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Favorite FAN Feature: Old Rich Valley Farm
249 Plays3 years ago
In this episode of the Direct Farm Podcast, Amy and Will Campbell of Old Rich Valley Farm will share with Rory, their favorite Barn2Door feature and tips that have helped her business profit.
Show Notes:
https://oldrichvalleyfarm.com
https://barn2door.com/resources
https://barn2door.com/connect
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Direct Farm Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Direct Farm podcast, the weekly listen for farm selling direct.
Four Levers for Farm Success
00:00:07
Speaker
We'll talk about the four levers for farm success, which are quality, brand, price, and convenience. We'll hear from outside industry experts and producers like you to delight your customers, save time, and to increase your direct farm sales and business. We're glad you're here.
Meet the Hosts and Guests
00:00:26
Speaker
Welcome to the direct farm podcast. I'm Rory, your host for today's episode. We've got a great conversation for you today with two members of our farm advisor network, Amy and Will Campbell of Old Ridge Valley farm located in Western Virginia. Welcome Amy and Will. It's great to have you guys back. It's been a while since you've been on the podcast.
00:00:45
Speaker
Hey, yeah, we're glad to be here. Yeah. Appreciate you having us.
The Campbell's Farming Journey
00:00:48
Speaker
Maybe to start, since it has been a little bit, could you guys tell us a little bit about your farm and what you produce? We farm here in Southwest Virginia. And, uh, we raised path to raise beef, chicken and pork and try to sell it locally. Our farm is kind of in the mountains and we, you know, probably two thirds of our farm is mountains or woodland and.
00:01:09
Speaker
our pasture is kind of rolling. And so there's some, you know, it's steep and rocky, but it produces a lot of grass naturally. And so we're, we're kind of letting nature do its thing. And, uh, you know, we, we can eat grass, but our cows, pigs and chickens can, and they can turn that into good, healthy protein. And so that's kind of what we're trying to do. Awesome. What kind of, uh, got you guys into farming and specifically doing that by owning your own farm business?
00:01:35
Speaker
Well, I grew up on a farm and I always had the dream of farming, but didn't really see it as a super realistic, I guess, maybe grew up in Knoxville. And so this is all in there to me, but yeah, she's jumped right in and we've moved in, been a team from the beginning. And we've got our three kids and another one on the way. And so they're a big part of what we do and why we do it. What would be like two pieces of advice you would give to somebody that's just starting up their farm?
00:02:00
Speaker
read a lot, look at what other people are doing and learn from their mistakes as best you can before you make the mistake yourself. But also you're going to make a lot of mistakes. We definitely have. And we've changed the way we farm and how we do stuff. I mean, we change every year just based on learning from our mistakes. And I think just not to get discouraged when you start out kind of slow, you know, like we just started and we're not a huge operation, but we just started.
00:02:26
Speaker
at the farmer's markets and some days we didn't hardly sell anything. And it was very discouraging, but now we have built up that customer base and we have some customers that we know are going to come back and purchase more meat and say, yeah, just not to get discouraged when you're not growing really quickly, I guess.
00:02:44
Speaker
Yeah, awesome.
Transition to Barnador for Farm Management
00:02:45
Speaker
Well, you guys actually signed up, I noticed with Barnador back in 2019. So what were kind of some of the primary reasons for you choosing to use Barnador at that time? And what were some of the main reasons you guys came over to the platform?
00:02:58
Speaker
Oh, neither one of us are very tech savvy by any means. And so I had actually tried for. Probably two years to create our website. You know, I just got them for space and just tried to even just build a basic website, uh, with information about our farm and we just couldn't do it. When we found out about marker door and now they would not only help us by creating this beautiful website, but also.
00:03:24
Speaker
the farm store feature, it just made so much sense. Before that, we were kind of getting orders through Facebook, comments, through Messenger, through texts, through emails, through calls. I mean, they are just, orders were coming in from every direction and it was hard to keep up with. And so, that is one thing that I am truly thankful for with Barn to doors that the orders, I can just send everyone to the website and just the orders are a lot more organized now.
00:03:50
Speaker
That's great, dear. Well, what was kind of that initial setup period like? Obviously there's, you have to build out the website with the Barnadore team and then the entire online store side of things. So how did that kind of initial setup go? And what was that like for both of you?
00:04:05
Speaker
Well, I kind of had to talk him into it because he kept thinking we could do it on our end. Well, I knew it was something that we needed to do, but I kept thinking there's a better time. Like maybe in the fall when things slow down or the winter, you know, the things never really slow down. And she was like, we just need to go ahead and just do it now. And it was good advice.
00:04:25
Speaker
And it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be too. You know, we came up with our missions, which we already kind of had our mission statement type thing and just information about us. And yeah, they just went in and created everything for us. And it was so much better than I ever could have done, but even thought it would look so.
