Calling Meat Poultry Producers (Chicken, Turkey, Duck, Goose, ect.)

[jaku]

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True, and I'm not saying it's a bad idea to get insurance, but realistically, neglegence has to be proven as well. You're not going to lose your entire life savings because someone got a stomach ache that "could" have been caused by your birds. Now, if someone dies because you leave your birds to rot in the sun before you deliver them, sure. The tricky area lies in someone who takes your bird home and doesn't put it in the refrigerator but rides around with it in their hot car then takes it home to eat it.

 

[greyfields]

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It's not tricky at all. The salmonella virus was on the chicken they bought from you. The fact they rode around in a hot car helped incubate it to toxic levels.

You, the chicken producer, are liable. End of story. The salmonella was on a bird they bought, borrowed, bought live, purchased or traded from YOU. You are the point of origin.

The chances of any of us getting in these situations is slim. At the same time if you flaunt the laws in your State you are just making it easier for a situation like that to occur.

 

[BigPeep]

A CSA stands for "Consumer Supported Agriculture". In a CSA the customers pre pay for a certain number of weeks of produce or meat or eggs etc at the beginning of the year and then pick up a box every week. That way the farmer knows how much seed to order and how much to plant and doesn't have to worry about selling the product. The customer gets a break on the price over paying piecemeal, but takes the risk with the farmer. If it's a good year the customer gets more. If not so good (like this one) there is less. It's kind of like having "shares" of the farm and we actually call the customers "shareholders" or "members".

I have started an egg CSA this year to supplement my vegetable program and filled it up immediately. We have now gone through the first 8 week period (I break the vegetable CSA up into three "seasons" so people who just want tomatoes, for example, don't have to live through the lettuce season), and everyone re-upped for the next 8, which will take us through the end of October.

This is especially useful with eggs as you can plan how many chicks to order (or eggs to incubate) and won't have to try to find buyers when they are ready to lay. You can do it for a half year, full year, or whatever.

 

[Buster52]

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I'm curious why you keep bringing this up. It is clear the OP's state (Illinois) has laws that are far more lenient than those of your state (Washington). He can butcher and sell up to 5,000 birds a year without the need for inspections. That's even better than Oklahoma (250 turkeys or 1,000 other types of birds), which surprises me given the typically lax regulatory aspect of my home state. I'd say as long as he applies for his exemption he should have no trouble abiding by the law while still running a nice little operation.

Are you just trying to make the general point that people should be aware of their own laws in their locality, or are you saying there is something about the laws in Illinois that we just aren't seeing?

 

[greyfields]

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^^^^------ yes

 

[Brunty_Farms]

So what happens if someone gets sick off of Tysons birds? Just because they are a bigger buisness and the birds are USDA inspected doesn't mean one could slip through and get someone sick.

I guess my point is... how do you prove it? It would be so hard to prove that you were the source of giving someone a food born illness...

If I don't cook Tyson's chicken all the way I'm going to get sick... If I ride around in a car all day with my chicken in the hot sun... I'm going to get sick...

You can't sue someone for doing something for you for free... it would be like one of your family members coming over to do your plumbing for you... So say he completely screws it up and the pipes burst 2 months later.

If he did it for free... how is he liable? It was a free service... and by having a contract in place it makes it stand all that much less in court.

So what that the food born illness came from a chicken you processed.... you did it for free. I'm helping somebody out... volunter... I can't remember the last time a volunter got sued for helping out a complete stranger. If someone thinks they can do it better they should have taken their "live chickens" and processed themselves.

Until the laws change processing a chicken for free is no crime. Reguardless if someone gets sick or not.

 

[mmwb]

Your points are valid and make sense, but you are making an assumption that what happens in a a court of law is always rational. Some judges are not. Many juries are not. It generally is not proof that leads to conviction, but preponderance of evidence. It is not hard to convince people that circumstances at point A lead to consequences at point B. Correlation often does not equal causality, but a vast number of people tend usually equate them.

I'm not telliing anyone that they should or shouldn't carry liability insurance, but if any live under the illusion that wrongful losses in court cases aren't common, they are naive'.

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

Making money with a limited amount of poultry can be tricky. It does not take much to swing the profit scale in to the red !! 1 coon 2 nights and you are in the red. 1 night of sudden cold snap in the red. temps get real hott and now the birds eat slower and take longer to grow and eat more because they are alive longer, in the red. Piling in the brooder in the red. and the list goes on and on from there. If everything went perfect every time one could make a profit. I have never read the Pastured poultry for profits, but I would like to get a copy and read it, heard alot about it.

Here is what we found out this year :

1- feed prices went up higher then just last year

2- meat prices went down from last year to maintain the same volume of sales

3- The people from last year that were buying the poultry we raised, are now out of jobs or on limited funds and are not buying.

We are just wrapping up our season here this next month on chickens and the profit has not been that GREAT this year !!! It was better last year. We will have raised right at 1200 when we are done this season. We did sell every one of them, but did not make much $$ this year, because of the feed prices and the weird weather we had this year. But all in all it is another year of farming !!

 

[Bossroo]

My wife has won blue ribbons and best in show for her baked and canned, and handmade and knitted clothes goods at 3 county fairs as well as at the State fair. She sold baked , canned goods and hand knit baby sweaters at the local farmer's type market held 4 times a year, where she had standing orders from and made a very nice profit. One day another lady that sold some baked cookies had a customer that got sick and was sue ed and she lost. Long story short, the market mandated that everyone had to carry liability insurance in order to sell their goods of any type. The premium for it was almost as high as profit... so she quit selling. Good intentions and following the laws are great but they will not always protect you from loosing a lawsuit. So be very careful in your dealings with the public, and by all means carry liability insurance if and when you do.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

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Harp... for processing what do you do? Take them somewhere? Do them yourself? Just curios as it seems Washington is a tough state to sell poultry. Interested to here your take...