Inflation has been a major topic in the news and the pain has been felt at the gas pumps.
Unfortunately, our farm has not been immune to rising costs.
To compound the impact of inflation, our sales were down about 20% in 2021 from the highs of 2020 when grocery shelves were empty. Thanks to you, 2021 sales were still higher than 2019!
Here are some highlights of the impact of inflation on our farm ...
Cattle
The price of hay to feed our cattle this past winter increased 25% and we expect more increases this coming year because the cost of fertilizer and minerals is increasing.
Our actual cash out increased 50% - part was due to an increase to the size of our herd because harvest appointments were hard to get in 2020 and part was because we made the bad decision to breed some of the cows because it takes 3 years to raise beef from conception to harvest and we wanted to make sure that food was available to our community.
To give you some numbers for perspective, we spent $30,160 for hay in 2021 and $20,035 in 2020.
Feed for Poultry
Feed costs for the birds have increased over 30%.
Currently, we spend over $2,000 per month for poultry feed and buy in bulk to save over the cost of buying bags.
Each delivery of poultry feed has more expensive than the previous one.
Other Costs
Harvest & processing costs, the fuel to haul the cattle to harvest, and electricity to store the meat on farm have all increased.
Our market attendance fee increased 15% last year and increased over 10% on top of that this year.
Fuel prices are rising so our cost to transport feed, attend market, and provide home delivery have all increased.
Interest rates are rising, lumber for repairs & maintenance, parts for tractors and equipment are hard to obtain and increasing in price.
So What can YOU Do?
Let's talk. Think about your food budget plans so we can plan to have the food you need and come up with creative ways that we both can benefit.
Consider buying a freezer so you can stock up when we need space or are overstocked. The savings from buying a 1/4 or 1/2 beef offsets most or all of the cost of the chest freezer to store it.
Get together with friends, neighbors, and family to buy in bulk. You save, we get storage space and precious cash to pay our farm expenses.
Thank you so much for your ongoing support!