00:04:44
Speaker
That's great. That's always the goal with every farm. After some time using Bar to Door, you guys came on to our farm advisor network and joined that team in the last year. So what has that kind of experience been like and what are your favorite parts about that role? First of all, it's one of those things where we didn't really quite feel qualified enough. We need to be advised more than we should, but we have to tell people we got to write a book on how not to do things. But there's now that you've got that too, you know? Definitely.
00:05:10
Speaker
said we can learn a lot from other people's mistakes and we don't mind sharing our mistakes and hopefully prevent other people from making some of the lessons that we've learned the hard way, but it has been good. And I know that we've gotten probably as much or more out of it as, as the people, you know, that we're trying to help, I guess. So it's been a good learning experience. I mean, at the end of the day, we're all better working together and helping each other than we are trying to figure out everything on our own. So it's been, it's been good.
00:05:39
Speaker
any time we could help give advice or kind of encourage them to take the next step. That's exciting for us.
The Power of Subscription Models
00:05:45
Speaker
So a series that we've recently started, this is actually going to be the second episode in this series with our farm advisor network, highlighting your guys' favorite features on the Barn to Door platform. And so obviously there's a super wide range of features on Barn to Door that are all kind of built specifically to meet the needs of farmers. What would that favorite feature be for you guys? Yeah. So the subscriptions has been a game changer for us and our farm.
00:06:11
Speaker
And not just because it's been good for us, but it's good for the subscribers, for our customers. We started doing that, you know, with COVID whenever it was, you know, the meat shortage and, you know, a lot of people were looking for meat and all the local processors were booked for months and months. You know, right now with our process and we have to schedule dates, you know, over a year in advance. And that's hard to predict, you know, what your sales are going to be like over a year from now, but that's kind of the game that you have to play right now.
00:06:39
Speaker
And the hard shares or subscriptions helps us plan on that. And not only that, but it helps the customers know that they're going to have meat for the next year. Every month they can count on it and not have to worry about what it's going to cost because that's already great to a year monthly subscription. And so they know they're going to get their meat and what it's going to cost and roughly what they're going to get. And so subscriptions has really, really helped.
00:07:03
Speaker
If you could explain to everybody what is the base structure of your subscriptions? How have you set up your subscriptions? Our subscriptions are monthly and the idea behind it for us was trying to move whole animals. One of the challenges with selvin beef or pork in particular is you've got lots of different cuts.
00:07:22
Speaker
And you need to try to move all of those, you know, together so you don't get backed up on too much ground beef for too much of this or that or whatever. And so we're trying to figure out a way to, you know, move the whole animal consistently. Generally the way the herd shares works is people can sign up for either a half a beef share or a quarter beef share or a whole hog share or half hog share.
00:07:43
Speaker
And so basically they'll pay monthly and they'll have that half a beef divided up over 12 months or whatever they subscribe to. And so yeah, that's basically how it works. We take animals to the processor every month. And then so whenever we get that meat back, our herd shares get priority. You know, we fill our herd shares whenever we get the meat back. And then if we have some left after that, then we'll put it on our farm store and people can order it or take
00:08:08
Speaker
the farmer's markets or whatever that's in a nutshell how it works. Were you guys able to offer subscriptions before you were on Barnador? We really never even thought about subscriptions much before we did have like bulk boxes that we offered but again somebody might buy a bulk box once or twice a year and so
00:08:29
Speaker
They're not always coming back frequently. So with the subscriptions, you know, it is monthly. And so they pick up monthly. Their payment comes out automatically monthly. They don't even have to think about it. And so they're, they just keep coming back to get more meat. So yeah, before that, it would be a lot harder if people were having to pay cash or write a check or swipe a card at every pickup. So.
00:08:52
Speaker
I don't know that we would be as successful with retaining customers if they weren't signed up online where it just came out automatically without them having to think about it. It would be a lot to keep up with and it would be more hassle on their heart as well.
00:09:07
Speaker
When I first saw all the subscription feature on Bart to dork, I even thought, well, that's just for CSAs. That's not for protein farmers. You know, that's not for us. And so we really didn't start it when I first even read about the subscriptions. And then we really got to think about it and really that works for us too. We can do monthly boxes.
00:09:28
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, really, we didn't realize that was an option or even how to incorporate it. We kind of just had the herd share idea or plan with, you know, with where we didn't know how to implement that, but it just turned out with subscriptions was perfect way to incorporate our chairs into our deals. What were some of like the main reasons that you chose to go that route and start offering subscriptions?
00:09:49
Speaker
Well, when with just returning customers, if we could get them to pick up every month, then we know that they're going to be a customer for a full year.
