You hit the nail on the head with regards to red tape stifling innovation when you spoke about the health department hurdles. While no one wants to deal with dodgy vendors poisoning people through shoddy practices there are so many overly legislated sectors that become impenetrable to the small business due to an overabundance of red tape and legislation and it holds back some potentially great initiatives like you mentioned.
I really appreciate your view of the online sales. it showed me an additional aspect of your integrity. people can get so wrapped up in the novelty of doing things that they miss the point of fully understanding the importance of a strong local community. I say that as I wait for my replacement tool parts from Amazon. to be fair, ordering a part that no one local, or at least small business provides, is different than local raised food. but it does make me think twice. Thanks for making this video and these comparisons and staying true to your values instead of just sell, sell, sell despite cutting thoat your fellow producers at every opportunity. Thanks, Pete, see you in the next one.
Pete, you got out of the rat race for a reason. Stick to your core principles of what made this special and you won't need to fret like everyone else on the fast paced train of craziness. 1: stay a farmer, not a cook 2: keep it local, keep it special 3: Your time and brand as a community, principles-based farmer are more important to your psyche and to the community than perhaps 10k more a year 4: You're in your 50's. You have only the rest of your life to do what you love.
Excellent video Pete. I live in Australia and we have large numbers of 'Farmers Markets' on Saturday mornings which are only for producers. They don't have any of the 'goofy' sellers who just sell tat. Food and produce only. They are excellent, you can speak with the farmer who grew the food and learn about how it was produced. It's always fresh and it's always better than supermarket food. It may cost a bit more but you get what you pay for.
Where I am there is no Farmers Market but I did a test one summer making applebutter, jams and jellies along with some extra produce from my garden. I had a place beside the road near a busy intersection close to my local city. I just put up a pop up pavilion and sold along the road. The good thing was only cost was some posterboard and a couple sharpies. Man my products sold like hotcakes at a feeding frenzy and after just 2 months I had the problem you spoke of. Being at sale took away my time to make the products and I hit the point I couldn't make enough to cover the amount I was selling. Some might think that is a good problem to have but if you are constantly out of product it's not long your customers lose interest in them and you lose customers. Pretty soon the word can get around your not a dependable market and that is the end. I wanted to get my products into a big grocery chain and I had a huge buyer interested but as you said the regulations and permitting required was enormous and I couldn't find a suitable building to establish a commercial kitchen. I did find one building that would been perfect less than a mile from my roadside set up. Unfortunately the guy wanted $5,000 a month for rent, well let's just say it's a nice building but it's not made of gold and it's been close to 5 years since I asked about it and 9t still sits empty.
Here I am on 9/23/2021 catching up with your previous videos. Another outstanding and informative video. I’m retired here in south Florida keeping my life as simple as possible. I love all your videos; they make me feel like I’m right there working with you. Pete, you are a Fantastic teacher/instructor (maybe you could look into establishing an on hands Farmers Institute) Another Opinion- if the Farmers Market brings in enough profit to sustain you and your family; stay with it and preorders from a farm store. God Bless!
Man, you know I would love to buy from you. Even with increased cost it would be so worth it to me to get fresh beef or maybe some duck. I know your animals eat very well and are taken care of. I probably could not buy a lot but I would buy. And knowing that I was helping to support a small farm would be great.
I want to let all views know .. please let the ADS PLAY on this channel .. his content is fantastic and its the least we could do ... LET THE ADS PLAY!!!!
What an inspirational and motivating video! I’m a new subscriber and I’m thoroughly enjoying the content, time and wisdom you fit into each video. Well done! 👏🏼
Thanks for making this video. My wife and I are buying her family farm with her brother and his wife. Right now, it's a cash crop operation. We raise a handful of meat bird chickens and turkeys and occasionally some hogs. I've also been raising produce for the last couple of years. I don't intend on getting away from the cash crops, but I would like to grow our farm to raise livestock and produce as well. This video was very helpful. Keep up the good work.
I appreciate your commitment to quality! The rate of inflation is climbing at a faster rate than normal and is caused by a political party at this point. Surviving is key in a profitable operation with fighting the inflation. You do a great job at it. Thank you, I appreciate you and your family.
Thank you for the video. Here is something I tend to analyze myself every so forth, which may apply to you. What is the cost to acquire a customer with your existing model ie farmer market/pickup? What is the churn rate (lost customer) ? Example of churn rate could be lost XX customer per month. Your four key point toward the end of the video are setting the requirements for your model, however knowing your customer acquisition and churn rate cost, could potential help you partner or create others models. If it costs you $XX dollars to acquire a customer, but using a strategic partner (becomes a customer) (assuming some type of distributor) get you xx more customers, you maybe gaining profit even if you had to lower your price. Anyway I think it maybe worth analyzing. Overall the most important is staying healhy and happy reqardless of any analyzes. Thank again for sharing your videos.
Pete..I finally got around to watching your Marketing/Advertising Video. Finally, someone has explained the difference between Marketing and Advertising! Of course, the end result is to create awareness of one's business. Obviously, unless people stumble upon you, consumers have to be aware of what a business is all about. I noticed that you didn't mention radio or TV in your mix...and I would agree with you...the cost and the scatter-shot approach makes the ROI unacceptable....unless you could find a targeted radio station, and even then, it's tough. One of the things I like to create awareness is a leave behind one sheet flyer. For the cost of a ream of paper and some ink, its a pretty easy and cheap way to create awareness. What really works well is "accidentally" leaving behind a flyer every where you go...not on bulletin boards in stores (nobody reads those) but on counters at the Drug store, your doctor's office, anyplace you can think of. Yes, most will be thrown away, but all of them would be read. I might have two flyers...one with your name, address, and mission statement only and another showing what you sell. I wouldn't go with double sided printing, but that might be ok. Simple, cheap, and reaches local consumers that may not be familiar with what you do and sell. Its a cheap way to create awareness. ... I enjoy your videos..keep up the good and interesting work. Full Disclsure: I'm a radio guy living in Binghamton. Ray Ross "rayross@yahoo.com"
Watching in the UK and love the videos. In the UK, farming has been in decline for a long time (though I’ve yet to meet a poor farmer), and they’ve lived by the mantra ‘diversify or die’. A lot of farms have started selling more items than they produce i.e fruit, vegetables and home made products, cakes, jams etc, and some have gone as far as building cafes, offering bed & breakfast or even becoming wedding venues. To quote Field of Dreams, ‘build it and they will come’, perhaps you should look at investing more in your own farm, to broaden the offering, and bring the customers to you. Make it a destination. It focuses all your time and money on your own property and also maximised the return. Keep up the good work! P.s, don’t forget to install a car charging point. 😉
We loved the idea of buying good meat from a farmer. We tried picking it up at a scheduled time as well as another service that delivered frozen meats. What stopped us was that we are not educated about how to cook the meat. It was all too tough and we couldn't eat it. There is such a difference between healthy meat and store bought meat. It was worth the price to pay extra but us city old folks just could not figure out how to cook it.
