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Organic Farm?

T

Trinity man

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Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
1,259
Location
Guy Store, Texas
Has any of you done this? I am going to try to reg. our place and cattle as an organic ranch. If I get this I may be able to sale my calves straight a store in Houston called Wholesome Foods Markets. I have talked to a few people that have done this and are getting pay a lot more for their calves. They mostly want the animal raise on grass or organic feeds. Here is what they are mostly looking for.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/meat-quality-standards.php

I have always wanted to market my calves straight to the consumer well this maybe the best chance. What do you all think?
 
I didn't see anything saying you had to be certified organic, so why go through the paperwork if you don't need to? We sell direct to consumers, and most don't seem to care if we're organic or not. They ask about hormones, antibiotics, grain, grass, chemicals and such, but the lack of a little piece of paper that gives us "Certified" status doesn't seem to bother anyone.

Keep the 2/3'd of the animals life on grass thing in mind. If you're grass-finishing it's no problem. If you're going to finish them with grain in a feedlot, you need to manage accordingly. You'll just have to pasture the animal or feed it good quality hay to the right age, so that the finishing period in a feedlot won't equal 2/3's of their life.
 
Seems like I recall some folks from Stockman Grass Farmer that didn't do so well with Whole Foods, however that was a couple of years ago when they were aquiring the Wild Oats chain of stores.

Have you contacted them direct yet? I sure would be interested in what you are able to find out, I'd like to market a little more directly with-out having to do the direct market stuff :wink:

bart.

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http://www.tallgrassbeef.com/partner_with_us_ranchers.php

http://www.thousandhillscattleco.com/producerinfo.html

http://www.iowabeefcenter.org/content/Organic_Natural_Grass_Fed_Beef_2006.pdf
 
Thanks guys. :) The only reason I am going to apply for the organic is to have a better chance in getting in. I have contact with Whole foods and am waiting for a reply back. And RobertMac I may also contract those companies you listed if Whole Foods don't work out. Thanks for the links. :) I am just tired of having my calf prices based on the fat cats in Chicago and the American people having to pay the price. I just want what is fair for us and the people buying the meat.
 
a buddy of mine sells his grassfed to whole foods, gets a good price too. He sells whole animals cut into primals at 3.75/lb HCW.

They also buy from a large Natural Beef outfit, I heard from a chef that Whole Foods has funded a research trial with that outfit to try raising grassfed beef. Maybe it's a bunch of BS, but it sounds to me like they are getting the bigger producer to produce the product they want so they can boot the smaller people.

WF bought Wild Oats, there was a big outfit out west that made a big investment to increase production for Wild Oats. Then WO started buying form Uruguay. Careful of the the big boys, that's all I have to say.
 
Any time a buyer offers a premium over commodity price it is encouraging. I wouldn't like to base my business on it though, especially with the likes of WF. Their objective will be to super size grass-fed production and then buy their grass-fed beef supplies at a commodity price. There may be premiums at the moment but once they encourage enough people to convert to the new system watch out!!
It's a lot more work and effort but the producer direct retailing his beef, grass-fed or otherwise, offers the best opportunity for profitability. Selling your own allows you to be in control, you set the price and retain all the profits normally made by the retailer and some of those made by the packer.
It's not for everyone, but direct retailing has worked well for us.
 
Good advise, Ben...I had a good friend that went out of business when a wholesale organic food distributor went bankrupt. I think the better way for a producer to go, if they don't want or can't do direct marketing, is to partner with someone like Tallgrass or Thousand Hills.

Trinity man, I don't know how close you are to Paris, TX, But Ted Slanker has a grassfed business and partners with producers.

http://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com/improving_the_margin.htm
 
Grassfarmer said:
Any time a buyer offers a premium over commodity price it is encouraging. I wouldn't like to base my business on it though, especially with the likes of WF. Their objective will be to super size grass-fed production and then buy their grass-fed beef supplies at a commodity price. There may be premiums at the moment but once they encourage enough people to convert to the new system watch out!!
It's a lot more work and effort but the producer direct retailing his beef, grass-fed or otherwise, offers the best opportunity for profitability. Selling your own allows you to be in control, you set the price and retain all the profits normally made by the retailer and some of those made by the packer.
It's not for everyone, but direct retailing has worked well for us.
Click to expand...
Grassfarmer, that is the ideal, but if producers are going to take back any control of our industry(and a future for our kids), I believe 30 to 40% of cattle/beef is going to have to be sold through some alternative to the top five packers(possible exception of National). Hopefully, these alternative packers will understand the meaning and benefit of "partner".
 
RobertMac said:
Good advise, Ben...I had a good friend that went out of business when a wholesale organic food distributor went bankrupt. I think the better way for a producer to go, if they don't want or can't do direct marketing, is to partner with someone like Tallgrass or Thousand Hills.

Trinity man, I don't know how close you are to Paris, TX, But Ted Slanker has a grassfed business and partners with producers.

http://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com/improving_the_margin.htm
Click to expand...

It straight North of me about 300 miles on the Red River. Man you guys have been a lot of help. :D
 
RM and gf have given some pretty good advice, IMHO. Direct selling is the only answer to improving profitability because any market ties to Chicago is tying your price to something less than wholesale.

There have been several "alternative" premium markets that have started and failed in our area over the past few years. Some producers got badly burned because they were drawn in by the passion and rhetoric rather than the reality of the difficulty of competing against the mainstream processors.

Be sure you know who you are dealing with.
 
I think the partnership deal would work good if everyone can produce the same quality product and consistantly provide the number of head needed per week, month?Whatever the case may be.Some folks in this area tried a grassfed partnership and it fell short because of some not being able to honor thier production requirements,espesially in winter months,out of grass season,trying to finish on high priced forage.So make sure you can cover all your commitments first.
 
Local market is something the big boys can never take away from you. Natural Beef has become the new commodity, grass fed won't be as easy because of the expertise and management it takes to produce a quality product. Natural and Organic usually only requires changing some ingredients or not using something.

Don't forget that with the rises and falls of the market, the best an average producer can expect in a commodity market is to break even. It's simply the nature of the beast.

What any producer needs to figure out is what their unfair advantage is and focus on that. Allan Nation speaks about that topic often. Personally, mine is also my disadvantage. Proximity to the population. My town population is about 15,000, I'm about 20 minutes from Portland and 2.5 hours from Boston. I am the closest grass fed producer to Portland. The high population density is also my disadvantage with the break-up of farm land. Fortunately the housing bubble burst should reduce competition with future development. One of my goals in the near future is to get a walk-in freezer and have a farm store, starting by opening about 2-3 nights a week.

About the Whole Foods thing with this Natural Producer, it looks like the deal is they want them to try to grain finish on pasture instead of the feedlot, otherwise they won't sign a bigger contract. My friend who deals with them called WF today.
 
Rule number one...don't try to compete with the large packers.

Ben H said:
One of my goals in the near future is to get a walk-in freezer and have a farm store, starting by opening about 2-3 nights a week.
Click to expand...
I think you are headed in the right direction because of your proximity to population. Have you gotten your SGF yet? Good article on this topic.
 
Ben it' seems like you have more advantages then disadvantages if you can tap into your local market.On farm store is the right direction,pending any permit process.Good luck finding an affordable walk in unit.
 
I anticipate some used units ones coming on the market.

I just read the article in SGF, one word about those prices, WOW!

Probably one of the biggest things I'm concerned with regarding the new administration is their desire to repeat history, I'm concerned about seeing price controls again.
 

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