Small-Scale Livestock Farming

by Carol Ekarius

  One of the top direct-marketing livestock farmers in the United States is Joel Salatin of Swoope, Virginia. Joel has coined the term “Salad-Bar Beef” to describe to consumers the product he is selling, for his cows graze a veritable salad bar in his pastures. (Joel has written a couple of excellent books that explore his farming and marketing techniques in more detail — see appendix E, Resources.)

  There are a couple of potential problems that may crop up when you market pasture-finished animals. First, Americans have become used to lots of fat in their meat, and the fat has a white color. Animals finished on pasture have fat that is more yellow than white. This pigmentation is a result of the high levels of vitamin A, vitamin D, and beta-carotene found in fresh forages. The color sometimes throws people, so you need to educate them about it. The second problem is caused by the lower fat content of the meat. Fat can form in the muscle tissue itself, and also externally to the muscle. Pasture-finished animals have less internal fat, or marbling, and significantly less external fat. This leanness is great from a health standpoint, but it causes the meat to cook more quickly and to dry out when overcooked. Teaching consumers to use slow-cooking methods is important to the palatability of pasture-finished animals. But consumers who cook pasture-finished meat correctly will be back for more!

  The first time we took a steer in to the butcher we worked with in Minnesota, he was amazed at how high the yield was. Yield represents the difference between live weight and carcass weight hanging on the rail. Typical beef yields are less than 60 percent; “good” yields normally run between 60 and 65 percent. Our animals consistently yielded between 67 and 69 percent. These high yields were the result of the low quantity of fat on our animals. (Note: This yield is not the same as the amount of meat you get back — check chapter 11, Butchering and Processing, to determine how much meat yield an animal will have.)

  “Green and Humane”

  Green and humane marketing can attract consumers who still want to eat meat, but who want to know that the animals they’re eating have been raised in a healthy and happy environment, in harmony with the environment. We developed a clientele that included a number of ex-vegetarians. They’d given up meat because of the way it was normally raised but were happy to find a source of meat that met their social goals. Coleman’s Natural Beef uses this tack, advertising “beef without guilt.”

  “Lean”

  Lean marketing attracts many customers who still want to eat meat, but who have health concerns about the amount of fat in their diet. Laura’s Lean Beef strives to meet the needs of this class of consumer and has gone through extensive testing. The effort has paid off, with the American Heart Association (AHA) awarding Laura’s products a “Heart Check” — an award given by the AHA to food products with discernibly reduced fat.

  Family Farm

  Many consumers want to support small-scale family farmers. They like the idea of their money helping keep more small farmers on the land and are willing to go out of their way to spend for this purpose.

  Oregon Country Beef tries to touch on several of these niches at once with its advertising (Figure 9.1).

  Marketing Venues

  Where you market your products and how you reach your customers depends on your resources and your personality. Marketing venues run the gamut from on-farm sales to marketing through major grocery chains, with a wide variety of options in between.

  The Farm

  Most direct-marketers work right from their farms. Our customers just dropped by — though we recommended they call first to make sure somebody would be there. When marketing from the farm, there is one concern you must be conscious of: If your customers can’t find the farm, they can’t buy from you. All written information (flyers, brochures, and so on) and advertisements should provide clear instructions on how to get to your place of business.

  Figure 9.1. (A.) The Oregon Country Beef brochure folds out from a business card size; brochures are kept in display racks where the meat is sold. (B.) When opened, the brochure highlights the niche markets to which the group appeals — supporters of natural, green, lean, and family ranches.

  The Storefront

  Direct-marketers Don Rathke and Connie Karstens, owners of The Lamb Shoppe, in Hutchinson, Minnesota, have built a storefront business on their farm, with regular hours. They have put in their own butchering facilities and a processing kitchen for creating value-added products right on their property.

  Another approach to a storefront business is to move the store into town. Tommy Cashion, and his daughter Tommie-Lyn, of Woodbury, Georgia, run their storefront business in nearby Warm Springs. (See their story on p. 122.) The Cashions have always raised beef and goats on their ranch but felt they needed additional diversity on their place, so in 1994 they added red deer. Their in-town business consists of a pub and retail outlet that evolved out of their deer operation. The pub’s menu features deer, and they sell a variety of deer-related products, including antler furniture, chandeliers, and lamps; wine gift baskets featuring venison sausage and jerky; and deer-hide rugs.

  Farmers’ Markets and Flea Markets

  Farmers’ markets and flea markets provide another outlet for meat and dairy products. When marketing meat or dairy products at a farmers’ market, keeping things cold or frozen is a concern. Ron and Mindy Desens of Litchfield, Minnesota, regularly sell lamb and chicken at the St. Paul farmers’ market. They have a chest freezer mounted in the back of their pickup that stays plugged in until it’s time to head to the market; once at the market, they pay extra for a space with electrical outlets available.

