economics – Raising Wood

May 5, 2025April 22, 2026

A Year of Chicken and Dune Knows What’s Up

When I was a wee lad of 11, I remember a wise Doctor, a friend of the family, who recommended Dune by Frank Herbert. I borrowed a copy from the library and devoured it. Sandworms and spice. Muad’Dib and Bene Gesserit. House of Harken vs the jihad across the stars. All interesting, with the added fascination of the stillsuits. Water is life, and in the desert not a drop can be wasted. You dry up and you die.

This story has decades of staying power. When Jenny and I were early married, we did a fair bit of backpacking. One trip was around a lake north of Austin, a lengthy drive from our home. “Who cares, we’ll hit the trailhead after sundown.” We hiked the trail well past midnight before setting up camp. Along the way was a good time to play an audiobook of Dune to catch Jenny up. It was part of my educational efforts to nudge Jenny into drinking more water. Dehydration is for the birds.

Before the 3 hour drive back when the AC broke, everyone was happy

Another decade after that, I am reminded of the lessons of Dune in a very different context.

Spring has come, time for another batch of meat birds. We started with 45 and ended with 33. Thanks to some just die young, 5 owl victims, and some just die older. Not a rate of attrition we like, but likely the rate we deserve (somehow. Jenny blames firework debris.).

Total costs for this run of birds. Does not include infrastructure investments.

We dialed back the protein portion of the food from 22% to 20%. We thought it led to too many rapid growth deaths in the fall. Remember kids, gluttony kills.

Previously we used a drip system to water the birds. They tap the nipple and get water. It’s efficient and clean and all the birds understand it. This year Jenny added some bell water systems, where the water needs to be flushed clean and refilled more regularly, but is more openly available. The birds preferred it to the point we abandoned the drip nipple system.

We made some additions to the processing and optimized the workflow:

An additional sink improves sanitation and processing speed

The birds ended their travels across the drive from the processing station, minimizing travel time for the next bird up

Working together in stages of 4 birds at a time

Our net results were positive in every dimension. Biggest average weight. Biggest single bird. Heaviest low weight bird. Better skills to part out 12 birds into breast, quarters, and wings. Cost per pound down from 2.30.

8.4lb average bird, up from 7lb.

Biggest bird was 10lb 6oz. (!)

To give a feel for the size, it’s 2.5lb average breast pair package without the tenders

Best we can figure, the overall cost per pound is 1.70. That final extra pound and a half of bird costs 1.88-2.30 in feed. In a profit maximum frame the sweet spot is to process the bird at 4.5 lb. This maximizes the weight on the bird with the most efficient window of feed inputs.

We’ve come to a different conclusion. The most expensive part of raising a year worth of birds is the labor time on processing day.

It starts the day before: Prepping the work stations and clearing the carport. It continues that night with buying ice from the ice machine until it runs out of ice, while the sun is down and the Seattle Mariners spend the fifth inning obliterating Ranger pitching. It starts again by seven the next morning with digging disposal holes, sharpening knives and sanitizing coolers and work surfaces.

Then its family watching the littles while you work without stopping until the last bird is in the cooler at noon. Then cleaning and prepping for bagging until 130. Eat some tacos. Watch a vid on parting out a bird. Weigh and part and bag and freeze the birds. Then its final cleanup and it’s 6, and it’s time to go out to dinner to celebrate.

With that kind of effort, I’d rather get 33 luxury weight birds. It’s the same amount of time as 33 profit maximum birds. 2 extra weeks of feeding (6 vs 8) means 132lbs more meat for the same pair of long days.

What drove the higher weights?

We’re attributing it primarily to better water access. More water in they get the munchies and eat more feed. Turns out dehydration isn’t really for the birds either.

The Fremen were right, water is the key. As I write this, a storm is coming in. The water will fall and wash the chicken manure deep into the soil. The grass will flourish and the stickers will be abated. This restoration agriculture project will continue to nourish the family with the finest pasture run, non-gmo, completely clean chicken that man can make. Even better: the host of lessons and discipleship opportunities with each child along the way to filling the freezer.

Bonus picture: The wind power museum in Lubbock is worth a 90 minute side trip. Ravens out there making nests on wind mills out of barbed wire scraps.

