Creative Tennessee Farmers Are Leasing Out Livestock for a Profit
In partnership with: Tennessee Department of Agriculture
Farmers have found unusual ways ways to put their animals to work, renting them out to do tasks ranging from clearing brush and eating weeds to managing pests and making breakfast.
Tennessee is home to more than 97,000 goats, making it the state with the fourth-highest population of goats. Chickens are also abundant, with broiler and breeder houses on more than 500 family farms across the state. Farmers across the state are using their livestock resources to turn a profit in unusual ways.
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An Egg-cellent Idea
RayLee Holladay’s foray into the world of chicken rentals started with a simple Google search: “crazy ways to make money on your farm.”
That led the Lascassas farmer to launch Rent The Chicken in 2016. She’s been surprised and delighted by the demand.
“A lot of people who rent chickens live in the city and have never held a chicken before,” Holladay says.
Families rent laying hens along with a coop and all the supplies needed to raise them for six months. They have the option to adopt the hens or return them to Holladay at the end of the rental term. The business rents 20 coops (with two to four laying hens in each) every season; rental fees range from $475 to $1,375.
Holladay raises the red star, black star, speckled Sussex, Plymouth rock and wyandotte hens from chicks to pullets (young hens) and delivers them to their temporary homes after they start laying eggs. She admits the business is a lot of work but loves the reaction she gets from families welcoming their first flocks.
A lot of people who rent chickens live in the city and have never held a chicken before.
RayLee Holladay, Rent The Chicken farmer
“When we drive down the road, you can hear the kids screaming, ‘Our chickens are here,’” Holladay says. “I love it when they fall in love with the chickens.”
Rent The Chicken has been so popular that she added Hatch The Chicken and Hatch The Duck programs to rent fertilized eggs and incubators so families and school groups can watch chickens and ducklings hatch. She’s adding Hatch The Quail in 2022.
“If you have a love of chickens, it’s a great business to get into,” Holladay says. “The community you build with this business is worth more than the money.”
Resourceful Ruminants
In 2018, a neighbor offered to pay Keith Bridges if his goats would eat a tangle of overgrown vines on their property. Bridges brought 10 goats from his farm in Clinton, and the goats did such a good job that a business across the street wanted to hire them next. Bridges started Knox Goats to accommodate the demand to rent brush-clearing livestock.
“The phone hasn’t stopped ringing since,” Bridges says.
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Bridges has rented goats to colleges, local parks, community associations and homeowners, delivering a herd of up to 140 goats to clear brush on steep hillsides, ravines, rocky terrain and other areas where lawnmowers can’t operate. Bridges says that 140 goats can clear an acre of land in 24 hours.
“Pound for pound, goats consume more than any other animals,” Bridges says.
Bridges relies on portable electric fencing, strong fence chargers and livestock guardian dogs to confine his goats during a job. The entire system costs up to $1,200 per acre, plus a delivery and setup fee.
The 300 Katahdin sheep working for the Nashville Chew Crew perform similar work. Zach Richardson started the business with a herd of goats in 2009 but quickly transitioned to sheep because they were easier to confine and work well in areas that can’t be fenced tight enough for goats.
Richardson’s sheep work full time between April and November, clearing land around Nashville, including the grounds of the historic Fort Negley.
“I often hear from customers that people love encountering a flock of sheep in an urban area,” Richardson says. “If I’m doing my job right, the sheep are in the city, earning money, for the entire growing season.”
About the Farms
Rent The Chicken
rentthechicken.com/p/middle-tennessee.html