# Question on prices



## dunroven (Dec 6, 2004)

I am going to be having fresh milk soon. Have a heifer having her first calf in about February, so I will start having some milk, but my husband and I don't use very much. I want some to make cheeses and butters with, but my question is, I have someone who has asked if I was going to sell any milk. I told him if I do, it is with the understanding he has to sign a paper (since its illegal in Iowa to sell raw milk), stating that he knows this milk is not for human consumption, although that's exactly what he's going to use it for, but as I told him, once he takes it away from my place, I have no clue what he's going to use it for, but I won't be held responsible.

My question is, how much should I charge him for a gallon of milk?


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## marsharini (Dec 31, 2011)

I am part of a herdshare program where I paid a fee for a half share, then my monthly boarding fee is $32 for which I get 1.5 gallons of milk per week from approximately May - December and 1 gallon per week the remaining months. So I'm paying a little over $5/gallon some months and $8/gallon others.


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## matt_man (Feb 11, 2006)

We get $6 per gallon for milk.


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## dunroven (Dec 6, 2004)

$6 and $8 a gallon????? WOW! I have never heard of that. In the store it is just between $2.99 in southern Iowa to just over $4 here in northwest Iowa. How can you get folks to pay such high prices?

When I lived in Arkansas, and granted that has been several years ago, we only paid $2 for fresh raw milk. I'm a little sticker shocked. Is this really seriously the price???


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## my3boys (Jan 18, 2011)

I pay about $3.50 a gallon or $2 a half gallon here for raw milk. We have quite a few farms that sell it around here though so maybe the prices are a bit more competitive than most places.


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## dunroven (Dec 6, 2004)

I just am wondering. I have never heard of this kind of price, and just want to be sure I'm in line. I was going to charge $3.00 a gallon, simply because I don't do anything to the milk other than strain it and chill it and put in in a jug, which I would be doing anyway, so again, meaning no disrespect to those who get it, but I'm just wanting to sell of my extra milk so it doesn't go to waste, and if someone else can use it, that's what I want. Hope I didn't offend anyone with my comments, I was really seriously shocked by that.


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

dunroven said:


> I just am wondering. I have never heard of this kind of price, and just want to be sure I'm in line. I was going to charge $3.00 a gallon, simply because I don't do anything to the milk other than strain it and chill it and put in in a jug, which I would be doing anyway, so again, meaning no disrespect to those who get it, but I'm just wanting to sell of my extra milk so it doesn't go to waste, and if someone else can use it, that's what I want. Hope I didn't offend anyone with my comments, I was really seriously shocked by that.


I wouldnt charge a penny for it... leave that up to your friend who I presume is feeding his cats with it. He can legally leave money on the very same rock he finds a gallon of milk every morning.  This is my idea of a win win. His cats gets fat, you dont have feel guilty that your excess milk is being wasted.... and any money found is pure profit.


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## troy n sarah tx (Dec 31, 2005)

I was just looking at raw milk here in TX, and it is between $8-$10 bucks a gallon.


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## Zilli (Apr 1, 2012)

I have a friend with a licensed raw milk goat dairy and she gets $9.00 a gallon.

Of course, it costs her a lot to be legal - $700.00 every time the vet comes out and does the required testing on her animals (I don't know how often that is done). And she has a "raw milk" insurance policy; I know recently she made the comment to me that she had just paid her premium - $1200.00! I didn't ask but I hope that was for the year.

I remember paying $1.00 a gallon for raw milk off the farm (at various times, either goat or cow). But that was obviously a long time ago.

To be honest, I would be afraid to sell my milk if I thought someone might use it for anything other than for pets or to raise baby goats with. I know my milk is fine and I am confident with how I handle it - I drink it and use it with no problems - but the possibility that someone could get sick and blame ME, even if it turned out to not be because of my milk, just scares the you-know-what out of me. Even if if turned out that the illness was not because of my milk, by that time the authorities would know that I had been breaking the law by selling it in the first place. No thanks.

But then I'm a bit of a coward like that. lol


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

If raw milk is not legal in your state, you sell black market milk. In Missouri, I sell legal raw goat milk for $4 a gallon. Same goats, same milk in Texas is illegal to sell. 

Cheese is not legal for sale in any state that I know of without a license.


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## semimoonman (Oct 31, 2012)

my3boys said:


> I pay about $3.50 a gallon or $2 a half gallon here for raw milk. We have quite a few farms that sell it around here though so maybe the prices are a bit more competitive than most places.


Where in PA are you? Around State College, the lowest I've found is $5/gal--if you go out to the farm and use your own bottle, that you're responsible for cleaning (which I can understand from a logistical and liability perspective, but since we don't have a dishwasher, getting containers clean enough is too much of a headache). At a farmer's market, it's usually $8/gal. Too expensive for us.


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## Judy in IN (Nov 28, 2003)

It is my understanding that raw milk sales are legal in IL. The farmer cannot advertise, you have to take your own container to the farm and pour the milk in it. 

Raw milk sales are illegal in IN, unfortunately, but I bought raw milk cheese at an Amish farm recently, so am checking that avenue. There are people selling cow shares here to get around the law, but we need to change the law! These states are legalizing pot, but we can't get good milk? Phooee!

