Farmer looking for feedback on raising bird feed (1 Viewer)

I hope I am not stepping on toes or something but we are a small farm located in central KS and considering growing black sunflower for the bird markets. We would likely look to offer a hulled product but would like to get feedback on that. I have priced in shell blacks locally at the farm store for .67/lb in 50# qty which would not make financial sense for us but may consider a hulled product if we can justify it.

Of course we would have to invest in all the processing and packaging equipment as well.

I am curious if anyone would be willing to share what a decent price for hulled sunflower would be and how many pounds a watcher typically uses? I am really not sure.

I apologize if this seems like a business proposal on the first post. We certainly do not have anything to sell. This is purely some market research I suppose.

Fastline - welcome!, I am not one of these bird feeders, preferring to augment my yard with food /shelter plantings, and some safe and secure watering pools - so I cannot help in regard to quantities of seed used.

However, I thought I would post to offer an insight on the crop. If you are going to grow a seed crop, which birds naturally associate as food, then it is likely that you will see an un-natural increase in your local birds feeding on the seeds :eat: while still in the paddock! :eek!: - before harvest and processing in the plant (whatever that may be).

You should factor in these losses, plus the costs of any mitigation strategies - such as raptor silhouettes, compressed air noise cannons, multiple raptor perches + nest sites, or even getting falconers in, etc, etc.

Out here, we get 'problems' with Sulphur-Crested White Cockatoos, Galahs, and Corellas, etc. ..... these birds can be frustratingly intellegent at circumventing mitigation strategies ...... :storm: :-O

Encouraging raptors (perches, nest sites, habitat, cover, etc) is one of the most effective deterrents, and has a host of other benefits such as rodent /vermin predation. Ideally, your site should be poison /toxin free, in order not to impact on the health and viability of the raptors.
Just some more 'grist for the mill' ! ..... :t:



Chosun :gh:

[EDIT] P.S. I should also add that crop sowing methods are critically important too, as this is when unwanted conditioning of local birds to a new excess feed source takes place. The best methods are direct drilling, so that no excess seed is accessible by the birds. If you combine this with a "No Kill" "Pasture Cropping" system, then you'll have the best of all possible worlds, and a sustainable (regenerative) low input cost system which will maximise profits and environmental health. Some important links for you :cat:
http://www.pasturecropping.com/inde...ral-information-on-no-kill-cropping&Itemid=62
http://www.winona.net.au/farming.html

Local Costco has black sunflower seed for a bit over 50 cents per lb, as you said you can't compete with that price, so I doubt you can compete with the shelled seeds either since your initial cost will be higher.

Personally I (and many others) don't use shelled because of the higher cost, and they spoil much faster.

50lb Sunflower chips and hearts $41. 50lb Whole Kernels hulled $61. Here in Chicago..

50lb Sunflower in Shell $25

Thanks for the replies! It really just will not make financial sense I guess. We will make more just taking wheat to the coop than bagging and selling sunflower with about 10% of the labor. Must be a bunch of import sunflower cause I can't see a farmer making a living on that.

Thanks again!

I don't know where or how nyger seed is grown or what the economics of it are, but you might want to look into that as a cash crop. It's very popular with colourful finches, which people like, and is about the most expensive wild bird feed there is. The only other thing thing I know about it is that it's the seed of a thistle.

EDIT: ...aaaand even that one thing was wrong. They used pretend it was thistle seed because that's what finches were known to like. Looks like nyger comes from some flowering plant. Anyway, they didn't use to call it 'black gold' for nothing- it was very costly.

Ruff, out.

I'll tell you though that I am fed up with the BOSS that I buy here. There is so much waste in the bag which winds up clogging the ports in the feeders. So everyday, before I fill the feeders, i keep shuffling the seed to pick out the small wood chips.

KCFoggin said:

I'll tell you though that I am fed up with the BOSS that I buy here. There is so much waste in the bag which winds up clogging the ports in the feeders. So everyday, before I fill the feeders, i keep shuffling the seed to pick out the small wood chips.

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Yes the cheap stuff! Look around at Feed stores locally or actual wild bird supplies stores locally. Look closely at the mix itself, the seed should be a bit larger than a cheap BOSS but not as large as a Stripe Sunflower seed. I always thought the better BOSS looks more shiny and meaty than the cheaper priced BOSS. Also look through the seeds, they should be clean and free of most wood chips and twigs. I found a few local places here that have the Premium BOSS 50lb for $33ish. Never used it because when i found the better stuff i already switched to Hulled Sunflower. If you look around locally you can find the good stuff!

Ruff said:

I don't know where or how nyger seed is grown or what the economics of it are, but you might want to look into that as a cash crop. It's very popular with colourful finches, which people like, and is about the most expensive wild bird feed there is. The only other thing thing I know about it is that it's the seed of a thistle.

EDIT: ...aaaand even that one thing was wrong. They used pretend it was thistle seed because that's what finches were known to like. Looks like nyger comes from some flowering plant. Anyway, they didn't use to call it 'black gold' for nothing- it was very costly.

Ruff, out.

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I believe nyger seed is native to Africa. I'm not sure if there are other sources, but as far as I know it has to be irradiated to kill it before it is imported into the US, probably out of fear of it becoming invasive. This adds to its cost and decreases its shelf life. If that is all true, an American farmer would not be allowed to cultivate it.