Commercial Poultry

Farm to Hospital -Selling Farm-Raised Meats and Poultry in Maryland (FS-929) Fact Sheet is to assist livestock and poultry producers in developing products and marketing tools to increase meat and poultry sales directly to hospitals and extended care facilities or to distributors who handle hospital food purchasing accounts. By Ginger S. Myers, Marketing Specialist, University of Maryland Extension and Director of the Maryland Rural Enterprise Development Center.

Deciding on your goal for raising chickens is the first step in determining which breed is best for your farm. The most common reasons as to why people raise chickens include: egg production, meat production, raising birds for show, controlling insects around their property, and breed preservation.

Broiler production is the largest agricultural revenue generator in Maryland. A broiler is a chicken produced specifically for meat production. Broiler production includes small fryer- to large roaster-type chickens. Approximately 35 percent of cash farm income in Maryland was from broilers in 2016. Maryland ranked eighth nationally in the number of meat chickens produced, and tenth in the number of pounds of meat chickens.

This 13-page guide is intended to assist farmers, growers, and their advisors in understanding the regulations affecting the processing and marketing of meat and poultry products in Maryland. This guide also contains information on labeling, marketing, risk management, and regulatory exemptions. By Ginger S. Myers, Director, Maryland Enterprise Development Center and Extension Specialist, University of Maryland Extension. Reviewers: Diane Hirsh, University of Connecticut Extension,

A Marketing Decision Tool and Guide for Grass-fed Beef is a resource guide that will assist grass-fed beef producers in formulating profitable marketing strategies. It is a decision tool to assist individual producers in making marketing decisions about what to produce; where/how/in what venue(s) outlets to market their product; and practical risk management strategies. This publication will help beef producers evaluate their individual operation on six factors that are barriers to entering a market - finding a niche, determining products and prices, meeting regulatory constraints, promoting and distributing prouducts, selling product, and managing risks. The guide is written in sections with decision making worksheets that can help producers identify their “best fit” grass-fed beef marketing opportunities. Individual producers can use the articles and resources that follow the decision worksheets to address possible barriers or lost opportunities within specific marketing venues. The information in this booklet is for educational use. It was written by Ginger S. Myers, Marketing Specialist, University of Maryland Extension and Director of the Maryland Rural Enterprise Development Center. Publication of this workbook was made possible through support from the Jorgensen Foundation and the University of Maryland’s Department of Animal and Avian Sciences.

The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) offers a voluntary certification program, in which participants are permitted to sell their poultry and rabbits anywhere intrastate (within the state) to restaurants and retailers. An additional license from DHMH (Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene) or local health department is required to sell at Farmers’ Markets.