Forty of the 141 respondents organically produce livestock or livestock products. Since there were small numbers of respondents in the mixed farm (n = 8) and transitional farm (n = 5) categories, their livestock data were pooled with the all-organic livestock operations (n = 27) for analysis. Beef operations were the largest proportion of organic livestock farms, followed by poultry.
Twenty-one farms (15% of the survey total) finished beef: Average number of head = 10 with a standard deviation of 13 and median size of 8 head.
Eight farms (6% of the survey total) raised market feeder cattle. Average number of calves = 11, s.d. = 13, median = 5.
One farm indicated that they sold breeding beef seedstock. Herd size is 35.
One farm indicated that they raised replacement heifers. Herd size is 20.
Thirteen farms (9% of the survey total) reported producing organic eggs. Average production for 1998 was 523 dozen with a standard deviation of 667. Median level of egg production was 300 dozen.
Ten farms (7% of the survey total) reported producing organic poultry meat. Average production was 226 birds with a standard deviation of 228. Median level of poultry raised for meat was 175.
Ten farms (7% of the survey total) raised sheep organically. Average number of head equaled 21 with a standard deviation of 21. Median number of head was 10.
Two dairy farms returned surveys. One operation produces 4,500 hundredweight of milk per year. The other reported producing 4,000 hundredweight.
Livestock operations with written-in responses included one swine farm, one fallow deer farm (40 head), and a farm with a single llama.