FCR vs Die-Off Rate: Which Metric Should Cricket Farmers Prioritize?

At the 20-50 bin scale, reducing die-off rate by 5 percentage points improves margin more than reducing FCR by 0.5. That finding runs counter to the instinct of many cricket farmers who spend notable energy optimizing feed formulations while their die-off rates remain stubbornly high.

This guide gives you a profitability-weighted comparison of FCR and die-off rate so you can make better decisions about where to put your improvement energy.

TL;DR

• An FCR of 1.8 means you're using 1.8 lbs of feed to produce 1 lb of live cricket weight.
• FCR is affected by: temperature (FCR degrades measurably below 80F), feed quality and formulation, stocking density, life stage management, and humidity.
• A die-off rate of 5% means that 5% of your stocked crickets don't make it to harvest.
• Die-off rates at underperforming operations are typically far from the industry benchmark. An operation running 15% die-off has much more improvement headroom than an operation running 8% die-off.
• If your die-off rate is 15%, reducing it to 10% is achievable with better environmental control.
• Reducing your FCR from 1.8 to 1.5 requires more precise nutritional intervention that's harder to implement.
• FCR gains more relative importance as:

Scale increases. At 100+ bins, the raw dollar impact of a 0.5 point FCR improvement is much larger in absolute terms.

**2.

• Die-off rates at underperforming operations are typically far from the industry benchmark.** An operation running 15% die-off has much more improvement headroom than an operation running 8% die-off.

Understanding the Two Metrics

Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) measures how efficiently your crickets convert feed into body mass. An FCR of 1.8 means you're using 1.8 lbs of feed to produce 1 lb of live cricket weight. Lower is better. Top-quartile Acheta domesticus operations target FCR below 1.6.

FCR is affected by: temperature (FCR degrades measurably below 80F), feed quality and formulation, stocking density, life stage management, and humidity. It's a measure of how efficiently the crickets you have are eating and growing.

Die-off rate measures the percentage of crickets that die before harvest during each production cycle. A die-off rate of 5% means that 5% of your stocked crickets don't make it to harvest. Die-off affects your total harvestable yield. It's a measure of how many of your crickets survive to produce revenue.

The Profitability Math

Let's model both metrics' impact on a 20-bin operation producing Acheta domesticus for feeder sales.

Baseline assumptions:

• 20 bins, 2,500 crickets stocked per bin at start of cycle
• $0.006/cricket wholesale price (medium adults)
• Feed cost: $1.20/lb
• 7-week cycle time, 7.5 cycles per year

Scenario A: Improving FCR from 2.0 to 1.5 (0.5 point improvement)

At FCR 2.0: feed cost per cycle per bin = 2.0 x (2,500 crickets x 0.8g average) = ~4.4 lbs feed x $1.20 = $5.28 feed cost

At FCR 1.5: same production, ~3.3 lbs feed x $1.20 = $3.96 feed cost

Savings per bin per cycle: $1.32

Savings across 20 bins x 7.5 cycles/year: $198/year

Scenario B: Improving die-off rate from 15% to 10% (5 percentage point improvement)

At 15% die-off: 2,500 starting crickets x 0.85 survival = 2,125 crickets to harvest x $0.006 = $12.75/bin/cycle

At 10% die-off: 2,500 starting crickets x 0.90 survival = 2,250 crickets x $0.006 = $13.50/bin/cycle

Revenue increase per bin per cycle: $0.75

But also: you're already paying the feed cost on those 375 extra crickets that died at 15% die-off

Feed cost savings from not wasting feed on crickets that die: approximately $0.54/bin/cycle

Total benefit per bin per cycle: ~$1.29

Across 20 bins x 7.5 cycles/year: $387/year from 5% die-off improvement

The die-off improvement in this scenario delivers nearly 2x the annual profitability improvement as the FCR improvement, even though a 0.5 point FCR improvement is measurably harder to achieve than a 5 percentage point die-off improvement.

Why Die-Off Has a Larger Impact at the 20-50 Bin Scale

At small to mid-scale operations, die-off rate's impact is amplified by two factors:

1. Revenue is the binding constraint. A small operation's profitability is more sensitive to lost revenue (crickets that die before harvest) than to feed cost efficiency (FCR), because fixed costs are a larger percentage of total cost. Every cricket that dies before harvest is 100% lost revenue plus the feed cost already spent on it.

2. Die-off rates at underperforming operations are typically far from the industry benchmark. An operation running 15% die-off has much more improvement headroom than an operation running 8% die-off. If your die-off rate is 15%, reducing it to 10% is achievable with better environmental control. Reducing your FCR from 1.8 to 1.5 requires more precise nutritional intervention that's harder to implement.

