From tech founder to sustainable farmer

[MoonShadows]

 

[waretrop]

What a splendid woman.....

 

[NH Homesteader]

Ah I hate not being able to watch videos! How much were her turkeys?
Bookmarking for when I have "real" Internet!

 

[NH Homesteader]

For breeding stock? Yeah that's high. We have heritage turkeys. Usually tops $50/piece or $100/pair is what I see. We got ours for free from someone who couldn't take care of them over winter. Narragansetts are a bit more than a lot of the others (which is unfortunate because I really want some!)

 

[Land of Lincoln]

Those are some expensive Turkeys, wow! Those horses she raised looked nice as well. Maybe she'll get into raising some Wagyu cattle for Kobe beef - she seems pretty eccentric but she's got the funds to do it for sure.

 

[Land of Lincoln]

Probably a pretty good return on investment considering she was a co-founder of Cisco Systems and she raised cattle as a youngster to put herself through college. Sounds like she knows what she's doing obviously, good for her.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Wait that's the price of a turkey for eating? That's probably $10/lb give or take... Yikes. I've heard of people getting $7/lb for heritage but wow.

 

[Mini Horses]

Remember that she is in an area where, & knows the people who, can demand & pay those prices. In fact, it can be a "bragging" point. Northern VA is so close to DC and the people there often pay upwards of $8K for a kids trained pony.

SHE seems far more grounded and wanting to have organic, etc., but also the business mind to know it isn't free. Those of us who raise/eat this way on a daily basis often do NOT have those who can afford to support our costs -- making the generation of such income far less achievable. I mean, who will buy 800 turkeys from YOU at that price? LOL Commercially, the costs for inspections and legal issues often prevents us going that scale.

I am happy to sustain self & family. A few sales would/are great! You can get an outlet of several who will buy & repeat. But, I don't see there being a huge market for most of us. Small is good. Supporting costs is really good.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Oh the market here is pretty well cornered so I have no aspirations to try to break into it, lol. I sell to family and friends but never make any money doing so. I don't even make enough to cover the feed costs for my animals. Someday maybe.

 

[Beekissed]

Definitely would need the right market for that....much like Joel Salatin, who mostly markets his overpriced meats and eggs to city folks who will pay just about anything to say they bought it from a local, "sustainable" farming person...they really and truly don't care what their food costs as long as they can brag about how sustainable and wonderfully healthy it all is...and, of course, you get what you pay for, in their minds, so if it's costly, they will buy it. Gotta live close to cities where the wealthy folks like that live in order to get those prices for your livestock.

The fact of the matter is, rich folk like to buy from other rich folk...they feel like their product is just superior to that product offered~exactly the same quality~from less lucrative setups. It's a weird way of thinking, but once a person can wrap their minds around it, they can usually exploit that and make some huge bucks.