“I know.”
“They don’t control everything.”
“I know that too.”
“Some pests they barely affect.”
“Yes.”
Toby continued.
“And I lost forty-three birds.”
Mason whistled quietly.
Harland looked at him.
“Forty-three?”
“Predators.”
“Escapes.”
“One illness.”
“One fence failure cost several.”
“That’s a big loss.”
“Yes.”
“Feed cost?”
Toby showed him.
“Higher than I expected.”
“Labor?”
“Much higher at first.”
Harland glanced at Daniel.
“This is sounding familiar.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Toby kept going.
“Then I changed rotation.”
“Built better fencing.”
“Stopped using wet blocks.”
“Changed water setup.”
“Labor came down.”
“How much?”
Toby showed the weekly figures.
The trend was clear.
Early weeks were terrible.
Later weeks improved.
Harland studied the page.
Then Toby showed egg income.
Reduced orchard-floor cleanup.
Reduced mowing in selected areas.
Estimated fertilizer offset kept deliberately low.
Fallen-fruit management.
Targeted pest reduction.
Time savings in several tasks.
The numbers were not enormous individually.
Together, they became meaningful.
Mason asked:
“What’s the net?”
Toby hesitated.
Not because he did not know.
Because this was the part he had rehearsed and still feared.
He placed the final page on the hood of Daniel’s tractor.
“At three months, after bird cost, feed, losses, repairs, and valuing my labor, we’re ahead.”
Harland leaned over.
“How far?”
Toby pointed.
Not enough to call the family rich.
Not enough to eliminate every treatment.
Not enough to prove the system would perform identically next year.
But enough.
Enough reduced costs and added income that Daniel could manage a narrower, targeted pest program and avoid taking the full $12,000 loan Harland had recommended.
Harland read the numbers again.
Then once more.
“You’re including your labor?”
“Yes.”
“Bird losses?”
“Yes.”
“Feed?”
“Yes.”
“Fence?”
“Yes.”
“Replacement wire?”
“Yes.”
“Egg cartons?”
“Yes.”
Mason laughed.
Toby looked at him.
“What?”
“You really counted everything.”
Toby shook his head.
“Probably missed something.”
Harland looked at him for several seconds.
Then asked:
“How are you assigning savings to fertility?”
“Conservatively.”
“Too conservatively, maybe.”
“I’d rather be wrong low.”
Harland nodded.
He flipped back through the records.
“How do you know this isn’t just weather?”
“Control rows.”
“How do you know the controls are comparable?”
“They’re not perfect.”
“Same varieties.”
“Similar tree age.”
“Similar damage last year.”