Gaining Sustainability

I’m figuring 3 or 4 more years before I head out to farm full time and let the young Turks run the business. If I’m going to spend all this time on a business anyway, might as well do the one thing I’ve always wanted to and that’s create a farm that pays for itself. Carl Russell and others have logged some pretty good articles on keeping the cash coming in (sustainable if you will) and this is the part where it takes good business sense and great salesmanship. My problem is I don’t want to sell vegtables out of a pick up truck, nor run a roadside stand … but there needs to be a cash flow to make me happy. Right now all I sell is hay and that’s just 60 acres worth. There’s an additional 75 acres I share with the neighbor who hays as well. We have never had gas powered equipment except for an old ’61 Chevy ton and a half which we bought out of a junk yard this winter and fixed up for hauling from the farm to a customer.

After watching a PBS program on farming in the Adirondack’s were this one farm supplied the vegtables for a seasonal restaurant I set out to talk with as many Head Chef’s in the city as possible. What their wants and needs are and who meets them surprised me. And with the great trucking network I was surprised at just how far the goods come in from. The point being the market is there. What the chefs told me is they want consistency. That’s a tough one with the drought that has plagued the south. Irrigation is not always an option, even when it is, tomato for example will not set fruit in the heat of July – August as night time temps won’t reach 70’s except for maybe an hour or two. Our lettuce season if frightfully short owing to the heat and there’s just so much Okra you can use. What the chefs pointed out is that what they offer in the kitchens is to some extent a copy cat of what other cities offer as that’s what the guests like when they come to eat from other cities. We seem to pay a lot of attention as to what Dallas is doing, and Dallas seems to pay a lot of attention to Southern California. So the pressure to provide “fresh” vegatables offered in other areas with our growing season (which is long and hot) is tough. In talking with two of our large vegtable distributors I found this to be a whole different animal. Here you can run into computer processes that require something of the farm to show where it comes from, and that’s FDA.

Where it goes next get’s tricky. Boxes, packaging, and a quality logo are expensive. But it has to be done. You really want the person getting the delivery to smile when it comes in knowing he or she has a good product. Guess the advertising angle is going to be me for now. You have to wonder if those around the area of Woodstock take a lesson from Max Yagur who besides being the man who rented the alfalfa field for the concert, built quite a dairy business and knew how to make a farm sustainable and marketable. Not many local big time dairies around anymore. If they had a good name they’ve been bought out. Hood was big in New England and I guess is still going strong. I’ll continue on with the marketing / business plan and keep you posted. Below find some quick links to a couple of successful farms elsewhere. Till then, may you all have a successful season ahead.

Chad

http://www.froghollow.com/ 133 acre farm Brentwood, CA

http://www.nwpub.net/Selling-Produce-Hot-50-Small-Farm-Marketing-Tips-2.html