The Hidden Cost of Processing Poultry 205 Miles Away

How losing local poultry processing changes the cost of raising chickens in Northern Michigan

When people first hear that the nearest licensed poultry processor is now more than 200 miles away, the most common response is simple:

“Can’t farms just drive there?”

Technically, yes. But the reality is far more complicated.

With the closure of Northern Michigan’s last MDARD-licensed poultry processing facility, the next closest option for many farms is 205 miles away. That means a 410-mile round trip every time birds need to be processed.

For small farms, those miles add up quickly.

Poultry processing often requires multiple trips throughout the season. Birds must be transported carefully, scheduled around limited processing appointments, and coordinated with the rest of the farm’s work. What might sound like a long but manageable drive quickly becomes a major logistical challenge.

As farmers, we spend most of our days working close to home, caring for animals and land. Losing local processing means trading that time for hours on the road.

There are also real financial costs.

Fuel alone adds significant expense, but it doesn’t stop there. Long-distance transportation increases stress on the birds, raises the likelihood of losses during travel, and requires farmers to spend long days away from their farms during already busy seasons.

When we looked closely at the numbers for our own farm, the impact became clear.

To cover the additional costs of transporting poultry more than 200 miles for processing, we would need to either increase our chicken production by 186% or raise our prices to over $14 per pound.

And that estimate only accounts for the most basic expenses, such as fuel and losses during transport. It does not include additional labor hours or the opportunity cost of time spent away from other critical work on the farm.

For many small farms, those numbers simply don’t work.

Instead of dramatically increasing production or raising prices beyond what many customers can afford, many farmers are forced to make a different decision: scale back or stop raising poultry altogether.

When that happens, the effects ripple outward.

Fewer farms raising poultry means fewer locally raised chickens available at farmers markets and grocery stores. It means fewer opportunities for consumers to purchase locally produced protein. And it means fewer farms able to sustain diversified production systems that support healthy soils and resilient local food economies.

In other words, the loss of local processing doesn’t just create inconvenience — it reshapes what local agriculture looks like in a region.

Access to processing infrastructure is one of the quiet but essential pieces that allows small farms to bring food to their communities.

Without it, the cost of keeping food local becomes increasingly difficult for farms to carry alone.

Why Not Use One of the Other Processors in the Area?

This is another question we often hear.

The short answer is that there are small processors operating locally, including Amish facilities and farms such as Baker’s Green Acres, which is about 60 miles from our farm. These processors play an important role in supporting homesteaders and farms that sell poultry directly through pre-orders.

However, many of these facilities operate under custom processing exemptions. Poultry processed under this exemption cannot be sold as individual retail cuts through farmers markets, grocery stores, or wholesale channels.

For farms that rely on those markets, access to a state-licensed processing facility is essential.

Selling poultry through farmers markets, grocery stores, or food access programs requires birds to be processed at a licensed facility that meets specific regulatory standards.

Pre-order models work well for some farms and customers. But they do not serve everyone.

Many customers do not have the freezer space to purchase large quantities of poultry at once. Others prefer to buy chicken in smaller amounts throughout the season. Northern Michigan also has a large seasonal population of visitors and second-home residents who want to purchase local food while they are here, but cannot plan a year’s supply of poultry in advance.

Without licensed processing, those important sales avenues become unavailable.

Custom processors also face their own limitations. After the closure of the last licensed facility, many farms began searching for alternative processing options. The remaining processors quickly felt the pressure of increased demand and, in many cases, were already operating at the capacity they were comfortable handling.

The result is a situation where more farms need processing than the available processors can reasonably accommodate.

This creates a bottleneck that affects farms across the region — limiting production, restricting sales opportunities, and making it harder for local food to reach the communities that want it.

In our next post, we’ll take a closer look at why licensed processing matters — and why small farms can’t simply process poultry themselves if they want to sell it locally.

Whole roasted chicken infused with dill pickle brine, artfully garnished with fresh dill on a serving platter.