Cattle - Raising Small Animals - page 492

A small-scale beginner who does not have enough products to sell to justify the time spent at
a farmers market could find a vendor there to sell your beef for you, said A. Lee Meyer, an
extension professor for sustainable agriculture of the University of Kentucky Department of
Agricultural Economics. This partnership could work because the vendor will have another
product to offer customers, and you will benefit from an experienced seller's skills.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs)
Community Supported Agriculture is a system in which community members pay for
“shares” of the food a farmer is expected to produce in the upcoming year. The money paid
for these shares covers the cost of the farming expenses up front and allows farmers to do
much of their marketing work during slow times of year. It ensures that shareholders get first
choice of the types of food they want. For beef or dairy products, these shareholders may be
buying a stake in a particular animal. The downside to this for customers is that they also
share in the risks associated with farming, so if something goes wrong, such as the death of
their animal, they may feel like they did not get their money's worth.
The concept of beef pooling, a variation on CSAs, has also been catching on. Beef pooling ,
also called “cow pooling,” is another shareholder system in which one customer is in charge
of coordinating orders for a group of people who buy in bulk. This person is the go-between
for customers and producers, and it is his or her job to make sure all the customers in the pool
get what they want. The beef pool coordinator can either ask everyone what cuts they want or
take the initiative to divvy everything up so that everyone gets a relatively equal share. These
pools also ensure that producers have an outlet for selling their meat.
Milk shares
Milk shares , also called herd shares, is an arrangement that allows people to buy raw milk in
some states. (These shares are explicitly illegal in other states; you will have to check with
state agriculture officials.) The terms of these shares can vary by farm and could depend on
the laws in your state. Often, customers pay a one-time fee for a share and pay farmers a
monthly boarding fee for the animal they own a share in. Customers also often pay a deposit
on the bottles that hold their milk. Herd shares entitle the owners to a set amount of milk, such
as 1 gallon per week for the months cows are milked. Milk usually has to be picked up at the
farm; sometimes it can be picked up at a prearranged off-farm site. Sometimes, one person
can pick up milk for a group of shareholders. Some farmers will buy back shares from cus-