Cornell announces new Meat Price Calculator and Profitable Meat Marketing workshops for direct marketing livestock farmers 

The Cornell Program on Agribusiness and Rural Development announces that a new, improved version of the Cornell Meat Price Calculator (MPC) is available for free use at www.meatsuite.com. The MPC, originally launched in May 2018, is a user-friendly online tool that allows farmers to set prices that ensure they reach farm financial goals. The new version, launched in March 2022, allows NY farmers to create a free account and save their data. This way, as their costs change over time, they can revisit the site and make adjustments to their pricing to maintain profitability goals. 

The release of the improved MPC comes at a time when both farmers and consumers face increasing costs. Inflation of grocery store meat prices may lead to increased consumer interest in locally raised meats. Likewise, increasing input costs for farms will cause farms to revisit their current pricing. In the summer of 2021, Cornell researchers observed meat prices from 17 NY farms and 7 Ithaca-area grocery stores. They found that farm store and farmers market prices were typically lower than grocery store prices for similar products. It may be that some farms do not account for all costs or include sufficient profit margins relative to grocery store competition. The MPC offers a user-friendly approach to account for production, processing, and marketing costs and then set prices to reach a profit goal. To read a short article about the 2021 meat price observations, click here. (https://www.meatsuite.com/calculator/about/docs.php) 

To support the launch of the new MPC, a series of "Profitable Meat Marketing" and "How to Use the Cornell Meat Price Calculator" workshops are planned for locations around the state and online. At the workshops, MPC developer, Matt LeRoux, Extension Associate in Cornell's Dyson School of Economics and Management, will present on marketing strategy and technique, pricing logic, and demonstrate how to use the new Meat Price Calculator. The workshops will be relevant to any farms selling meat directly to consumer, whether in bulk or by-the-cut.  

Raising prices can feel like a challenging task. The Cornell Meat Price Calculator aims to simplify the process and the Profitable Meat Marketing workshops prepare farms for successful marketing and pricing. A complete list of locations and dates, as well as registration details follow. 

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