When FCR Becomes the Priority

FCR gains more relative importance as:

Scale increases. At 100+ bins, the raw dollar impact of a 0.5 point FCR improvement is much larger in absolute terms. A 500-bin operation saving $1.32/bin/cycle on feed costs is saving $7,425/year.

Die-off rate is already well-managed. If your die-off rate is already 4-5%, the headroom for improvement is limited. At that point, FCR optimization delivers the marginal gains.

Feed represents a larger cost share. If your specific situation (species, feed formulation, scale discounts) makes feed a larger-than-typical cost share, FCR delivers proportionally more benefit.

Measuring Die-Off Rate Accurately

Many operations measure die-off imprecisely - a handful of dead crickets noted in a log, but without systematic counting that gives you a reliable rate per cycle.

For accurate die-off measurement:

• Count your dead crickets removed from each bin at every cleaning and feeding event
• Log these counts per bin per event in CricketOps or your management system
• At the end of each cycle, divide total removed dead by starting stocking count

This gives you a per-cycle die-off rate by bin, which lets you identify which bins are underperforming and whether die-off is correlated with specific environmental conditions, life stages, or bin configurations.

The cricket farm management platform calculates die-off rate per bin automatically from your mortality log entries and displays it alongside FCR in the production dashboard, so you can see both metrics and make prioritization decisions based on real data.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I focus on improving FCR or reducing die-offs first?

If your die-off rate is above 8%, start there. At the 20-50 bin scale, die-off reduction delivers a larger profitability improvement per unit of effort than FCR reduction. This is partly because die-off represents 100% lost revenue (vs. FCR which affects feed cost but not yield) and partly because high die-off rates often have environmental causes (temperature instability, humidity problems) that can be improved without expensive feed formulation changes. Once your die-off rate is under 5%, start optimizing FCR through feed quality, temperature precision, and stocking density management. Use your management software to measure both metrics per bin so you have real data driving your prioritization.

How do I measure die-off rate accurately on a cricket farm?

The most accurate measurement comes from systematic counting rather than estimates. Remove dead crickets from each bin at every feeding event (or daily), count them, and log the count per bin. At the end of each production cycle, divide your total logged dead count by your starting stocking count for that bin. This gives you a die-off rate that's bin-specific and cycle-specific. In CricketOps, your mortality log entries feed directly into the die-off rate calculation that appears in your production dashboard. Operations that estimate rather than count typically underestimate their actual die-off rate by 20-30%.

Does CricketOps track both FCR and die-off rate per bin?

Yes. CricketOps calculates FCR per bin from your feed log entries and harvest weight records, and calculates die-off rate from your mortality log entries and stocking records. Both metrics appear in your production dashboard alongside each other so you can see your complete performance picture at a glance. You can also compare FCR and die-off rate across bins to identify which are outperforming or underperforming your farm average - which is how you identify specific environmental or management factors that are driving the variance. The cricket FCR calculator covers FCR measurement methodology in detail.

How do I know if I am harvesting too early or too late?

Harvesting too early means crickets have not reached peak body mass, reducing yield per bin cycle. Harvesting too late means increased mortality from natural die-off and rising ammonia that degrades product quality. Most operations find their optimal harvest window by weighing a sample of 50-100 crickets at multiple points in the grow-out cycle and identifying the window where daily weight gain falls below a meaningful threshold.

Does harvest timing affect the nutritional profile of finished crickets?

Yes. Younger adults harvested earlier tend to show a higher protein-to-fat ratio. Older adults accumulate more fat. If your buyers specify a target protein percentage or fat content, aligning harvest timing to hit those specifications consistently is important. Running periodic proximate analyses on finished product batches helps you verify you are staying within buyer tolerances over time.

What is the best method for humanely killing crickets at harvest?

Freezing is the most widely used commercial method. Placing crickets in a freezer at 0°F or below causes rapid loss of consciousness and death. CO2 stunning prior to freezing is used by some certified-humane operations to reduce the duration before unconsciousness. High-temperature methods (blanching) are also used in some flour production operations. Consult your buyer's specifications and any applicable certification standards for the methods they accept.

Sources

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) -- Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security
• North American Coalition for Insect Agriculture (NACIA)
• Entomological Society of America
• Journal of Insects as Food and Feed (Wageningen Academic Publishers)
• USDA Agricultural Research Service

Get Started with CricketOps

Consistent harvest timing and FCR improvement both require historical data on how your specific bins perform across the production cycle. CricketOps tracks growth milestones, logs harvest weights by bin, and builds the record that lets you identify which bins consistently hit your targets and which ones need attention. Try CricketOps on your next production cycle.