As strange as it may seem, I remember reading a story about this many years ago. I can’t place the name of the college; all I know is that it was in rural America and the school had taken on a bartering system with local residents to help make their college accessible and affordable.

The only restriction that they put on the bartering is that the product they were receiving had to somehow benefit the college. When it came to livestock and produce, they would make use of it in the dining hall and the student would get a reduced tuition bill. If they had deferred maintenance on a building and a tradesman was able to offer services to remedy this, they would gladly accept the deal and credit the “going rate” of the work performed to the tuition bill.

Since this is how commerce first initially used to take place before the advent of money, it doesn’t surprise me that it could be making a resurgence in troubled economic times. In order to effectively help families and colleges traverse any bartering system that they may encounter with college expenses, I have devised the following chart to serve as a guide when dealing with produce and livestock. Enjoy! 😉

(disclaimer)
All prices represent the average retail price and the weights are the typical size (dressed). Your livestock and produce may be able to fetch more or less depending on size and market conditions.I attempt to round up or down whenever possible in my calculations.