Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Them That's Doin'

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Them That's Doin'
  • Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2002 19:08:06 -0500


Willie McKemie wrote:
> We are ALWAYS eager to hear market farming success stories; do you have
> one to offer?

Our farm is 6 years old and we have tried a number of different but related
pursuits. Mostly with livestock but also some with produce. The produce side
is partly to supply our own needs and partly to act as a attraction for
customers when we are at the Farmer's Market. We have extensively used
brochures to promote our Grass-Fed Jersey Beef and we have the website which
has a grazing narrative that is very detailed on how we set up our farm and
how we are doing. I suspect that we are one of the few farms in the U.S. to
publish our schedule F on the internet. Of course we are still losing money,
but we are actually doing fairly well since we will have amortized some of
our expenditures. Our Beef sales are the key.

We actually do get some customers from as far away as Chicago (300 miles)
but do not promote this too much as this is not really sustainable
agriculture when your customers are so far away due to the tremendous drain
on our resources with such transactions. We are of course Jo Robinson's
eatwild.com web site which is one of the best informational sites on the net
for grass-fed.

We do some stocker cattle because we have a 150+ A farm with most of the
farm being tillable and need to soak up that much grass. We are totally
converted over to grazing and the only row crops are the market garden which
now has about 2 acres available. We may never cut hay on the farm again
since with the failure of our haybine this summer, luckily right about the
end of first cutting, we have determined that buying in hay makes the most
sense for us. (I can explain this sometime if anyone wants to know why).

Although some money can be made from produce, it would require a fairly
large operation to really make an adequate income from our experience. We
live only a few miles from one of the largest and most successful organic
CSA's in the northern part of the midwest and the knowledge, marketing, and
management that they do is truly remarkable. But in order to do that, they
have to be relatively large and have to manage many people in order to
operate.

I am always happy to detail any particular technique, operating and
practical information, including the economics of this kind of market
farming approach. And as you can guess it ain't exactly easy. I still have
an off farm job which is very rewarding and challenging but Judy has
"retired" from human services work now and is full time farming.

On the other hand I try not to associate with negative thinkers who only
pull down others (and themselves). It is much better to find those who are
the ones who are successful and associate with them.

I have been active as a County Farm Bureau director which has been an eye
opening experience because the organization is so grass roots and the
members really decide most of the policies through a resolution process that
comes up from the members. I am also active as the facilitator of the Ocooch
Graziers in our two county area but will be transferring that torch to
others while I remain on the steering committee of the Wisconsin Grazing
Lands Conservation Iniative which is allied with the NGLCI and is
instrumental in getting some of the USDA money moved toward sustainable
agriculture. Also, our state now has a farmer owned and controlled grazing
organization, known as GrassWorks that was recently reorganized so that we
farmers would have ownership. Judy and I were very active in being on the
steering committee to change the Constitution and ByLaws and put before the
new membership.

It would be great to hear of others and what they are doing. Wasn't there a
recurring column or story form on John Shuttleworth's The Mother Earth News
some years ago called "Them That's Doin'" or something to that effect. Maybe
we need to have a subject heading like that:) Yeah, it is kinda corny
though:)

Sincerely,

Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Dairy heifers and dairy beef graziers
Viroqua, WI

www.mistyridgefarm.com




  • Them That's Doin', Rick Williams, 09/01/2002

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page