Be the driver of your destiny not a passenger.

     Recently I listened to a podcast that featured Mike Green an investment Guru who has very interesting insights into markets and investing. Search for him on Excess Returns on YouTube. While I certainly don't agree on some things, I agree on his premise. During this nearly hour long discussion he talks about investing. 

"What's this got to do with milk, beef, pork, or wheat JR?' you might be wondering. 

I'm glad you asked. 

Mike stated that most people just invest with their work investing up to what their employer matches in their 401K. He said they really aren't investing or "participating" in the market. It's basically a subscription, a moment of duty that you forget and trust someone else to handle the details. For the boomer generation this worked out well. They were feeding the stock market, and they were consuming the goods that drove company profits.  Now as they age and die healthcare is becoming the largest sector they support. Those left with the subscription like company matching 401K are going to see more negative returns across a broad range of industries as money is not only withdrawn to pay for end of life care but also the steady flow of weekly paychecks into the stock market is already continuing to decline. This reduces the metrics of measurements, and the algorithms continue to conglomerate into only the most worthy of companies. Hence this is why you see the typical Vanguard or Russel index being a breakeven to negative return this year. 

 

Again "what's this got to do with food?"

Well not to much, other than the principle of it. If you are regularly buying from us you have already become an "active" participant in the food system. You are unlike the majority of Americans who just go to the box store and fill the cart with dopamine hits and excess. You have actively decided that you will be involved in your food choices instead of being told what they will be.

Thank you! Like any and all activity this is going to be hard at first. 

It takes time.

It isn't convenient. 

It is more costly on the front end but far more value on the back side.

It is far more rewarding as a producer/farmer than industrial Ag production but it is a bit more nerve racking.

We are trying very hard to be very intentional and very active farming this year. We have some unique ideas on cropping plans that will be far different than most of AG. We finally have loggers here clearing the pastures of all the down trees and other trees which needed harvesting so we could improve our pastures, our fences and our feed options for all the animals on the farm. We are building grain storage back so we can better feed our animals and begin selling wheat berries, flour, and some other unique things directly to you, our faithful customers. 

Our pig pastures are going to be more secure (hopefully) and we are going to have a much larger offering of pork. 

We are looking at adding chickens as money allows. First meat birds and then egg layers. 

We have lofty goals this year. One of them was to improve our website. We are very grateful for the man who hosted our original website. Due to personal reasons he decided to end that side of his business after the first of the year. The old site served it purpose but we were finding some of it's limits and we know the issues many of our customers would have. Hopefully this site will run much more smoothly. We are of course still working out some kinks but we have found it very exciting. 

We are also going to be intentional about our goals. We have been at this for 18 months now. While its been a valuable time to learn and grow it is now time to push to a new sales level. We really need to more than double our sales of milk while adding our meat sales. We need to do this for two reasons.

1. Then I can be home full time and not do my side gig. Kristy works very hard and I would like her to have some time to be a grandma especially since we are expecting 2 more grandkids around the end of March. She is needed elsewhere besides bottling milk, cream separating and managing this business. 
2.  Then we can be profitable enough to continue to supply you long term with quality food. Your active decision to buy quality food must have a willing seller.

I say this because I think our greatest resource is you, our customer. If you could like and share our FB page, make a comment or simply tell a friend that would be so much help. 

We  have big dreams, big dreams to serve our neighbors, customers, and friends quality food and to be good stewards of our finances. We do not take government subsidies of any kind nor do we get the benefit of any farm commodity groups advertising, We have you and that is better than anything else. 

Be watching this page. We will have more updates soon about field days and other information you can use to make healthy active decisions. Also, we have resisted emailing our customers, but after talking with many other producers who speak of how much it improved their business you will begin to see more of those from us. We don't want to annoy you but we do want to be able to share things with those especially who are buying from us. Don't think of your health or food choices as another monthly subscription you sign up for and forget or your 401K contribution at work. Be active in your food choices, Be active for your family and for your local farmer.  All of this builds resiliency in our food community and insulates us all from future scarcity. One other way to follow what we are doing is on X.  @Jrcowfarmer or search for Jr Burdick. I do a little morning video it's largely for other farmers who are looking into direct marketing but you might enjoy it.

Thanks again for reading this. 

JR Burdick