their gizzards.
• Feed hay chaff in a separate pan so chicks can scratch and search for seeds.
• Provide seasonal green supplements like lawn clippings or dandelion blossoms for only 10 or 20 minutes a day so they do not displace high-octane feed.

Salatin carries a wash tub on the hay wagon during baling to catch chaff from the baler chute, accumulating barrels of chaff for the chicks.

Feed and Ration Formulation

Pastured poultry rations can utilize diverse natural ingredients, including roasted soybeans, fish meal, and specialized mineral supplements, eliminating the need for animal byproducts.

Because pastured birds get 20 percent of their diet from pasture, the ration has flexibility. Salatin uses cracked and ground corn for energy, roasted soybeans for protein, crimped oats to prevent cannibalism and reduce dust, fish meal for vitamins and minerals, and Fertrell's Nutri-Balancer for trace minerals to aid protein assimilation.

Marlin Burkholder in Singers Glen, Virginia, picks up discarded double-walled plastic shipping boxes from a poultry processor to hold about a ton of feed, moving them with front-end loader forks.

• Crack half the corn and grind the other half to provide texture and prevent esophageal blockages.
• Ensure feed mills pre-mix micro-supplements like kelp, limestone, mineral balancers, and probiotics before adding them to the main batch.
• Consume mixed feed within three weeks before nutritional value deteriorates.

3. Pen Design and Field Logistics

Traditional chicken yards turn into mudholes or dustbowls, and stationary houses cause overgrazing near the structure. The portable pen is a floorless cage moved daily by hand using a dolly, giving birds fresh forage and eliminating parasite buildup through sunshine, rest, and daily relocation.

The portable, floorless pen provides high-density, short-duration grazing with absolute control over pasture, shelter, and predator protection.

Diane Kaufman in Wisconsin uses a pair of roller skates with notched 2x4 boards attached instead of a dolly to move her 7 pens by herself. Joel Salatin takes 90 minutes to move and service 26 pens holding 2,400 birds. Each pen spot puts down a nitrogen equivalent of 300 pounds per acre.

• Build pens using pressure-treated softwood lumber, aluminum roofing on the west end, and one-inch poultry netting.
• Suspend hanging waterers from the top brace and connect them to a 5-gallon white plastic bucket reservoir on top of the pen.
• Move pens daily to fresh pasture without adding feed and water immediately, encouraging birds to forage.

Transition to Pasture

Keeping birds in the brooder past four weeks costs 10 percent in carcass weight per week and exposes them to fecal dust. Moving them early in the day during good weather minimizes stress and allows them to acclimate before nightfall.

Rachel Salatin loads three-week-old chicks into pasture pens during the transition. Birds explore their surroundings within 20 minutes after a smooth move.

• Remove obstacles, waterers, and lights from the brooder before catching chicks.
• Use 4-foot long and 2-foot high plywood partitions to gently crowd birds into a corner.
• Fill transport crates without overloading them to prevent chicks from piling up and suffocating.
• Drive carefully to the field so birds are not shaken, and release them into the pre-positioned pen quickly.

Chickens prefer tiny tender shoots about 2 inches long for palatability and ease of harvesting. Short grass prevents the formation of slick, moisture-holding mats that soil the birds, allows the trailing pen edge to move smoothly without trapping chicks, and ensures proper manure-to-soil contact.

Cattle are run ahead of the chickens to shorten the grass and uncover bugs.

• Precede chickens with livestock grazing or mowing to shorten the sward to 1-3 inches.
• Inspect and plug soil depressions under the pen bottom board with plugs on uneven ground to keep predators out.

4. On-Farm Slaughter and Processing

Processing pastured poultry directly on the farm eliminates transport stress, prevents meat toughening, and avoids the severe fecal contamination found in large commercial processing vats.

Commercial processing uses electrocution which reduces bleeding and vacuum evisceration that frequently tears intestines, splashing feces over the meat. The meat is then soaked in chlorine and fecal sludge vats. Large commercial plants produce broilers where up to 10 percent of the meat counter weight is fecal soup. In contrast, on-farm processing keeps the birds calm, allows manual evisceration without tearing intestines, and saves significantly on transportation stress and costs. Most producers must drive 20 miles or more to reach a processing facility. Small processing facilities charge 60 cents to $1.50 per bird, while commercial plants average $1.00 to $1.25 per bird.

