The Tale Of Two Co-ops
February 7th, 2008 by Northern FarmerYesterday we started butchering steers around for the year. Started off butchering three yesterday, a small start but at least things are starting to get rolling around here now. The biggest surprise for me was how fast the butcher was able to come out here. I weighed the steers yesterday at a co-op nearby with a scale, we weigh them in the trailer, one at a time. In other words for weighing three steers it took me four trips to town with the cattle trailer. One empty weigh and three different times with the steers. But all four times there was no one on the scale grinding feed or anything like that. This is a big named co-op and business ain’t what it used to be. A big outfit from southern Minnesota took it over in what I’d call the shadiest deal in these parts that I’ve ever seen. They strong armed into the deal. Certain people get set for life with all they need to live on, lifetime medical insurance and never have to work a day in their life again. But that’s how the world works. Anything gets sold if there’s something big in it for me! Anyway that’s how the world operates. I don’t operate that way and I hope that I never even get tempted to.
We butcher on the farm and the meat gets processed at a different co-op three miles the other direction than the big named co-op. And talk about a night and day difference between the two. The little local co-op is booming! But I must say, when a person does business there they are folks that an old dirt farmer can trust. So different than the modern business world’s way of doing business. Plus at the small co-op they offer environmentally friendly fertilizers. Called biodynamic, or something like that. And those fertilizers run circles around the regular industrial fertilizers. The farms come alive again, its just amazing. It took a while to catch on, folks were careful, didn’t want to get snookered into something that they didn’t know would work or not. But they work, and much better than industrial fertilizers. They don’t burn the land, they enhance it.
Something stuck in my mind from yesterday’s butchering though. As we were shooting the first steer the small co-op’s manager came driving into the cattle area of the farm, seems like the butcher forgot his meat saw, left it back at the small co-op and the manager noticed it. So like any good manager would do, he told the co-op’s secretary that he had to go out into the country and take the butcher his saw. Get away for a while. So we bled the steer and while waiting for it to kick out, for you folks that have no idea what I’m talking about kicking out is about a five to ten minute time period where the steer is laying there kicking. A nerve thing, and you don’t want to be very close to it or you might end up as a field goal. So us three decided to gander at the other corral, take a look at the cowherd and shoot the breeze. It’s a country thing doing something like this and I don’t think the manager was all that much in a rush to get back to the co-op building.
Yesterday was a beautiful day, sunny out, in the lower twenties and zero wind. We all three stood at the corral, leaning against it looking at the cows, talking, not looking at each other while we talked, just gazing over the cowherd as they were in their lazy afternoon period. They were done eating hours before, now it was cud chewing time. And you know, the strangest thing happened in the conversation. Now, all three of us are farmers, me, the butcher, and the co-op manager. These ain’t some hired big ag bigshots, these are real folks, country folks. We talked cows, drought, and cattle breeding. We talked about all the newer stuff, A.I., embryo transplants and all those other things that cattlemen talk about. We talked about sexed semen for cattle and the success rate of that, the pros and the cons. Then the co-op manager said something that floored me, he said the best farmers farm the way God intended the farm to be farmed! I could hardly believe my ears! No wonder their co-op is taking off, growing a larger and larger farmer base. Because this is the philosophy that they do business by!
I thought about that yesterday evening at church and all day today. The other co-ops are struggling around here and this little co-op is booming. Now I see why, they know that God does the best job and aren’t afraid to say it. They’re switching their fertilizers over to environmentally friendly fertilizers, they have a meat processing business that’s booming, very honest, high integrity in that department. I thought on how blessed we are that this is happening here three miles from home. They’re breaking all the big ag rules and thriving. Yearly dividends are paid out, good ones, while the big ag co-ops always have an excuse on how they are investing our money for our benefit. And we never, ever see our money from the big ag co-ops, just pay their taxes.
I pray that this will happen all around the countryside, not only in our area. This is badly needed, businesses, co-ops and their managers and patrons taking a 180 turn and making the countryside come alive again. In the big ag co-op they had to lay off workers and the remaining workers really don’t have much to do. In the small co-op there are several local folks hired, plus some housewives from that little town of a 115 people, working in the meat processing department. And they’re not working in a factory style environment, they do a good job and have a good time together working and talking to the customers. But the key in this whole post is why they are prospering. They give God the credit! Unlike industrial agriculture where only money is worshiped. There is hope out here and it all starts with God!
