Farmer Hunt Chicken Chronicles | How We Got Into The Chicken Business!

[@h.j.patterson9681]

And wishing both of you and your families a great Resurrection Sunday. He has risen, he has risen indeed!

[@FarmerHunt]

Thanks so much! Same to you. We sure are enjoying a pretty Easter weekend so far.

[@rockinpranch8173]

Man, I can’t give y’all enough props for being this transparent. Chicken farming is a topic where people don’t like to be open for some reason. I have good buddies that don’t want to talk this openly in private, much less broadcast it to the world.

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you very much! I don’t know why there isn’t more transparency in the poultry business but we are going to try and do several videos that help people understand the business a little better hopefully.

[@rockinpranch8173]

@@FarmerHunt I’m assuming it comes with the barrier to entry. A lot of people just assume you’re either already rich or born into it. Puts those that don’t fit into that category in an awkward spot.

[@FarmerHunt]

Absolutely!

[@JoeReworked]

Great couple of guys keep it up you’re lucky to have each other!

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you very much. We are very fortunate to have the setup that we do

[@carrlycamp]

Came here to say 10/10 recommend living next door to your cousins/best friends so the wives and children can be together when the husbands are working long hours on the farm! 🙌🏻

[@FarmerHunt]

We couldn't do it without our supportive wives!

[@nicolehunt1540]

@@FarmerHuntScreenshotting your comment for a rainy day!! 😂😂

[@kennethblackwell7354]

Phenomenal fellahs ! I thourghly enjoyed watching. Basically answered many many questions my family have. Thank y'all so much

[@FarmerHunt]

Thanks for watching!

[@jacobsloan8002]

Great video! Can’t wait to learn more from the future ones!

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you!

[@philipedwards8762]

Great video! My grandparents made their living on the farm that my siblings and I now own in NW AL. Much of their money came from the chicken houses they had in the 1950s and 1960s. I sometimes daydream about what life might have been like if I had gone into farming myself.

[@FarmerHunt]

That's pretty cool. Thanks for sharing!

[@westbamafarmer]

It’s an interesting business thanks for the video Ben and Eric 👍🐔

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you!

[@rhodasantoro8594]

I absolutely love hearing about your farm life and remembering how my Grandpa would teach me about farm life and raising animals ❤️

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you!

[@javidswat1792]

I need you guys, I have seen couple videos of you guys I really like you people are so amazing simple and great people

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you! We appreciate the support. We'll have more videos like this one in the coming weeks.

[@cdawggaming9618]

I love this video keep working hard guys

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you!

[@stefocurry7049]

I'm headed to Alabama next week to check out a chicken farm and hopefully make an offer! Your videos are truly helpful for beginners.

[@FarmerHunt]

Good luck!!

[@MangHninLian]

Nice video. It even makes me feel too short! I hope you make a little longer in next episodes.

[@FarmerHunt]

Thanks!

[@pineviewfarmva]

Really enjoyable video! Found myself nodding my head to all your good advice 👍

[@elovvor1]

Thank you for watching and commenting.

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you!

[@thekaysonchannel]

Alabama mentioned!! Roll Tide! I hope to get my first farming job next week in poultry. My grandparents used to farm when I was young but my parents were never into it.

[@FarmerHunt]

Good luck! We are Alabama residents but Georgia Bulldogs!!

[@butterbean05]

Old timer told me don’t have 1 Rainey day fund, have about 20 😂. Good video

[@FarmerHunt]

Haha thats probably the best advice i've heard!

[@FarmerMai]

Had a similar experience after leaving the loan office but every flock that goes by I feel reassured with my decision. Im the youngest First generation farmer in my division and it was really hard in the beginning but everyone in industry is a helping hand. Neighbors frequently came by and taught me many things. Really love your videos!

[@FarmerHunt]

Glad you are doing well in the business! That’s awesome. The farming community is great. Lots of people willing to help. Thanks for watching our video!

[@kylem9834]

Definitely looking forward to continuing this segment. Really enjoyable conversation to listen to 👍

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you!

[@kevinsims4022]

I can relate you guys completely, I also bought my 4 hs farm when I was 22. And to walk out the office knowing I'm a quarter million dollar in debt hit me pretty hard. Luckily I was knowledgeable with the chicken business and have made it work for the past 11 years. Truly enjoy chicken farming. Now the integrator is another story. Also grow for pilgrims as well. But great videos.

