Livestock Alternatives for Small Farmers

Economic Viability or Liability?

Abstract

I am going to continue in the tradition of the speakers you have heard here today, in that I will tell you that I did not come here with a gun loaded with silver bullets. I don't have an answer as to the "one thing" that will replace tobacco in Eastern North Carolina. I can tell you that no one thing exists. That is not to say that there aren't alternatives, and I will talk about that, but there is no one crop that will do it. One of the differences between alternatives that work and those that do not has to do with marketing. The small farmer has to be willing to do market research and base his or her product development on that you need to have an ability to market it, produce it, and manage the income, costs and the profits associated with it. So, if you have an idea, and you can do the marketing, then there is room for success. NC State and the other universities can do all the research and explore every idea, but it's the people out there who really have the opportunity-you've got to get on the web sites and search a lot and look for these things, and then evaluate them for yourselves. At North Carolina A&T, we have developed what we call a Decision Model for Small Farmers, a workbook that helps people to work through this process. People have to work through the market research, get the information, sort through it, and then it comes down to the bottom line-either "I ought to try this" or "I ought to leave this alone." And that is what has to be involved in sorting through the menu of alternatives out there. But today I want to talk with you about small-scale livestock alternatives, as economically viable livestock production units, for small farms.