4 dollar a lb wheat?

[freewheat]

Local co-op store has one lb bags of wheat, for 3.99 a lb. Who buys this stuff in small towns, number one, when they all still have a farm connection, and two, why am I not smart enough to get 240 bucks a bushel for my wheat in small town Saskatchewan?

I can see it in Vancouver, but I was surprised to see it in rural Sask!

It is not even organic.

What do you do with a single lb of wheat, anyway?

[Klause]

freewheat, here's a fun experiment.

Clean up a couple bu of wheat. Fill it into 1 and 5lb bags. Take a good picture of the sample before bagging it, then go onto Ebay and list "Sustainably produced Flour wheat for sale".

Charge 6.75 a lb for it.


I did that for giggles a few years ago. Sold 50 bu of really clean nice red wheat in a week for an insane profit

[freewheat]

lol, Klause!

Imagine how long it would take to sell 400 acres worth...

I have imagined me and my family bagging wheat, boxing up lamb or what have you, driving out to the west coast, and setting up along the roadside. A little sign saying Fresh prairie lamb, or environmentally friendly wheat. Maybe print up a poster with various farm pics: Kids feeding lambs, kids riding sheep, me combining wheat under a setting sun, etc.

Pay for the winters stay in a warmer clime, and come home with mitts of cash.

Do it all again the next year...

[Klause]

My little endeavour was a school economics project... It was funny... and you are right. Wouldn't scale too easily to 400 acres worth of wheat.


However your idea would work... I think even Saskatoon/Regina are getting to be large enough markets. Farmer's Market, Online sales... you'd be surprised.


A friend of mine's wife markets organic stone ground flour. It's amazing to see how their business is growing, and how good a reception they are receiving.

[freewheat]

I think as a commodity farmer, we all need to look at this seriously.

Who are we to deny folks who have no clue, their needs and desires, hey?

Rightly or wrongly, it is the MARKETING that they are paying for. Should raise something exotic like water buffalo or something!

There is a moose dairy in Russia, I kid you not, with two milking cows. They make moose cheese. They sell the cheese for 1000 dollars a lb. IN RUSSIA! They produce only 300 lbs of cheese a year, but what would it cost to keep a few moose in your backyard poplar bluff, hey?

300 000 gross, off of two animals...

Who wants to rope a moose with me?

[hobbyfrmr]

There is a wheat dish that is quite common at Christmas time, I don't recall the name of it. I have had some wheat salad/desert type dishes at the fall supper.
Convenience. By the time a family asks a farmer for a pail of wheat, and if he remembers to give/sell it to you it could be months. Then, they use a couple pounds, and the rest of the pail becomes a nuisance. It's way easier for mrs. Neighbor to grab a one pound bag at the store. It's already cleaned and ready to use. The little bit left over can stay in the cupboard. And it was only $4.00.
There is a cost of buying, cleaning and packaging and marketing that wheat.
So buy from farmer #1 wheat for $6/ bu. that's 10cents per pound. Clean it one cent per pound. Deliver to processor, have some food grade testing done, and package it, 1.55/pound. You are at $1.66/pound. Pay for marketing/shelf space $0.34/pound. That takes you to $2.00/pound on the shelf. Use the double/double business rule, and sell it for $4.00/pound. Net profit is $2.00/pound, or $120/bushel.
The person will probably sell only half Of what they prepared so that leaves only $60.00/bushel.
The remainder will be sold at discount later on so some money will be made there as well.
This is just my ramblings, no real facts to back it up, but I always tried to figure out how to get stuff on a shelf. It's not that easy, but it's not impossible either. It takes planning and effort and risk tolerance.
As a farmer we are primary producers of commodities. We are the bottom of the chain. Our prices must be low in order for others to make profit as that commodity makes it way to the consumer.

"I don't like it, but I guess things happen that way." - Johnny Cash

Get that organic bullshit out of your head, and go rent another 3000 acres. The world is starving.

[farmaholic]

I'll help you rope it if you hand milk it.

[hobbyfrmr]

Just in case anybody "misinterprets" my previous post, read it again, and look for a light sprinkle of sarcasm in there.

[freewheat]

Farmaholic, you know you have to hold her still, no?

And hobby, I would rather take my little bags of wheat on the road, than try to get it on a store shelf... Bypass all that stuff. I would bet in Vancouver, one could sell tons of the stuff, for stupid prices. Ever been to Granville market? Interesting place.

Instead of a fruit truck in summer in Sask., you would see a lamb truck or a wheat berries truck in the Fraser valley in winter!

[hobbyfrmr]

Freewheat , I don't see anything wrong in that marketing plan. Why not arrange a back haul with fruit trucks going back to BC?
Perhaps you do not want to use the term "stupid high" prices, but instead words like "fairly priced" and/or "competitively priced".
You have to use less "farmer talk"and more "people talk."
Imagine how a farmer would feel if he heard a John Deere salesman talking to his colleagues saying the brand new sprayers/seeders/vertical tillage/combines are stupid high prices. That sure would slow down sales.

[hobbyfrmr]

Not trying to insult anyone, I have learned that I'm such a disconnected dumbass its best I don't talk or form much of an opinion.
Instead, allow the customer talk and offer their opinion. After all "the customer is always right."

[freewheat]

Ha ha, you got me there! How about stupid LOW prices, hobby? lol

[Braveheart]

I love walking around Granville Market.

Here's another example of these types of opportunities. When I was involved with PFP we were approached by a group of hobby brewers. These people spent winters in Arizona and were brewing their own craft beers (small scale, less than cottage industry). They wanted Pesticide Free Production white aleurone 6 row barley in small mini bulks delivered AZ.

Their bids were in the $12.00 USD range FOB AZ.

I know per pound this doesn't equal the example of the pound of wheat, but it sure beats trying to milk a moose.

The point often made is smaller packaging equals more dollars per unit. Maybe it's time for commodity producers to start catching up by making a tonne smaller. Future tonnes could be 975 kg, ratcheting down overtime towards the 500 kg tonne.

[wmoebis]

I was in BC this fall. Mixed classes of wheat 0 HVK sold in bulk bins like nutters sells bulk nuts was $2.09/kg was with the bird feed in store like peavey mart.
Volunteered at Cal Stampede in grain bin you wouldn't believe how many people asked where they could buy raw grain of all sorts.

[farmaholic]

You are absolutely right Braveheart, allot of comsumer goods are shrinking in size/volume with prices either the same for less or more money for less product. Hence my comment a while back, "don't you ever get tired of being a consumer"?