The basic wage is $ 13 per hour plus benefits, including health care and vacation.”
Good profit Raising the birds for market efficiently is the main goal of MacFarlane Pheasants, thus helping to boost the farm’s prof- its. “Our major market is hunting reserves and we also have a business selling processed pheasants for food,” said Bill. “Annually, we sell over 500,000 live mature pheasants and partridges for hunting and over 200,000 processed pheas- ants. We sell a live adult bird for about $ 14 on average. Dressed birds are sold by weight. The current cost to raise birds is just slightly less than the price we can sell them for. Our margins are therefore very tight.” Bill raises his birds both indoors and outdoors depending on their age and the market requirements. “The birds we produce for hunting are raised indoors for about six weeks, and then moved to outside pens after that,” he explained. “Our meat birds are raised in the summer similar to the hunt- ing birds in the pens. Our meat birds are produced all year round, so in the winter time they are raised indoors to the desired market weight.”
Avian influenza “Biosecurity is a challenge but we have written biosecurity plans in place and are ready to act should the need occur. We do our best to not attract waterfowl to our farm by not having any ponds nearby, for example.” “We have not had Avian Influenza here on our farm, thank God. However, we have got caught up in embargoes and restrictions on movements because of AI outbreaks that occurred quite some distance away from our farm,” he added. Controlling predator attacks at MacFarlane Pheasants is an- other challenge for Bill and his team who take preventative action to try to avoid such incidents. “We actively trap our pe- rimeters for four-legged predators such as coyotes and rac- coons,” Bill said. “We also strive to control stray pheasants that escape which limits winged predators’ interest in our farm.” “Our main challenges currently are the cost of labour and the availability of labour here in the US. We sell pheasants across the US and Canada. However the ability to transport live pheasants long distances is a challenge, weather wise, as well as logistically and labour wise. However, one of our biggest advantages is our solid reputation and longevity. Our location in the upper Midwest of the United States puts us at the heart of the demand for pheasants.” he concluded.
▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 1, 2020
An aerial view of MacFarlane Pheasants farm in Wisconsin.
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