Not sure what you bought but our meat is tended and much better tasting than store bought meat. I would encourage you to try some other farmers. Most will be glad to talk with you about preparation/cooking.
Super informative, Pete. As much as I hate the whole credit card thing, I found myself selling way more because I took plastic than I did as cash only. (This was in a flea market setting and not selling food.) So I guess that volume is a factor to consider. Of courseif yousell out without taking plastic...👍👍.
Hey Pete, we are down In SWVA and one of our largest customers in a health food store we hooked up with several years ago. Once we built a relationship it’s been a great outlet for our homestead. Yes we do have to wait a week on our check but it’s always there and it’s always rite. I actually watch your videos when I’m washing eggs to go there. They usually get 40/50 dzn a week plus all cuts of our pork and beef. We also do a couple restaurants and they have always been great because they pay on delivery no questions asked. Hope that’s puts you in some new ideas and really enjoy your videos.
I kind of like the idea on pickup of having a small building near the road, and inside a collection of small refrigerator/freezers with locks. Every week you can fill them with the order and then the customer can pick up at their leisure with their combination. Probably not cheap to set up though...
Not that hard depending on regulations. I have a homemade refrigerator/freezer that I made out of wood and had someone spray with walk-in freezer insulation.
Gramps used to sell all his beef and chickens from a barstool. He would host BBQ's where everyone came for processed chickens they ordered and cheap keg beer. I looked at his books when I cleaned the house out. He made a decent living back then just by being a yokel that got along with everyone and sold a superior product.
1.5 hours NW of Chicago, way out in the countryside is a small farm that sells raw milk.(All Grass Farms in Dundee, IL). I know you are not a dairy farm, but this place has a line out the door every day of the week, no matter what the weather or the price, and sells out in an hour. They have a farm store that sells everything else they produce, including pastured beef, pork, lamb, chicken and turkey, and odds and ends from other local producers. People are willing to drive a long way every week for milk, then buy the other products too. One hot product can bring the customers to you. Just a thought. You can milk Dexters........
Good video Peter, I ran a self serve farm store on the honor system that worked quite nicely for me. I kept a small freezer with a good variety of meats but not too much in there. Would check it throughout the day. Only had someone take some stuff and money once in the five years
Pete, I've been wondering if you ever considered getting interns. Cornell is a Land Grant Institution, so they should have a school of Ag, and I'm sure you could work out a deal with them where they can have internships at your farm for credit (so no need to pay them) or even summer internships for minimum wage. I know yours is a family farm, but I think that your vision and mission being spread to young wannabe farmers (wannabe as in, in the future, not wannabe as in wannabe) would help spread the idea of sustainable small farms. And it would of course help you a lot. Take some load off your back, be it in hard farm labor, to customer care, to anything. I feel as though any aspect of the small farming business model a student can learn is a good one. Just something to think consider. I don't know if you have facilities on your farm to have a person or two stay over for a few days, or anything, but just sharing some ideas to try to help you out from the cold depths of the basement I live in :D
Pete, You put a lot of effort into producing and selling meat. In my opinion, you will be more successful if at the same time you do real business - sell, mediate - not just what you produce. multiplier.
Thanks Pete, Off the subject a bit...Today is 1/30/21. I live in East Tn. and have seen over the last few months many people moving here from N.Y. as well as Cali. etc. I moved here from Naples, Fl. twenty years ago..because the same thing was happening there. It seems to me as an aging old man..We all just need to slow down and relax.
Pete, as a customer, I you work to improve the farmers market - I know that may not be easy. When I go to market I generally know what I want and I’m very aware of seasonal changes and have factored that into my calculations. While I can see how the farm store may be convenient to a farmer, I don’t want to drive 20 miles to find that the product I want isn’t available so I then have to head off to some other farm in the hope of finding it elsewhere. You sell meats and eggs, so even if I drove out to your farm, I’d still have to drive to other farms to get lamb or produce or apples or whatever. So hopefully you and like minded farmers can improve the farmers market
Hi Bob, I agree; convenience for the customer has to be the biggest factor. That's the principal problem I see with the current farmers market; many of our regular customers find it is too big of a hassle to deal with the lunch crowds and the lines to get in, and I lose business because of it. I'm doubtful the market can change. They let the genie out of the bottle decades ago when the market let in prepared food vendors. In the discussions I've had with market board members, there is little they're willing or able to change to make the market more farmer/customer friendly.
@@JustaFewAcresFarm As I'd asked you previously what is the relative cost for the artisan and hot food stalls? If the hot food stalls are 10% of the stalls but are providing 40% of the market organisation's income what do you expect? I used to attend a lot of car rallies and country shows and while no one went for the vendor food boy did those stalls make £££££ and correspondingly their site fees were stellar. In effect, they cross subsidised the shows. How much do you think the farmers market stalls would cost if they removed the artisan and hot food outlets?
@@JustaFewAcresFarm Having failed my professional marketing exams many years ago I can visualise some of this. Selling hot food or in marketing terms a form of vertical integration. So you trade and make the profit from the animal and from the café experience. I've no idea if this is done in the US but is there not a middle ground? I worked and ran licensed establishments at one point and an idea that was propagated at times was *"Sell The Sizzle Not The Sausage!"* So it's the expectation or anticipation of the product and not its actuality. Is there a mid ground between selling meat as is and providing the café experience? Being of a certain age I'm not old enough to remember when grain imports post WWII allowed for mass chicken rearing for meat farming but I can remember chicken barbecues or more accurately chicken Roast-O-Mat's where whole chickens were on an automated glass encompassed roasting unit. Roast chicken has an attractive smell. I can remember shops or even market stalls selling whole or portioned fresh roasted chicken sold for consumption at home, and delightful it was. The smell is attractive and in the last 50 years the number of consumers who can't boil an egg let alone roast a chicken have increased. You say your basic bird has better taste (for this you can offer out samples) also you can differentiate by stuffing with traditional sage and onion, other herbs or the perennial of garlic. Is the health enforcement different for hot or cooked food sold as produced and café service? I'm hoping the whole food sold hot is less onerous? Best wishes to self and family. A different question if you and other farmers found a successful different way to market and it resulted in the demise of the current farmers market how would you hold your effect on the quality of life in your location?
