Many of your small producers are not counting their full costs. They see they $ from selling eggs, but don't count the cost of the barn, their labor, the land the chickens are on... A real accountant would find all those hidden costs and figure out how you allocate the cost of the light bulbs in the barn to each chicken - only when you have all those numbers can you really see if it works out.
This is so common in small businesses. The biggest example I see is single-family landlords who are notoriously bad at doing the honest math.
This is often why small businesses survive until the owner dies/retires, because the were making much less money than needed to continue. The biggest one is ignoring location costs because they own the building (avoiding rents or mortgage which would immediately put the business way underwater).
Combine the above with small farms often ALSO being the home of the owner, and it gets quite flexible.
If the business lasted until the owner died, then it was making at least the amount of money it needed. Not all businesses need to grow or make tons of money, if they at least serve their owner's lifestyle. If I could make a business that supported me until I died, I'd start it right now.
