tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1842136564899097734.post2066427558350753460..comments2023-12-15T02:04:08.213-08:00Comments on meat: Profitable farming: Sausage scheme (continued)Bruce Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10995706761794063165noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1842136564899097734.post-20392348071577313692012-04-21T10:45:42.787-07:002012-04-21T10:45:42.787-07:00We sell pigs/pork in North East Ohio. Although we&...We sell pigs/pork in North East Ohio. Although we'd like to sell whole/half hogs, at a smaller profit, we've found very few people in our mostly rural area that are interested. So, instead we sell individual cuts and sausages..etc.<br /><br />The problem that arises is we slaughter 2-4 hogs at a time. It may takes 3-6 weeks to sell that much meat (for us at least). So that ends up taking a lot of storage space. If you were a larger operation, killing 10-20 hogs at a time (or however many it takes to sell out in 3-6 weeks) you'd need correspondingly more freezer space.<br /><br />Also, certain cuts don't sell as well as others, but that appears to be seasonal. For example, hams are popular around Turkey-Day, Christmas, Easter, but don't sell at all in the summer. Italian sausages/brats sell well in the summer, but not as well in the winter...etc.<br /><br />Basically what I'm trying to say is, when you start selling cuts/parts, you may make a bit more money per pound, but you gain a whole host of new issues that you may not have had before.<br /><br />Additionally, and this might not be a problem for you, finding a USDA inspected smoke-house was quite difficult for us and the only one we were able to find is a 2 hour drive away. So, we can either use our local smoke-house and our customers have to basically buy the meat from the smoke-house, or we have to have 2 4 hour trips to get smoked meat that we can sell at our farm.CShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09554223135603226803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1842136564899097734.post-63721953776195025132012-04-17T06:05:15.162-07:002012-04-17T06:05:15.162-07:00One last idea and I will shut up. This will work i...One last idea and I will shut up. This will work if you make sausage or stay with selling half or whole hogs.<br /><br />Print you up a mailer and send it to all the local churchs. In the mailer tell the chucrh they will get a xx% discount for buying a hog from you. Also say in the mailer that if they are nice enough to put it on their church message board you will give that same discount to any member that buys a hog or if that member chooses you will make a donation to the churches building fund. (all churchs have some kind of building fund going on)<br /><br />With just a few mailers you can market to a large amount of people this way. Plus you have given them a reason to buy from you instead of someone else. The "word of mounth" among the members is priceless. This is a spin on a way car sales use to be done.Kelly Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00092465009031810475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1842136564899097734.post-36676746606430471872012-04-16T21:28:45.567-07:002012-04-16T21:28:45.567-07:00Ok. So I may be looking at this the wrong way but ...Ok. So I may be looking at this the wrong way but this is what jumps out at me. <br /><br />You want to make more profit. To do that your thinking more cost for processing and more work on your end. Now if you end up with 95 pounds of sausage then if you put it in 2# packs you have to deal with 47 sales/customers. <br /><br />All your hogs are being sold. The problem is that customers are calling the meat processors and not you. They are getting 30% more profit for answering the phone. Figure out how to get them to call you first and you take back that 30%.<br /><br />Currently you are supplying those meat processors because they have to deal with the customer and it frees up your time to work on the farm. If you make sausage wont you have to deal with even more customers and lose a lot of time making and selling the sausage?<br /><br />Last thought. Instead of hiring someone to work on the farm so you have more time to market your hogs you could hire someone to market your hogs and give you more time to work on the farm.Kelly Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00092465009031810475noreply@blogger.com