From Furloughed Employee to Pastured-Poultry Farmer
/Below is an email I received from Brad Ryan, a customer who not not only bought a copy of Stress-Free Chicken Tractor Plans, but also used the content I have produced over the last decade in order to grow broiler chickens, and further diversify his family’s farm. After Brad’s letter I’ll share a few more of my thoughts.
Full transparency: I edited Brad’s email to help dress it up for the internet, but I had him review this case study blog post before I published it.
Brad’s Email
Hi John,
I just watched your most recent video on YouTube and wanted to share our story with you.
My wife and I live on a farm that has been in my family since 1770 (I'm the 11th generation farming the same land). Before taking over, the land had been out of production since the 1980's. The first 10 generations that lived on the farm raised livestock for sale, and maintained kitchen gardens on the side.
When we decided to bring back the business in 2017, we started with fruits and vegetables. My only previous "farming" experience was working in my parents garden growing up, which I hated every minute of. When my wife and I moved into our house on the property in 2016, we started with 5 raised beds.
I started obsessively watching YouTube videos and learned how to farm from people like you, Curtis Stone, Justin Rhodes, Richard Perkins, etc. We started selling at the farmers market in 2017, and added a CSA in 2018.
However, I was offered a job that I couldn't pass up in the spring of 2019, so we put our farming goals on hold. When the pandemic started, I was furloughed in March, which led to being laid off in June. As soon as everything started shutting down, I remembered watching your videos 2-3 years prior and shared them with my wife to convince her that we could raise chickens.
My father and I built 3 of your chicken tractors by early April, and raised 3 rounds of 60 chickens throughout the summer. Each batch sold out within days (always before processing), and next year we will be processing 90 chickens per month from May-October.
We have plans to eventually expand into lamb, forest raised pigs, and eventually (fingers crossed) grass-fed beef. We have a total of 103 acres to work with.
We initially chose to raise chickens on pasture after hearing people like you explain the benefits of moving chickens to fresh grass each day. Thanks for all of the content you put out, I still refer back to your videos from years ago.
Our website is RyanValleyFarm.com
Thanks again,
Brad Ryan
PS. I included a picture of the original deed to our property that we still have. It was either written on pig or goat skin. It was signed in 1770, making it older than the Declaration of Independence.
Farm Deed signed in 1770
Our Paths Back to the Land Will All Be Different
For some, farming has been the family business for generations, for others (like me) farming is a second career, and I’m the first one in my family to choose it.
Brad’s family had owned farmland before the United States was even a Country. Some times his family farmed full-time, other times they balanced a hybrid life on and off farm, and for decades the farm sat fallow without anyone actively caring for it. The beautiful part of this family journey is that Brad and his family found a renewed connection their ancestors while making new family memories.
We all get the chance to write our own stories into the land. We plant trees so that our grandchildren can rest in their shade. We listen to the land to hear what our farm wants to produce. Regenerative farmers are collaborators with Mother Nature, not her adversary.
What story are you going to write with your family? In order to carry out our mission statement we will all play different parts as producers, consumers, advocates, and legislators. The Slow Food movement involves everyone that eats.
The Cost Of Raising Broiler Chickens
If you want to know what it will cost YOU to raise one chicken for meat, then complete my workbook Pastured Poultry Packet #1: The Cost of Chicken Dinner
Building Your First Broiler Pasture Shelter
If you want to build a pasture shelter to raise broiler chickens in, Stress-Free Chicken Tractor Plans will shorten the learning curve, save you time and frustration, and give you a design tested by farmers around the world.
Marketing Grass-Fed Chicken & Eggs
If you want to make money from selling chicken and eggs then you will want to pick up a copy of Pastured Poultry Packet #2: Marketing Grass-Fed Chicken & Eggs.