Joel and Teresa can process 50 birds an hour, saving $1.25 per bird in processing and about 50 miles of round-trip transportation, netting about $35 per hour for their labor after expenses. Speed increases when family helps. Joel's mother helps reach 60 an hour, and 11-year-old Daniel helps reach 70 or more an hour.

Slaughter Advantages

You can prepare the birds efficiently before slaughter. Most producers must drive 20 miles or more to reach a commercial facility costing $1.00 to $1.25 per bird.

• Remove feed 12 hours before slaughter to clean out the craw.
• Push chickens to the front of the pen using a plywood partition like a paddle.
• Catch and load chickens into crates, putting about 8 to a crate to prevent suffocation from piling up.

Mechanics and Equipment

A precise mechanical setup involving killing cones, a thermostatically controlled scalder with a dunker, and an automatic picker ensures clean, efficient home processing.

Birds are placed head-first in killing cones where the throat is slit while leaving the windpipe intact. This allows the heart to pump blood out cleanly without shock-induced muscle contractions. Scalding water at about 145 degrees Fahrenheit combined with a biodegradable soap helps break surface tension. A counterbalanced dunker moves the birds in and out to ensure even water penetration. Joel built a custom scalder using a wooden box inside a box with a 4500-watt hot water heater element and a submersible thermostat, covered in galvanized sheet metal with air space insulation. This 35-gallon scalder holds 700 pounds of birds per hour, equivalent to 125 chickens. A commercial scalder and dunker costs $4,000, while complete commercial setups range from $10,000 to $12,000. An automatic feather picker costs $4,000, is rated for 400 per hour, and finishes 4 chickens in about 15 seconds. The dunker electric motor runs at 8 cycles per minute.

• Place the bird head first in killing cones with the head sticking out the bottom.
• Slit the main artery with a knife without cutting the windpipe so the heart pumps out the blood.
• Scald the birds at approximately 145 degrees Fahrenheit for about a minute.
• Pull birds clear out of the water several times during scalding to encourage feather flocculation.
• Add a couple of tablespoons of Shaklee Basic H biodegradable soap to the scald water to break surface tension.
• Pull off the heads instead of cutting them to avoid bone shards.
• Cut out the oil gland on top of the tail.
• Slit the skin between the neck and breast to pull the craw, esophagus, and windpipe loose.
• Slit the skin just above the pubic bones horizontally and tear the rear opening to reach inside.
• Slide the hand with fingernails against the keel bone, loop the middle finger around the esophagus, and pull out the offal.
• Remove the heart and liver, pinch off the green gallbladder, and remove the gizzard if desired.
• Cut a U around the vent to free the offal, then reach deep into the rib cage to pull out the lungs.
• Cut a small slit in the rear below the keel bone and tuck the legs into the flap of skin for a compact carcass.

Waste Composting

Slaughter offal, feathers, and processing water can be cleanly and effectively composted using wood chips and wire mesh gates without generating offensive odors. By layering friable carbon materials like wood chips with feathers and guts while maintaining a one-foot thick carbon buffer around the edges, the pile generates high internal heat. This heat repels varmints and breaks down the material. Recomposting the material through a second cycle, often combined with beef offal later in the season, achieves full carbon utilization and creates a rich soil-building fertilizer. You need 3 to 4 cubic yards of carbon for every 1,000 birds. Joel's setup uses 3-foot high wire mesh gates placed 6 feet apart to hold the pile upright, successfully composting right next to the processing shed where customers arrive.

• Put up 3-foot high gates about 6 feet apart and across one end.
• Lay down about a foot of wood chips at the base to prevent loss into the ground.
• Layer feathers about 3 inches thick.
• Cover feathers with an inch or two of wood chips.
• Spread out the guts evenly, maintaining a one-foot carbon buffer all the way around the outer edges.
• Cover guts with 4 to 5 inches of wood chips.
• Pour blood and cone-cleaning water into the pile and spray down the top with water to seal vent holes.
• Build the pile high in steps rather than starting long and low to ensure a critical mass of about 3 feet for heat generation.

