beefalo

[plantsnobin]

Hi Patrick-hope classes are going well. Haven't really heard much about the co-op lately. The building looks pretty much completed. Have you seen the ads for jobs they have posted? They had advertised for at least 6 department managers, I assumed that person would be in charge of daily running of their department, but then they had ads last week for clerks, cashiers, assistants, etc. That would make it about 15 people to run a store that is maybe 3000 sq ft. Call me a pessimist, but I don't think they will last a year. Anyway, about this post. How will you have time to care for these animals, or are you talking about long range plans? Some goats will be as hard to keep fenced as a buffalo. There are people locally who have boer goats for sale, but I would suggest you try the meat before you get into it. We have rabbits and chickens, that might be something to think about before you spend a lot of money on stock and fencing/housing. Rabbits don't take up much space, and produce great fertilizer. Chickens can free range for part of the own diet, and will eat lots of bugs, while fertilizing on the go. Both animals can be butchered by you, eliminating the need for expensive processing. As for the goat's milk, keep everything very clean and cool it as soon as possible. Again, there are some local folks with dairy goats you could get some info from. Let me know if you want names.

[flowerpower]

I see that goat meat is getting more popular around here. I have had people stop looking to buy my dairy goats for meat. My neighbor sold a newborn doe for $100 for meat.

[cff]

FP"

The Boer goats we raise are "meat" goats; low fat and taste pretty good. My average selling price last year was $100.00. Some went as high as $150.00 and the lowest was $70.00 for a runt. We don't eat pork so it's a nice addition to our diet.

Recently I attended a registered Boer goat sale were the average selling price was over $400.00 each (show type / breeder stock)

The next registered sale is tomorrow 10/13/07 in Shelby NC, "information @
www.psboers.com

[bluelacedredhead]

Goat Sausage is Great!
Goat Sausage Pizza is even Better!!

[Alan]

Goat sausage sounds.....interesting, and yet strangely appetizing.


Karen, I talked to the produce manager at the co-op today and you won't believe how unprepared they are for this, it's ridiculous, it appears as though I am the only produce vendor that they have bothered talking to locally (everything else is coming through bloomingfoods). Things don't look good, cross our fingers and hope for some leadership that isn't Full of S?

[flowerpower]

CFF, I don't think I know anyone around here who has Boers. Most have Nubians or some type of Alpine. And its not the locals looking for goat meat. Its the weekenders coming up from the city

[plantsnobin]

Alan-I am not surprised that they are not prepared. Frankly, I think the store was a bad idea. We are not a college town like Bloomington, where this could work. Even the Bloomingfoods store is not any larger space than what they are doing here. The number of employees they are advertising for is insane. Good ole' Wilson Roberts ran the Variety store with maybe 2 or 3 cashiers. Anyway, my daughter is kind of taking over my little shop, looks like we are going to add feed and rabbit supplies and be open year round, with maybe a few chicks in the spring, along with the rabbits. I may start raising quail again. Then a bit of produce when the time comes-if you might be interested in some highway frontage selling space for your produce, let me know. We are getting incredible traffic past here, and I think Fridays could be a great selling day for all the boaters going by. Now, if we could just convince my father in law to let us use his big log cabin....

[Alan]

Hey Karen, I would love to sale some stuff over at your place, if nothing else even if I cant be at the stand maybe I can bring it buy and you guys can sell it at your store and we will work out a deal thats good for both of us.

Get with me and we will definetly figure something out.

[bluelacedredhead]

Karen, I think you've hit the nail on the head! Not just in WAshington Cty, IN, but for many of us here that are trying to make a few dollars from our garden.

I took several bushels of winter squash to work with me. I sold a dozen in a 3 week period. Too strange for this area? I'm not quite certain what the problem wash, but when I hadn't sold any for over a week, I decided it was time to bring the rest home.

I could put them out at the end of the laneway with a sign..actually, I probably should do that. What have I got to lose?

The ones that don't sell, we will eat or feed to the livestock....

Much luck to all here who continue to try to sell varieties that are unfamiliar to their friends and neighbours...

[Alan]

As far as being a markett vendor and local farmer with a farmstand I have done terriffic over the past three years, the rarer variteties take a while longer to be able to move, but I have found ways of sampling them to people which seem to promote the varieties to others by word of mouth "wow, I bought a purple tomato from Bishop's Homegrown", statements like that seem to get repeated a lot and I get lot's of business that way, but fishing worms and bedding plants seem to be where it is for me for some reason, however produce is finally closing in and i'm getting a lot of new customers now interested in trying out all the "weird stuff" their friends bought from me and told them about, so I'm happy for that.
-Alan

[bluelacedredhead]

People in rural areas just aren't as easily won over to something that's different from that which they are familiar with.

In this area, I couldn't sell sheep breeds that didn't have black faces. Cows have to red (our old style herefords were a big hit), but our Paint horse colts don't sell any better than a plain brown horse.

I'm having trouble introducing different varieties of squash as well. I took Thelma Sanders, Green Striped Cushaw and Black Futsu to work for 3 weeks. Sold $10 worth.
One brave soul bought three. But most people just asked what they were and worried that they weren't edible or that they wouldn't care for the taste? Now if I'd grown plain old Table Queen or Pie Pumpkins, I'd probably have sold out by now. I'll try again next year, with some added fancies....

[flowerpower]

I got my friends to try some of the different looking tomatoes. Everyone loved Roman Striped and all the smaller types like cherry no matter what color they were. But they were still looking for red beefsteaks.