[@FarmerHunt]

Glad to hear you have done well in the chicken business. Hope your success continues. It has been good to us, but of course comes with its challenges.

[@tylerroberts8105]

Kevin, I’m 27, bought a four house farm as well at 25. I also grow for pilgrims in South Carolina and they are a complete piece of work I agree with you 100% 🤣

[@kevinsims4022]

@tylerroberts8105 absolutely, I've always said it will get better. But I'm proven wrong each year!

[@bryonjames1737]

Thanks for sharing u all are awesome

[@FarmerHunt]

Thanks for watching!

[@azamyahmad]

Another beautiful great video upload and thanks again guys

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you!

[@markbaxley7258]

Awesome job on video guys! Chickens don't take days off, doesn't matter if it's holidays. Very good point about the spouse being on board. You guys are an inspiration to me, keep it up guys and I hope you have a good flock

[@FarmerHunt]

Thanks Mark! You've got to love what you do to make it in this business (most days at least). So far the birds are looking pretty good. Hope you have a good one also.

[@markbaxley7258]

@@FarmerHunt so far mine look good, have 3 weeks left

[@elovvor1]

Thank you for always tuning in! Good luck on this flock.

[@baileyhollingsworth3660]

Amazing video guys! Eric mentioned going into detail on buying an existing farm or building a farm and that would be awesome! Where im from in Mississippi there is either farms from the mid-late 90’s for sale or not a lot of land for sale to build houses. Also a lot of people tell me that if you by a farm that’s already 20ish years old your setting yourself up for failure because the integrator will end your contract once the farm is so old.

[@FarmerHunt]

We will go into some more detail on that in one of our next videos. The older the houses get, the more likely they are to being shut down. In my opinion it's not always the age that is the main cause, it's the lack of money being reinvested into the chicken houses. The houses need to be maintained and have to have money put back into them to continue to be successful. If you do happen to look at an existing, older farm. Look at things like the size of the sidewall post. Some are built with 4x4 post and some with 4x6 post. Also the condition of the roof, what the sidewalls are made out of and condition/age of the equipment inside (water lines, feed lines, brooders, controllers etc.)

[@srptxb]

Love your guys’ videos! Me and my dad just bought a Butterball turkey farm. I grew up working my grandparents chicken farm but still learn a lot from your videos. Two weeks into our first flock and still fixing stuff that had been neglected as it was an older farm that hadn’t been taken care of properly. Looking forward to more videos and to keep learning. Hoping to start a cattle operation in the next year or two as well. Truly appreciate you guys!

[@elovvor1]

That’s awesome! Congratulations. Thanks for watching!

[@FarmerHunt]

Good luck with the turkey farm! Hope yall get all the kinks worked out and things run smoothly for yall.

[@rogerfuhr8067]

Excellent advice!

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you!

[@pcl598]

Very good video, Thanks

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you!

[@paulwhite4627]

Great advice and really enjoyed the video.

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you!

[@Mark-Marine]

I really enjoyed this one. Eric, I’m about your daddy’s age and was in FFA in the late 60s; where my specialty was chickens lol. Unfortunately, I was placed in the Marines before I could build up the farm. One question for both of you boys is this: are your cattle one of the options available to offset a bad flock?

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you! We try our best to make the chickens pay for that part of our business and the cows pay for the cattle side of our business. In some areas, they do overlap though. To answer your question though, yes, we do have that available as an option. It can go both ways. Sometimes, the chickens can help offset some cattle expense if we need them to.

[@gravelr512]

Great video! Very interesting, especially the tournament pay scale. Every payout the loser gets hosed?

[@elovvor1]

There’s more to come on the tournament system!

[@FarmerHunt]

Typically yes, and I’d say more times that not it’s caused by something out of their control.

[@darkozivin5795]

Can you make some video abaut some problems ,avout helt in chickens and how you solving them.I mean do you use some medicine acid's ,vitamine ... And some results about feed conversion ,procentige of dead chick ...Thanks

[@FarmerHunt]

We'll talk about it some in a video soon.

