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GrassRoots Meats Newsletter
May 2006
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in this issue
-- Good Living!
-- Animals on Summer Pasture
-- Meat Supplies
-- Price Increases -- Changes in Pricing Structure
Is it really May? We are marveling that the year is 1/3 over. What an exciting year 2006 promises to be. Evidence of summer is presenting itself, while winter still tugs and pulls to announce it is not finished. This week we had a beautiful snowfall here in the Rockies, while today it is sunny and warm and all evidence of that argument is gone. Colorado is such a magnificent place to live. Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers. I (Lois) will be spending Mother's Day with my mother who turns 90 on that day. What a celebration that will be. Thank God for all the wonderful mothers out there who show His love in all they do. |
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Good Living! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thought you might enjoy this cartoon. Kinda reminds
me that we need to keep our quest for good health
in perspective. Take time to enjoy the moment you
are in. Look around at all the blessings in your life.
Thank God that you live in a place that gives you the
opportunity to control your health as much as you
do.
We are committed to helping you maintain that good health as much and as long as possible. If you have reports of how grass finished meats have contributed to your health we would love for you to share them with us. If you have any health tips that you can share we would appreciate being able to pass them on.
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Animals on Summer Pasture ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our animals are on summer pasture and we are
already hard at it getting ready for the irrigation
waters to begin to flow. In the mountains water is
very precious and Allan works very hard for 3 months
to keep that grasses irrigated. It is very rewarding
to see the fruit of his effort in lush, healthy grasses.
He is becoming somewhat of an expert on irrigation systems. Making the land more productive is his passion. Doing it as naturally and inexpensively as possible just makes good sense to him. He really enjoys taking average quality pastures and turning them into highly productive ones.
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Meat Supplies ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We hopefully have enough beef and lamb to get us
through to fall, when another crop of animals are
coming ready. We will probably be harvesting again
in June, so if you are anticipating wanting product
around that time, please get your order in as soon as
possible. Sure helps us out a lot with our planning.
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Price Increases ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh, that hated headline! We are trying to control
the costs every way we can, but we have been
forced to raise the price on a few things just a little.
You are surely aware of gas prices, but our
processing costs are terrible high. We have tried
every way we can to find processing at reasonable
prices, but it is just a huge part of the cost of our
meat.
For instance, the first $2.50 of the price of each pound of lamb goes to processing. Once we figure in the cost of the animal there is not a lot left for growing room. With beef it is similar. For every pound of beef there is $1.50 off the top for processing. Small producers like ourselves are dependent on the small packing plants to help us prepare our product for market. We are not able to take advantage of the high volume and pricing efficiency of the huge packing plants that commodity meats go through. Please know that we are doing our best to market our meat at the lowest prices that we possibly can while retaining enough profit to guarantee that we will still be in business a few years from now, to continue servicing your needs.
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Changes in Pricing Structure ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Check out our website for the pricing changes. The
biggest change we have made is that we are now
pricing our beef on the hanging weight, or processed
weight as some people refer to it. This is pretty
standard in the industry. We have been pricing our
beef on the actual weight you receive, but often
when folks were comparing prices on the web it made
us look higher, while in fact we were not, because a
direct comparison was not possible. So we have
decided that it is probably best to join the crowd so
that you can compare our prices to others more
easily.
We have changed the package discount to 10% as well. Only the price of ground lamb and lamb stew meat have increased, while beef roasts and ground beef increased a little. We have tried to hold the increase to a minimum. We welcome your feedback about these price increases.
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Quick Links... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Contact Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
phone:
970-749-7670; 800-681-2260
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