@@JustaFewAcresFarm I'm dumbfounded. At anything I have been to where the hot food isn't the attraction they pay several levels of magnitude more for their stalls.
Give a talk on line to an agricultural college for an hour once a month. Invite the students and their families for a 1 hour tour. The other method is to invite your college buddies and their families once a year on your graduation day. 😀😀😀😀
I agree with you on how the best way for you to market your product. What the small farmer lacks, is economy of scale. 50 acres really limits what you can generate in income. Since you only have 50 weeks in a year to produce. A new farmer has all the infrastructure to build plus be able to grow their product. After the infrastructure is in place, it allows the farmer to devote more time on product production which translates as more income. But it still comes down to dollars per hour worked, and there is the problem. Who is willing to work 16 hours a day with no time off and make only a marginal income. Even if you look at a Doctor or Lawyer, they only have so many billable hours a year that they can charge for and the max they can make is those hours times there hourly rate. It's not an easy answer to arrive at. Even if you totally love what your doing, if it doesn't generate enough dollars to pay the bills and taxes, you end up broke. And I know more than a few farmers that that is exactly what happened to them.
My problem with farmers markets around here in Oklahoma is before you know it there's 30 people selling candles very few farmers and it turns into a craft show or the people running the Farmers market has so many rules want you have a license for everything
I some what remember back in the early 80's, i knew a smallish farm that raised pigs and chickens. Not even that many pigs at once. Maybe 20 or so at any one time. But they staggered them through the year to keep selling it seems. I know at least twice a month they were gone for a whole day. Im assuming a form of farmers market? A big ol cargo van loaded with coolers, and they were empty when they came back. At least 2 times a week they had a route they travelled and would deliver, you guessed it, again, gone all day, again im assuming price of delivery was included in price of sale? Never seemed like they struggled doing it. The whole farm couldnt have been maybe 110 acers. Corn, soybeans and hay. Thats a lot of travel, but seems they enjoyed it and seemed mostly the wife did it while he mostly stayed behind for the daily farm work, mixing feed, cutting and baling hay, seperating animals, fencing etc... it was a neat little thing they had going on.
PETE thank you AGAIN for such a GREAT video!!!!!!!!!! Not to be a stocker but could I call you some time to talk about farming. One thing I’m attempting to do to help bring more cash flow to the farm is organic cash crops wheat, soybeans etc. anywho God bless you Sir and thank you again. 🙏🏻✌️
Really glad to hear your prospective on the farm business and some of the sales strategies. If you are still looking for discussion ideas, I'd be excited to hear or even see an example about your wholesale/retail pricing. For example, what is the cost difference on a cow/pig selling as a whole/half/quarter vs all retail cuts? How much time does it take to be constantly advertizing/selling, and what is the "ceiling" of the number of animals you can fit on your 40 ish acres?
You might try to align with a local nursery or produce market that has a facility and would let you sell your product - that did not compete but complimented - their product. You would have to trust them to collect and pay you what you contract for - you likely would have to maintain an inventory and then give a per centage to them. Good luck - I hear the frustration in your voice.
I have always wondered this! I looked it up and I found a video about a co op but that was for bigger farms and I would like to start a smaller farm one day. Also I like the wood finish in wherever you are. Anyway a co op is like a supermarket right so you wouldn’t be able to do it?
I have never seen one! Seems great for some things, not so much for others. For instance, with cuts of meat customers often want to pick out the exact steak they want
I owned a small restaurant, and paid cash upon delivery. Beware the thirty day nonsense, if they’re so cash poor they can’t pay on delivery, walk away. I agree, don’t deal with credit accounts.
Pete, another great video as always!! Thank you! As regards to home delivery, don't know if this is possible but what about Doordash or Uber eats? Is it possible to set up something with them to deliver your "raw" products and not just cooked items? I know you can set up a time for when your "store" is open therefore not having to be around all day waiting for the consumer.
Pete, in our area many families are moving to self catering for parties, small weddings or other get to gethers. Could you simply put together tins of ready to put in the oven meals, or simple instructions for cooking. We have a few areas in our area the offer this, and they do a good business. They have tins of sliced beef, chickens, turkey, possibly a third party company could put them together for farmers with a point of sale setup.
Have you considered partnering up with someone to run a kitchen on a side of your farming, you providing the chicken and split profits. Entirely new entity, with a separate kitchen so the authorities dont bring the farm into the inspections/paperwork. Also, you could setup a different channel aside of this one to show the non-monetizing content, this shouldnt affect the main channel and thus monetization. Pete, I like your content.
@@JustaFewAcresFarm I was going to say the same thing Mathew. Richard Perkins has talked about REKO Rings as being a great sales model and they use facebook for it. Essentially you have multiple farms come to a pick up location at the same time and distribute pre-ordered items. Convenient for the customer because they have many farms to choose from and much faster for the farmer. Still have the bank fees to deal with.
Pete do believe there's still room at local farmers markets, For beginning Farmers to make a living . Or is there a flood of poultry meat and eggs. Thanks
Maybe In your farm market u can offer fertile eggs as new product? Chicken and it turkey and maybe have people place orders for spring new hatch that new to our on your farm.just idea.wish I had courage to try selling at farmers market the rabbit meat.
Online selling has become price prohibitive. I sold online for years but won't do it anymore because the cost of shipping has gone insane. My niece has to deal with the packaging to ship her hatching eggs.
That 3% to 3.5% for credit cards could seem almost reasonable compared to a farmer's market depending on the fees the farmer's markets and total volume of sales being sold through the farmer's market. Granted the farmer's market handles some of the marketing costs by virtue of what it is and the advertising it can do, but that can still be a significant expense compared to bank processing fees. The more I learn the more it seems like moving the product off the farm (especially a small farm) is one of the larger challenges when it comes to farming -- potentially made more so if the local region has predominately switched over to electronic payment methods. Personally as a consumer it's rare for me to keep much cash on hand (unless traveling) since from an investment perspective cash is usually even worse than traditional savings accounts for loss of monetary value over time since it's not earning interest at all, and generally takes time to acquire from either an ATM or bank. About the only time cash is useful for me is if there is no power (though depending on the seller it's not even useful then) --- or if I'm buying something from one of the increasingly rare places that doesn't accept credit cards (or some other form of electronic payment). So for me it's probably also an indicator of the local regional preferences for payment when even vending machines in an area have card readers (as is pretty routinely seen in my area).
@@lolwtnick4362 Not sure how you came to that conclusion. I may not get cash, but most of the farms selling directly to the public in the part of the US where I live accept credit cards and I have no issue if they want to charge a premium for the use of a credit card (as many/most do). With gas prices being what they are in 2023, it's cheaper to pay the processing fees for the transaction than it is to drive and get/carry cash all the time. ..even more son since cash isn't going as far as it did back in 2020 when I originally commented.
