Anybody out there with Certified Organic Beef?

[sjr725]

We've been doing alot of research and homework with regard to getting our herd Certified Organic? Just looking for an edge in the market - wondering if anyone has any personal experience with this? We do have a real good fairly close market for organic feed grains and we've never used much in the way of chemical fertilizer on our hay so we're just at the point of fine tuning the pencil to see what works.
thanks!

 

[andybob]

Sorry, no organic experience but this link might be of interest;
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=69162

 

[OK Jeanne]

Take a look at some of the farms/ranches listed as
producers on http://www.eatwild.com. Some of them are
organic and have their own websites with prices,etc

 

[Bluestem]

We've been working in that direction for some time. Here is a good site. http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/live ... rkbook.pdf
More than likely your not as close as you think. Right now the pencil work does not work. Mainly caused by the added paper work and fees. But as competition builds for pastured/natural ect. it will be the next step. And I plan on being ready.

 

[Aero]

from everything i have read, natural is an attainable goal with a decent market. organic seems to be a very specialized field where the consumer doesnt understand how much expense goes into being certified organic. natural seems to make a lot more sense to me.

 

[Bez>]

we've never used much in the way of chemical fertilizer on our hay so we're just at the point of fine tuning the pencil to see what works.
thanks!

You need to do a lot of research - this comment above tells me you are a minimum of three years from organic - starting today.

Using ANY chem fertilizer removes you from the organic list automatically.

If you get there you will sped a lot of buckolas - but you can make it back over time.

You need to contact your nearest organic group for the definitive.

Good luck - tough row to hoe with reasonable returns - and remember - you need to develop your market - the market will not necessarily come to you.

Regards,

Bez>

 

[sjr725]

Thanks for the responses. We realize the first step is getting our alfalfa to meet the organic standards and that we will be a few years away yet. Just something that we've been considering. We already keep back a dozen or so steers every year and feed them out for slaughter and I've just sold them "word of mouth" as "Natural" meaning no hormone implants etc. and I don't feed medicated feed so they don't get any anitbiotics unless of course they get sick and need medical attention. I think alot of folks are worried about the long term affects of those things and having beef that has not had hormones, steroids and antibiotics is important to them. Seems like every year I get asked by more people that want to buy that kind of meat - So, we're just investigating the feasability of going that direction. Thanks again.