5. Relationship Marketing and Business

Selling poultry through advance written orders and direct farm visits eliminates financial risk, avoids middlemen, and builds lasting consumer trust.

Small producers must avoid competing with large corporations on convenience amenities and instead focus entirely on quality, relationships, and production. Attempting to offer delivery, shipping, bagging, freezing, or cutting up diverts time and energy from core production and inflates prices. Small producers excel at relationships, high quality, and integrity, whereas big operators excel at materials handling and mass transportation. A local health food store sold deboned organic chicken air-freighted from California for $7.04 per pound, making it easy to sell farm-processed chicken at $1.25.

Selling poultry before raising them through advance written orders eliminates financial risk and aligns production directly with committed buyers. In February, a newsletter and order blank are sent to customers who reserve birds in advance on a first-come, first-served basis. Chicks are ordered from the hatchery only to fill these contracted orders, ensuring that every bird is sold before it is even raised. Clay Ham in Texas contacted food coops and hosted a homeschool shindig, securing nearly 250 families as customers immediately after they tasted his barbecued chicken.

Advance Contracting

You can secure buyers early and eliminate financial guesswork by adopting specific administrative routines:

• Send out a newsletter with an order blank and self-addressed envelope in February
• Purge the customer list every year if a customer does not order for a year
• Raise batches about 3 weeks apart beginning in late March through early October
• Call customers a week prior to processing to offer options for processing days
• Welcome customers between 1 and 5 p.m. on processing days

Marketing Strategy

Effective advertising for unconventional farming relies on personal educational presentations, giving away samples, and word of mouth rather than conventional media. Conventional advertising attracts bargain hunters and relies on catch phrases, whereas pastured poultry sells itself through superior quality. Presenting educational slide shows to civic organizations and giving away free samples or door prizes builds trust and counters stereotypes. At an AARP meeting, Salatin gave away 30 dozen eggs as door prizes and successfully converted recipients into permanent paying customers.

You protect your farm and keep operations smooth through strict customer management:

• Put together an educational slide program about alternative agriculture for civic and community groups
• Maintain a professional personal appearance with short hair and appropriate dress
• Offer bite-sized samples of cooked chicken on toothpicks during presentations
• Reward customers who recommend new clients with free eggs or chicken
• Give away surplus items like eggs as door prizes at meetings
• Carry basic liability insurance for farm visitors
• Keep production clean and above board to avoid negligence
• Purge chronic complainers, late-comers, and difficult buyers from the customer file by withholding order blanks

10 Key Ideas

1. A pastured poultry enterprise can generate a high net income on a small acreage with modest capital investment and part-time labor.
2. Feeding poultry and livestock on green forage rather than high-energy, low-mineral rations significantly reduces saturated fat and produces healthier, less greasy meat.
3. Beginners should start a pastured poultry enterprise on a very small scale to spread capital investment, accommodate inevitable mistakes, and consume the initial batch themselves.
4. Using deep wood shavings with a proper carbon-nitrogen ratio in the brooder creates a self-composting, disease-suppressing environment that eliminates the need for chemical sanitizers.
5. Pastured poultry rations can utilize diverse natural ingredients, including roasted soybeans, fish meal, and specialized mineral supplements, eliminating the need for animal byproducts.
6. The portable, floorless pen provides high-density, short-duration grazing with absolute control over pasture, shelter, and predator protection.
7. Processing pastured poultry directly on the farm eliminates transport stress, prevents meat toughening, and avoids the severe fecal contamination found in large commercial processing vats.
8. A precise mechanical setup involving killing cones, a thermostatically controlled scalder with a dunker, and an automatic picker ensures clean, efficient home processing.
9. Selling poultry through advance written orders and direct farm visits eliminates financial risk, avoids middlemen, and builds lasting consumer trust.
10. Effective advertising for unconventional farming relies on personal educational presentations, giving away samples, and word of mouth rather than conventional media.