I've seen unprocessed milk ( I hate the term raw) here anywhere from $7 a gallon to $6 a half-gallon.


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## TamiJoyFarm (Oct 18, 2012)

Here in Eastern WA it runs between $5-6 a gallon. 

Judy in IN you are right. We just legalized smoking pot here in WA, can't grow it, limitations on where you get it and the feds can come in and still shut it all down but we cannot sell milk. Can sell eggs "on the farm" without a license (limitations of course) but not milk. Everyone that offers milk in this area have been visited by the USDA and shut down. Now it is advertised as milk for non human consumption only and by "donation" only.


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## Forlane (Jul 17, 2010)

$18.50/gallon at my local supermarket the only store within 20+ miles I can find it for sale.


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## Bob Huntress (Dec 17, 2012)

One thing we did when we were raising goats for milk, and we plan to begin doing that again soon, is have a bartering cooperative club. Since the product we would sell is merely the excess of what we use. We only raised for our use, but having enough without excess is almost impossible. We traded eggs and milk for veggies that didn't grow well where we live and meat products that the wife and kids liked (duck and lamb) and on occasion tractor parts. Once when we had so many eggs that we had filled our needs and everyone elses, we offered some to neighbors, who immediately joined our barter club and brought a could bushels of rubbarb. I ate some pie that year. Some products are produced far more effeciently in larger amounts, and some type of share club is usually a good means to stay within the law restricting food from getting to individuals who need and would pay for it. The smaller the club the less intrution from the state, but the less selection. The whole time we did this, I was forever trying to recruit someone who raised bees, but that's another story.


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## matt_man (Feb 11, 2006)

Milk is almost $5 a gallon in the store here for yucky pasteurized milk. 

I make sure I get paid - not just for the time milking, but straining, washing jars, washing equipment, feeding, hauling hay, filling waterers, feed and hay costs, cost of the animal itself.... And we are using that money to fund our farming ventures - expanding the farm, animal purchases, equipment purchases, etc...

I don't have a problem selling the extra milk that I have and what I don't sell, I make cheese with and feed the whey to the pigs. The pigs benefit from the whey and then they in turn bring in money. We sell fat hogs by the 1/2 and also sell cuts and the farmer's market all spring/summer/fall.

This year we are building a milking parlor and milk processing room for me to make cheese in and hopefully become inspected and licensed. Later in the summer we are putting in a small bulk tank and chiller.

We brought in more money every week this spring/summer/fall in farming income through the farmer's market than my husband did at his full time job. None of which would have been possible without the income and milk from the cows.


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## kittyjo (Feb 10, 2005)

we have a liscened seller close by and she gets $8.00a gallon for raw cows milk and $7.00 1/2 gal for goat milk


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## campfiregirl (Mar 1, 2011)

Have you heard about the "milk cliff"? If the dairy subsidies don't go through, we'll be paying $6 - $8 / gallon for store milk; the true cost. Don't be afraid to charge the true cost of production + something for your time.


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## Gabriel (Dec 2, 2008)

You must know your own costs. Add a reasonable amount for labor, unless you like working for free. Be realistic, yet not greedy. It may be higher than they were hoping for, just level with them on what it takes and they'll probably go for it. I'm assuming they have a reason to be motivated to look elsewhere than the store...


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## RedRidge (Jan 28, 2013)

I am in TN and raw milk is only allowed with herd shares here.
Cows milk (depending on kind) comes out to be $9-10/gal... more if it's A2/A2.
Sheep's milk is more than double that.


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## DroppedAtBirth (Sep 23, 2010)

SW OR and I was told not to sell for less than 3 and more than 5 is getting into unreasonable territory. That being said, if I sold every drop of milk she produces, we could cover feed plus a few bucks every week at 3 per gallon. Advertising is illegal and they have to come to my place to pick it up. I also can't have more than 3 cows on the property that have ever been lactating whether I can milk them or not. I do know of a herdshare in jersey milk just 30ish miles from me though where a gallon of milk winds up costing more than 8. Even legal, I only sell to friends and relatives and charge 3 per gallon if anything at all. Oh, and one of those friends used to be a member of that herdshare and says our milk quality and flavor is far superior...I hear it compared to vanilla ice cream and/or milkshakes


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## Janette1 (Jan 24, 2013)

Here in Missouri you can sell milk off your farm legally. I live near an Amish community and am able to buy milk for $2 a gallon. I leave clean jars every time for the next batch. Not too far from me a non-Amish family is selling their milk for $5 a gallon and I think they sell out. I would think that Iowa is sort of like MO in that the people are mostly rural minded and would not consider paying the exoribitant prices that have been mentioned here. I think your $3 price would be very fair and you could probably go a little higher, depending on where you live and the mindset of the population.


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

and of corse you get what you pay for .the 2+ inches of cream on top the antibodies that the cow donates are killed by pasturizeing . though I don't sell milk when bessy dry and i'm paying almost 5 $ a gallon for the junk from the store as im having my coffee with the freash cream i'd be tepted to pay a double for the good fresh milk


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