May 31, 2024April 23, 2026

Meat Birds Results

We started with 45 chicks in a shoe box.

We ended with 39 birds for processing.

We ended with 33 birds in freezer bags.

The smallest bird was 5lb 10oz.

The largest bird was 9lb 8oz.

Total freezer weight was 248lb 4oz.

There is significant cost for infrastructure: Two chicken tractors, 4 waterers, 2 feeders, heat lamps, lumber, paint, chicken wire, steel sheets, hardware, PVC pipe. ~$600 fully involved.

There is significant labor time. Two Saturdays of tractor repair and production. Chick pickup, temp management, “ZOMG there’s a huge thunderstorm coming so cover the pens management”, feed and water management, rotational movement, removal of deceased birds. Figure 30 minutes per day as an accurate average for our initial process, more like 15 for the last two weeks.

Then there is processing time and costs.

1. Kill step

2. Hot water scald to loosen feathers (borrowed crawfish boilers)

3. Plucker machine to remove feathers (rental from excellent neighbors)

4. Remove extras, clean out bird. (Stainless table bought off Craigslist)

5. Final wash step, then move to ice coolers

6. Drip dry station after chickens below 40f.

7. Bird in bag, dip in hot water to heat shrink

8. Label then into the freezer!

We are very blessed to have friends interested in the process join us. Learning experience for everyone. Started at 9, lunch at one, done by six for dinner. I prepared a brisket that covered both meals for the families.

Hard work for a long day. We’ll be faster next time. I was happy to send both families home with some birds We received some excellent feedback.

The end result is a very large bird given rain water to drink and feed free from GMO. A healthy and wholesome outside life with room to move. Healthy birds make healthy meat.

I’ve smoked some of these. The meat covers dinner 3 times for the family. Then the carcass boils into a gallon of chicken stock. The stock is far superior to what you’ll buy at the store or boil from a typical store chicken.

Was it worth our time? In terms of cost savings, we will eat one bird per week for 6 months. The savings in our grocery budget will cover the costs of inputs within 2 months. This sets up a nontrivial amount of grocery money for other allocations 8 months a year. As inflation waits for no man, it’s worth it.

Separate from that is the improvement in quality of meat and efficiency gains of an 8lb chicken. Smokon Sunday, eat 3x dinners for busy week nights. That’s worth it.

Additionally this is a family endeavor of a tightly focused 8 weeks with a big blowout processing day. My oldest son led the posses of children to capture birds. They put them in a cart and hauled them to the kill station. The children are deeply familiar with what the cost of meat is, and what honoring creation can look like to bring it to the table. That’s worth it.

Pastured poultry is a good fit for family. While we can sell some birds to you and yours, I’m more interested in helping you get your own up and running. A goal here is to improve food stability for every backyard, and pastured poultry is an effective method for anyone with some grass and a will.

March 24, 2024April 22, 2026

Build Beef Better

What is good? Beef is good.

What is better? Managed Intensive Grazing Grass Only Beef.

What is best? MIGGOB born and raised on the Raising Wood homestead. From artificial insemination to birth to weaning to weaning again because he reactivated his momma(!) to the steering committee meeting to feeding out through two winters, Yum was the first beef fully ‘ours’. We think he’s quite simply the best.

First time customer chimes in:

We usually require a deposit on a share before taking a head of beef to the butcher. I failed to do that this time, and a customer backed out the day after we started the processing. Fortunately we had other customers looking for a share and everyone ended up happy.

A typical question is ‘how much beef is a share of beef?’ Yum was our largest head to date. A quarter of his beef was 97lb. 97lb of beef fills up two 50qt coolers in delivery, or about half of a 7 cubic foot freezer.

We enjoy running delivery to our customers. It helps ensure a chain of custody with temp control. It helps move the beef out into its freezers more readily, and delivered beef makes happy customers. It is good to know your farmer, separate from the commercial chain of sales and distant don’t-think-to-hard trust requirements.

Two coolers ready for transit, loaded with frozen beef and ice

March 13, 2024April 22, 2026

Springing into Meat Chickens

Spring is here early. Time to take advantage of the great rain and moderate temperatures. After reviewing our 2023 results, I realized the food and dollars return for my labor in meat production is way higher then for gardening. As much as I have enjoyed gardening, it was becoming a bandwidth constraint and we’ll put it aside for this year.