  Location. Farmers who use the farmers’ market approach do best if they are located near a large, urban area, or a place where urban consumers are passing through regularly. From reports we’ve had and our own experience, rural farmers’ markets don’t do as well, because people in exclusively rural communities go to the farmers’ market to find bargains. When you’re direct-marketing, you want customers who are looking for quality and are willing to pay for it, not bargain hunters.

  Presentation. Successful farmers’ marketers also say that presentation is a major concern. Attractive displays draw people in. Meat is best packaged in Cryovac (vacuum-sealed packaging), which allows the consumer to view the product. Most butchers can supply this type of packaging for a small additional charge, but David Schafer, who markets at the Kansas City farmers’ market, says this extra charge is well worth it. He also says, “Post anything that has ever been written about you and your farm. Customers like dealing with a ‘famous farmer.’”

  Samples. Another strategy that helps move product at a farmers’ market is to give out samples. Heather Olson sells eggs, bacon, and breakfast sausage every week at the Litchfield, Minnesota, farmers’ market. Heather takes a camp cookstove with her, and fries up samples for the crowd, drawing people over to her stand. She also brings along store-bought eggs: She breaks a store-bought egg in one dish and a farm-fresh egg in another. The old saying goes, “A picture paints a thousand words,” and the beautiful golden color of her egg yolks next to the washed-out-looking store-bought eggs does just that.

  Consumer-Supported Agriculture

  Consumer-supported agriculture (CSA) operates on a subscription basis and most often involves market-gardening operations. However, farmers who run CSAs often offer meat and eggs — of their own, or from another area farmer — as part of the member’s subscription package. Members pay at the beginning of the year and receive a share of the farm’s production during the growing season. The up-front money helps the farmer plan for the year’s needs and gives him or her money at the beginning of the year to purchase supplies. The members also bear some of the risk; in a poor crop year, members receive less than in a good crop year.

  In one variation on the CSA theme, customers order their meat at the beginning of the year, so the farmer can grow basically what he has standing orders for. Joel Salatin markets pasture-raised chickens (and eggs), turkeys, rabbits, pork, and beef (mixed
quarters, halves, or wholes) this way. Joel sends out an order form in January, with the customers specifying not only what type and quantity of meat they want, but also on which of several delivery dates that Joel offers they would like to receive their product. Chickens and rabbits are butchered and picked up at the farm. Beef and pork are butchered at a local packer, where Joel meets his customers on pickup day to complete the financial transaction. (The Salatins also offer federally inspected and labeled beef and pork for customers who don’t want to deal with the large quantities of halves and wholes.)

  Stores and Restaurants

  Marketing to stores and restaurants takes a greater commitment of time on your part. These accounts must be serviced regularly. We tried to develop a working relationship with a small food co-op about an hour away. For us, this didn’t work; the distance was too great for us to service them, given the small quantities of meat that they could turn over. Stores and restaurants also require a steady supply that may become difficult for individuals to meet. This is one area in which group efforts pay off especially well.

  Image

  Successful marketing, regardless of the venue you choose, is somewhat like improvisational theater. Your customers have a picture in their mind of what a farmer or rancher is supposed to look like, and it behooves you to play the part. Clean bib overalls and a straw hat, or a plaid shirt, jeans, and a cowboy hat fit the bill. Neither a scraggly hippie look nor young-businessman attire works well for your audience. If you’re unsure of what look matches the mental picture that suburban and urban consumers have, pick up a Smith & Hawken or Eddie Bauer catalog and study the styles. That’s country to city folks!

  Developing a Clientele

  Developing a clientele is one of the toughest jobs for the direct-marketer. Talk to any successful direct-marketer, and he or she will tell you that the key to success is developing a loyal customer base — folks that come back again and again.

  Word of Mouth

  Loyal customers are also your best advertisers: Word-of-mouth advertising grows a business better, and is cheaper, than any other form of advertising. We began marketing first to friends and acquaintances, but, largely through word of mouth, our customer base steadily increased.

  There are two different terms that professional marketers use: advertising and promotions. Advertising is simply putting your business in the public’s eye, primarily through the use of some “media.” Everything from business cards to paid ads in commercial media (newspapers, Yellow Pages, radio, or television) falls into the category of advertising. T-shirts or baseball caps with your farm’s name on them are also a form of advertising, as is providing free samples.

  Promotions are a specialized form of advertising in which your business supports some community event or group. Sponsor a Little League team, and you are engaging in a promotion. Provide free, or at-cost, ground beef to the local Rotary Club for its annual community picnic, and you are doing a promotion.

  Flyers

  One of the most successful, and cheapest, advertising tools we found for getting our business in front of new customers was a computer-generated sign with our phone number on “tear-offs” at the bottom (Figure 9.2). We placed these on bulletin boards in laundromats, convenience stores, the library, and on other readily accessible public bulletin boards. Inevitably, each one of these signs garnered us at least one new customer.

  Classified Ads

  Newspaper classifieds didn’t net us many meat sales, though we did sell some breeding stock and calves using classifieds. Some farmers do have success marketing meat through newspaper advertising. Stephen and Kay Castner of Kay’s Home Farm Lean Meats in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, run a regular display ad in their local weekly paper.

