Guest guest Posted January 4, 2008 Report Share Posted January 4, 2008 Dear Kathy, Well Said!! From Wickert A Happy and appreciative consumer who grew up on a farm and knows the work all farmers put into providing food for the rest of us. Blessing on your day. > Afraid that I have to take personal offense at that comment about rape. > > > > Being the one who has to handle the animals 365 days a year, get out in ice > and sleet and 100 degree weather, and provide a healthful, basic staff of > life product I think that any farmer that can feel justified with his price > for his labors should not be compared to a rapist. > > > > When people happily pay $10-15 a gallon for water in little plastic jugs, > spend $7-10 for a movie where actors are paid millions for their work, and > $7 a tub for lipstick, making even a squeak about what a farmer charges for > milk is totally offensive. If you are getting your milk for $2 a gal, > realize that it is a blessing. The farmer is selling you retail for a > wholesale price, a price which new farmers cannot sustain. > > > > Face it, when we look at the cost of land, insurance, cattle, labor, and > infrastructure, and gee, even gas, a new farmer, one who has not inherited > the land and or farm is simply not going to be able to start up at that > price. You are paying 25 cents a pound for your milk. Less than you would > pay for flour. Shoot, at $2 a gal maybe it would behoove me to shut down > and just buy it from that farmer. $2 a gal is less than ½ what “store milk” > runs. > > > > I am not out to try and get rich on providing milk, but to be honest, I > could be providing a much better income by going out and getting a job. What > I get for my efforts, though, is a great deal of intangible satisfaction, > much of which is simply in creating an environment for my children and > community. > > > > How much would someone have to pay you to go out when it is 40 degrees and > raining and spend a couple hours milking? That is more of a true measure of > the worth of the milk. We just had a doctor visit where the office visit was > $172, no tests, for ½ hour. Is that rape? What about the costs for shampoo? > I guess I am just real prickly now, but I see so many people not think twice > about buying what I can neither afford nor feel is a need, then complain > about the costs of good food. > > > > > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 5, 2008 Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 Thanks, Stacey... it is nice to be appreciated. Last fall I raised the price from $6.50 to $7, and eggs from $2 to $2.50, due to price of feed, and even then it's only a little over the price of hay, grain, straw, kelp and other minerals. I'm just a very small dairy farmer (10 run-down acres, 1 cow and 12 goats, all handmilked) and must buy EVERYthing. For me to actually make a decent living I would have to double the price..., or get more animals, but as I do everything alone, more animals are out. Except for a few very-quiet-about-it Amish, I'm the only raw-milk dairy farmer within a 80-mile radius, that I know about anyway. Yet, the 50 cent increase generated several squawks. One customer (with four horses... talk about money burners) darkly intimated, " I don't know if I can afford to buy anymore at that price....I should get my OWN cow! " My response: " Fine, I understand... hope you can find one. Took me nearly a year and over $1000 to find the not-so-great one I bought, who still costs me $200+ a month to feed. And don't forget... they have to be milked twice a day, everyday, no vacations. " She's still buying milk and no longer says anything. I haven't left the farm for more than 8 hours in four years. But I do have a few excellent customers... they not only readily agreed to the new price but even offered to band together to do chores for a week... driving 40 miles one way... so I can take a real vacation. Customers like that keep me going. Really!! Thank-you to all you farmers, long hours, government regulation and everything else you do to provide raw milk to consumers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 5, 2008 Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 ,If you're just barely making what you're spending, then you need to raise your prices some more so you can also pay yourself and make some profit.I pay $6.89 for a gal of milk and $3.59 for a dz eggs and I think those are great prices. I think small farmers in general forget to add in their own labor into the price of their product. Every farmer I know under estimates the cost of their labor. Most don't understand that idea that what they are doing is a business. I'm not saying you should make the profit of Exxon, but think of yourselves and your families. Being in the industry that you're in, you may never be rich (unless the lottery strikes) but you should be financially comfortable. There is a huge market for raw milk/dairy products and organic foods. The market demand is large enough to insure that you can and should make a profit.Right now I make soap and body products. When I price the products I figure out the cost of the entire batch, including my labor on an hourly basis. then I break that down by the bar, bottle or jar. After that I add in profit. If I could not make a profit for my knowledge, my product, my time, then I wouldn't produce the product for anyone other than my family.Also if you think about it in other ways, you're also doing a service for these people. You're helping to give them better health. You supply a product that will improve there health. Where big pharm and big ag is destroying their health and getting rich in the process. Take the med Plavix for example. it cost over $400 for a 30 day supply of Plavix which works no better at thinning the blood and stopping platlets from sticking together than a simple baby aspirin which costs $2 for a $30 day supply. The reason I bring up this drug and the raw dairy is I recently had to have triple by pass because of a genetic heart disease that I had been suffering from for 20 yrs and we never knew I had. My cardiologist told my family if it hadn't been for my healthy lifestyle (organic foods, raw milk, no meds, no chemicals, etc...) that I would have died many yrs ago. My cardiologist has agreed to let me treat my condition the way I see fit (with herbs instead of meds. he agrees most meds don't work). He also agrees and says he doesn't know how it works or why it works but he knows that raw milk and dairy will help the healing of my heart. So in my life right now, raw milk is one of my meds I can't and won't do without.Just something else to think about before you go selling yourself short.Terri in SC 's Goatmilk wrote: Thanks, Stacey... it is nice to be appreciated. Last fall I raised the price from $6.50 to $7, and eggs from $2 to $2.50, due to price of feed, and even then it's only a little over the price of hay, grain, straw, kelp and other minerals. I'm just a very small dairy farmer (10 run-down acres, 1 cow and 12 goats, all handmilked) and must buy EVERYthing. For me to actually make a decent living I would have to double the price..., or get more animals, but as I do everything alone, more animals are out.Except for a few very-quiet-about-it Amish, I'm the only raw-milk dairy farmer within a 80-mile radius, that I know about anyway. Yet, the 50 cent increase generated several squawks. One customer (with four horses... talk about money burners) darkly intimated, "I don't know if I can afford to buy anymore at that price....I should get my OWN cow!"My response: "Fine, I understand... hope you can find one. Took me nearly a year and over $1000 to find the not-so-great one I bought, who still costs me $200+ a month to feed. And don't forget... they have to be milked twice a day, everyday, no vacations." She's still buying milk and no longer says anything.I haven't left the farm for more than 8 hours in four years. But I do have a few excellent customers... they not only readily agreed to the new price but even offered to band together to do chores for a week... driving 40 miles one way... so I can take a real vacation.Customers like that keep me going.Really!! Thank-you to all you farmers, long hours, government regulation andeverything else you do to provide raw milk to consumersPLEASE BE KIND AND TRIM YOUR POSTS WHEN REPLYING!Visit our Raw Dairy Files for a wealth of information!http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RawDairy/files/Archive search: http://onibasu.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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