Seeking A Partner for Pastured Egg Production

Seeking A Partner for Pastured Egg Production
A year and six months after starting our laying hen operation, we have learned a few things. While we did "ok" with the girls our first year, we suffered from slow and persistent death loss from predation, poorly trained/ utilized guard dogs, and pervasive egg eating among the flock. The fertility our hens brought to the pasture was incredible, but the aforementioned issues contributed to declining lay rates and therefore declining egg revenue throughout our first year. To solve these persistent but fixable problems on the next round, focus, time, and attention are required. 
We are faced with the reality that we are stretched a bit thin at the moment. On the farm we are calving out a herd of bred cows this spring and summer and still finishing several hundred hogs each year. We have also expanded the meat processing operation and are working hard to grow our own sales, while also offering USDA processing services to the public. We are growing our agritourism this year with new events, self guided trails, and more ways to interact with the Home Place through the Farm Store. All in all, we cannot responsibly invest in another chicken flock without an operating partner to execute the day to day of pasture raising hens.
  We believe this is a great opportunity for someone serious about farming for a living. Rather than hiring a new manager, we are more interested in sharing the risk and the reward with someone as invested in the success of the program as we are. We hope that this arrangement may eliminate some of the barriers new regenerative farmers face when considering starting their own venture. Below we've laid out some additional information. 
  1. Introduction

            Home Place Pastures is a regenerative farm in Como, MS producing pastured pork, grass fed beef, and pastured eggs. HPP operates on the founders’ farmland, which the family has farmed for over 150 years. In addition to the farming enterprise, the company operates in own USDA slaughter and processing facility on site, as well as a restaurant/ butcher shop. HPP has an exciting opportunity for perspective regenerative farmers. We are seeking a partner to produce pasture raised chicken eggs. This farmer would operate their own laying hen operation and sell unwashed eggs to HPP. The farmer will have access to the farmland, existing infrastructure, and a guaranteed market with no distribution costs, and HPP will not restrict the farmers ability to sell eggs directly, as long as eggs are not sold to existing HPP markets/ customers. HPP is also willing to negotiate furnishing capital for the laying hens/ additional infrastructure needs.

 2. Arrangement

            The farmer would need to commit to a one-year contract and be willing to put up some capital for laying hen purchase. HPP can facilitate sourcing and purchasing. HPP would grant use of existing portable chicken infrastructure (improvements and investments would also be needed), equipment shed, feed mixing equipment, and other farm implements and equipment (although some of these will be shared with HPP). Partners will be responsible for independently running the laying hen operation. HPP may be able to offer on farm living accommodations, for which the partner would have to pay rent and utilities.

            HPP agrees to provide technical assistance and to purchase all eggs produced by partner at the agreed upon rate. Partner will be responsible for gathering eggs in flats and bringing to the egg washing facility on the property.

            Partner can schedule time on HPP’s washer to wash and pack their eggs under their own brand for direct sales. In this case, the partner will have to furnish the labor and packaging material, as well as pay a nominal per dozen washing fee for use of the machine (covers wear and tear and electricity/ sanitizing solution and water to run the machine).

  • Earning Potential

If producer averages 65% lay rate across a year, and sells 100 percent of the eggs to HPP (as opposed to selling directly for more $), the farmer could net over 100k in a year by managing 3,000 hens, assuming no outside labor is hired. The 65 percent figure is designed to include death loss and egg breakage, although catastrophic loss (storms, intense predation, etc) are risks to consider. HPP will commit to the agreed upon per dozen rate for the entire year and reserves the right to renegotiate the contract after one year.  We have adequate pasture and watering points to accommodate this many hens. 

  1. More Details

To learn more, and to see the financial pro forma (which includes fixed costs, variable costs, revenue figures, and descriptions of the assumptions made in the model), please email Marshall@homeplacepastures.com. We respectfully ask that only folks with some experience and serious interest contact us. This is not an internship opportunity or a side project. This is intended for an enterprising entrepreneur who is serious about scaling a profitable food business with a mission rooted in animal welfare and regenerative agriculture.  To be successful, partners will have to be dedicated, skilled, focused, and manage the operation daily. This venture carries the risk of loss, and will be challenging to execute. Keep in mind that this venture only requires a 1 year commitment. 

 

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