New Market for Farmers

 “When I sold beef for 20 cents higher in 1969 than it’s going for the current market price today, the small rancher who’s doing the excellent job with the product that the public has never wanted more than right now, we need to get to the public directly.”

Those are the words of BSU Farm professor David Wells who is also a former farmer and still is a rancher. He gives financial planning, marketing and business strategies advice to Idaho farmers free of charge. His number will be presented at the end of this report. Wells says that there is a new market available to producers.

(Wells) “Farmer’s markets have been around for a while but this is a new way to try to use our technology to let the good guys be seen. So we’re trying to pull some of that together and I’m speaking of the good guys as family farms, family producers, not factory producers. Our Idaho farmer are some of the most creative producers in the country and I mean that from facts and history. The real market today is in meeting consumers directly where they know where the food comes from, where they can keep the faith that the food is not only wholesome but it’s the best food that they can buy. It’s not only just grown here but they know the people that produce it. I think that I have a wonderful opportunity to be a facilitator between both.”

If you’d like to hear more or get some help from Professor Wells, he’ll be glad to take your call. (208) 562-2019. More on Farm to Market tomorrow.