FARM TO CONSUMER

Otago Witness, Issue 3488, 18 January 1921, Page 13

FARM TO CONSUMER

SHORTENING THE ROUTE. Some farmers only crop the land, as in grain farming and orcharding (states a writer in the Scientific American); a greater number both crop the land and raise live stock, utilising the feed produced; a very small number crop the land, turn the crops into live stock products, and then process the live stock products for consumption by the consumer. Are economic conditions such in America at present that there is an opportunity for the farm which is a complete factory turning out a finished consumer product? This is a debatable but important question. Certainly such practice cannot become general in ail branches of farming at present, since it would involve the milling of grain, the packing of meats, and the cooking and canning of fruits and vegetables on a scale which only a ridiculous minority of our growers could possibly contemplate. Even so, however, the dairy industry and the associations of fruitgrowers which have sprung up in various parts of the country show a tendency to undertake just this task on a co-operative scale; .and here and there we find cases where the individual farmer is going in for a complete handling of his product. One 30G,€0Qdol farm enterprise in the north-west is predicated on a belief that the time is opportune for a type of large farm which performs every step, except retailing, in the production and distribution of such staples as butter, eggs, and all kinds of meats. This is a property of 2500 acres, intensively developed for the past 10 years. It has a poultry plant which at times has held as many as 4CKX) head. The intention is to standardise at 8000 head. Dairy barn facilities are for 200 head of cows. The hog house has a capacity of 2000 head. These are large-size buildings, as farm structures go, but not especially unusual. The interesting thing is that the farm equipment goes much further. In includes a 35,Q00d0l packing house, built in 1911 of tile and concrete, and with a complete equipment all the way from slaughter room to storage. There is a creamery, which has a capacity of 60,0001 b a year. Several score years ago both creameries and packing houses were unknown in the twentieth century sense. Butter was formerly wholly made on farms, now it is made in large or small creameries, some owned by co-operating farmers and others by private interests. Before cream is manufac tured into butter nowadays it typically travels anywhere from several miles to two or three hundred from the point of production. The same thing has happened in meats. Beef, pork, and mutton were once slaughtered, cut up, and cured on the farm where produced. Then came local slaughterhouses, and finally the great centralised packing plants of the present day. Farmers still do considerable slaughtering for home or neighbouring use. but practically no other. There was a time when the farm was a complete farm factory, and when its functions were not complete until it had prepared the product for the consumer. The whole trend of the times has been away from this condition. Now, with the development of a higher level of merchandise ability among “farmers will farm enterprises which go back to fcu© old function with a. difference—become extensive? Do economic conditions provide a place for such farms? The experience to date of the Washington project is not conclusive. Tile farm has demonstrated one thing, that in its particular case it is not practical to cut out the retailer, building distribution on the parcels post. The original intention was to do this, and an extensive mail trade was built up, but the plan proved unprofitable. Tlie present arrangement is distribution through the retailer. A retail store in Tacoma specialises in the farm’s products; the farm trade-mark Is featured, and a lunch counter is made an effective trade-builder. Working along these lines, the management believes its methods are economically sound. On the other hand, a New England farm near Springfield, Mass, having a smaller output than this one in the north-west, has established a system of consumer routes. A wagon carries eggs, butter, and vegetables in summer, and in winter these and such home-made country products as hulled corn, hominy, sausage meat, jellies, pickles The farm is very careful in selecting a salesman. No ordinary farmhand will do. He must know how to sell, and how to lr i 1 cl up goodwill. lie is paid a salary and commission. Again, one of the largest mixed farms in Ne.v Hampshire has for years eliminated all middlemen, and marketed direct to the consumer, but here the consumer is a large Bcsto i hotel, which owns the farm. Butter, meats, fruits, etc., are produced. It is understood the farm thus operated is profitable. A big chain restaurant, with establishments in many eastern cities, did the same sort of thing for many years. In all such methods to shorten the distance between farm ami consumer, management is a critical factor No plan of doing business is “fool-proof.” There must be clever, shrewd management behind it to make it a success. The fact that many attempts to market in a new wav have failed is indubitably partly attributable to the fact that inexperienced peoplo have launched many such ventures.