Not really related, but I'll bet most people don't know that in many places you can by a "cow share". Basically you buy a percentage of the cow's output for the rest of its life. The farmer milks it, takes care of it and gives you the milk. In some places it is illegal, but in other places it's the easiest way to get raw milk (which may be important if you make your own cheese, among other things).
In this kind of arrangement, it's a derisking tool for the farmer. The share holder is paying upfront for the cow (and possibly even for maintenance). For the share holder it's a way to lock in availability (more than price) of a difficult to get resource. There are similar arrangements for things like hops in homebrewing. Some big clubs will essentially buy futures for hops in order to lock in availability and price for really hard to get hops. In this case it can really pay off because the price can skyrocket (multiples) if a particular hop because suddenly popular one year.
In this kind of arrangement, it's a derisking tool for the farmer. The share holder is paying upfront for the cow (and possibly even for maintenance). For the share holder it's a way to lock in availability (more than price) of a difficult to get resource. There are similar arrangements for things like hops in homebrewing. Some big clubs will essentially buy futures for hops in order to lock in availability and price for really hard to get hops. In this case it can really pay off because the price can skyrocket (multiples) if a particular hop because suddenly popular one year.