NFU crazy, or am I missing something?

[TOM4CWB]

Ahhh...

"Grass fed beef"...

$10K on Vancouver Island will be easily acheived since that is only a few plants.... sell the 'seeds'... feed a few leaves... Organic 'weed' fed beef...

I just can't wait till these folks apply for their CWB permit books... so they can vote in CWB elections.

Do NOT laugh. IT WILL HAPPEN... Mark my words.

A buyback on wheed for wheat....

[vvalk]

Grassfarmer. I find something interesting in one of your comments. You say that 20 cows could gross $40000 to $50000. Obviously then you are only dealing with people with lots of disposable income or "rich" people. The NFU is all about the small farmer and publicly scold large corporations or large commercial farms. The NFU is against any progress ( GMO, free trade, open markets, multi nationals, input suppliers etc). How do you explain this position when this niche business is obviously geared towards people you have distain for.

[burnt]

Not necessarily rich people. None of my customers are "rich people".

I recently sold 3 grain fed beefs as freezer orders, by the side or split side and even as light-weight animals they totaled around $5000.00

One was a very small framed heifer that finished too early and 2 were steers that dressed 610 and 650, thus around 1175 live weight. So a 1400 lb. steer would easily generate $2000. without asking any premium for grass-fed or any other reason.

So $2000/ hd. is not selling into a niche market. My customers just want hormone free black Angus and know where their beef is coming from. That's it.

Butchering costs on mine were around $350/hd., depending on weight so there's still only about $100/hd. advantage over selling them live. Not really enough to make up the extra handling and hassles.

Another chap close to here seems to be a much better salesman that I and sells his freezer orders for $3.25/lb cut and wrapped, by the side. That's closer to actually making money.

[burnt]

I should add that if these same animals were parceled out as cuts at meat counter prices, they would in all likelihood come to a heck of a lot more than $2000/hd.

Where's the niche market theory then?

[SASKFARMER3]

Grassfarmer here is a tip from one that lives in a City. Your dream of city folk paying you to grow top food maybe had legs before the depression that Ontario and Quebec and USA are in. See when urban residents think they have cash they look for every goofy thing out their that's trendy. Smart Car, Prius, Organic. Etc. But when your loosing the farm (expression) who gives a shit where your food comes from food bank or store.
See in the build up to the current disaster the supposed middle class in USA and Ontario etc were really just workers who thought they had big bucks and were living off the increased value of their homes.
So in a nut shell allot will change in next year as USA hits a worse yet house bust and interest rates go up.

[jensend]

sf3 is right that the hard times we're going into will make consumers carefully consider how they spend disposable income but as was pointed out farmgate sales really aren't more expensive than buying off the meat counter. the other effect tough economic times might have is to make govts reconsider subsidizing export industries because it's really a subsidy to another country. dairy and poultry are essentially producing for domestic consumption and beef is getting close. the grains sector is hugely export oriented and could become a target. klause might have an advantage the way his costs are structured by the looks of his operation.

[grassfarmer]

vvalk, Your post was rather confused but I'll attempt as reply. I based my figures on retailing a fat steer direct to customers at $2500 - it has been established that an average steer out of the commodity system retails around $3000 over the counter. So direct marketers can afford to sell below store average price, pay a higher cost for processing and still be substantially ahead. That rather defeats your argument about it being a product for the rich and SF3s argument that there won't be any such people around shortly with the recession. We have found it easy to double our customer base every year with <$100 advertising budget.
Pleased to see you recognize who the rich are though - multi-nationals, input suppliers etc - now if you could just follow that through to it's logical conclusion.

[Burbert]

It'll be interesting to see, what changes Mr. WELLS will make to the CWB. WELLS knows farming well and should be a real asset to the board. Go CWB, go!!!!

[FarmRanger]

<i>"Go CWB, go!!!! "</i>

And don't come back until you're voluntary.

[highwayman]

Maybe the first thing that Mr. Wells needs to push for is a next to zero cost export permit for all those in the designated area like he himself currently enjoys as an organic producer. What do ya think Burb? Isnt that what you NFUers preach is fairness and equality for all?
It would be interesting to know what percentage of NFU members originate from outside the designated area where they have the freedoms that we do not. Seems that there executive is largely made of of Easterners.