February 7th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
When we lived in Kansas the Co-Op/grain elevator in our town was owned by a much bigger company. They sold feed,seed fertilizer but only what they carried and would not order anything in in sizes they didn’t want to carry. You took what they had and that was it. In the next town to the east, a tiny town that wasn’t even really a town ,the Co-Op/grain elevator was owned by a local family. Everybody knew everybodies name. We could get a custom grain mixed exactly how we wanted it. They delt mostly in large orders but had no problem with our tiny one. They even bagged it for us in used feed bags they saved for their smaller customers. Even for our small order the price was right. They were friendly, helpful and always had a cold soda for you when you paid. I miss doing business there!
February 7th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Wow, what a great story!
Wish we could get on-farm butchering here, though I can’t complain too loud because our butcher is only a mile up the road.
February 8th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Patti,
And look how well you remember being treated as a valued customer! What you described is pretty much the scenario we have here.I believe there’s still allot of room in the countryside for businesses like this! Thanks!
SCF,
Funny how around here there’s a meat processing business every few miles and all of them do on the farm butchering. The nearest “butcher” shop is over a half an hour away. But its traditional here to butcher on the farm, plus I can see that it would be allot less expensive to just have a meat processing building without the butcher facility. The butcher that does our on the farm slaughtering, (from the small co-op), has a large truck with its own boom crane to hang the animal in the air and then there’s a stainless steel tub that the halves are put in for the trip back to the co-op. The large tub is really a reworked milk bulk tank.
Thanks! I wouldn’t complain much either if the butcher was only a mile down the road
I hope all is well down there!!
February 8th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
What I liked about that story, is here is a business that wants to be modest in size.
For some inexplicable reason, everytime someones starts a business in this country, they think they have to grow big…bigger…..REALLY BIG! the idea of having a modest size business as an avocation, growing big enough for a nice living, without getting too big, never crosses many people minds. However, in many parts of the world, there are modest size companies that are generations old, and yet stay small, local and managable. Europe, and Japan are full of them. Local bakeries, groceries, farmers, clothing stores, etc. Does everything have to reach the size of Walmart to be a successful business. My wifes place of employment is a good example of what can happen. When she started years ago, at this photo lab, the owner and his few employees had a very good work environment, he treated everybody well, gave bonuses for good work, and sometimes spoiled his employees a little. then, as he got bigger, over the years the quality of the workplace started to decline. He was much more successful, but the bonuses began to get fewer, and farther between. He seemed to care less for his employees, one employee retired after 20 years with him. All she got for her loyalty was a book bag. He dididn’t even show up for her goodbye party. I think he got bored after his business grew to the point where he was just not involved with his customers, and staff like he used to be. I think he would have been better off staying modest in size. He would still enjoy photography, and his long term customers. Now, I just think he’s bored. I bet if he was honest, he wishes he was just a photo store again.
February 9th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Mark,
Your so right about all of this! I don’t know if its so pounded into our heads that we must continually get bigger and bigger to be successful, but it sure does seem to be grown in attitude. We did that for years on the farm also and what I’m doing now is stopping all expansions and taking what we have and make it work much better. Already I see impressive results, and that’s saying allot with multi year disasters around here. We ain’t starving, or even scared that we won’t make it. You got me thinking, if we were still pursuing the “American dream” of continual expansion we’d be in terrible shape, have sleepless nights, worried how to pay for the over expansion and all of that. But now we were able to take these terrible hits and still come out. And when the day ever comes when we have rains again in summer this place is ready to explode in good crops, beautiful gardens, lush pastures. And I’ll sure take it! Another thing, when a person isn’t looking to grow and grow a business or a farm life is so much more content when a person goes out and sees what the day will bring on a good patch of land.
Life on this side of eternity is short, why spend it in the rat race of the modern thinking. One never wins doing that!
Thanks!
February 9th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
i was wondering if you knew anymore about that fertilizer. I just bought a farm and need to get something into the ground. I really do not want to use regular fertilizer but I am stuck on what else to use. I have heard that some are starting to use some sort of chicken fertilizer. Thanks
February 10th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Hey Nathanial!
I do believe that this link is the company that the get their fertilizer from.
http://www.midwesternbioag.com/homepage.html
I’ll be going to the co-op in the next couple of days and find out for sure. If you want in the mean time you can search for bio fertilizers and such on the internet because I don’t know if this company operates out your way. Any help from readers is welcome on this!
Thanks!
February 12th, 2008 at 6:09 am
Thank you for the link! I will look around on the internet and try to see what I can find. Blessings to you and your family.