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What can I expect as a Perdue poultry farmer?
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As a poultry farm owner, you’ll never punch a time clock, and you’ll have the satisfaction of leading your own business and being associated with trusted and respected brands.Get more news about Poultry Farms,you can vist our website!
For many farm families, poultry houses supplement other farm income and can provide the additional income necessary to farm full time. For other families, one partner may stay at home to manage the farm while the other maintains an outside career. Running the poultry operation is often a family undertaking.Some farmers with multiple-house operations have taken advantage of the economies of scale to make their poultry farms the primary source of income.Contract poultry growing is common, but not all companies are the same. Perdue has opportunities for farmers to join us on a path of continuous improvement.
For more than a half century, contract poultry growing has contributed to farm income, providing generations of farm families with stable, predictable year-round revenue insulated from many of the risks associated with volatile commodity markets.
As with any agricultural venture, a poultry farm requires the right land, ongoing investments in equipment, and especially the commitment and dedication to care for and nurture living animals.Today, more than 90 percent of broiler chickens and the majority of turkeys are raised by independent farmers under contract to poultry companies, such as Perdue. These companies are referred to as integrators because of their integrated supply chain, which provides quality assurance at every step.
Tyson Foods began as a chicken business, nearly 90 years ago, and today, we are one of the leading supporters of U.S. poultry farmers. We depend on our network of small and independent farmers to supply our plants – and we only succeed when they also succeed.
We have been working with poultry farmers on a contractual basis since the late 1940s. We supply the birds and feed, as well as technical expertise, while the poultry farmer provides the labor, housing and utilities to support the birds. This benefits the farmers because it insulates the farmer from the risk of changing market prices for chicken and feed ingredients such as corn and soybean meal, which represents most of the cost of raising a chicken. So, farmers’ compensation is not dependent on what the feed costs or prices at the grocery store. This benefits American consumers because the incentive-based pay system helps keep the price of nutritious chicken affordable for millions of families and the foodservice industry.
This system has been successfully helping feed America – and the world – for nearly a century. Today, as demand for chicken goes up, it is to our benefit to help all of our partner farmers deliver healthy birds to help meet this demand. When they succeed, our own business does better. In fact, a 2022 study by Agriculture Economist, Dr. Thomas Elam found that the median income of contract poultry farmers was significantly higher than both all farm households and all U.S. households.
Today, we pay nearly $820 million annually to the more than 3,600 poultry farmers who contract with us. Traditionally, companies like Tyson provide incentives to farmers to deliver safer, healthier and better quality chickens: while every farmer gets paid a base rate, farmers who deliver birds above the average standard can receive a bonus that’s based off a points system. Simply put, Tyson pays more for better performance – a concept shared across many industries.
However, we recognize there are other ways to incentivize performance, and so we’ve been piloting different types of payment systems. For example, at our Humboldt, Tennessee facility, farmers get a base rate depending on the size of their poultry barns. They can also receive bonuses depending on the quality and efficiency of their flock.