I’ve been re-reading some of the farming/grass farming books that I have lately. I’m trying to put together some plans and goals for our farm. Yesterday I landed on the chapter entitled, “The Ten Worst Agricultural ‘Opportunities'”, in the book You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise
That quote kind of hit me like a ton of bricks. I remember reading it, but I also became pretty set on Dexters early on in my research because the foraging ability, size, and a few other things. Another quote from that section of the chapter states, “Unless a seedstock operation can be profitable on commercial prices, it is not really viable.” I am not completely sure where Dexters land as far as commercial prices go, but I know that I chose the Dexter breed not because of seedstock opportunities. I chose them because I thought they could help me fill the freezer beef niche by offering high quality grass-fed beef that is healthy and will fit in your basement freezer. I did not, and do not intend to base my business only on seedstock, but I will admit that I saw that as a possibility because Dexters have a lot of appealing attributes for the “homesteading” type of families.
I am going to spend some time researching a business plan for my Dexters that can take advantage of all of their marketable traits … whether it be beef, milking, oxen, or even pets. But, I do agree that only being in the seedstock business is something that will take a bit of money and time to build up the reputation of a high quality breeder.