I am not sure if you know about Sr. Farmers' Market Coupons. It is a Federal program to help both seniors and farmers. The US govt gives money to the states for this program. The state selects one social service agency per county to administer it. Each county is run differently. The local social agency takes a big cut to pay themselves ridiculous salaries as high as a quarter million dollars a year. Each county gives seniors a different amount if free coupons, from $20 to $60 per household. This is free money, and the seniors spend it pretty liberally. The farmer has to apply to be accepted. Products must be locally grown. There can be no middle man. The food cannot processed as value-added items. For instance a berry former can be approved for selling raw berries, but not berries made into jelly. Once a farmer is approved, you can sell to seniors at either a farm stand or public farmer's market. Almost every farm booth at the local market near here gets approved.
Is butchering your poultry yourself a better financial decision rather than taking it to a butcher that’s USDA? I know you would be spending the extra money to have a butcher do it. I’m just curious as to why you do the poultry yourself and send the cows and pigs off to the butcher.
Would selling a live cow to homesteaders be an option? I've seen the Lumnah Acres channel buy baby pigs and raise them for food. Is that a model that would work for cattle? My impression is that it would be a scheduling nightmare. There is a diet community that eats large amounts of meat - MeatRX. Perhaps you could somehow tell that community you sell from the Ithaca market?
I know a Dexter Breeder that halter breaks the heifers and trains them to stand for milking. Sells the trained heifers at a premium to homesteaders.....
If a consumer has a freezer; why not ship 100 pound minimum shipment of beef, chicken, turkey and pork labeled so once received it goes direct to freezer. I am cross country so maybe only beef and pork. I am willing to do as a consumer that if a reliable perishable shipper can deliver. I trust your farm.
I’d say 50lb minimum for shipping online and Pete wouldn’t ever sit in a farmers market again. The audience here on TH-cam is far exceeding the Ithaca locals.
Hey Pete, nice breakdown. My Aunt sells at three farmers markets, Oneonta, Cooperstown and Binghamton I believe. I think Trumansburg market is Wednesday late afternoons with good customer base that don't want to deal with the Ithaca market. Our eggs were cleaned and packed on farm and we sold to the Dewitt and Ithaca Wegmans stores only, along with both Greenstar locations, Ludgate farms in Lansing and the T-burg sur-save. Seems like you had some teenaged kids in an older video, do you have family to go on market days so you can stay on site and handle your herds and land? I'm off the farm now and in foodservice equipment repair(surprisingly similar to barn heaters, egg conveyors, feeder drives, ect.) I've switched to Square for processing cards, 2.75% and no transaction fee was better than turning down a job or paying 3.5%+. One thing my restaurant customers occasionally do is targeted advertising by address. Say you want to send postcards introducing your farm to the better heeled customers that have the means to prefer local, small, fresh, quality. The usps offers a better rate per piece to drop every address in any specific zip+4. So you can vistaprint a postcard or pricelist, and hit, say, every mail box in Cayuga Heights, catching a lot of folks that just won't deal with the crowds down at the market. I was surprised at your in-house breeding program. My cousin uses AI for his herd and brings in a loner bull for "cleanup" if any don't take. Do you introduce outside genetics to maintain variation every few cycles?
you did not mention a vending machine on farm, so the time factor is then irrelevant. or honesty box style stall, where people just pick up what they need and leave coins in the honesty box. greetings from west Wales
Sell your meat like Omaha Steaks, I'd buy 'em. Your fans who can't reach you would happily pay a premium...could be filler income, not your core market. I completely agree with concerns about shipping nationally, but supporting smaller farms over larger online vendors helps level the playing field, no?
$10 for a box of Styrofoam? Holy cow..... Ya: the reason I started my own trucking company is I got sick having to hire a lawyer go to court for compensation that was due to me on the barrelhead on payday. Now I factor my ass off on all loafs that I hail all the while gladly giving up three cents on the dollar to make sure I can put the other $0.97 into my piggy bank. Also:for traditional farmers, they really don't have the option of a retail price or a wholesale price: there is only one price either at the Chicago Board of Trade or Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Different elevators might differ by three to six cents over a certain geographical area. But while the traditional farmer doesn't have any pull in the price he sells his commodities for he is able to sell olly has four that price generally. I think the homesteading farmer better prepare for being able to offload livestock at wholesale prices in the event a salesperson or other means of offloading the livestock is the only way out. When truckload rates don't meet a certain level I just parked my truck and stare at the Sun. It can get dicey financially if rates stay bad for 9 months or more but I don't drive as a 501(c)(3) charity.
No shows, no calls, drive me crazy. I make an appointment and about a third of the time they don't show. I make a list of those and won't make another appointment without prepayment to meet them.
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Forget farming, you should have been a teacher/ lecturer....I enjoy listening to your explanations 👍
You hit the nail on the head with regards to red tape stifling innovation when you spoke about the health department hurdles. While no one wants to deal with dodgy vendors poisoning people through shoddy practices there are so many overly legislated sectors that become impenetrable to the small business due to an overabundance of red tape and legislation and it holds back some potentially great initiatives like you mentioned.
I really appreciate your view of the online sales. it showed me an additional aspect of your integrity. people can get so wrapped up in the novelty of doing things that they miss the point of fully understanding the importance of a strong local community. I say that as I wait for my replacement tool parts from Amazon. to be fair, ordering a part that no one local, or at least small business provides, is different than local raised food. but it does make me think twice. Thanks for making this video and these comparisons and staying true to your values instead of just sell, sell, sell despite cutting thoat your fellow producers at every opportunity. Thanks, Pete, see you in the next one.
Your videos are amazing. . shows you really like an care what you do. Thank you for your time an effort.
Pete, you got out of the rat race for a reason. Stick to your core principles of what made this special and you won't need to fret like everyone else on the fast paced train of craziness.
1: stay a farmer, not a cook
2: keep it local, keep it special
3: Your time and brand as a community, principles-based farmer are more important to your psyche and to the community than perhaps 10k more a year
4: You're in your 50's. You have only the rest of your life to do what you love.
Wise advice Bret, thanks. What we have works very well and there's never any problem selling all we grow.
Excellent video Pete. I live in Australia and we have large numbers of 'Farmers Markets' on Saturday mornings which are only for producers. They don't have any of the 'goofy' sellers who just sell tat. Food and produce only. They are excellent, you can speak with the farmer who grew the food and learn about how it was produced. It's always fresh and it's always better than supermarket food. It may cost a bit more but you get what you pay for.
