The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: susie100 on January 30, 2020, 12:13:45 pm
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Hi everyone
I am not a registered smallholder but have enough land to raise some geese for the Christmas table. I have a couple of pygmy goats and usually a couple of piggy weaners for our freezer so not experienced but not a complete novice to the world either.
However, put the practicalities of geese raising aside, can anyone tell me if I can legally sell them when the time comes? what state can they be in ie live, dead, dressed? or is it better to find a butcher to buy them if this is legal?
any information would be a great help, thank you
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I'm a little confused …. you day you are not a registered smallholder (do you mean you haven't got a holding number?) ….. cos you say to have goats and pigs?
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Hi, also a bit confused. To have goats and weaners you would have a holding number - the holding number is what would make your property and land a registered smallholding. If its not registered, then you would not legally be able to keep goats or pigs there?
With the geese. Yes you can legally sell them, but the problem comes to preparing them for the table (butchering) and also storage of the dressed birds. You would need to jump through hoops to comply with all of the food hygiene legislation. There are a few places that do them for you.
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hi, sorry its been ages since i last checked in and hadnt seen your kind reply. I do have a holding number (CPH) for the pigs and goats but i hadnt realised that automatically gave me smallholding status. I have just gone up in the world. thank you
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No reason why you don't keep geese for christmas but you'd need to have them killed and dressed for sale to comply with the law, and to be honest after good feeding to fatten them up I doub't you'd make much money.
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It is possible to raise geese for Christmas and to make a small profit. There are a lot of regulations to comply with if you want to sell them commercially but we used to sell them to friends and family which makes things easier.
We would buy a dozen goslings at two weeks old when they were off-heat. They grew very well on grass over the summer and then we would start supplemental feeding when the clocks went back. They then went back to our supplier in December who despatched and dressed them and we would collect them a few days later when they were oven ready. We did not have enough refrigerated storage to comply with health and safety regulations so we delivered them to our customers on the day that we collected them.
We found that Emden-type geese produced a finished bird of between 4.5 and 6kgs. The people that we sold to were happy with these weights and appreciated the way that we raised the geese. Legarths will produce a bigger bird but cost more to begin with.
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What mark up did you have [member=24439]Possum[/member] ?
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I worked out that the average cost to raise a goose was £38 (including the petrol to deliver them). I sold them for between £50 and £70 depending on weight. I was worried that I was profiteering to begin with but I was charging less than the free range farm down the road and certainly less than commercial farmers. (See below)
https://pipersfarm.com/collections/christmas-goose/products/free-range-goose