[@joelchurch2499]

Y’all are spot on, exactly how it happened for me with the FSA loan guarantee. I had basically nothing to put down when starting out. The flock I’m on now will finish paying my farm off.

[@FarmerHunt]

Congratulations! That's awesome! Bet you'll be grinning ear to ear when your next flock settles.

[@joelchurch2499]

@@FarmerHunt you better believe it! 😁

[@elovvor1]

Congratulations!!! Celebrate with some litter angels!

[@joelchurch2499]

@@elovvor1 lol! I think I’ll pass on that!

[@dkmullenix]

Can you talk about your cattle business similarly to how you discussed your chicken business?

[@FarmerHunt]

Yes, we'll put that on the list to talk about the details of our cattle operation.

[@jimmyvole851]

Thanks Eric & Ben, I've been watching all series of videos that you released. In this video, you mentioned about Class A & Class B farms, what's different about them & pay structure?

[@FarmerHunt]

The class A houses have certain upgrades that make them "better" for growing chickens. I think some of the requirements were the updated controllers, cool cells to keep the chickens cool in the summer, there is a minimum static pressure requirement with 1 fan running and may have been a few other things. I can't remember the exact pay difference when they offered it initially. It wasn't a significant amount but when you think about how many pounds of chicken you would sell over the next several years it made sense to go ahead and do it.

[@jimmyvole851]

@@FarmerHunt Hey, @FarmerHunt, thank you for your previous response. I have a follow-up question regarding the video you shared. You mentioned not to overpay for a farm, but how can I determine if I have overpaid before the bank evaluates it? Is there any way to know?

[@FarmerHunt]

I relied on my banker to help me with this. There may be some generic guidelines where you can figure it out yourself but its hard to do it not knowing your exact loan terms. If you sit down with your banker I would play around with the numbers some. For instance, the integrator I grow with typically averages 6.5 flocks a year and used to be around 96% livability with a 3.75 lb bird. I ran my numbers with 6 flocks a year with a slightly less livability and slightly smaller bird just to make sure I was still comfortable at that amount.

[@angeliaclark5033]

Great video! We have 6 chicken houses. We learn something new every year from our accountant. We’ve been in it for 7 years. Looking forward to more videos especially on the financial side /depreciation. If y’all both work on the farm full time what do you do for health insurance?

[@elovvor1]

Both of our wives work public jobs that have insurance benefits. Thank you for watching.

[@dirkvandenwyngaert8275]

Very informative guys! Can you do the same about the beef operation? An as an extra: how do you select your bulls for AI?

[@FarmerHunt]

Thanks! Yes, we'll do one for the beef business sometime. We have a rep at Select Sires that we usually ask their opinion, we check EPD's, and also ask other farmers we know. Through all that we usually can narrow it down pretty good.

[@thehankins3936]

Thank you! Much Respect for your willingness to share your experience. Question maybe for next time . I’ve heard from others in the business, when getting in the chicken business a big pull is “they” say it will be paid off in 10 years or however long you finance for BUT that never happens. That it’s constantly borrowing more money or extending the loan for upgrades or whatever may occur. Is that your experience ? Or was the business paid off at that appointed time ?

[@rockinpranch8173]

Great question. I have heard similar things. Basically whoever you’re growing for will constantly keep you in debt, in order to keep the leverage they have.

[@FarmerHunt]

I have heard of that happening. It hasn't been the case for either of us though. We'll definitely touch on this in a video though. For the 9 years ive been in the business there have not been any mandatory upgrades. There have been incentives though for upgrades.

[@joelchurch2499]

I started out growing for Tyson. They were doing the mandatory upgrades all the time. Growing for them was horrible. I’ve been with a different integrator for several years now. They use the incentive philosophy for upgrading.

[@h.j.patterson9681]

Eric, is there a family connection to the University of Georgia. If you were living in Alabama I'm surprised that you didn't go to Auburn to avoid the out of state tuition. And Auburn has a really good school of Pharmacy and Business, as does Georgia. Really enjoyed this farm/life history episode.

[@elovvor1]

Great question. I should’ve talked about that. My parents’ farm is in Georgia so I was actually raised in Georgia. I attended UGA on the Hope scholarship. The first farm I bought was in Georgia as well. I moved to Alabama when I bought the farm from my uncle in 2007. We live on the state line essentially. Auburn does have a great agricultural department, but I would’ve had to pay out of state tuition to go there. Go Dawgs!!

