I can answer this question in just two words
GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES
People don't realize just how much money the large factory farms and food processing plants receive from the government. Many of these companies receive tens of thousands if not millions of dollars from your tax dollars. Do your own research, if you don't believe me.
Small, local farms receive none of this money, so we have to be more efficient, and hold expenses down as much as possible. This is very difficult, with high inflation, feed costs, and basic expenses of running a farm. Most farmer's do not take a paycheck, the animals/farm gets it all.
Proof of what I'm saying is all in our 2022 numbers
Average purchase price per item sold was $7.23
Average expense to produce each item $7.87
This means we lost $0.64 on every item sold.
These figures do not include wages for the man hours needed to keep the farm running which is generally between 8 to 12 hours per day in animal care and making product seven days a week. That also means many of your small farmers get no vacation or time away from the farm. The reality here on our farm is that I have not had a day off since January of 2018 when I had to have back surgery, and had to be down for an extended period of time for recovery.
I'm sure your asking, if you loose money and have no time off then why do you farm. The simple answer is we love the lifestyle. I have found that after working from home while raising three children (two of which are on the autism spectrum), I can no longer work in a traditional job as I cannot work well with others. I have found I work much better with animals. It's relatively calming most days, and the work keeps me physically active and fit as I get older.
Here at the farm we have not raised prices in three years. We prefer to keep our prices affordable, and meet expenses by selling in volume. For this though, we need the help of the general public. We sell only direct to your family, not through stores. We have had our products in stores in the past and that situation did not work well. Due to the fact that our locally produced products were priced higher than the items produced by the corporations, it was found that most shoppers choose their products by price, instead of supporting local businesses or choosing quality/freshness over price.
To make it easier for people to access our products we offer two weekly local drop points. The first is on Monday's at 1pm in Sagle at the corner of Highway 95 and Bottle Bay Rd. The second is on Wednesday's in Sandpoint at 12pm at Farmin Park on Oak St. between 3rd and 4th Streets. Other pickup points could be arranged if there are enough people to make the trip financially feasible. We also have the farm store located at 8710 Bottle Bay Rd in Sagle.
If you would like more information about our products please feel free to contact us at any time. We have several forms scatter throughout our website or you can email or text me from the website.
Happy Goats Make Happy Milk