>I've heard that sometimes farmers will sell you a whole cow -- or a side,
>or a quarter -- and trim it out for you.

Here's my view of selling meat direct to customers.  It's a view echoed by
most of the farmers I know.

I stopped selling direct.  Farming is a wonderful life for me, but there's
little profit in small-scale, organic farming.  Both The Husband and I hold
full time jobs to pay the mortgage, so we work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week
to maintain the farm.  We don't have much spare time:  e-mail & the net are
my only hobbies.  While people will walk into a supermarket, pick the
best-looking meat, pay for it and walk out again, most demonstrate a much
different attitude to on-farm sales.

First, they want me to spend at least half an hour "selling" my product to
them (remember that I never asked them to buy from me in the first place!)
and haggling over price.  Then about another half hour examining our
operation.  Then if they order, I have to bring in the whole flock and pick
out an animal for that one customer.  Then load the animal into our truck
and drive it to the butcher.  Then pick the meat up from the butcher and
either deliver it to the customer or spend another half-hour chatting when
the customer comes to pick up their order.  And more than half of the
customers feel that I owe them and their families a free farm tour.  If I'm
curt or tell people honestly "I don't have time..." they go off in a huff.

Compare this to selling at auction.  Two minutes to call a livestock
trucker.  Bring the animals in and pick out the couple dozen which are going
to auction   Ten minutes to load them up.  The cheque comes three days later.

When I started farming, I had dreams of selling organic, free-range meat to
people who, like me,  cared about the quality of the food they eat.  I woke
up quickly after trying it!

Chris