Where I am there is no Farmers Market but I did a test one summer making applebutter, jams and jellies along with some extra produce from my garden. I had a place beside the road near a busy intersection close to my local city. I just put up a pop up pavilion and sold along the road. The good thing was only cost was some posterboard and a couple sharpies. Man my products sold like hotcakes at a feeding frenzy and after just 2 months I had the problem you spoke of. Being at sale took away my time to make the products and I hit the point I couldn't make enough to cover the amount I was selling. Some might think that is a good problem to have but if you are constantly out of product it's not long your customers lose interest in them and you lose customers. Pretty soon the word can get around your not a dependable market and that is the end. I wanted to get my products into a big grocery chain and I had a huge buyer interested but as you said the regulations and permitting required was enormous and I couldn't find a suitable building to establish a commercial kitchen. I did find one building that would been perfect less than a mile from my roadside set up. Unfortunately the guy wanted $5,000 a month for rent, well let's just say it's a nice building but it's not made of gold and it's been close to 5 years since I asked about it and 9t still sits empty.
Here I am on 9/23/2021 catching up with your previous videos. Another outstanding and informative video. I’m retired here in south Florida keeping my life as simple as possible. I love all your videos; they make me feel like I’m right there working with you. Pete, you are a Fantastic teacher/instructor (maybe you could look into establishing an on hands Farmers Institute) Another Opinion- if the Farmers Market brings in enough profit to sustain you and your family; stay with it and preorders from a farm store. God Bless!
Pete..the amount of online sales would be huge..
I know we'd love some Dexter Beef and Chicken..
Man, you know I would love to buy from you. Even with increased cost it would be so worth it to me to get fresh beef or maybe some duck. I know your animals eat very well and are taken care of. I probably could not buy a lot but I would buy. And knowing that I was helping to support a small farm would be great.
Love your vids and content. You should be a keynote speaker át those Homesteading shows.
As romantic as living the farm life appears, your videos put farming in perspective. Thanks.
I want to let all views know .. please let the ADS PLAY on this channel .. his content is fantastic and its the least we could do ... LET THE ADS PLAY!!!!
What an inspirational and motivating video! I’m a new subscriber and I’m thoroughly enjoying the content, time and wisdom you fit into each video. Well done! 👏🏼
Thanks for making this video. My wife and I are buying her family farm with her brother and his wife. Right now, it's a cash crop operation. We raise a handful of meat bird chickens and turkeys and occasionally some hogs. I've also been raising produce for the last couple of years. I don't intend on getting away from the cash crops, but I would like to grow our farm to raise livestock and produce as well. This video was very helpful. Keep up the good work.
This could be a college course; but this would take you away from farming... Thanks for the great videos and television.
I appreciate your commitment to quality! The rate of inflation is climbing at a faster rate than normal and is caused by a political party at this point. Surviving is key in a profitable operation with fighting the inflation. You do a great job at it. Thank you, I appreciate you and your family.
Thank you for the video. Here is something I tend to analyze myself every so forth, which may apply to you. What is the cost to acquire a customer with your existing model ie farmer market/pickup? What is the churn rate (lost customer) ? Example of churn rate could be lost XX customer per month. Your four key point toward the end of the video are setting the requirements for your model, however knowing your customer acquisition and churn rate cost, could potential help you partner or create others models. If it costs you $XX dollars to acquire a customer, but using a strategic partner (becomes a customer) (assuming some type of distributor) get you xx more customers, you maybe gaining profit even if you had to lower your price. Anyway I think it maybe worth analyzing. Overall the most important is staying healhy and happy reqardless of any analyzes. Thank again for sharing your videos.
Smart presentation! Very useful for us! Saludos desde Mexico, Pete! Thank You!
Pete..I finally got around to watching your Marketing/Advertising Video. Finally, someone has explained the difference between Marketing and Advertising! Of course, the end result is to create awareness of one's business. Obviously, unless people stumble upon you, consumers have to be aware of what a business is all about. I noticed that you didn't mention radio or TV in your mix...and I would agree with you...the cost and the scatter-shot approach makes the ROI unacceptable....unless you could find a targeted radio station, and even then, it's tough. One of the things I like to create awareness is a leave behind one sheet flyer. For the cost of a ream of paper and some ink, its a pretty easy and cheap way to create awareness. What really works well is "accidentally" leaving behind a flyer every where you go...not on bulletin boards in stores (nobody reads those) but on counters at the Drug store, your doctor's office, anyplace you can think of. Yes, most will be thrown away, but all of them would be read. I might have two flyers...one with your name, address, and mission statement only and another showing what you sell. I wouldn't go with double sided printing, but that might be ok. Simple, cheap, and reaches local consumers that may not be familiar with what you do and sell. Its a cheap way to create awareness. ...
I enjoy your videos..keep up the good and interesting work.
Full Disclsure: I'm a radio guy living in Binghamton. Ray Ross "rayross@yahoo.com"
Watching in the UK and love the videos. In the UK, farming has been in decline for a long time (though I’ve yet to meet a poor farmer), and they’ve lived by the mantra ‘diversify or die’. A lot of farms have started selling more items than they produce i.e fruit, vegetables and home made products, cakes, jams etc, and some have gone as far as building cafes, offering bed & breakfast or even becoming wedding venues. To quote Field of Dreams, ‘build it and they will come’, perhaps you should look at investing more in your own farm, to broaden the offering, and bring the customers to you. Make it a destination. It focuses all your time and money on your own property and also maximised the return.
Keep up the good work!
P.s, don’t forget to install a car charging point. 😉
We loved the idea of buying good meat from a farmer. We tried picking it up at a scheduled time as well as another service that delivered frozen meats. What stopped us was that we are not educated about how to cook the meat. It was all too tough and we couldn't eat it. There is such a difference between healthy meat and store bought meat. It was worth the price to pay extra but us city old folks just could not figure out how to cook it.
Not sure what you bought but our meat is tended and much better tasting than store bought meat. I would encourage you to try some other farmers. Most will be glad to talk with you about preparation/cooking.
Super informative, Pete. As much as I hate the whole credit card thing, I found myself selling way more because I took plastic than I did as cash only. (This was in a flea market setting and not selling food.) So I guess that volume is a factor to consider.
Of courseif yousell out without taking plastic...👍👍.
Hey Pete, we are down In SWVA and one of our largest customers in a health food store we hooked up with several years ago. Once we built a relationship it’s been a great outlet for our homestead. Yes we do have to wait a week on our check but it’s always there and it’s always rite. I actually watch your videos when I’m washing eggs to go there. They usually get 40/50 dzn a week plus all cuts of our pork and beef. We also do a couple restaurants and they have always been great because they pay on delivery no questions asked.
