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Land usage per chicken, difference between free-range vs. intensively reared: 1/12 m^2 vs. 1/17 m^2 Consumer cost, difference between free range vs. intensive

Land usage per chicken, difference between free-range vs. intensively reared: 1/12 m^2 vs. 1/17 m^2 Consumer cost, difference between free range vs. intensively reared: 4 euros/lb vs. 2 euros/lb. Does the difference in production costs explain the drastic consumer cost difference between these two methods? Why can't free-range farming be automated like it is in the intensive rearing model?

thinkingemote 7y ago
Free range are older I think
newman8r 7y ago
That's an interesting thought. I was curious if anyone was working on something like this and I was able to find this: https://phys.org/news/2013-09-automated-comfort-free-range-hens.html https://phys.org/news/2013-09-automated-comfort-free-range-h... Sounds like a good business to be in if it can be scaled up.
iambateman 7y ago
If free range chicken makes up 4% of the market, perhaps it’s analogous to a Mercedes Benz...it’s not 4x more expensive to manufacture, but the people who buy it aren’t strictly cost-sensitive. My guess is that free range chicken should be about 50% more expensive, but the market can handle some aspirational pricing.
Someone 7y ago
Chickens do not eat in the dark. That’s why the light in stables for intensively reared chicken is on way longer than the sun is up (I’m not up to date on what’s considered optimal today, but I think 24 hours a day was abandoned because it caused too much stress (and stress harms growth, or even kills chicken) for weird things such as “40 minutes on, 20 minutes off”) Some of the large factors that affect production costs are feeding the chicken and e.g. capital costs of the stable, but optimizing production per dollar more or less boils down to getting the “feed conversion ratio” down. It is about 1,6 for intensively reared chicken in the USA, meaning they have to eat 1,6 kg of food to gain a kilogram of weight (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio#Poultry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio#Poultry) For comparison, you need two kg of feed to get a kg of eggs, so eggs are about 20% more expensive per kg than chicken meat. You can’t keep chicken that grow that fast to an age of 80 days, as they would break their legs from excessive weight. Free range chicken are different breeds that have a higher FCR.
- jawarner 7y ago
  Thank you for an interesting comment.

thinkingemote 7y ago

Free range are older I think

newman8r 7y ago

That's an interesting thought. I was curious if anyone was working on something like this and I was able to find this: https://phys.org/news/2013-09-automated-comfort-free-range-hens.html https://phys.org/news/2013-09-automated-comfort-free-range-h... Sounds like a good business to be in if it can be scaled up.

iambateman 7y ago

If free range chicken makes up 4% of the market, perhaps it’s analogous to a Mercedes Benz...it’s not 4x more expensive to manufacture, but the people who buy it aren’t strictly cost-sensitive. My guess is that free range chicken should be about 50% more expensive, but the market can handle some aspirational pricing.

Someone 7y ago

Chickens do not eat in the dark. That’s why the light in stables for intensively reared chicken is on way longer than the sun is up (I’m not up to date on what’s considered optimal today, but I think 24 hours a day was abandoned because it caused too much stress (and stress harms growth, or even kills chicken) for weird things such as “40 minutes on, 20 minutes off”) Some of the large factors that affect production costs are feeding the chicken and e.g. capital costs of the stable, but optimizing production per dollar more or less boils down to getting the “feed conversion ratio” down. It is about 1,6 for intensively reared chicken in the USA, meaning they have to eat 1,6 kg of food to gain a kilogram of weight (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio#Poultry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio#Poultry) For comparison, you need two kg of feed to get a kg of eggs, so eggs are about 20% more expensive per kg than chicken meat. You can’t keep chicken that grow that fast to an age of 80 days, as they would break their legs from excessive weight. Free range chicken are different breeds that have a higher FCR.

jawarner 7y ago
Thank you for an interesting comment.