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“Broiler Buddy” Helping Contract Broiler Growers Make Better Business Decisions

Dennis Brothers

Summary

Contract broiler growers make up a significant portion of the agricultural industry. Contract growers supply the grow-out facilities and management to support the 9 billion, and growing, broilers processed annually in the United States. Broilers are the nation’s most consumed animal protein with U.S. consumption at more than 100 pounds of poultry per capita annually. Contract growers’ business models differ greatly from other farm businesses because of the relationship they have with integrated poultry companies. In many cases, the best opportunity for broiler growers to increase their bottom line is to decrease variable input cost, done often by investing in energy saving upgrades or technology. However, because of the diversity of contracts and production parameters placed on growers by contracts, there have been few tools available to growers to make decisions with some sense of predicted financial accuracy. That’s where “Broiler Buddy” comes in.
Broiler Buddy is a financial decision tool based on comparative models. Broiler Buddy takes user supplied production and housing inputs to build predicted short- and long-term cash flow statements. The user can use the two different scenarios available, changing any one of the inputs, and compare the short and long-term results between the scenarios. This tool assists the contract grower with deciding if investing in a farm will pay off and how soon. Users can compare varying contact terms, costs of housing, all with a focus on the long-term profitability of the farm. At the time of this submission, Broiler Buddy has had over 1500 usages.

Details

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