That makes more sense in the context of expanding our meat production this year. Meat chickens are fast growing and space efficient. We bought 45 chicks and moved them into the brooder to stay warm.

A bed of mulch, a heating tray, and food and water. So much food and water. Day 1 they were running through what our 3 week old birds did last spring. This Cornish cross variety grows as quickly as advertised.

Joel Salatin describes this breed as race car chickens. They are probably the most populous bird in the world, with hundreds of millions hatched, grown and processed annually. Any chicken you buy at the store is this breed. They can’t reproduce because they grow so big so fast they will over weight and die before sexual maturity. I’m planning 8 weeks total to be make a 5.5lb bird.

Well Robert, why don’t you just buy Tyson birds from the store and save yourself all this hassle?

Well, because we’re going to run them on grass. New patch of grass every day with unlimited food and water makes healthy and wholesome birds. We’ll be able to run a non-GMO feed and supplement their minerals along the way to further improve their health. Healthy birds make healthy meat, and the quality of the muscles, fats and collagen is much higher.

The only time the goats didn’t jump on top was this picture

One week in, seven to go. We’ll run some updates as we go and for the processing day in early May.

October 4, 2022April 23, 2026

Fall Profits

This fall has been a good one for the homestead. Let me show you what’s been happening.

Mountains, Gandalf. I want to see Mountains!

The rain came and pastures grew back very quickly. Within days of we resumed rotational grazing for the goats and the cattle. In the middle of such a day, a little goat doe who was big time ready for her man broke into the boys pen. She spent several hours under the conflict-affection of the bucks. Once she was bred we went ahead and bred the other 10 ladies, looking at a February birth next year and hoping for 14 or 15.

We also completed some transactions, selling 3 of the boys into the meat market to some repeat customers from last fall, courtesy of their strong family network and a traditional religious festival. We agreed in the spring to hold the boys for them and it worked out well for everyone. They also picked up some chickens, a pleasant surprise for us. We will plan to manage our birds for selling more next year.

A-frame tractor. Pronounced Eh-frame by some.

We built a new chicken tractor to consolidate all the birds into one place. This has a larger footprint with vastly more wing space to flutter and roosting footprint to sleep. It is light enough for one person to comfortably maneuver every day. It solved the feather plucking antagonisms from the older hens and gave the young hens a first taste of what flapping into a laying box is like. Which is good, because they are laying almost a month ahead of expectations. 6 eggs a day is our find sometimes.

Jenny and my father doing focused puzzle work to maximize pieces cut from a truck bed liner. You can see a piece installed in the peak behind Jenny and scraps between them.

A cut from the truck bed liner as roofing cap

Roosting perches run front to back, feeder hanging just out of reach of chicken bomber droppings

We also executed our first beef sales and deliveries. This was exciting for us as it is the first beef we have done nearly start to finish, and we were delighted to find more customers then we had beef to sell.

Local butcher in the hospital district of Weatherford

We loaded up and dropped them off at a local family run butcher. They run a clean shop. We brought more flies on the cows then existed in the entire shop. We left our cut instructions and a phone number and then updated our customers, 3-4 weeks to deliver. Next step was collecting coolers to make deliveries in. And waiting.

Pick up day arrived. Load up that trailer! Pack up the kids! Coordinate delivery times! Pick up the beef! Ready, set, go!

Love the shade tree near the loading dock.

Red light! These boxes are not sorted into quarters like we agreed. Oh my. Some of these cuts are completely wrong. Oh, but this one is right… We’re going to have to sort this all out. Back home everybody, we have work to do.

Start four hours of sorting, weighing, recording, and finding customers happy with different cuts. Then get the beef back into coolers and get to the deliveries. We learned a lot, among them how to better load the trailer.

Every one of our customers was extremely accommodating to our delivery windows. Some met us midway when it made sense. We only had one counting error and we are blessed the customer was satisfied with that error.

We left the farm grumpy and frustrated with unplanned disruptions. We left each of our customer homes with smiles on everyone’s faces. This is business at its best. The finest product made in a sustainable way and delivered face to face with customers eager and cheerful.

