There are only a handful of independent pullet producers in Ontario, and not many in any province across the nation.
The overwhelming majority of pullets are raised by farmers who hold egg marketing board quota. They get their full cost of production plus a "reasonable" profit, as determined by themselves with approval by do-nothing government supervisory bodies.
Some egg-farming pullet growers sell pullets to other egg farmers, but in Ontario, most are only raising the pullets they will use to stock their own cages and barns.
If these egg-quota-holding farmers would simply pay the cost-of-production price for pullets, even as an internal business-exchange price, there would be no need for the full nine yards of a national marketing agency.
There would, however, also be no huge increase in quota prices (and values) attached to this simple, straight-forward solution.
People such as Andy DeWeerd, who has been leading the charge for a national pullet agency, would not become instant millionaires. Ah, shucks!
In a similar vein, quota-holding farmers of all stripes could help out their farming neighbours by paying full cost-of-production prices for feed inputs. They could buy corn and soybeans from their neighbours and pay local feed millers their full costs for custom processing the corn and soybeans into poultry rations.
I've never heard any quota-holding farmers suggest this kind of share-the-wealth practice.
But now that it's out there as a suggestion, maybe we'll see whether they are driven by compassion or greed.
