Poultry Business Expensive to Get Started

Wind or snow damage may knock some poultry farms temporarily out of business. The cost of building houses to begin with may keep others from ever getting started.

Today’s poultry houses are in some cases 50 percent more expensive than those built in 1990. Ivan Berry, professor emeritus for the University of Arkansas’ department of biological and agricultural engineering, said everything from the size of the house to the size of the bank note has increased.

“Ten years ago the most common [poultry house] was 40-by-400 [feet] and cost about $100,000,” Berry said. “Today, most of them are 44-by-500 and cost anywhere from $130,000 to $150,000.”

Where a house once was expected to hold about 15,000 birds, today’s designs make for anywhere from 20,000 to 25,000 birds per house more common.

“It just depends on how many bells and whistles you want,” said Tom Tabler, extension specialist with the University of Arkansas. “It’s pretty hard starting out today getting into the business. Most people tend to build four-house farms. By the time you’ve built four houses, you’ve got over a half million dollars in it.

“A four-house farm can gross about $95,000 to $100,000 a year depending on the flocks of birds and down time. Most of those decisions are made by the integrator.”

If that’s not discouraging enough to potential new generation farmers, there’s also the problem of a meat surplus that’s driving down poultry prices.