News
Direct-to-consumer beef sales becoming more difficult, Minnesota producer says
A southwest Minnesota beef producer says direct-to-consumer sales are becoming more challenging.
Mark Enninga raises a cow/calf herd and operates a feedlot where he finishes calves raised on the farm.
“Consumers have been not reducing their purchases of beef in the grocery store, even despite high prices. I have been seeing that consumers buying directly from me have given pause as to how much beef they are going to buy from me.”
He tells Brownfield some customers have been pulling back on local purchases.
“I’m reaching the cusp of what I can charge my customers directly. Whereas it might be actually more efficient for me to actually sell it into the commodity market, as I would describe it.”
Enninga says more customers are buying quarter beef instead of halves so far this year.
He made his comments during Brownfield’s recent episode of Tailgate Talk.
Mark’s point about reaching the “cusp” of pricing is something we hear daily. It’s a challenge to compete with commodity grocery prices when you’re providing superior, local cow/calf quality.
At Farm Direct Minnesota, we’ve built a grassroots community of over 115,500 members in our Facebook group specifically to solve this. We’ve launched an interactive GPS map to help producers like Mark find the right buyers who prioritize quality over the lowest price. Whether it’s finding families to split a side or moving those quarters, our goal is to keep local beef on Minnesota tables and out of the commodity market.
We’d love to have more Southwest MN producers featured on our map for our upcoming May anniversary launch!