We made a business decision at MacFarlane Pheasants Inc. for this spring. We have 200 acres of farm land that we have been using for the last two years to grow corn, beans, and wheat. Prior to that, we rented out this land for 12 years.
Our big decision for the future is that our time must be prioritized, to focus on our game bird business. Planting and harvesting fields coincides pretty closely to our busiest pheasant times. In addition to that problem, the high cost of planters and combines can’t come close to justifying having this equipment to work 200 acres! So, with that in mind, we decided to return to our prior arrangement and rent out this land to a local farmer.
There are so many exciting game bird responsibilities, every day, that our time is best spent on maintaining and growing our pheasant business. As our customer base grows, this just makes good sense.
We are busy getting all our buildings in shape for spring. Chick orders are coming in like crazy and that is definitely keeping us busy as we prepare to fill those orders, beginning in April.
We are building a new hen barn because our white pheasant business is growing and growing! Getting that barn ready to produce more white pheasant chicks requires an increased focus on this aspect of our business.
We raised 35,000 birds last year in South Dakota, on a satellite farm. We just renewed that lease and expect to raise another 35,000 pheasants this year, on that farm. Our employees are busy here, there, and everywhere!
We are also raising birds in Alberta, Canada and this is another critical use of our time.
We’ll be sharing more details about our operations in South Dakota and Canada in the near future, so watch for those posts. We also plan to share the progress on our new hen barn, so that is another post to watch for in the new future.
