NC Choices, a CEFS initiative that promotes the advancement of North Carolina’s local, niche and pasture-based meat supply, recently conducted an online survey of the state’s small-scale meat producers. The survey, which focused on beef, pork, and chicken production, was sent to agriculture-related public e-mail listservs throughout the state and was completed by 104 participants. The results provide insight into the projected future growth – and potential barriers to growth – of small-scale meat production in the state.
Survey Respondents
Of the 104 respondents, 23% raise all three categories of meat (pork, beef, and poultry); 3% raise pork only; 13% raise beef only; 29% raise poultry only; and 32% raise a combination of two out of the three species. Of the respondents who sell poultry, the majority sell less than 500 head; of the respondents sell beef, the majority sell 50 head or less; and of the respondents who sell hogs, the majority sell 100 head or less.
Survey Results
All three categories (beef, pork, and poultry) show the trend of small producers scaling up production. Poultry producers, for example, expect to sell 59,732 head in 2012 and 241,910 head in 2014 – four times as much. Beef producers expect to sell 2,846 head in 2012 and 6,088 head in 2014 – more than double. And pork producers expect to sell 5,737 head in 2012 and 10,008 head in 2014 – almost double.
Although producers plan to increase their production, they also reported significant barriers to the growth of their business. These were (numbers indicate the percentage of respondents that ranked the potential barrier as either “somewhat of a challenge” or “a major challenge”): high input costs (i.e., fuel, feeds, etc…) – 79%; lack of quality meat processing (value added, smoked, cooked, ready-to-eat products) – 71%; high processing costs – 71%; lack of capital (money to invest in livestock, infrastructure or equipment) – 66%; and distance to animal slaughter – 52%.
Says Casey McKissick, NC Choices Coordinator, “NC Choices’ field work over the last 3 years has brought our organizational programming goals to focus entirely on advancing the meat processing sector for independent producers. This survey further validated that this is the direction that producers, processors and buyers need the most help with”.
You can find the full survey results here, or visit www.ncchoices.com for more information. Stay connected with news, events and upcoming educational opportunities by subscribing to the NC Choices News email listserv at www.ncchoices.com/mailinglist.
From the August 2012 E-Newsletter