NFU crazy, or am I missing something?

[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.

[ColevilleH2S]

Why should Stuart Wells have anything to do with marketing my grain? Does he have a stake in the success of my farm? No, absolutley not. No skin in that game. As long as the board follows it's marketing pace, he could give it all away for $100/tonne and it shouldn't bother him a bit. And that my friends, is one of those intangable benifits of Socialism >

[ColevilleH2S]

Oops that should have read, "Why should Stuart Wells have anything to do with <b>expropriating</b> my grain?"

[parsley]

Stewart Wells was elected.

There are only perhaps 2000 organic farmers in all of Saskatchewan.

So, conventional farmers obviously voted for him.

You can't beat him over the head for running or winning.

Maybe you should ask, "Why did so many vote for him?"

If organic directors were perceived as anti-conventional or hoplessly lacking business accumen, the majority of conventional farmers would not vote for them.

What it tells me is this:Conventional and organic farmers have common ground.

Why don't we look at commonality?

Both want more money for their farm products.

Both want to be business-minded.

Why don't we dwell on some of the positives?

btw, thanks to so many av'ers who sent Christmas e-greetings or left phone messages. It was appreciated very much. cDuster, I'll rsvp when I catch my breath. Pars

[dave4441]

Geez, i go away for 3 months, come back and SF3 and Parsley are making sense.