Hope that’s puts you in some new ideas and really enjoy your videos.
Hi Joey, thank you, it sounds like you've established some great relationships.
I kind of like the idea on pickup of having a small building near the road, and inside a collection of small refrigerator/freezers with locks. Every week you can fill them with the order and then the customer can pick up at their leisure with their combination. Probably not cheap to set up though...
What a great idea
Not that hard depending on regulations. I have a homemade refrigerator/freezer that I made out of wood and had someone spray with walk-in freezer insulation.
Also you need to man(for pay) that building.
Gramps used to sell all his beef and chickens from a barstool. He would host BBQ's where everyone came for processed chickens they ordered and cheap keg beer. I looked at his books when I cleaned the house out. He made a decent living back then just by being a yokel that got along with everyone and sold a superior product.
Great Video, thanks for sharing!
Excellent video - thanks!
1.5 hours NW of Chicago, way out in the countryside is a small farm that sells raw milk.(All Grass Farms in Dundee, IL). I know you are not a dairy farm, but this place has a line out the door every day of the week, no matter what the weather or the price, and sells out in an hour. They have a farm store that sells everything else they produce, including pastured beef, pork, lamb, chicken and turkey, and odds and ends from other local producers. People are willing to drive a long way every week for milk, then buy the other products too. One hot product can bring the customers to you. Just a thought. You can milk Dexters........
I have seen some farmers sell raw "pet" milk.
Good video Peter,
I ran a self serve farm store on the honor system that worked quite nicely for me. I kept a small freezer with a good variety of meats but not too much in there. Would check it throughout the day. Only had someone take some stuff and money once in the five years
Love your videos thanks. For feeding the usa
I have thought about that too. I would start a website and advertise at the farmers market and slowly move to a ship or pick up method.
At our farmers market in Minneapolis, credit card sales have a 5% service charge.
Pete, I've been wondering if you ever considered getting interns. Cornell is a Land Grant Institution, so they should have a school of Ag, and I'm sure you could work out a deal with them where they can have internships at your farm for credit (so no need to pay them) or even summer internships for minimum wage. I know yours is a family farm, but I think that your vision and mission being spread to young wannabe farmers (wannabe as in, in the future, not wannabe as in wannabe) would help spread the idea of sustainable small farms. And it would of course help you a lot. Take some load off your back, be it in hard farm labor, to customer care, to anything. I feel as though any aspect of the small farming business model a student can learn is a good one. Just something to think consider. I don't know if you have facilities on your farm to have a person or two stay over for a few days, or anything, but just sharing some ideas to try to help you out from the cold depths of the basement I live in :D
Pete, You put a lot of effort into producing and selling meat. In my opinion, you will be more successful if at the same time you do real business - sell, mediate - not just what you produce. multiplier.
Thanks Pete, Off the subject a bit...Today is 1/30/21. I live in East Tn. and have seen over the last few months many people moving here from N.Y. as well as Cali. etc.
I moved here from Naples, Fl. twenty years ago..because the same thing was happening there.
It seems to me as an aging old man..We all just need to slow down and relax.
Pete, as a customer, I you work to improve the farmers market - I know that may not be easy.
When I go to market I generally know what I want and I’m very aware of seasonal changes and have factored that into my calculations.
While I can see how the farm store may be convenient to a farmer, I don’t want to drive 20 miles to find that the product I want isn’t available so I then have to head off to some other farm in the hope of finding it elsewhere. You sell meats and eggs, so even if I drove out to your farm, I’d still have to drive to other farms to get lamb or produce or apples or whatever.
So hopefully you and like minded farmers can improve the farmers market
Hi Bob, I agree; convenience for the customer has to be the biggest factor. That's the principal problem I see with the current farmers market; many of our regular customers find it is too big of a hassle to deal with the lunch crowds and the lines to get in, and I lose business because of it. I'm doubtful the market can change. They let the genie out of the bottle decades ago when the market let in prepared food vendors. In the discussions I've had with market board members, there is little they're willing or able to change to make the market more farmer/customer friendly.
@@JustaFewAcresFarm As I'd asked you previously what is the relative cost for the artisan and hot food stalls? If the hot food stalls are 10% of the stalls but are providing 40% of the market organisation's income what do you expect? I used to attend a lot of car rallies and country shows and while no one went for the vendor food boy did those stalls make £££££ and correspondingly their site fees were stellar. In effect, they cross subsidised the shows. How much do you think the farmers market stalls would cost if they removed the artisan and hot food outlets?
@@JustaFewAcresFarm Having failed my professional marketing exams many years ago I can visualise some of this. Selling hot food or in marketing terms a form of vertical integration. So you trade and make the profit from the animal and from the café experience. I've no idea if this is done in the US but is there not a middle ground?
I worked and ran licensed establishments at one point and an idea that was propagated at times was *"Sell The Sizzle Not The Sausage!"* So it's the expectation or anticipation of the product and not its actuality.
Is there a mid ground between selling meat as is and providing the café experience? Being of a certain age I'm not old enough to remember when grain imports post WWII allowed for mass chicken rearing for meat farming but I can remember chicken barbecues or more accurately chicken Roast-O-Mat's where whole chickens were on an automated glass encompassed roasting unit.
Roast chicken has an attractive smell. I can remember shops or even market stalls selling whole or portioned fresh roasted chicken sold for consumption at home, and delightful it was. The smell is attractive and in the last 50 years the number of consumers who can't boil an egg let alone roast a chicken have increased. You say your basic bird has better taste (for this you can offer out samples) also you can differentiate by stuffing with traditional sage and onion, other herbs or the perennial of garlic. Is the health enforcement different for hot or cooked food sold as produced and café service? I'm hoping the whole food sold hot is less onerous?
Best wishes to self and family. A different question if you and other farmers found a successful different way to market and it resulted in the demise of the current farmers market how would you hold your effect on the quality of life in your location?
@@COIcultist The cost to vend at the market is the same, no matter the type of vendor.
@@JustaFewAcresFarm I'm dumbfounded. At anything I have been to where the hot food isn't the attraction they pay several levels of magnitude more for their stalls.
around here in southern mn small farmers list there products on face book market place or craigeslist under farm , thought it might help
another GREATvideo
Give a talk on line to an agricultural college for an hour once a month. Invite the students and their families for a 1 hour tour. The other method is to invite your college buddies and their families once a year on your graduation day. 😀😀😀😀
I agree with you on how the best way for you to market your product. What the small farmer lacks, is economy of scale. 50 acres really limits what you can generate in income. Since you only have 50 weeks in a year to produce. A new farmer has all the infrastructure to build plus be able to grow their product. After the infrastructure is in place, it allows the farmer to devote more time on product production which translates as more income. But it still comes down to dollars per hour worked, and there is the problem. Who is willing to work 16 hours a day with no time off and make only a marginal income. Even if you look at a Doctor or Lawyer, they only have so many billable hours a year that they can charge for and the max they can make is those hours times there hourly rate. It's not an easy answer to arrive at. Even if you totally love what your doing, if it doesn't generate enough dollars to pay the bills and taxes, you end up broke. And I know more than a few farmers that that is exactly what happened to them.
