Marketing Orientation GrainGoat has not expended a substantial amount of time or money on marketing their product quite yet. There was no true past approach and they are in the beginning stages of starting to reach out to their target market. Currently that target market includes any farmer or custom harvester that could use their product. This may include custom harvesters, farmers, researchers, universities, etc. They have not narrowed down their target market. GrainGoat has created a website to create awareness of their product. Within the website they portray the basic idea behind the GrainGoat and give customers a chance to see this piece of equipment in action. The website highlights some key points pertaining to the GrainGoat and also has contact information for Martin Bremmer. It also provides information about tradeshows the company will be attending in the near future, as well as …show more content…
Funding sources in particular are a concern. As growth continues, future financing needs and the interest rate environment could be of concern as interest rates have been at all-time lows, and some indication shows an increase in the rates are forthcoming. GrainGoat has also relied heavily on grants from the State of NE and other various organizations who promote start-up businesses. These grants are very beneficial to start-ups and the erosion of these funds due to an economic downturn is a real threat. Grain prices also present a very interesting situation for the GrainGoat. GrainGoat feels it can capitalize on both ends of the spectrum with respect to fluctuating grain prices. When prices are high, consumers have more disposable income to spend on upgrades, such as the GrainGoat, to further increase profits in the future. On the other hand, when grain prices are low, consumers may look to products which can help them save money, which is what the GrainGoat is designed to do.
By 1870, the rich Red River Valley grew more wheat than any other place in the nation. River routes were limited and some farmers settled where they were landlocked. As you know, the Lost River didn’t afford much in the way of water access to major cities. To get grain to market, farmers had to ship their harvest over 80 miles to Moorhead. To travel over land, the transportation cost was $0.15/ton for every mile shipped. The value of wheat was only $1.10/bushel. If they were lucky, farmers barely broke even. Most farmers lost money.
Selling corn in massive quantity can lead to a greater profit. An ear of corn may averages about eight-hundred kernels in sixteen rows and a pound of corn consists of approximately 1,300 kernels. One-hundred bushels of corn makes approximately 7,280,000 kernels. Every year, a single U.S. Farmer may provides food and fiber for 129 people in the U.S. and 32 overseas. In the U.S., corn production is 2 times that of any other crop. Over 55% of Iowa’s corn goes to foreign markets and the rest is used in other parts of the United States of America.
...e items come from places like CAFO’s. Joel wants to redirect the way farming should be. He believes that his process of “mob-grazing” will help restore the land prosper and continue to be farmed for many years. In the past 15 years small farms have been demolished by the bigger corporations. Smaller farms have a more difficult time accruing certifications and paying expensive fees to sell their products on a bigger scale. The USDA requires many restrictions and guidelines to what, where and how such products needs to be prepared which is time consuming, costly and requires many resources. In this area of Swoope, Virginia there are many small farmers that sell at the local Staunton Farmers Market located in downtown Staunton. Polyface also has a “Metropolitan Buying Club” which allows the products produced by the farm can travel farther for a monthly subscription.
Monsanto is one of the biggest companies behind genetic food engineering and for years have been able to sell their crops to farmers of all kinds around the world. Today they have over twenty products, which can be bought from their website anywhere from Roundup Ready to genetically modified corn and soybeans. They claim to “help farmers grow a sustainable crop so they can be successful, produce healthier foods, increase the fiber in animal feeds, while also reducing agriculture's impact on our environment”. Their home page is brightly colored, depicts happy farmers and promises to end world hunger. It tells the government and public what they want to hear not what they need to hear.
this notion of stable supply and demand affected prices of farm commodities. “Low prices on
Wise hoped to launch the business right after business school, but he couldn't get the financing. "Investors had a hard time relating to egg production," he recalls. Fifteen years la...
