We have three more hatches (8/4,8/11 and 8/18)and our regular pheasant and partridge hatching season will be over. I’m trying to decide if we should keep one more “A” room of pheasant chicks (about 6500 chicks) than what we had scheduled. We have the room in the barns- the decision hinges upon whether we will have the orders for mature pheasants this fall and winter. There are so many mixed signals – the media says the economy is slowing – yet we have lot’s of orders for mature pheasants on the books. I spoke to a few of my friends in South Dakota and they reported that there has been too much rain this summer and the pheasant numbers appear to be down. If the market is good, I want to have the mature birds in inventory to sell. On the other hand – I don’t want to have extra birds in a soft market (like we had during the fall ’08 and spring ’09 seasons).
Char has been working on a new mature pheasant brochure – that we will mail out to preserves around the country. My expectation is that our mailing will generate interest and we will garner more orders for mature pheasants. With that in mind – we want to have the birds to back up the mailing.
I plan on meeting with Chris and Brad Monday morning (8/2) and arriving at a decision (whether to keep one more “A” room of chicks). My pattern has been to put pressure on myself to get out there and sell the birds. If our farm is to continue to move forward – we need to run the facility efficiently. One important aspect of efficiency is to run at full production. If we are to be at full production, we need to have that “A” room full on 8/18. I’ll report back what Chris, Brad and I decided.