and employee comfort; and, (2) to enable such plants to meet Federal 

 inspection standards J - 



Plants were constructed without expansion in mind, being adequate only 

 for the particular volume level. Many of the newer poultry processing 

 plants have been built specifically to permit future expansion. Hence, their 

 overhead costs in the short-run might well exceed those established for the 

 model plants. Planning for future expansion, to save major renovations 

 later, might be a wise move, even though it would put the plant at a slight 

 short-run cost disadvantage. 



The model plants were assumed to have concrete floors with drains, con- 

 crete block walls (with impervious surfaces where required), steel casing 

 windows and doors, wall ventilating fans and insulated or drip-proof ceil- 

 ings under wood frame A-roofs or flat roofs with built-up roofing. In addi- 

 tion to building and equipment costs. Table 5 includes investment in land, 

 an artesian well and its installation, office furniture and fixtures, and a re- 

 frigeration system. 



Under the conditions prescribed, costs of buildings declined from about 

 $5.21 to S3. 27 per square foot of space within the 150 to 10,000 broilers per 

 hour range (Table 6). Part of this decline is attributable to the decreased 

 space requirements per unit of volume. Costs of refrigerator and ice space 

 in addition to the basic room space included under building costs ranged 

 from S3. 12 to $1.87 per cubic foot within the range of plant sizes studied. 



With plants operating at 100 percent capacity, and using rates given 

 in Table 1, costs per pound for plant ownership and use (and including 

 equipped refrigerator and ice rooms) decline from .147 cent per pound 

 for the 150 broiler per hour plant to .069 cent for the 1,800 size and .039 

 cent for the 10,000 size (Table 5). 



Costs of building materials, construction labor rates, and structural re- 

 quirements are likely to vary from area-to-area. Hence, for areas outside 

 New England, the pertinent aspects of the data in Table 5 may be the 

 relative comparison rather than the absolute numbers and the data of 

 Table 6. 



Equipment Costs 



Individual pieces of poultry processing equipment are manufactured in a 

 limited number of sizes or capacities. A given combination of units of 

 equipment often can be used to process various quantities with adjust- 

 ments in the labor force, in line speed, and in shackle spacing. Thus, choice 

 of the equipment used in a plant of a designated capacity should reflect the 

 least-cost combination of equipment and labor. 



In this study, beginning with model plants capable of processing 1.200 

 broilers per hour, and continuing through the 10,000 size, larger and/or 

 additional pieces of similar equipment were added and overhead lines were 

 lengthened. Likewise, feather and offal disposal systems and slush ice 

 systems of larger capacities were installed. 



Certain technology becomes economicallv feasible only as plants attain 

 certain sizes. Hence, machine sizing: fork-lift trucks for use in unloading 

 and in handling chill tanks; powered conveyors for facilitating the receiv- 

 ing and packing operations; mechanical box closers: and powered giblet 



^^Regulations Governing the Inspection of Poultry and Poultry Products (7 CFR 

 Part 81), Poul. Div., Agr'l. Mktng. Service, U. S. Dept. of Agric, Issued 31 Jan. 1958. 



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