Straight talk with a niche beef producer
Sarah Aubrey is an Indiana beef producer who has turned her operation into a profitable business by marketing Aubrey’s Natural Meats. Aubrey says, “Every small farmer must also become a skilled salesperson and marketing professional.” She shares many of those ideas in a recent American Cowman article titled Business Basics for Niche Cattle Ventures.
Aubrey starts beef producers in the right place: a business plan. To paraphrase the famous quote: If you don’t know where you are going, how will you get there? Planning is tedious, but it can be the roadmap to a great future.
Related Topics: Small Producer Challenges
January 12th, 2008 at 11:21 am
I am a small producer (30) cows and I try to market my fed steers and heifers privately as freezer beef, using 2 small local processing plants. I use this strategy to try to make a little more profit and keep my selling price unrelated to the current market. It is challenging to market in this manner because the economy in Michigan is terrible and I have had countless problems with the processors. Ideally I would like to sell my calves in the 500-600lb range to 1 buyer all the time, but I have to small of an operation to take advantage of contracts and cannot absorb the low feeder prices often offered locally. Also, any ideas on how to utilinzes DDG with no mixing equipment?
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