Farmers wishing to capitalize on the trend of increased consumption of white meat can consider raising chickens. But for many, a conventional commercial chicken operation’s high capital investment, large scale, and limited market access are unsuitable. Enter the pastured poultry model, where growing chickens are kept in large, floorless pens that are moved across pasture to [...] [...more]

You can find shelves filled with organic produce at natural foods stores and increasingly at supermarkets as well. Who supplies this organic produce? Does it all come from California or is some of it from regional and local farmers? What are the possibilities for farmers who wish to sell to retail markets? With support from Cooperative [...] [...more]

The 1993 study helped us see the potentials for marketing cooperatives, and the decisions CROPP has made since then are instructive for anyone interested in that topic. — Steve Stevenson Formed in 1988 by a handful of organic farmers, the Coulee Region Organic Produce Pool (CROPP) in LaFarge, Wisconsin, shares a philosophy of collective action and [...] [...more]

Video and satellite auctions provide a number of marketing advantages to cattle producers who live long distances from markets or feeding areas. A five-year research and demonstration project at the UW-Madison Hayward Agricultural Research Station evaluated a number of methods for marketing beef cattle. “Marketing livestock in farming areas like northern Wisconsin requires a lot of planning [...] [...more]