  Figure 9.2. Little Wing Farm brochure, with “tear-offs” at bottom, an inexpensive advertisement.

  Internet

  The Castners have also developed a Web page on the Internet. They’ve had it for a number of years, and although they don’t feel it has had much impact on meat sales it has helped them market breeding stock. They raise purebred Galloway cattle and Targhee sheep on their farm, and contacts made through their Web page have netted breeding stock sales as far away as Kansas.

  Ethnic and Special Markets

  Ethnic markets sometimes provide a good clientele, but they may require special services. Sherry O’Donnell of Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, found an excellent market for her lambs among Muslims attending school in North Dakota. Muslims have religious ceremonies that are to be performed when the lambs are slaughtered, so they want to do their own butchering. Sherry set up an area for butchering right on her farm specifically to accommodate the needs of this clientele. Muslim families come out, spend the day, and butcher several lambs each for their freezers.

  Farm Visits

  Most successful marketers encourage their clients to visit the farm, even if sales don’t occur there. Some host an annual barbecue to which all their regular customers are invited. Others just extend a fairly open invitation. No matter what approach you use, the goal is always the same: to create a proprietary interest in your operation among your customers (Figure 9.3).

  Our customers had a standing offer to come out to the farm anytime, though we did encourage them to phone first and make sure we’d be home. Most included an outing to our farm anytime they had outof-area visitors. Our customers loved the fact that they could bring their friends to a real farm where the kids could pet baby animals, or even some big ones. Some of these visitors became long-distance customers, purchasing meat from us whenever they came through the area, but even if the visitors never purchased anything, the “hosts” became more dedicated customers!

  Figure 9.3. A three-fold brochure is easy to create and can communicate your mission and highlight special events and activities.

  Community Outreach

  Another strategy for developing a client base is doing promotions for civic groups. Offer to attend a meeting of the Rotary, a homemaker’s club, or an environmental group. Prepare a slide show and presentation describing your farm’s operation and the environmental benefits of grass farming. Have some sample products to give out after the presentation: meatballs in a Crock-Pot, say, or hard-boiled eggs. If your goal is to offer on-farm hunting or fishing, attend a sportsmen’s club meeting.

  Samples

  Offering samples works not only at the farmers’ market and when you’re doing promotions for civic groups, but also in almost any public place where you can set up to do them. Our local natural foods store lacked the freezer space to carry our meat, but Mary, the owner, let me come in from time to time and set up a table to give out samples. The smell of cooking meat helped draw people into her business, and helped me find new customers: a win-win situation!

  Home Delivery

  Home-delivery services work for some farmers. Dick and Pam Bowne run Gemini Golden Guernsey Milk of Palisade, Minnesota. A home-delivery route for bottled milk from their herd of Guernsey cows is a primary part of their business. Guernsey milk has a great golden color and wonderful taste. “We wanted to be able to provide this quality of milk directly to an appreciative clientele,” says Pam. To initially build that clientele, the Bownes went door to door in target neighborhoods, leaving a small sample bottle of milk and information on ordering. As well as running a home-delivery service, Pam and Dick market their milk and ice cream at stores in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area and at the Minneapolis farmers’ market from mid-April through mid-November.

  Mail Order

  Mail order is the final strategy successful direct-marketers use. One problem with the mail-order approach is that shipping costs are quite high for meat or dairy products, but specialty meats and other farm products may have a high enough profit margin to do well from a mail-order catalog. Specialty meats include those coming from “exotic” animals, such as bison or ostrich, or certain processed products like jerky.

  Maintaining a Clientele

  Once you’ve identified clients, keeping them
becomes your next challenge. Find some way to keep in touch with regular customers. Flyers and newsletters, handed out during presentation, or mailed to your customer list, work well (Figure 9.4). Tell people what’s happening on your place, tell stories about your animals, or let them know about food issues and policies that affect them and you — like a factory farm trying to come into the area.

  Figure 9.4. Newsletters appeal to and educate consumers.

  All correspondence with your customers should include information on ordering, product availability, new products, and price changes. Computers are useful for preparing newsletters, as well as maintaining mailing lists and preparing flyers and labels, but they aren’t absolutely necessary. Hand-prepared materials work, but they must be neat and legible.

  Developing a Marketing Plan

  The first step into alternative marketing is planning. Take the time to work through a planning process, and your likelihood of success will be greatly increased. Planning for marketing is special, and separate from the general planning you’ll work on in part IV, so I’ll cover it here. Still, some of the information you’ll need for your marketing plan — such as cost of production — will actually be developed as part of the whole-farm planning you’ll do in part IV.

  The goal of your marketing plan is to help you understand where your product fits into the market, who your customers are, what they want from you (their likes and dislikes), and who your competitors are. It should help you develop advertising and pricing strategies. It’s primarily a tool for your own use, but if you need to seek outside financing to begin your marketing endeavors bankers will want to see it. Developing your plan is a form of mental exercise; work on it in family brainstorming sessions.