The country at the time was in the deepest and soon to be longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world and this caused years of over-cultivation of wheat, because “during the laissez-faire, expansionist 1920’s the plains were extensively and put to wheat - turned into highly mechanized factory farms that produced highly unprecedented harvests” (Worster 12). ¬The farmer’s actions were prompted by the economic decline America was facing. With the economy in a recession, farmers were looking for a way to make a living and in 1930 wheat crop were becoming very popular. In 1931 the wheat crop was considered a bumper crop with over twelve million bushels of wheat. Wheat was emerging all over the plains. The wheat supply forced the price down from sixty-eight cents/bushel in July 1930 to twenty-five cents/bushel in July 1931. Many farmers went broke and others abandoned their fields, but most decided to stay despite the unfavorable
Wallace v United Grain Growers Ltd., [1997] 3 SCR 701 was a case heard before the Supreme Court of Canada regarding the dismissal of Jack Wallace, appellant, from United Grain Growers Limited, respondent. The appellant, then 45, was approached by the respondent to leave his current job to begin employment with the respondent’s company. The appellant received assurances that if he performed his job as expected, his employment would be secured until retirement. The appellant found success with the respondent’s company, and he was consistently the top salesperson for each year of employment there. Despite this success, in 1986 he was dismissed without cause or explanation. The respondent issued a statement of claim for wrongful dismissal. The
Monsanto Vegetable Seeds is the world’s largest seed producer. The organization founded in 1901 with a chemical product Saccharin that has evolved over the past hundred plus years (Monsanto Vegetable Seeds, n.d.). The organization, always innovative has found itself in various businesses such as plastics, turf, pharmaceuticals, food, and most recently 100% dedicated to agriculture. A cast organization such as Monsanto has many facets; however, this paper will focus on the vegetable seed division (MVS) within Monsanto. In 2005 the firm primarily focused on corn, cotton and soybean seeds and entered into an entirely new domain of vegetable seed. While its previous product lines were primarily produced, distributed and sold in a relatively small radius, vegetable seeds embarked the firm on a complete new way to manage a supply chain whereas the products may be produced in Asia, cleaned in the U.S. and sold in Europe (M. Secrest, personal communication, June 20, 2011).
To get his shoestrings he speculates in herds of cattle.” Thoreau could foresee the impact that altering the genes of these plants could have on a society. The most misleading hopes proclaimed by GM technology firms is that this will help solve the world’s hunger. Granted some of this technology does offer higher single crop yields, but traditional farming techniques generally produce higher yields per acre. In a study done on 8,200 fields, by The Board of Agriculture at the National Academy of Sciences former board of director, Charles Benbrook, Roundup Ready soybeans yielded fewer bushels of beans than non-GM. They grew five different strains of Monsanto soy plants in four different places with varied soil types The study found that the average yield for non-GM soybeans was 51.21 bushels per acre and 49.26 for GM. This was confirmed later in another study at the University of Nebraska 's Institute of Agricultural Resources. "The numbers were clear," stated Dr. Elmore, the head director of the study. They found that on average GM seeds, which are more expensive, produced six percent less than non-GM relatives, and eleven percent less than the highest yielding conventional crops. The yield for Bt corn, however, in other studies was higher. But this did not lead to greater profit because GM related costs in terms of insecticides, fertilizer and labor were
Monsanto’s largest competitors are BASF SE, Syngenta, and Bayer CropScience. Monsanto’s efficient and effective support activities for crop production have led to becoming one of the prominent companies in the industry. Product performance (in particular, crop vigor and yield for our row crops and quality for our vegetable seeds), customer support and service, intellectual property rights and protection, product availability and planning and price are important elements of Monsanto’s market success in seeds. In addition, distributor, retailer and farmer relationships are important in the United States and many other countries. The primary factors underlying the competitive success of traits are performance and commercial viability; timeliness of introduction; value compared with other practices and products; market coverage; service provided to distributors, retailers and farmers; governmental approvals; value capture; public acceptance; and environmental characteristics.
This highlights that a core principal of economics is the decisions and choices to be made in order to manage limited resources. Furthermore, that microeconomics pertains to the behaviours that affect these decisions and choices made at an individual level. As demonstrated by the avocado industry recently, motives and variable factors for increases/decreases in supply and demand will not always be transparent to the consumer. Therefore, to have an understanding of the concepts of microeconomics and the market can elucidate the individual consumer’s decision making rationale rather than making
...ulted in great profits during times of high demand for agricultural products. Phillips states that more research is required in this area.
In agricultural markets, farmers sell homogenous products. There are a large number of sellers and buyers, since crops are essential foodstuffs. Farmers and buyers are
There are now ways of technology that help make a more productive crop. This makes the prices increase. For instance, there are now “round-up ready” seed. This seed has extra technology put into it. This reduces the price of some chemicals, but not much.