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  • From: "Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: "Marketfarming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Report from them that's doin'
  • Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2003 16:23:42 -0600

Well, even with the cool weather here in Wisconsin, and some snow, but not
as much as some parts of the state, we are hopefully approaching spring.
Right? Anytime you get through February here, we figure the worst is over,
even if we have a late snowfall, the latest in recent memory was April 10th
and more than a foot. But it doesn't last.

February included the Wisconsin Grazing Conference, which I think had a
pretty good mix of information for just about everyone. We thoroughly
enjoyed our presentation with two other market farmers who direct market
beef (mostly beef, but some have a few other livestock products). It was
also interesting that two of us also sell produce.

I received a communication from the Grass Works, Inc. leadership (the farmer
owned organization that puts on the conference among other sustainable
agriculture activities) and we were told that of all the conference
proceedings our presentation had the highest rating. Of course we only had
about 50 or 60 people at the presentation so it was less than 1/4 of the
total participants. But since it was the last session of the last day, that
says that people are interested in direct marketing from the farm. Lots of
good questions from the audience. And when you compare it to a similar
session held about five years ago, there were quite a few more people.

We also received more feedback on our beef which was served at the banquet.
We supplied 100 lbs of the 130 lbs that were used for the banquet meal. Lots
of positive comments. Of course now we are out of roasts:) And loaded with
plenty of ground beef and steaks. And wouldn't you know, the most common
packages that people still order are the Variety or the Roast package. We
have been upgrading the packages and letting the customers know they are
going to have a substitute of more steak for the roasts. No one has
protested:)

We did get a final response of about 20% our small customer base ordering a
steak package with our special for the month of February. In addition, I
have been able to get a few customers to switch to steak packages who were
initially going to get roasts or variety. For some folks, this is difficult,
because unlike many of you who primarily cater to the yuppies with the
money, we try and make the product available to almost everyone. We have
some folks who can only buy, say, $20 worth of ground beef at a time and
they have to try and make that stretch to their next paycheck. Sometimes you
want to just give them some extra stuff without being patronizing.

One thing I did is give out some squash to those who bought at least a 20
lb. package. We are surprised how well we have been able to keep our
Butternut squash. In fact we tried one this week and other than maybe having
a little bit of increase in stringiness, it was quite good. Maybe we should
have built a bigger "root cellar" after all:)

Do many of you folks market squash or other keepers later on during the
winter months? What products? How long are you able to keep them? And what
environment do you keep them in?

If any of you have seen the latest issue of Graze Magazine, Tom Wrchota's
article on his performance of Cattleana Ranch, is quite interesting and has
a lot of numbers for his beef/chickens/CSA operation. Tom has a masters in
economics so this is something that he has some expertise in:) There were
some surprises in that his livestock direct marketing is actually not
returning as much as his chickens, nor his CSA, IF you don't figure in any
cost for labor. But that is the rub as it is in many endeavors, as the labor
eventually becomes impossible to meet with family labor (he and Sue) if you
don't keept things streamlined.

Tom and Sue were one of the three farms represented at the Grazing
Conference presentation mentioned above. And we have known them for a number
of years now and we think that they will be one of the successful direct
marketing farmers in the State. By that I mean that eventually they will be
able to make sufficient return to provide for a family income. Their gross
farm sales doubled from 2000 to 2002 $25479 to $52,415 and they are
projecting $75,000 in two years with no added labor units, no additional
capital improvements.

One area the piqued my interest is that their jam sales were $720 and they
showed their expenses at $163. I am guessing that the cost was for renting a
kitchen to do the prep of the jam. What a great way to take care of surplus
berries and maybe even apples (he has a small number of heirloom apple trees
he is propagating).

Sincerely,

Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Direct marketed dairy beef and produce
(also dairy heifers and beef stockers)
Viroqua, WI




  • [Market-farming] Report from them that's doin', Rick Williams, 03/08/2003

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