00:09:58
Speaker
Instead of at the farmer's market, you know, it's great that they come and buy there, but you never know what they want. And usually you don't even have yet bring everything you should have of what cuts they want that day. But honestly, just the, the idea of moving, like Will said earlier, of moving a whole animal. We know if we have so many people sign up for a half beef share, then that's an entire cow that we.
00:10:22
Speaker
can get processed and move every single month. Just as far as the production and the sales standpoint, that was an acceptable point for us. Yeah, really it helps plan our production just because our farm has a lot of potential,
Production Planning with Subscriptions
00:10:35
Speaker
right? But we can produce lots of beef, pork, and chicken, but it's not really worth anything if we don't have somebody else that sees the value in it that's a buy it, right? But like we said earlier, that's hard to predict and hard to guess at.
00:10:48
Speaker
The more subscriptions we have, the more we know how much to produce. Yeah. That's definitely a great added benefit of that. Did you guys see any kind of immediate impacts when you started offering subscriptions in the store? And out of how were those received by customers when you first put them in there? Well,
00:11:03
Speaker
Well, one of the things that we both noticed was, I mean, we were, you know, some people to sign up, but a lot of the people that joined our herd chairs were not existing customers. A lot of them were new customers, you know, so there are a lot of people that come to the farmer's markets for that, that order on online that know kind of what they want and they get it. But this kind of was, it was appealing to kind of a new set of customer base that, you know, kind of have a budget in mind, you know, and they
00:11:28
Speaker
kind of knew how much meat that they wanted and couldn't expect. And like Jamie said, they don't really have to worry with how much of this do I want and how much kind of budget, you know, like it's just kind of what we noticed was that it was appealing to a new set of customers. What has kind of been the shift towards subscriptions? Like if you guys had to give a percentage wise of how many customers have shifted over to just signing up with the subscription and going that route.
00:11:51
Speaker
Well, yeah, before COVID, we weren't doing any hard chairs or subscriptions. And then right now, I would say that definitely over half of our sales are through subscriptions, our chairs. Wow. So it's a really significant portion.
00:12:05
Speaker
I guess, like he said, a lot of them were new customers, so it didn't take away from our existing customers. You just added new customers. And then some of our existing customers did actually switch over to subscriptions because they realized we're going to fill those churchyard orders, those subscriptions first.
00:12:22
Speaker
And then whatever left is what we have to sell. And so sometimes we didn't have anything extra to sell or not a whole lot. So they realized kind of that scarcity mentality of, Oh, I better join the subscription if I want some meat. Did that help? That's a great tactic for sure. And I know a lot of times the worry with people doing a herd share or something like that is freezer space. So how do you guys kind of utilize subscriptions to make your products more accessible and more convenient for customers?
00:12:51
Speaker
Well, one thing from the customer end is the way our herd shares are set up, they get a half a beef or a whole hog or like we said, quarter hog or half hog. But if we have a lot of customers that want a half a beef, but they don't have a big chest freezer or they don't have whatever it costs to the cashflow, um, to pay for a half beef at one time. And so this way they're getting a half beef by the end of the year, but they don't have to have chest freezer. They don't have to make that investment.
00:13:18
Speaker
So from the customer standpoint, they appreciate the ability to pick up monthly and pay monthly. And then from our standpoint, it does actually take a little more freezer space because we have to hold on to their shares. We get the meat back from the processor, then we fill all of our share orders. So they go back into our freezer until their delivery date for that month. So that is kind of, I guess one downside for us is that we are holding on to their meat.
00:13:47
Speaker
We try to stay a month ahead, just to give us a little wiggle room. You know, sometimes like if the, if we're a week later, getting our meat back or we just want to make sure that we can fill all of those subscriptions and give them what they're expecting and what they're paying for work. It does take freezer space. That's definitely part of the equation.
Customer Payment Flexibility
00:14:05
Speaker
But the alternative is happened, you know, a freezer full of meat that you're just hoping people order from, you know, so right now at least we're putting.
00:14:13
Speaker
beat into the freezer that people had signed up for to get for the next several months, as opposed to just putting it in there and in hope that people should chill up at the farmer's market wanting to buy whatever you take. Yeah, that's huge. I get that great point of having that certainty that that meat is already sold, that you know, it's actually going somewhere. You don't have to worry about tons and tons of pounds of ground beef or something just sitting in the freezer. That's awesome.