[@FarmerHunt]

GO DAWGS!

[@georgekearns7325]

enjoy your videos. How did you like the inline wrapper for baleage so far?

[@elovvor1]

It has been an awesome addition to our farm. It’s nice to buy a piece of equipment and see the positive effects reciprocated in our animals.

[@amnadrawing510]

You guys doing great job I like yours every single Videos I’m interested in to doing poultry business in which county you’re poultry houses?

[@FarmerHunt]

Thank you! We are in Cleburne county in Alabama. We grow birds for Pilgrims in Carrollton, GA

[@elovvor1]

Thank you. Cleburne county

[@HadenHolmes]

Always wondered how someone living on the state line dealt with Georgia time. Has got to be a headache lol.

[@elovvor1]

It is a hassle to say the least!!!

[@FarmerHunt]

We set all our phone so they just stay on Georgia time. Luckily our wives work work in Georgia so that helps us all stay on the same time zone.

[@drakeb5512]

I’m interested in this business been working two breeder houses for about 6 months now. The only company here is Perdue and every farmer I talk to doesn’t like them at all. That’s the main reason I’m nervous about if I got into this business, because of what I hear from other farmers. The rest of the farms around here are broilers don’t know hardly any other breeder farms here in eastern nc.

[@elovvor1]

The more options you can give yourself the better off you’ll be. Always listen to what the growers are saying. Their concerns will quickly become yours as well.

[@stevenbrzeski1529]

How old our y’all’s chicken house?

[@FarmerHunt]

They were built in the early 90’s

[@stevenbrzeski1529]

@ ok thanks. I’m looking at some used ones and just seeing how many years people operate them

[@weathington803]

Once you find a chicken house to buy, how do secure a contract with the chicken folks?? I would assume nobody is going loan the money without a contract in place before the purchase,,,, which comes first ,,,,, the chickens or the loan money?

[@FarmerHunt]

Typically the contract continues with the farm. When I was buying my farm, after I reached a purchase price agreement I met with the integrator to make sure they would continue the contract with the farm. This is usually the point where the integrators may require upgrades. They basically use the contract as leverage. Some people will swap integrators upon purchase. Either way, all that is sorted out before closing.

[@duotronic6451]

How much $ for a new load of chicks per house? How much once mature minus expenses and losses? Does it even work like that?

[@FarmerHunt]

We'll talk about this in a video sometime. We don't pay for the chickens or the feed. Since we are basically a subcontractor, the integrator provides the chickens and the feed and then we are paid by the pound once the chickens are processed.

[@lovingmefully_]

Hey it’s marlow

[@FarmerHunt]

Hey Marlow!! Hope you are having a good Saturday

[@thegrindoutdoors6788]

How many acres of land do you need to have per chicken house?

[@FarmerHunt]

I don't know the exact number on that. I have 4 40'x500' chicken houses that takes up about 10 acres of my property. Thats the houses, control building, dry stack/compost shed, loading/unloding pad area and my mass burial site. This could vary based on a different setup though. I would guess 15-20 acres depending on the size of the farm would be ideal.

[@KhanthalyRasavong]

What y’all think about egg houses? I’m in the process of purchasing 2 breeder houses.

[@FarmerHunt]

I honestly don't know much about the egg side of the business. My advice would be make sure you fully understand taxes and depreciation prior to your closing so you can make sure everything is setup properly.

[@KhanthalyRasavong]

@@FarmerHunt thanks for the advice!! I sure will.

[@rosannecoleman8222]

On the video that aired today on Saturday showed no bailing of the hay. I had to turn you off.

[@FarmerHunt]

We’ll have more videos with more action soon. The field had a lot more hay than we expected and we didn’t have a spare person to be off the tractors filming.

[@BryantsFamilyFarm]

Had to rebuild a new 42x500 in 2023 after a fire loss, $450k. Not including cleanup. Crazy the cost. FFB is who we dealt with here in NC for financing, best group of people!

[@FarmerHunt]

Thanks!

[@rosannecoleman8222]

Too much talk and didn't see the Bailey Rollin and dumping