Question on Honor feeds for kgb.

[porkypig]

Will tha Purina stores in Texas be able to get Honor feeds or will it be limited to the Co-Ops? Also I e-mailed and in your reply I believe you stated that not many consumers in Texas were using the sow premixs which are needed to go with the Showpig base to get the minerals for a good showpig meal type feed. Do you think if Purina / Land O' Lakes marketing would would try to sell this in Texas like they do their other feeds there would be enough demand from consumers to get it down here in the stores? If it has the same high quality nutrients that go into the pelleted feeds it seems to me there would not be a problem getting enough people to use it. But then again I am still fairly new to the pig business and am not in the feed business either so I do not know all of the problems associated with this. I am not trying to be a pain or anything its just that if it would be more economical it seems like people would use it. Also it would mix good with the powerfill we will all be using, right? I also like to wet feed and do not like pellets for wet feeding. I would like to here opinions from anyone on this. I am going to add a poll and if the results are convincing enough I will just stay with the pellets I guess.

[kgb]

I understand what you are asking/saying but it's not as simple as that. The new Showpig Base has gone over extremely well in the Eastern Cornbelt and Midwest. There is two commonalities in those two regions; hogs and corn. It's not that we don't want to sell it in Texas. It's that there needs to be folks to want to grind and mix their own feed (producers and dealers), and have the corn and soybean meal to do that.

I know there are people in TX and OK that desire to do this. The problem for us is enough people in the same area or region so that we have enough volume to keep product fresh. No one wants to buy old buggy feed or premixes. And, we don't want to provide old and buggy products.

I think I mentioned in the e-mail to you that the availabilities of products was driven by demand and volume. Without volume, products sit around and get old until someone wonders in and buys it and then is dissatisfied.

The new Showpig Base is economical and makes great feeds. It has some of the same ingredients of our pelleted feeds but it doesn't make our pelleted feeds. (It has different inclusions of different ingredients). It is intended for grind and mixing feeds for pigs weighing as little as 15 lbs in bodyweight and all the way up to show time. So, it is vastly different than any other product we offer....it's not the same and doesn't make the same feeds.

However, we are working on it. We have some interest and we are pursuing this. We can get the product down to TX now, it's just by the time all the freight is added (and you've seen what gas prices have done...same for diesel and trucking) it loses it's economical advantage.

We are working on it.

[allen34501]

kgb, I would love to have your pre mixes here in SC.