posted on 2009-11-29 by JPerez
"Cow Pooling" is a term that slowly hitting the beef industry. The term is derived from the idea of community based effort to generate both economical and social benefits. Like "car pooling", the main concept is to have a designated coordinator who assumes the responsibility of taking orders from the group members. The "coordinator" role can rotate amongst the members. As the coordinator, he or she has the job of making bulk orders, receive payments from the buyers, and arranging the shipment and even storage of the received goods.

The Product

Cow pooling exclusively refers to "beef products", but we're not just talking regular beef here. The idea mainly involves the purchase of natural grass fed beef, a commodity that is still rare and considered as an expensive type of beef. The inflated price is due to the fact that there is not enough people who have the awareness of the real nutritional value and quality of natural grass fed beef compared to conventional beef. Therefore, the demand is lower than the supply. One other thing that needed to be pointed out (which affect the price of natural beef) is the lack of support from the federal level to educate the public and subsidize small ranchers who practice sustainability.

The Supplier

Beef suppliers for local cow-pooling groups are ideally small family-owned ranchers who operate locally with minimal staff members (usually neighboring friends or family members) to help out with the operation. The cows or steers are normally grass fed from start to finish (as supposed to grain or corn) with minimal or no hormone and antibiotic treatment. The slaughtering and beef processing takes place from the nearest affiliated USDA certified meat processing facility if not by the rancher himself. So, the beef products essentially come directly from the ranch to the customers' tables.

The Benefits

For customers, cow pooling has many benefits to offer. Besides its main objective to lower the price of the goods from bulk purchase, the group also benefits from lowered shipment and delivery cost. Many buyers who normally couldn't afford the high cost of purchasing expensive beef are now able to participate because of the lowered cost. Not to mention altering their diet from possibly eating tainted beef to naturally nutritional grass fed beef.

The Business Potential

Another potential lucrative aspect of cow pooling is the business side of it. Becoming a beef distributor can mean serious income. A local coordinator, also known as the "distributor", can take the role up a notch by assuming all the responsibilities from administrative to financial duties. The role now becomes a fulltime job and exclusive only to the distributor. In return for his or her effort as the coordinator, the distributor can either earn revenue from product retail or charging fees for the services involved.

Since the decline of economy and increase job loses, many individuals are now looking for other alternative in income stream. Cow Pooling Coordinator or Beef Distributor can potentially be the next feasible business venture available to a lot of people who are contemplating on starting their own business. This may be a new cottage industry arising from health risks issues from conventional beef consumption or perhaps from the ever increasing challenges in the job market.

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