It’s the scale of realized profit over time. And I said USDA but meant IRS. If you were filing a schedule F I’d have expected you’d have been very aware of this, corrected me and understood that it’s important to get that right lest the IRS label you a hobby farm, aka “not-for-profit-farm” (not the same as 501c*) which has huge implications for taxes. That you immediately got offended is telling - being a hobby farm doesn’t mean you aren’t a good farmer or large-scale one but it does mean you don’t do it as your sole source of income or even necessarily for a profit, which is foundational to my claim.
My claim - and it’s only one simple claim - is not unfounded and can be easily verified: anybody here can call up local farms. I’d bet not 1 in 10 commercial farm (ie not a hobby farm) anywhere in the US would want to sell you chickens, and that’s being generous. That you are literally a small scale chicken farm that you run for extra income, if you are paying attention, aligns with my point. Edit: I should point out here that your sample size is 1. Mine is maybe 15 local to me where we’ve specifically complained about this to each other and another dozen or so around the country who’s sentiment about this I’m familiar with.
Alas, I wasn’t aware that I needed “credentials” to make this simple and again easily verified statement, but I have 20 years experience as a commercial farmer selling organic specialty crops retail and wholesale with farming being my sole source of income during most of that period. Production > 50-100k lbs annually. And yes, profitable… enough that I retired this year to save that last little scrap of my health I have left.
In truth this is a pretty stupid ‘discussion’. The only reason I even responded is because I’m a bit sick of the overly romanticized pastoral paradise view of farming that views farmers as country bumpkins and not a business. People have no conception that farming is fucking hard and we’re not there for your amusement. I got this type of call periodically - “hey will you sell me just one little pet goat/cow/chicken/rabbit?” or worse “can I come pet your goats/cows/chickens/rabbits?”. Even talking to these people costs me time I don’t have. It’s not an income stream it’s a pain in the ass.