the EGG RANT

Today I am going to blow off some steam...

My daughter has been selling her chicken's eggs. She sells them for $2.50/dozen. I have been advertising for her on "Craig's list". It was a nice little ad, complete with this picture (see insert) of the eggs. The money helps her 4H Poultry project, and helps the chickens "earn" their keep.

Overall, I have met some wonderful people! Many repeat customers, and have even made some new friends!

But how do I say this..?? There is always one bad turd in a pile... Every once in awhile I receive an email from someone replying to the egg ad asking if I would lower the price. They ALWAYS say: "I can buy eggs all day long for $1.00 / dozen." Or the latest: "I can drive half an hour away to buy eggs from the Amish for a buck". (needless to say, gas is almost $4.00/gal- the money saved per dozen is spent TWO FOLD in gas consumption!)

Every time I kindly reply to them that if I had sold them the eggs for cheap, that it would not be fair to our customers who currently pay the asking price. I always end my email with "I'm sorry we could not be of service to you, have a nice day". Because I tell you what, if *I* was paying top dollar for eggs, and *I* found out that the person I was buying them from sold those same eggs for a fraction of the cost to someone else- *I* would be SO pissed, I would never buy eggs from them again.

And each time I always get a nasty email back (they are sore now because I won't give them away) about how we are "ripping people off".

How are we ripping anyone off?? Do we only put 6 in a dozen carton? Do we have the market cornered on egg sales? Are we the ONLY people that sell eggs? Do I make them purchase our eggs?

Yes, people are free to buy eggs wherever they would like. When they buy from us, they are buying "an experience". If people have children, I always welcome their entire family here and show them every animal we have. City children have pet: Sheep, Goats, Chickens, Steer, Pigs, and Horses... I always take them to help me collect the eggs, I also teach them how to feed the horse's treats and even show and let them pet the kittens.

On the flip side, the parents always have a zillion questions about animals and animal husbandry. I don't mind the questions. It is nice to have someone actually interested in what we do.

So back to the MEAN PEOPLE SUCK part- My recent email from some jerk (the same one claiming to buy Amish eggs from Marion for a buck) quoted WC Fields famous saying of "There is a sucker born every minute" and then wrote "and you have found a few of them".

SO I replied- "Again, I am sorry we could not help you" and then I wrote "Thank You for your opinion, you know what they say about opinions, and ended my email with Get a life".

And instead of this loser moving on with their life they wrote back yet again saying "No smart ass, what do they say about opinions? Why don't you just charge $5.00/dozen? Price Gouger!!!!!!"

Now I'm not thrilled to say the least So I ended this stupid email battle with-

It's wonderful to know that a child's egg sales, "rocks your world" that much. Sure nice to see people like you waste so much energy on such important issues. Global warming... Na...., high fuel prices.... Na....., rising cost of everyday living...... Na..... the 2008 campaign race.... Na....., the earthquake that killed an entire Asian community.... Na.....

BUT DAMN!!!! A YOUNG PERSON SELL EGGS FOR A WHOPPING .75 MORE THAN THE STORE- BUT FOR LESS MONEY THAN THOSE LOVELY BROWN ORGANIC EGGS IN THE STORE-

THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY!!!

Like I said... Get a life. End of story.

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I cannot believe the nerve of some people. Why are people like this? I know myself I would never scoff at some one's for sale ad. If I wanted something for cheaper than they were asking, I would make them an offer, if they declined I would leave it at that and move on with my life.

Now to top it off (this was BEFORE this email banter back / forth- with this jerk) Someone is so scorned by our little egg ad that every time I post it on Craig's list they flag it and have it deleted on me. It sure is frustrating that people have nothing better to do than ruin other people's days.

The numbers game again....

Today we are going to talk more about the cost of raising animals for food.

If you recall, we have been raising a Holstein steer calf since last Oct. He is coming along quite nicely. To date he weighs roughly 400lbs. (just an eyeball guess of course!)

So far, he has eaten 1200 pounds of cracked corn! So that means for every 3 pounds of feed fed, he gains 1 lb. It's not an exact "science" of course- because I am only guessing on his exact weight.

To date, he has cost us $563.38. That includes, purchase price, feed, hay, and other misc. costs.

To give you an idea of price per pound... Let's just say we brought him to the butcher shop today- and his weight really was 400lbs (no, you REALLY wouldn't cash out at such a small weight! This is just hypothetically speaking!) The cost for the kill / cutting / wrapping / cooling would be roughly $300.00. And lets say his hanging weight was only 275 lbs. (hanging weight is minus the head, hide, insides, and feet.) Now lets say his box weight was 200lbs (box weight is what you get back to put into your freezer, it is minus large bones & trimmings). So lets take our costs $563.38 plus $300.00 = $863.38. Now divide that into the meat you actually get (200lbs) that means this steer would cost $4.31 per pound. Now that's everything- steaks, roasts, hamburger etc...

It's amazing how much "waste" is on a steer. Our last steer weighed 1500 lbs (live weight) and by the time everything was said and done, we had a little over 400 lbs in the freezer.

Next lets talk about the pigs: We have 2 female (no castrating! Yah!!!) feeder pigs right now. One is to be sold at the county fair, the other is for our own personal consumption.

We got both of them on March 2nd of this year. So far they have eaten 825 lbs of feed. Their total expense to date is $280.15. They each weigh roughly 125lbs. So that means that it has taken 3.3 lbs of feed to make 1 pound of pig. Sure, that is pretty close to the steers rate of gain... BUT- It only takes 5 months to raise a hog to slaughter weight (where a steer is almost 2 years) and your hanging weight and box weight are a lot closer. For instance, our last hog's live weight was roughly 350lbs, his hanging weight was 291 lbs and his box weight was 275 lbs. Much more bang for your buck with a pig.

Then there are the lambs...

We currently have 3 lambs this year. Those 3 lambs were born in Jan. All three are going to be sold at the county fair. So far, the lambs weigh 234lbs (together- exact weight) and they have eaten 350lbs of feed. The lambs are doing great! It has taken about a pound and a half of feed to produce 1 pound of lamb.

So all in all what does this tell us?? It tells us raising our own food is not cheap! Unfortunately, with every animal you will always have a "waste" factor. It is proven that pound for pound it is much wiser to raise hogs / lamb for food over steers. Sure, we could put the steer on a better feed than just straight corn to make him grow at a faster rate. But with that special feed comes more cost. Speaking of cost... With the rising cost of fuel, and corn the cost of raising your own food has gone up significantly. For instance, cracked corn last year cost $6.50 / 100lbs. Today it costs $11.00 per the same 100lbs. Pig food used to be $13.00 /100lbs. Today it costs $19.00 for that same 100lbs. Lamb food (show food) used to cost $12.98 / 50lbs. Today it costs $13.25 for the same 50lbs.

We won't even TOUCH the subject of horses... lol! They ate 10 tons (that's 20 THOUSAND POUNDS folks!) of hay this past fall / winter / spring!- And we don't eat them!!! They just stand outside looking pretty! :)

*sigh* perhaps I should become a vegan. At least gardening is cheaper! :)

Have a great day!
MF