Last week we sat down with Jessica Bolding, CPA and I went over the farms finances! She was such a big help!! It became very clear that there were a lot of things we were missing out on such as:

• mileage for farm related activities
• % of electricity, water
• Not to use the Accrual System

Each year the IRS comes out with an IRS Farm Reporting Book that details the farming requirements.

It also became very clear that there are things that I care about that the IRS does not care about. I have to keep track of my egg production so I know how we are doing however the IRS does not care. They do care about my purchases and if they are going to be depreciated over time or if we will be taking the whole item in one year.

Finally, it became clear that although I keep all of our receipts I was not organized enough. So, I am organizing all of my expense & income receipts by month and paper clipping them together hopefully this will simplify the tax reporting. Finally, I will be saving 15% of my income if I make it over my expenses to pay taxes.

Learning at RH

Rising Feed Costs

As you may have noticed our prices went up this month. We will hold steady at this price as long as we can. Feed costs went up again this month and it is expected that they will continue to rise.

This is a portion of an article from the AP (Associated Press) regarding this issue...

Pilgrim's Pride posts loss, blames rising feed costs

Monday May 5, 5:25 pm ET By David Koenig, AP Business Writer

"Pilgrim's Pride also said its U.S. business would probably lose money in the current quarter, and it might be summer 2009 before the company returns to normal operating profit margins....Chief Executive Clint Rivers placed blame for the industry's trouble on the federal government's "deeply flawed" policy of paying subsidies for using corn to produce ethanol for fuel, which he said would cause food prices to rise further.
"American consumers are only just beginning to feel the impact of sharply higher food prices," as food producers pass along more of their higher costs, Rivers said...."

Both corn and soy beans are on the rise and we are feeling the pinch here at Rooster Hill. We have however decided to try to hold our new prices for the next few months. Our feed costs have gone up nearly 20% in the last 3 months.

So what are we going to do?

1. Build more roosts in our modest Hen House


2. Buy more fencing and create a much larger yard and move toward pastured/free range chickens as soon as possible.


3. We are checking into making our own feed!

The most important thing I am finding in farming is watching my bottom dollar. Figuring out how to spend the least amount of money for maximum results. Just like any new business we are going to spend more then we make the first year but we cannot continue on this trend indefinitely. We have 9 months until we reach 1 year... We hope to be making a profit by then.

Counting our coins at RH