CSA Economics

The CSA is one facet of Midheaven Farm’s whole farm organism.

Veggie production and the income generated by the sale of CSA shares cover the operation of the CSA and reimburse the farm for compost, hay and straw mulch, BD preparations, and use of machinery. The farm donates the land used for CSA gardens, contributes to the training of interns, and borrowed the money for materials to build our new veggie packing shed.

Income from beef sales go to the farm. It takes a minimum of two years to raise a steer from a calf to a ready-to-butcher animal. The brood herd (presently 26 cows, ten heifers, and one Angus bull) live year ‘round on the farm. Farm expenses include machinery maintenance and repair, fuel, insurance, soil amendments, and BD preps. The farm does not take farm subsidies.

Anne has always worked at a job to make ends meet. She’s been a waitress, clerk, and a school bus driver. In 1986, she created a Cream of Wild Rice soup mix, which she sold at the Village of the Smoky Hills and the old Park Drug. Other gift shops picked up her soup mixes, and the operation became The Secret Garden.

Purchases of Secret Garden soup, bread, seasoning and entrée mixes, as well as jams and jellies, help support the farm and the CSA. Click on this link http://www.secretgardengourmet.com to visit the Secret Garden online store. Orders can be delivered with veggie shares, and site-generated shipping charges will be voided manually.

CSA share prices are calculated with a prayer and by dividing the projected expenses by the anticipated number of shares we will sell. Egg prices (see below) are calculated by the cost of feed and labor.

2011 Projected Expenses

Supplies (veggie boxes, potting soil, bags, etc)                      2,350.00                                
Website, computer supplies                                                     700.00
Electricity                                                                               500.00
Seeds                                                                                  1,800.00
Advertising                                                                             300.00
Gas for deliveries                                                                 1,900.00
Well service                                                                            300.00
Truck license, maintenance, insurance                                   1,000.00
Wind and Liability insurance                                                  2,000.00
Bees                                                                                       400.00
Open House                                                                             250.00
Tractor (diesel, tools and implement maintenance)                    600.00
Organic soil amendments                                                       1,500.00
Accountant (payroll and tax services)                                         300.00
Worker Wages including work comp, state, fed taxes             37,940.00
Anne salary (pre-tax)                                                            10,000.00
             Total =                                                                  $61,840.00

Eggs, Feed and Hens

There are fixed costs in either buying grain from a mill or raising it on a farm. Fuel, machinery maintenance, taxes, BD preparations, labor. Picking rocks costs $50 per hour—5 garden workers x $10 per hour. Dewane buys organic soybean meal, Vitamins A D & E, a calcium mineral supplement, and oyster shell from Buckwheat Growers, and grinds them with his organic barley, oats and hard winter wheat. He’s used store organic prices in his feed calculations below.

Brooders   $180.00  (Built in Fall '10 & they can be reused.)
Waterers, water heaters, heat lamp bulbs $200. (These can be reused.)

Electricity for heat lamps $30/month x 7 months. (covered in CSA budget)

200 chicks purchased September 15, 2010          $ 465.00
190 chicks-pullets eat 14¢ per day x 150 days      3,990.00
Labor to tend young hens 15 min/day                   350.00
 (wages $8 per hour + ins, taxes = $10)             $4,805.00

185 hens in barn, then out on pasture
185 eat $.14/ day x 225 days                          $5,827.50
labor twice a day to feed, water, gather eggs, wash, carton x 225 days
 2 people@ 1.5 hours/day     6,750.00 = 12,577.50
 2 people@ 1.25hr/day         5,625.00 = 11,452.50
 2 people @ 1 hr/day            4,500.00 = 10,327.50

 This total is the inital cost plus labor for the balance of the year:

   $4,805 + 12, 577.50 =   $17,382.50
   $4,805 + 11,425.50 =    $16,257.50
   $4,805 + 10,327.50 =    $15,132.50

On average, a hen lays 20 dozen eggs in her first year. 
20 doz x 185 hens =  3700 dozen eggs in year 1.
Year 2, hens lay 2/3 of year 1, but eat same as year 1.
(That’s why commercial egg producers don’t carry over hens for a second year.)

Adding starting cost of $4805.00 to labor on pasture estimates:
 
$17,382.50 divided by 3700 eggs = $4.70 per dozen
$16,257.50 divided by 3700 eggs = $4.30 per dozen
$15,132.50 divided by 3700 eggs = $4.09 per dozen.

Tending hens on rotational pasture is more time consuming than tending hens under a shed in a big yard, which meets USDA requirements for cage-free eggs. Fences need to be moved. Water and feed hauled out to pastures. Predators are active.  2 hours per day are probably not enough to move, feed, water, gather and wash eggs. In all likelihood, 3 hours per day will be barely enough. 7 days a week.

As a comparision, conventional (GMO) laying mash costs 19¢/lb at the feed store. A farm family selling surplus eggs for $2.00 per dozen may cover the cost of grain for their flock. If they buy organic feed for their chickens, they are losing money.  Few small-scale farmers raise grain and grind it into laying mash.