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Pennsylvania hog producer
Barbara Wiand, who received a SARE grant to explore new ways
to market pork, graced the cover of Successful Farming magazine
as one of 10 “positive thinkers.”
Photo courtesy of Successful Farming |
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While meat producers once sold products
directly to customers, the modern feedlot-to-wholesale system sends
most meat to the grocery store case. Recently, however, a surge of interest
has renewed direct farmer-to-customer meat sales. While selling meat
directly offers farmers and ranchers a chance to retain a greater profit
share, finding a reliable, small-scale processor who meets federal and
state food safety regulations may be difficult.
Meat producers will likely find few
slaughterhouses that accept small quantities. A number of innovative
pork producers are managing to bridge the gap by forging contracts with
small slaughterhouses, pooling hogs or taking advantage of new mobile
“processors on wheels” funded by programs like SARE.
Niche Marketing
Hog producers can develop niche markets
for their pork by emphasizing the animal welfare benefits or environmentally
friendly aspects of their systems.
A survey of Colorado, Utah and New
Mexico grocery shoppers determined that many – especially high-income
frequent pork consumers and those concerned about growth hormones and
antibiotic use – are willing to pay a premium. “These target consumers
are very concerned about the production practices utilized by the producers,”
writes Jennifer Grannis and Dawn Thilmany of Colorado State University,
who surveyed 2,200 shoppers and analyzed 1,400 responses in 1999. “A
highly visible and descriptive label that highlights production practices
must be part of the packaging.”
Research funded by the Leopold Center
at Ames, Iowa, found that consumers would pay nearly $1 more for a package
of pork chops labeled as produced under an environmentally friendly
alternative system. (The study defined the “most environmentally raised
pork product” as being produced in a way that results in 80 to 90 percent
odor abatement and 40 to 50 percent reduction in surface water pollution.)
The study by ISU economics professor James Kliebenstein surveyed randomly
selected consumers in four diverse market areas. Of those, 62 percent
said they would pay a premium for pork raised with such a guarantee.
“As the industry develops methods that
help sustain or improve the environment, a segment of society will support
a market for such products,” Kliebenstein said.
To gauge potential for pasture-raised
pork in Arkansas, the Arkansas Land and Farm Development Corporation
(ALFDC) worked with the University of Arkansas, partly funded by SARE,
to conduct market research into consumer perceptions and preferences.
Almost 70 percent of respondents to
a 1998 questionnaire sent to 1,200 consumers and 42 supermarkets and
restaurants in the Delta region indicated a preference for “environmentally
friendly” pork products over conventional. More than 73 percent identified
pasture-raised pork as natural and healthy, and 65 percent of retailers
preferred to sell local, organically grown meat if available at premium
prices.
After perfecting his rotational grazing
system, LaGrange, Ind., hog producer Greg Gunthorp turned to marketing.
“I spend more time marketing than I do farming,” he said.
Meeting and getting to know the chefs
at the best restaurants in Chicago is a major focus, and Gunthorp travels
more than 100 miles to the city at least once a week to talk with them
in their kitchens. Once the chefs have tasted his product, Gunthorp
has little trouble getting orders. He also sells pork at a popular Chicago
farmers market, where he simultaneously promotes his burgeoning catering
business, which has ranged from wedding receptions to company picnics
to family barbecues.
It costs Gunthorp an average of 30
cents per pound to raise a hog to maturity. The lowest price he now
gets for his pork is $2 per pound, although he commands as much as $7
per pound for suckling pigs – which weigh in at 25 pounds or less. Overall,
Gunthorp’s prices average 10 times what hogs fetch on the commodities
market.
The bottom line for Gunthorp is making
enough money to keep his family healthy and happy. “We can get by just
selling 1,000 pigs a year, and the smarter I can raise them and sell
them, the better off we’ll be,” he said.
Direct marketing drives the Hayes’
operation in Warnerville, N.Y. Sap Bush Hollow Farm markets a variety
of meat directly to about 400 consumers in New York, Massachusetts,
Connecticut and Vermont. They sell a lot of poultry and beef and about
40 pigs each year.
They sell in bulk and as retail cuts
– to restaurants, stores and directly from their home – to eliminate
distribution costs. Adele Hayes uses newsletters, postcards and even
phone calls to inform customers of sale days and products available.
“The demand is incredible for field-raised,
naturally raised pork,” she said. “The taste, according to us and our
customers, is far superior, as well as the texture.”
In the New England climate, the Hayeses
send the pigs outside to graze throughout the summer, then keep them
in a barn equipped with deep bedding during the cold months.
Even when it’s cold, the pigs get access
to the outdoors and help advance the Hayes’ composting process by rooting
through vegetative material.
The couple uses two federally inspected
slaughterhouses, although, for the Hayeses, like many other small meat
producers in the Northeast, the decreasing number of slaughterhouses
remains challenging. “Our biggest problem continues to be reliable slaughter
and processing in a timely fashion for our customers,” Hayes said.
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