Poultry is a low-cost farm enterprise with a short turn-around that holds potential to be a profitable business venture. Many beginning farmers are choosing to start with poultry, but may have questions including: what it takes to raise them; if they should process themselves or send them out to a certified processor; how to add value to a whole chicken; and is raising chickens something that can be profitable for me?

This workshop will provide farmers the tools to answer these questions. The workshop is being hosted at Laughing Earth Farm, a farm that raises small batches of organic pasture-raised broilers. Zack and Annie Metzger have run this 200 year-old small diversified farm for 8 years. They process their poultry in a 20C kitchen, where they produce value-added products like sausage and dehydrated chicken feet.

The program will be from 5pm - 7:30 pm on Monday, August 19, 2024, and will cover the following:

Introduction to the farm and how they raise broilers.

Review of financial considerations for broiler enterprises and what it takes to make a profit.

Tour Laughing Earth's processing set-up, including their 20C kitchen.

Hands-on further processing demonstration (taking a carcass into cuts allowed under the 1,000 bird exemption.

All who are interested in raising or are currently raising poultry for meat are welcome to register for this free event.  Dinner will be provided. Pre-registrations are required. You can register via this page or by contacting Rachel Moody at 518-649-0267 / ram72@cornell.edu OR Amy at 716-640-0844 / amb544@cornell.edu.

Please bring your questions. We're looking forward to seeing you there! 

This program is provided free of charge thanks to work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number LNE22-435.