Perfect Video Pete
My problem with farmers markets around here in Oklahoma is before you know it there's 30 people selling candles very few farmers and it turns into a craft show or the people running the Farmers market has so many rules want you have a license for everything
I some what remember back in the early 80's, i knew a smallish farm that raised pigs and chickens. Not even that many pigs at once. Maybe 20 or so at any one time. But they staggered them through the year to keep selling it seems. I know at least twice a month they were gone for a whole day. Im assuming a form of farmers market? A big ol cargo van loaded with coolers, and they were empty when they came back. At least 2 times a week they had a route they travelled and would deliver, you guessed it, again, gone all day, again im assuming price of delivery was included in price of sale? Never seemed like they struggled doing it. The whole farm couldnt have been maybe 110 acers. Corn, soybeans and hay. Thats a lot of travel, but seems they enjoyed it and seemed mostly the wife did it while he mostly stayed behind for the daily farm work, mixing feed, cutting and baling hay, seperating animals, fencing etc... it was a neat little thing they had going on.
PETE thank you AGAIN for such a GREAT video!!!!!!!!!! Not to be a stocker but could I call you some time to talk about farming. One thing I’m attempting to do to help bring more cash flow to the farm is organic cash crops wheat, soybeans etc. anywho God bless you Sir and thank you again. 🙏🏻✌️
Really glad to hear your prospective on the farm business and some of the sales strategies.
If you are still looking for discussion ideas, I'd be excited to hear or even see an example about your wholesale/retail pricing. For example, what is the cost difference on a cow/pig selling as a whole/half/quarter vs all retail cuts? How much time does it take to be constantly advertizing/selling, and what is the "ceiling" of the number of animals you can fit on your 40 ish acres?
You might try to align with a local nursery or produce market that has a facility and would let you sell your product - that did not compete but complimented - their product. You would have to trust them to collect and pay you what you contract for - you likely would have to maintain an inventory and then give a per centage to them. Good luck - I hear the frustration in your voice.
Super helpful. Thank you
In my town we have a green on Friday after noon they have a farmer market
Great video.
Pete, thanks for this. It was very informative. I’m thinking about these issues now regarding my home orchard. It’s
Thank you. It gives me lots to think about
I have always wondered this! I looked it up and I found a video about a co op but that was for bigger farms and I would like to start a smaller farm one day. Also I like the wood finish in wherever you are. Anyway a co op is like a supermarket right so you wouldn’t be able to do it?
What stores in New York City carry your products?
What do you think of on farm vending machines seem to be getting popular here of late, have seen egg and even a milk one pop up lately.
I have never seen one! Seems great for some things, not so much for others. For instance, with cuts of meat customers often want to pick out the exact steak they want
Thank you
I owned a small restaurant, and paid cash upon delivery. Beware the thirty day nonsense, if they’re so cash poor they can’t pay on delivery, walk away. I agree, don’t deal with credit accounts.
Pete, another great video as always!! Thank you! As regards to home delivery, don't know if this is possible but what about Doordash or Uber eats? Is it possible to set up something with them to deliver your "raw" products and not just cooked items? I know you can set up a time for when your "store" is open therefore not having to be around all day waiting for the consumer.
Pete, in our area many families are moving to self catering for parties, small weddings or other get to gethers. Could you simply put together tins of ready to put in the oven meals, or simple instructions for cooking. We have a few areas in our area the offer this, and they do a good business. They have tins of sliced beef, chickens, turkey, possibly a third party company could put them together for farmers with a point of sale setup.
If I were in your shoes I would stay local and enjoy the stress free days and avoid the rat race !
Have you considered partnering up with someone to run a kitchen on a side of your farming, you providing the chicken and split profits. Entirely new entity, with a separate kitchen so the authorities dont bring the farm into the inspections/paperwork.
Also, you could setup a different channel aside of this one to show the non-monetizing content, this shouldnt affect the main channel and thus monetization. Pete, I like your content.
You have given me ideas. Have you tried local buy sell Facebook groups.
I have not tried that. Honestly, I try to stay off of Facebook these days but it may be a good option.
@@JustaFewAcresFarm I was going to say the same thing Mathew. Richard Perkins has talked about REKO Rings as being a great sales model and they use facebook for it. Essentially you have multiple farms come to a pick up location at the same time and distribute pre-ordered items. Convenient for the customer because they have many farms to choose from and much faster for the farmer. Still have the bank fees to deal with.
Well done sir
Pete do believe there's still room at local farmers markets, For beginning Farmers to make a living . Or is there a flood of poultry meat and eggs. Thanks
Yes I believe there's still room. It's important to go to your local markets and see how much competition there is.
I am curious how the expenses are in New York as to other states?? Taxes are supposedly high in New York.. laws..rules.. are supposedly extreme..
Maybe In your farm market u can offer fertile eggs as new product? Chicken and it turkey and maybe have people place orders for spring new hatch that new to our on your farm.just idea.wish I had courage to try selling at farmers market the rabbit meat.
Online selling has become price prohibitive. I sold online for years but won't do it anymore because the cost of shipping has gone insane. My niece has to deal with the packaging to ship her hatching eggs.
That 3% to 3.5% for credit cards could seem almost reasonable compared to a farmer's market depending on the fees the farmer's markets and total volume of sales being sold through the farmer's market. Granted the farmer's market handles some of the marketing costs by virtue of what it is and the advertising it can do, but that can still be a significant expense compared to bank processing fees.
The more I learn the more it seems like moving the product off the farm (especially a small farm) is one of the larger challenges when it comes to farming -- potentially made more so if the local region has predominately switched over to electronic payment methods. Personally as a consumer it's rare for me to keep much cash on hand (unless traveling) since from an investment perspective cash is usually even worse than traditional savings accounts for loss of monetary value over time since it's not earning interest at all, and generally takes time to acquire from either an ATM or bank. About the only time cash is useful for me is if there is no power (though depending on the seller it's not even useful then) --- or if I'm buying something from one of the increasingly rare places that doesn't accept credit cards (or some other form of electronic payment). So for me it's probably also an indicator of the local regional preferences for payment when even vending machines in an area have card readers (as is pretty routinely seen in my area).
