Break-even price is the number that tells you the lowest per-pound price your broiler flock can be worth and still not lose money. It is total flock cost divided by total pounds sold — nothing more — but almost no grower calculates it with their own numbers, because the inputs live in five different places: chick invoices, feed tickets, energy bills, and the settlement sheet. This page builds the calculation from your own records, with a worked example, a sensitivity table, and the planning decisions the number actually drives.
What Is the Break-Even Price for a Broiler Flock?
Break-even price per pound = total flock cost ÷ total pounds sold. Equivalently, break-even price per bird = total flock cost ÷ birds sold, divided by average live weight per bird. The number answers one question: at what live price per pound does the flock exactly cover its costs? Below it, every pound sold loses money; above it, every pound is margin.
Total flock cost means every cost attributable to that flock — chicks, feed, bedding, energy, repairs, labor, medication, insurance, and the overhead your contract lets you attribute. Total pounds sold means birds actually delivered, after mortality, at the average weight your settlement sheet records. Using placed birds instead of sold birds is the most common way break-even gets understated.
The Worked Example: A 30,000-Bird Flock to 6.4 lb
Example only — labeled assumptions, not your numbers. Feed intake derived from breeder 2022 performance objectives via the feed consumption chart method: 10.69 lb cumulative feed per bird to day 42.
| Cost Line | Basis | Flock Cost | Cost per Bird |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed | 10.69 lb/bird × 30,000 × $0.50/lb | $160,350 | $5.34 |
| Chicks | 30,000 × $0.20 | $6,000 | $0.20 |
| Bedding | 30,000 × $0.05 | $1,500 | $0.05 |
| Energy (heat, fans, lights) | example house | $4,500 | $0.15 |
| Repairs and maintenance | example house | $1,200 | $0.04 |
| Labor | example house | $3,000 | $0.10 |
| Meds, misc, insurance allocation | example house | $1,500 | $0.05 |
| Total | — | $178,050 | $5.94 |
Pounds sold: 30,000 placed × 97% livability = 29,100 birds × 6.4 lb average = 186,240 lb. Break-even price = $178,050 ÷ 186,240 = $0.96 per pound. Per bird: $178,050 ÷ 29,100 = $6.12 — meaning the bird must be worth at least $6.12 delivered for the flock to wash. At an example live price of $1.10/lb, the flock returns $7.04/bird against $6.12 cost: about $0.92 per bird of margin, roughly $26,700 on the flock.
- Cumulative feed per bird: derived from Cobb-Vantress Cobb500 2022 performance objectives via the feed consumption chart derivation method (10.69 lb to day 42).
- Chick, bedding, energy, labor, and other lines: labeled example values — replace with your invoices and your budget template entries.
- Livability and average weight: example assumptions — use your own exit counts and settlement average from the settlement calculator.
What Moves Break-Even: Sensitivity Table
Two variables move break-even more than everything else combined: feed price and pounds sold. The table shows the break-even price at $0.96/lb baseline, varying each while holding the rest constant:
| Scenario | Total Flock Cost | Pounds Sold | Break-Even Price | Change vs Baseline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | $178,050 | 186,240 lb | $0.96/lb | — |
| Feed +10% ($0.55/lb) | $194,385 | 186,240 lb | $1.04/lb | + $0.08 |
| Feed −10% ($0.45/lb) | $161,715 | 186,240 lb | $0.87/lb | − $0.09 |
| Mortality 6% instead of 3% | $178,050 | 180,480 lb | $0.99/lb | + $0.03 |
| Average weight 6.0 lb instead of 6.4 | $178,050 | 174,600 lb | $1.02/lb | + $0.06 |
| Feed +10% and 6% mortality | $194,385 | 180,480 lb | $1.08/lb | + $0.12 |
Read the last row: a bad feed price combined with an average health event moves break-even from $0.96 to $1.08 — a 12% swing driven by two variables the grower influences daily. This is why the feed chart, the growth bands, and the water early-warning habit are all break-even tools, not just performance tools.
Using Break-Even in Decisions
- Pricing and contracts: when negotiating or forecasting, compare the contract's expected per-pound return against current break-even — not against last season's margin. Margin is what remains above this number.
- Extension decisions: the catch chart tests whether an extra week's gain is worth its feed; break-even supplies the price line that test is measured against.
- Flock comparison: break-even per flock, tracked over time on the profitability dashboard, shows which houses and seasons actually carry cost — the trend matters more than one flock's number.
- Feed purchasing: since feed is over 80% of the flock cost in the example, a delivered-price difference of $0.05/lb moves break-even about $0.045/lb — worth negotiating before it is worth cutting rations.
Building Your Own Break-Even in Poultry Log
When expenses are tagged to a flock and exit counts and weights are logged, cost per bird and cost per pound calculate themselves — which makes break-even a readout, not a project. Feed deliveries, energy, bedding, and repair costs land against the flock they belong to; settlement income lands against the same flock; the margin between them is the number this page is about, visible before the next placement rather than after the next settlement.
- 2026-10-05: Initial version. Formula, worked example with labeled assumptions, sensitivity table, and decision applications.