This section provides information on the multiple considerations in setting prices for your products. You’ll find tools and links to publications and webinar recordings that explain how to calculate your own production costs and use that information in your pricing decisions. You’ll also find links to wholesale market reports and other organizations with marketing expertise.
Fact Sheets
2010 Guide to Selling at Farmers’ Markets (PDF). Published by Growing for Market, this comprehensive guide covers all aspects of direct market sales at farmers’ markets, including tips for pricing for farmers’ markets.
Beef & Pork Whole Animal Buying Guide: While promoted as a buying guide, this is a great reference for any farmer new to selling beef and pork by sides or retail cuts. Great pictures and definitions of terms related to cuts and quality. Available as a free download, but you can also buy a laminated copy for a small fee.
The Butcher Kept Your Meat? (PDF): This fact sheet from Penn State Extension explains meat product return at the different stages of butchering and processing and provides some general rules of thumb for carcass to meat cut ratios for beef, lamb and pork.
From Cash Records to Cost of Production Fact Sheet (PDF): Knowing your production costs is key to setting prices that support farm profitability. This fact sheet explains how to calculate production costs. It also contains a handy “Enterprise Allocation Worksheet” which lists many possible categories of production expenses.
How Much Should I Charge? Pricing Your Meat Cuts (PDF): This fact sheet outlines a basic strategy for determining prices for direct-to-consumer sales of meat cuts. Courtesy of Brian Moyer amd Penn State Cooperative Extension. Use in conjunction with Penn State Extenion’s The Butcher Kept Your Meat? (PDF) fact sheet, which explains meat product return at different stages of butchering and for different animals.
Pricing Your Farm Products (PDF): Created by the Rutland Area Farm and Food Link, this fact sheet is a step-by-step guide to setting prices, with many resources and food for thought.
Websites and Other Links
Local Food Data Tracking website: The Local Foods Data Tracking Program is a partnership between the Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets (VAAFM) and USDA Agricultural Marketing Service that provides public access to aggregated pricing data on Vermont agricultural products, which includes fruit and vegetable crops, meat, poultry and eggs. The reports synthesize and share up-to-date pricing data which can be used by farmers, retail outlets, organizations, and the public to make price comparisons, set competitive prices, assess business value for insurance rates and loans, and to allow consumers to make informed choices.
Wholesale Prices
Boston Daily Market Reports: fruits and berries
Boston Daily Market Reports: onions and potatoes
Boston Daily Market Reports: vegetables