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TBF 053 :: Phil Kramer from Niman Ranch Part Two, News from the Farm, and a Hard Lesson Learned

happypigTwo weeks ago I had the opportunity to participate in a Practical Farmers of Iowa Farminar about “Making Niche Pork Work for You at Any Scale”. The 90 minutes scheduled for the on-line event (you can click the link above to watch a recording) went by faster than I could have imagined and I learned a lot along the way. There were so many great questions from Kate, the other beginning farmer, that we didn’t have much time to talk with Phil Kramer about Niman Ranch. Luckily I happen to know Phil because his farm was where we purchased our first Hereford gilt so I asked him if he would be willing to come on “The Beginning Farmer Show” to talk about raising pigs for Niman Ranch. Phil takes us through the process of bringing Niman Ranch feeder pigs to the farm all the way through taking them to the pick-up location and everything in between!

In the second part of the interview Phil and I talk about the profit possibilities when raising pigs for Niman Ranch, the art of being a farrow-to-finish hog farmer, and of course we dig into a discussion of Hereford hogs which is something that Phil and I are both passionate about.

If you have any questions for Phil about Niman Ranch or just raising pigs from farrow-to-finish in general please leave a comment below and I’ll make sure Phil gets your question and answers if he is able to.

Links Relevant to This Episode

As always, I want to thank you so much for listening and supporting the show with your encouragement and reviews on iTunes! I am continually working to produce a better show, and I’m thankful for all of the listeners sticking with me as I learn. If you do enjoy the show, don’t forget that you can subscribe on iTunes and leave a five star rating and review (by clicking the link). If you are an Android phone user you can also subscribe on the free Stitcher App. It is so very encouraging to know that people are listening and enjoying the show!

I would love to hear your questions, show ideas, or comments about the show. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail! As always you can follow along with “The Beginning Farmer” and Crooked Gap Farm by checking out these links …

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{ 2 comments… add one }
  • Donna OShaughnessy March 6, 2014, 8:41 pm

    Hi Ethan, been following you for some time and thrilled to hear your podcasts. I can listen while entering our own farm finances on Quicken. Makes that chore go must better. The “balancing act” for meat on hand for your CSA folks always been a struggle for us until we finally slowed our diversifying and cut off contracts with restaurants and grocery stores so now just selling out of our farm store. Working great if you don’t mind visitors to your farm every single day! AND we do grind all our own feed make our own hog rations and yes saves money. Enjoyed listening to Phil Kramer but was shocked at how low his profit was per hog. Of course each farm has their own various types if direct and indirect costs. Which of course gave me a great idea for a post on my blog. What I loved most about Niman Ranch is their strict standards for space for the hogs raised by the farmers they contract with. Even the National Organic Program fails in that area as they have NO requirements for minimal space. Overall…great interview!

  • Ethan March 14, 2014, 1:32 pm

    Donna … Maybe I need to listen to my podcast while doing our bookkeeping because I know that I don’t do it often enough! We are looking at changing our streams of sales this year or in the coming years and I do think that would help out a little bit with the “inventory problem”. It would be cool to have an on farm store sometime or at least something where people could stop by (we live a ways out on gravel). I agree with you on the profit per hog deal for Niman Ranch … of course it scares me what it is in the conventional market (although I think it’s probably higher now because of PEDv). The flip side of the equation though is that there is no inventory maintenance or people coming to the farm or even much marketing at all actually … that has to count for something.

    Glad you enjoy the podcast and my interview with Phil … I was thankful to have him on!

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