Marketing

Grass Roots Farmers’ Cooperative has grown into a $2 million-a-year business thanks to farmers working together to serve a common market, and some assistance from Heifer International. They hope their example can serve as a model for other farmer groups.

Recently, On Pasture ran an excellent article by Dave Pratt aimed at helping graziers apply the right price tag to commercial prescribed grazing services. Dave’s piece outlined a detailed, step-by-step process one should follow to make sure a hypothetical  price will cover all the costs of providing the service and still allow for a meaningful […]

When we first watched this video, it made us laugh, and it was headed for the On Pasture “Funnies” category. But then we visited the Vital Farms website to learn more and decided this is serious business. You know, it and we know it: cage free and free range eggs aren’t all they’re cracked up […]

Whether selling a crop, an animal, or competing for a job or pasture lease, selling is part of our success. Here’s how to become more comfortable doing it.

Note from Kathy: I get this question a lot from folks who’d like to make money running livestock to manage vegetation. What they’re hoping I’ll give them is a solid dollar figure per animal. But it’s not so easy. Here, Dave Pratt tells you how to figure the right dollar figure for your business. There […]

Tracking down what your state’s poultry processing laws can be frustrating. So we knew that you’d like to see this map and chart from the Farmer to Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Just click on the map below and you’ll head over to their site. You can mouse-over your state to see what the processing limits […]

One of our On Pasture readers sent us this question: I would like to know what size I should be buying cows in order to grass finish before slaughter. I know grass fed beef is different than grain fed beef. Can you help? Since John Marble frequents sale barns for some of the stock on […]

When times get tough, the tough start…thinking differently. Kit shares some things to keep in mind when building a new cattle business or keeping your current operation profitable.

Best beef cuts for warm weather marketing.

There has been quite a price change in the livestock world in the last two years. There has never been a time in recent history that cattle prices crashed as quickly as they did in the fall of 2015. Historically high prices were being paid for anything that looked like a cow. The new normal […]

  Miscommunication is at the root of so many problems, including working successfully with meat processors. That’s why our friends at National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT/ATTRA) put together this fact sheet by Agriculture Specialist Linda Coffey. It covers things you can do to communicate better with your processor to solve the problems that so […]

It’s an interesting question. Jim has some thoughts. What do you think? How would your life change?

You’ve gone to great effort to raise a nice set of finished lambs and have them processed. Now what? It’s great if you can sell them all as wholes or halves. But maybe you can’t. How do you go about pricing individual cuts for profit? What is the smallest lamb that you should have in […]

Twelve years ago our farm converted a modest 8ft x 10ft garden shed into a self-serve farm store for the purpose of selling our pasture-raised eggs and meat products. To our amazement, since its launch this self-serve store model has sold nearly one and a half million in total sales. In 2014 we reached an […]

Doug read last week’s piece on the price of eggs and sent us these great thoughts on it. Figuring out how to price your product is not easy. We hope this exchange sparks more great conversation and helps you with that problem. What struck me when I read last week’s article “Charge More For Your […]