I've told myself for the last three years that if I just had enough pig production that I'd make it to the farmers market to sell cuts of pork and other farm products, but every year I've managed to sell everything I produce right at the farm gate, which has been good for me. Farmers markets are a good way to expand your market, but for me they take a good two workdays and I'd actually rather be at the farm doing stuff there than sitting at a booth; no offense to folks who do that. It's not really economic to pay someone to man the booth at this point, but maybe next year (says he; the third time i've said that)
this last year I bulked up to 4 boars and 40 sows, producing approximately 800 weaners a year, and so far I've sold all of the spring pigs and have a waiting list, I've sold approximately 300 weaners. At this rate I'm going to have to decline sales so that I have some finished pigs to sell this fall.
I've also been supplying local feed stores with weaner pigs at a discount, to see how that market is. It's a bit different; I drop off 10 or 20 weaners, and then come back in a week and see how many sold; they pay me for the ones that sold, and I drop off more. This is an experiment, and I'm not sure how it'll go, but it's a reasonable bet that the fellow running the store will be around, and most of the deals I've done are on a handshake, so I'll take the risk.
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For farmers market sales, add at least another full working day for transporting the livestock to a USDA plant, and then bringing home the cuts when the meat is ready. That doesn't even count the freezer space for inventory and the electricity to keep it all frozen until it is sold.
I just picked up my two weaners at the feedstore, and I had to order in advance, and they still had a waiting list... $85.00 in the Portland area.
Good to know a handshake still works for some folk.
Cheers!
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