You are somehow suggesting that I do not support farmers moving toward
controlling the marketing of their product. I am NOT suggesting this and
have bent over backwards to point out that we market a part of our small
production of produce and some beef. Wisconsin was one of the hotbeds of
cooperative formation over 100 years ago.
But processing and marketing is not farming! If you folks can not
comprehend this basic fact, then we will have to agree to disagree. But
I can guarantee that if I asked any of my neighbors if marketing their
products was farming, the answer would be a resounding ... definitely
not! They often belong to a coop to market their milk or other products
but they don't get all that involved.
As an example, one of my friends from way back was a major cranberry
marsh owner and they marketed their cranberries through Ocean Spray
which is one of the major cooperatives here in the U.S. that sells
cranberry products. Most people don't even know that it is a farm
cooperative and I enjoy pointing this out any time I can and thus far no
one has known it. Having said that, there have been some rather drastic
problems in the cranberry business (extreme overproduction) and the coop
attempted to limit acceptance of the product. This then lead some
farmers to form a new cooperative venture and drop out of Ocean Spray
because they did not want limitations on their production. Yes, this is
a very risky venture considering the economics. The consumer has
benefitted well however. The price of cranberry juice in the stores has
barely moved in years.
While a large part of the milk in the U.S. is marketed by coops, and in
some areas only has one buyer and that buyer is a coop, it may or may
not necessarily be processed by a coop. As I have pointed out, there is
risk, and coops have gone out of business since a weak part of the coop
concept is that you have board members (farmers) who may not be very
astute when it comes to running this kind of a business, even though
they may understand agricuture and farming very well. So there can be a
downside. That is why the "privates" are in business and are often
successful when the coops are not. When I have mentioned Jersey cheese
yield pricing, it is primarily privates that have been willing to pay
the fair price for this milk.
There is NOTHING WRONG with anything that Mr. Owen or any other
marketing person is doing as they move away from farming and toward
another business. There is NO CRITICISM at all. You are trying
desperately to make this some kind of argument when none exists!
But don't confuse marketing agricultural products with farming. Farming
is working with the land and producing the raw products while processing
and marketing take that raw product and make it saleable and available
to the public. Without each one, you would have neither but they are
very different activities.
Rick W.
>
>Rick you are unbelievable.
>
>Some US farmers complain about being fleeced by middlemen, but do nothing
>about it. See Brad�s positive comments on things. FW I believe grew
>vegetables and started selling them himself and then sold for others -
>brilliant.
>
>Anyway middlemen are not bad, except in the eyes of those jealous of them.
>Most are very good and provide a service. No one has to buy from them.
>
>In New Zealand most farm products are marketed by farmer co-ops so the
>farmer gets the margins. Most of US has left it too late to do so.
>
>Apple Macintosh, the most positive, advanced and constructive computer
>company there is, has opened its own retail shops to provide a good service.
>
>NZ Kiwifruit growers have growers in Italy growing gold Kiwifruit under
>licence to sell to the EU to keep supply going in our off season so as not
>to lose the market. I could go on.
>
>Rick please try and be positive and add useful solutions. Remember that the
>farmers who farmed what is now New York city would have sold their land and
>moved west. Go west young man. In New Zealand it used to be go north. Now it
>is go south and buy a sheep farm and convert it to dairying.
>
>Have you not heard that there are three definites we can�t do anything about
>- taxes, change and death. If you don�t change you�ll be left behind.
>
>Many New Zealand animal farmers after their farms became too small (without
>decreasing in size), have changed to growing Kiwifruit, avocados, blue
>berries, grapes, etc., and loved it and the easier life and profit. One ex
>dairy farmer, now a blueberry grower, makes blueberry sweets, juice and wine
>and has a restaurant and does tours over the estate and sells them a lunch
>using lots of blueberry recipes. The whole family is being employed.
>
>What FW has done is all good and employed his daughter and she has something
>she can inherit an pass on which is more than can be done with an under-size
>farm.
>
>When consulting I tell farmers to marry their wife and nothing else. Some
>marry their brand of tractor and some their breed on animal. Many in USA
>marry their land which does them more harm than good.
>
>Lastly, 12 years ago the wife of a dairy farmer client on 90 acres of good
>land which we were improving near Matamata in the Waikato, asked over lunch,
>�Will this size farm ever give us a good living?� I replied, �No�. They sold
>at a good price to an expanding neighbour and bought a Kiwifruit farm at Te
>Puke on the coast 2 hours drive away and loved the increased income and the
>coast living with a good future. Many New Zealand animal farmers after
>their farms became too small (without decreasing in size), have changed to
>growing Kiwifruit, avocados, blue berries, grapes, etc., and loved it and
>the easier life and profit. One ex dairy farmer, now a blueberry grower,
>makes blueberry sweets, juice and wine and has a restaurant and does tours
>over the estate and sells them a lunch using lots of blueberry recipes. The
>whole family has been employed.
>
>Some of your countrymen (and women) have told me not to waste my time
>replying to the senseless critics, but some attitudes are common in North
>America so I�m copying some of my replies to my eBook so as to answer
>readers questions before they are asked. So my time is not wasted.
>
>Best wishes,
>
>Vaughan Jones
>Waikato
>Hamilton
>New Zealand
>
>
>
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