Overview

Direct marketing is selling food and farm products directly to consumers without using an intermediary. This may include direct sales to grocery stores, restaurants, door-to-door and freezer sales and Internet marketing.  April 2012 ...  Beef, Direct Marketing


Marketing

• After the Ban: The Japanese Market for U.S. Beef, Roxanne Clemens, Midwest Agribusiness Trade Research and Information Center (MATRIC), Iowa State University, 2007.
• Beef Marketing Alternatives, Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA), NCAT, 2006 - Looks at various marketing avenues, including direct marketing, legal considerations, processing and packing.
• Cattle & Beef, Economic Research Service (ERS), USDA.
• Direct Marketing Meats, Selling Freezer Beef, Alberta Agriculture & Rural Development, Canada.
• Farm to Fork: A Direct-to-the-Consumer Beef Marketing Handbook 2nd edition; Annette Dunlap, Geoffrey Benson and Matt Poore; North Carolina State University Cooperative Extension Service; revised 2010 - This handbook, developed by a multidisciplinary team with AgMRC funds, was recently revised by Geoffrey Benson. The handbook was designed to be a self-directed guide to developing a business plan for marketing beef directly to consumers. It contains basic explanatory material related to each part of a business plan, with a corresponding worksheet. By completing the worksheets in the handbook, producers will make more informed decisions about starting and growing a direct-to-the-consumer beef marketing business.     
• How to Direct Market You Beef, Sustainable Ag Research and Education (SARE), NIFA, USDA, 2005 - Describes how one couple used their family´s ranch to launch a profitable, grass-based beef operation focused on direct market sales.
• Livestock Cattle Reports, Market News and Transportation Data, Ag Marketing Service, USDA.
• North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association

Processing/Manufacturing

• Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) Demonstration Plans, Iowa State University Meat Laboratory - These demonstration plans are tools available to guide plant and processing facilities with developing their own HACCP plans to comply with the Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Production

• Adding Value to Beef Production, Iowa State University Extension Value-Added Agriculture - This Web site gives readers an overview of various beef production alternatives.
• Cattle Production: Considerations for Pasture-Based Beef and Dairy Producers, ATTRA, NCAT, 2007 - This publication highlights intensively-managed rotational grazing (also called management-intensive grazing or planned grazing) and other practices producers are using to provide customers with nutritious food.
  

Businesses/Case Studies

• Branding Together to Build and Alternative Meat Market, Rodale Institute.
• Chariton Valley Beef - This  producer alliance operates in Iowa and Missouri, assisting members to increase profitability in the beef industry. Their newest program markets high-quality, locally grown beef directly to consumers.
• Lasater Grasslands Beef - Cattle finished on grass in Colorado and both direct marketed to the public and offered in retail stores.
• Western Minnesota Natural Farm Produce - These western Minnesota producers market natural farm produce directly to consumers. Each operation has its own link on the site, detailing products for sale to the consumer.

Links checked April 2012.