From the Horse's Mouth: June 2025 Farm Status Report

June was a very busy month for the farm. As far as operations go, we brought in enough revenue to cover the farm's monthly operation costs, plus 40%. This month we also started making room in the freezer by giving away chicken backs, feet, and drums. These just never sell, and we need room in the freezer for upcoming inventory. So far, it has incurred about a $300 loss, with anticipation of $600 total loss once we finish giving it all away. Eggs have been another hard sell at some markets and we wind up giving away several dozen. We've at least been able to shift eggs to other farmers markets where they sell better, but this month gave us a $284 loss on both chicken and duck eggs that don't sell. Despite some strategic losses, our windfall for June is not too shabby for missing one of our farmers markets and having one market that had far less than average sales. Online sales from our regulars and a couple of new customers carried us. Thank you!  

Of course, many of you saw that we took our bull, Elvis, to the National Dexter Show this year. He wasn't ready for the show ring yet and I had 3 weeks to train him, working with him at least once per day, twice if I could find the time. A large portion of time went into getting him trained to lead, stand tied, get used to having his feet positioned, bathing and brushing him, etc. We took home 4th place which I couldn't be more pleased with! For real! I was so freaking nervous going into that ring that I sure as heck didn't want to go back in if he took 1st in his class! Let's get into this month's stats.

We sold:

• 13 lbs of beef
  
• 23 lbs of pork
  
• 35 lbs of chicken
  
• 91 dozen chicken eggs
  
• 6 dozen duck eggs
  
• 5 Chicken Broth jars
• 5 Pork Lard jars

We gave away:

• 34 lbs of chicken backs, feet, and drums to both online orders and farmers market customers... We seriously can't seem to sell these 3 items. I've even discounted them to 50% off (way below our break-even price) both online and at markets. I'm at a loss. If it won't sell... give it away. It adds up to about a $300 loss so far, and I still have many more to giveaway. In all, we're looking at about a $600 loss from our last batch of chicken from October if I give it all away... plus, I have more incoming that likely will never sell either. (More on that and our broiler chicken program later this year.)
  
• 4 dozen duck eggs, a $60 loss.
• 32 dozen chicken eggs. A $224 loss of revenue... also another one that has been very tough to sell, mostly at the Sanger market. We've started limiting our chicken eggs to 15 dozen getting brought to the Sanger market and the rest are all going to the Argyle market where we usually sell about 60 dozen each time.

We've tossed:

• 20 dozen chicken eggs
• 10 dozen duck eggs

... again, these are more strategic losses. Potential revenue loss = $280. We're producing more than we can currently sell. Plus, cartons and labels aren't cheap... so giving them away also means taking a hit on that expense and that inventory. So instead of letting them pile up, or give them away, we've fed them to our pigs. They've been very happy to have some more eggs added to their diets! That's on top of about 3 dozen per week of eggs that crack or break during the washing process. In all, our chickens and ducks lay roughly 150 dozen eggs per month combined. That means we only sell about 60% of our eggs, give away 24%, and toss the rest to the pigs due to breakage.

Animals added:

• 1 Dexter heifer was purchased at the show
  
• 1 Dexter steer for 2026 beef
• 58 turkeys hatched

Animals subtracted:

• 1 Dexter steer went to the butcher
• 34 broiler chickens went to the butcher

Animals lost:

• 20 broilers died due to picking each other, wet weather, or heart attacks. This batch, just like the last cornish cross batch that was butchered June 5th, has not been reaching its weight target. We pushed back their butcher date to July 11th and there are some that are getting closer to target weight, but when you keep them past 8 weeks of age, they run the risk of death from heart attacks. And that's exactly what we've seen since that age. We will never buy cornish cross again.
• We've also been steadily losing 6 month old laying hen pullets from a certain hatchery. We started with 50 and they did great in the brooder and in the grow-out pens. But after they got put on pasture, they have steadily continued to die every week. I've lost about half of them now, and the ones that are left are just starting to lay. Some hatcheries just don't have stock that do well on pasture. If you look at it from a loss standpoint, each laying hen on our balance sheet will produce $125 worth of eggs in her short 2.5 year lifetime... and only 20% of that is profit. Losing 25 hens to bad genetics is a $3,125 loss of revenue over those 2.5 years. Plus, together in 6 months, they've eaten about $700 worth of feed... plus what it cost to purchase them. I can't afford bad genetics that just dies for no reason. Nothing I've bought from McMurray Hatchery or that I have bred and hatched on this farm in the past 2 years has died on this scope. Those birds are still producing! We will only buy laying hens from McMurray or hatch from our own stock from now on.

Improvements:

• 2 of our newest cows we purchased in May scored 6's on their tenderness tests. Pairing them with Elvis will give us consistently tender beef calves, plus more meat because these girls are BEEFY with a lot of muscle.
  
• We sent tests off for a more in-depth look at the genetics of our entire herd with tests that look at birth weight, daily gain, weaning weight, and more. This will give us a more strategic look at our Dexter herd so we can make more informed decisions on breeding in the future.
  
• We sent tenderness tests to the lab for Kai, our up and coming breeding boar. Here's hoping for good results!
  
  
• We have continued to get a tiny little bit of rain every week. Our grass is so thick right now that we have to leave the cows a day longer in some paddocks because there's still more to eat! The organic fertilizer from Dave at Big Little Farm, plus the rotational grazing has made us double the head count of our cattle (we're up to 16 with another calf due at the end of July!) And we still have to leave them for longer to eat it all! We couldn't be more pleased with these results!
  
  
• Pua, our black and white sow, had her due date come and go on May 27th, then the 2nd due date of June 17th came and went, but still no piglets. I can still feel them kicking, and she acts healthy and happy, so I guess I was wrong on her due date when I did the ultrasound. That means she was barely detectable when I examined her, so hopefully we'll see piglets this week as July 8 is her next due date! It's for this reason that I will be investing in an ultrasound with a screen for the future instead of one that just uses an audible tone.

That's a lot to take in for the month of June. A lot was really good, and a lot really gives you a peak at some of the costs associated with trying to run a meat and egg business. Both of these are important to track and share as it gives insight to other farmers and consumers alike on the true cost to produce food on a small scale.

July is off to a rocking start and in just the first 5 days, we paid 50% of our monthly operating costs with meat, egg, and baby turkey sales! That's amazing! But we'll talk about that next month.