Cutting boards for customers to celebrate the year

After seven hours we came home exhausted but very much alive, praising a good God who let us learn new skills to be a blessing to families and his creation. Did we get rich in cash? No. Did we find this all deeply enriching to the soul? Without a doubt.

Now seriously, you gotta try some of this beef. It’s very good.

July 26, 2022April 23, 2026

Rainfall Economics

No rain for 52 days. No grass growing for about 40 of those days. Feeding hay to cows and goats for 20 days now. We’re making plans for hay feeding into next April, and cost overruns are going to happen.

Agriculture is the original boom and bust economy. The boom years are great, the bust years are not. When you can’t grow grass, you feed hay. The hay economy is largely local because hay bales are bulky and heavy to move over the road.

I made a drive to Lufkin this week and noticed many trailers loaded with hay headed back into the DFW area. Our local hay retailer is selling out of every trailer load within two days at double the price per bale as last year.

Trying to build a solution for the future, last year I set up a handshake agreement with a baler 2 miles from our farm. When we talked this summer to schedule a pickup, he replied that he was in Houston riding his bike because the grass turned to dust and wouldn’t bale. “If anyone tells you farming is a good way to make great money, they been lying to you!” He says.

So we get connected through church with someone who does hay 40 miles away. Make some deals and pay for the delivery included. His seventeen year old son makes the delivery and is far above his peers in maturity and capability. We’re looking forward to what ours will be like at that age . The last load he has available unloaded this past Sunday morning. Thanks to his abilities we have hay to get to Thanksgiving. But what about the actual winter?

Hay is often cut again in August for a second cut, keeping the market filled and ready for winter. But without rain, there’s not going to be a second cut of hay. Might could be one if it rains solid in August for an October cutting. Demand will be very high. Prices will be very high from fuel costs and fertilizer costs being through the roof right now.

Inflation takes time to move from producers to consumers. Because cattle are being culled to cut costs, beef will be cheaper at the store for the next few months. Starting next year expect a whiplash where beef will cost more, double triple range. Inflation and reduced supply are inevitable.

Solution? Buy a freezer, meet a farmer, put beef away today. Buy the dip!

The little spider was eaten by the large spider. My zoology contacts say it’s likely the female ate the male. Doesn’t sound good to me, but the garden moves forward without Mr. Arachnid.

December 3, 2021April 23, 2026

A Cornucopia Comparison

Every year around Thanksgiving the Cornucopia is used in decorations. It was originally the horn of the goat filled with plenty of nuts and berries brought in from foraging the countryside. Today it’s even more expansive: a woven basket heavy with harvest and spilling out upon the table.

You notice some changes. It is no longer hunter-gatherer but agriculture. No longer a found and repurposed object (goat horn) but a made-to-spec woven product. No longer constrained with what was freely acquired, but increased abundance from what was produced. There’s thoughtful work going into it and much better output as a result.

What you choose to eat works in a similar way. Casting about and eating what comes easy and falls to you will work. You will have calories. You will have low costs on paper as the upside and blessings of industrial agriculture rain down around you. You may even have others coming for you all the time if you keep hitting the drive through.

Even in the ancient near east, a wise man pointed to the birds who eat and asked, why do you worry? Does not your father love you more then these sparrows?

This approach beats the pants off starvation and blatant malnutrition, where you don’t have the ability to even wear pants! Raise your goat horn my friends, for you have much and gratitude is in order.

Then sometime when you stop to think about food, you start to think differently. In a very real sense, to think at all is to think differently. What about the future costs of treating your inputs casually? What are the spillover costs others bear? How can there be so much transportation involved? Does local biome impact my body? What would it be like to know my farmer? Can I make small changes today to grow for tomorrow?

Once you start asking, you start to make changes. Maybe go to organics in produce. Maybe drop chemical colors. Maybe do eggs from the farm. Maybe find a farmer to hang a side of beef. Maybe start gardening. Maybe just cook at home more and drive through less.

Suddenly, you’re weaving that horn and planning a future. You’ve moved from the goat and the gathering to the basket and the harvest.

You’re improving health and lowering future costs. You’re uncovering delight in the patterns of the seasons. You soak in gratitude for the men who came before and breed these seeds and beasts to best serve man. It brings you closer to Eden, where God placed Adam in the first place.

Are you willing? There is great abundance for anyone willing to peek behind the easy button and start to build relationships.