Wife and I went to our local farmer's market today to buy veggies, bread and ended up with a nice bouquet of flowers. I sold my beef here for about 15 years but have reduced my herd size and now sell to a couple local restaurants and past customers who come to the farm in addition to my family. I'm also going to try selling some Hereford breeding stock locally when I get my numbers back up a bit.

As usual I spent most of our time there talking with friends and the two vendors selling beef at the market. These were both family operations.

It seems that the one  I spent the most time with has about 20 Angus cows and also buys some steers to fatten, process and sell from their very nice display stand alongside their white van. They sell their beef as "grass finished" and organic. Ground beef sold for $10./lb and their sign said they were out of most steaks. They said they have no problem selling whatever they can produce. 

The second vendor at the market today says they sell in Madison and Milwaukee markets, again selling everything they can produce. I get the impression this is a larger operation.

After reading the posts below related to Tyson, Joslin, etc  these discussions today, along with my own experience, make me think that there is a good market for direct to consumer beef sales for small to medium size operations. Here in Wisconsin we have a fair number of very good processors and customers looking for quality beef. It does take more work but this a way to turn a profit and is an alternative to dealing with the big 4.