@@lolwtnick4362 Not sure how you came to that conclusion. I may not get cash, but most of the farms selling directly to the public in the part of the US where I live accept credit cards and I have no issue if they want to charge a premium for the use of a credit card (as many/most do).
With gas prices being what they are in 2023, it's cheaper to pay the processing fees for the transaction than it is to drive and get/carry cash all the time. ..even more son since cash isn't going as far as it did back in 2020 when I originally commented.
I am not sure if you know about Sr. Farmers' Market Coupons. It is a Federal program to help both seniors and farmers. The US govt gives money to the states for this program. The state selects one social service agency per county to administer it. Each county is run differently. The local social agency takes a big cut to pay themselves ridiculous salaries as high as a quarter million dollars a year. Each county gives seniors a different amount if free coupons, from $20 to $60 per household. This is free money, and the seniors spend it pretty liberally.
The farmer has to apply to be accepted. Products must be locally grown. There can be no middle man. The food cannot processed as value-added items. For instance a berry former can be approved for selling raw berries, but not berries made into jelly. Once a farmer is approved, you can sell to seniors at either a farm stand or public farmer's market. Almost every farm booth at the local market near here gets approved.
Is butchering your poultry yourself a better financial decision rather than taking it to a butcher that’s USDA? I know you would be spending the extra money to have a butcher do it. I’m just curious as to why you do the poultry yourself and send the cows and pigs off to the butcher.
Would selling a live cow to homesteaders be an option? I've seen the Lumnah Acres channel buy baby pigs and raise them for food. Is that a model that would work for cattle? My impression is that it would be a scheduling nightmare.
There is a diet community that eats large amounts of meat - MeatRX. Perhaps you could somehow tell that community you sell from the Ithaca market?
I know a Dexter Breeder that halter breaks the heifers and trains them to stand for milking. Sells the trained heifers at a premium to homesteaders.....
Your own farm store with set hours, presell birds with non refundable down payment
Maybe a farm store at your farm
Reko model in used in european nordic countries.
Reko is an absolutely fantastic thing. I use it all the time. :)
did he mention online? like REKO? www.rekocanada.ca this is the Canadian version but assume the US has the same.
If a consumer has a freezer; why not ship 100 pound minimum shipment of beef, chicken, turkey and pork labeled so once received it goes direct to freezer. I am cross country so maybe only beef and pork. I am willing to do as a consumer that if a reliable perishable shipper can deliver. I trust your farm.
I’d say 50lb minimum for shipping online and Pete wouldn’t ever sit in a farmers market again. The audience here on TH-cam is far exceeding the Ithaca locals.
Hey Pete, nice breakdown. My Aunt sells at three farmers markets, Oneonta, Cooperstown and Binghamton I believe. I think Trumansburg market is Wednesday late afternoons with good customer base that don't want to deal with the Ithaca market. Our eggs were cleaned and packed on farm and we sold to the Dewitt and Ithaca Wegmans stores only, along with both Greenstar locations, Ludgate farms in Lansing and the T-burg sur-save. Seems like you had some teenaged kids in an older video, do you have family to go on market days so you can stay on site and handle your herds and land? I'm off the farm now and in foodservice equipment repair(surprisingly similar to barn heaters, egg conveyors, feeder drives, ect.) I've switched to Square for processing cards, 2.75% and no transaction fee was better than turning down a job or paying 3.5%+. One thing my restaurant customers occasionally do is targeted advertising by address. Say you want to send postcards introducing your farm to the better heeled customers that have the means to prefer local, small, fresh, quality. The usps offers a better rate per piece to drop every address in any specific zip+4. So you can vistaprint a postcard or pricelist, and hit, say, every mail box in Cayuga Heights, catching a lot of folks that just won't deal with the crowds down at the market. I was surprised at your in-house breeding program. My cousin uses AI for his herd and brings in a loner bull for "cleanup" if any don't take. Do you introduce outside genetics to maintain variation every few cycles?
What's your educational background? There definitely is one.
Hi Farmall Fanatic, I was an architect for 20 years. But I grew up on this farm.
@@JustaFewAcresFarm ok so the rumor that you were in communications is just a rumor
Yep
Seems like growth is the only option.
you did not mention a vending machine on farm, so the time factor is then irrelevant. or honesty box style stall, where people just pick up what they need and leave coins in the honesty box.
greetings from west Wales
Sell your meat like Omaha Steaks, I'd buy 'em. Your fans who can't reach you would happily pay a premium...could be filler income, not your core market. I completely agree with concerns about shipping nationally, but supporting smaller farms over larger online vendors helps level the playing field, no?
How about a chicken/turkey butcher and process video?
I'm with you on that I would love to see how Pete preps the chickens for sale
$10 for a box of Styrofoam?
Holy cow.....
Ya: the reason I started my own trucking company is I got sick having to hire a lawyer go to court for compensation that was due to me on the barrelhead on payday.
Now I factor my ass off on all loafs that I hail all the while gladly giving up three cents on the dollar to make sure I can put the other $0.97 into my piggy bank.
Also:for traditional farmers, they really don't have the option of a retail price or a wholesale price: there is only one price either at the Chicago Board of Trade or Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Different elevators might differ by three to six cents over a certain geographical area. But while the traditional farmer doesn't have any pull in the price he sells his commodities for he is able to sell olly has four that price generally.
I think the homesteading farmer better prepare for being able to offload livestock at wholesale prices in the event a salesperson or other means of offloading the livestock is the only way out.
When truckload rates don't meet a certain level I just parked my truck and stare at the Sun. It can get dicey financially if rates stay bad for 9 months or more but I don't drive as a 501(c)(3) charity.
You merely adopted farming. I was born into it. Molded by it. I didnt see a grocery store until I was already a man.
Actually, he is a fifth generation farmer, if I remember correctly
@@ryangrider9607 just some fun and batman quotes :)
@BWM just some fun and batman quotes :)
@Ptguy0618 just some fun and batman quotes :)
@@schopperhof4005 Sounded like Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy to me.
Does your farm sell at markets during the wintertime?
Yes David, we sell at market every week except 2 weeks around New Years.
Liability insurance costs when you process your animals.
$.50 per chicken
No shows, no calls, drive me crazy. I make an appointment and about a third of the time they don't show. I make a list of those and won't make another appointment without prepayment to meet them.
It would not apply to you, unless you consider itas part of farm store, but certain produce farmers could have a pick-your-own operation.
Its a csa not a chance. Stupid phone lol
Sounds to me like you are to the point of biting the bullet and doing the farmers market, you disc all of the options except the farmers market.