00:14:36
Speaker
What kind of pricing options do you guys give your customers and how does that just make managing those subscriptions easier for you? We do offer a variety of options just like you mentioned and we kind of gave them the choice of whatever works for them. Most do the monthly subscriptions where it just comes out automatically because it's easier for them and that's easier for us too. But there have been some that opted to pay in full from the get-go and some would prefer to just
00:15:02
Speaker
You know, write a check every time they pick it up. And so we're flexible with that, but we have noticed that most prefer, you know, just to have it come out automatically. Farmers can sometimes be like suspicious or nervous about kind of starting subscriptions. Cause a lot of times I think it's the impression of, Oh man, I'm going to have this whole program to, to organize and manage. So what would kind of be your advice or maybe like your personal testimony about how you can gain some recurring revenue and kind of lock in those sales and how that can kind of be helpful for
Advice on Subscription Models for Farmers
00:15:30
Speaker
your farm business.
00:15:30
Speaker
I think the best part of the subscription is knowing, like I can look ahead at the end of the year and now it's actually how much money we're going to make from the subscriptions. And I can't do that for the rest of ourselves. I can make a guess based on what was the last year or something, but as far as our monthly deliveries, I know for sure that I have sold this much meat at the certain pickup or patient. So that really helps me.
00:15:57
Speaker
I think anytime you're transitioning to something new, starting small seems to make sense. And so, and maybe, maybe not. I don't know, but I think just making it through is important. And, but I think if you, if you make small mistakes, it's better than making big mistakes. But I think the more you just kind of have to jump into it and then you'll figure it out. You know, we, we kind of had a vision of what we thought it might look like.
00:16:21
Speaker
And I think, yeah, as in certain small, if you know you're going to have one beef process every single month, then how many shares do you know you can fill out of that beef and just offer those 20 shares or whatever it is and make sure you're not over offering. Because with the subscription, you always want to make sure you fill that subscription. It would be bad to say, Hey, sorry, I know you paid. So definitely shoot under what you know you're going to get back.
00:16:49
Speaker
I guess, and just offer that number. But I have talked to a couple people just interested in Barnadore and interested in the subscriptions and stuff. And it is really difficult right now with the processors still being kind of out of whack. That's one thing with the subscriptions, meet subscriptions, you have to know that you've got a spot. If you're doing weekly or monthly or whatever it is,
00:17:11
Speaker
you've got to know that you're going to get that meet back weekly or monthly for sure. So that's one thing to consider before you just jump into a subscription too.
Exploring Growth Areas in Subscriptions
00:17:20
Speaker
Well, and also that's one of the benefits to the herd chairs too is the main bottleneck is through the USDA inspected facilities, but with the herd chairs, just with the raw milk, it gives the opportunity to use custom facilities because, you know, technically they own, you know, part of the herd. You know, like if you, like if we take our council, you know, we could take it to a custom processor and get that meat back. And so.
00:17:44
Speaker
same way for somebody to get in a half or a quarter or a share. And so that, that does add another, another option that I think is good as long as the, you know, the farmers are being, you know, transparent and interested in the process. Well, and I think kind of what I keep hearing from you guys too is just how helpful subscriptions are for that planning ahead, whether that's with processors or knowing how many
00:18:06
Speaker
beef you want to slaughter that month or that year or how many you should be raising. So could you maybe speak to that too? Just like, how does that work in terms of just being able to plan ahead and have a little more certainty around all those variables? Yeah. Yeah. It makes a huge difference. Yeah. So like I said, our farm has, has lots of potential, you know, we can produce lots of beef, pork and chicken. But yeah, at the end of the day, we have to figure out how much to produce and how many dates we need to schedule, you know, a year in advance.
00:18:35
Speaker
And so just these subscriptions just really help us plan how much of what to produce.
Educating Customers on Meat Cuts
00:18:40
Speaker
What are maybe some of the ways you guys could see yourselves expanding on the subscriptions feature in the future and kind of growing that out and getting more customers to kind of purchase from you that way?
00:18:50
Speaker
Yeah, so we, we have, I mean, honestly, as far as our, our long-term goals, we love the hard chairs and would, you know, love to just continue to grow the hard chairs more and more. We have talked about incorporating other things into our subscriptions, just like maybe a ground beef subscription or a salsa subscription, or if we get to the point where we, you know, feel good about our egg production throughout the course of the year, we thought about adding on, you know, egg subscriptions.
00:19:15
Speaker
Our only thing is, again, we thoroughly enjoy using the herd chairs subscription to make sure we're moving a whole animal. So if we brand out of that, then we just have to make sure what we're putting in the box is also helping us move the whole animals and not just, you know, everybody would love a box that has fillets, chicken breasts in it, but that's not really going to help us that much.
00:19:39
Speaker
But there are people that, that do have beef and pork and whole chicken subscriptions. Yeah. No, definitely. Amy, that that's a great point too about, you know, everybody wants steaks, but how does you guys kind of manage that? And, and is there anything you have to do to kind of like almost teach people how to use certain cuts of meat that they end up getting from you guys, whether that's a roaster or what, what they, when they don't know what to do with all that ground beef.
00:20:03
Speaker
Um, so we kind of have to stagger our boxes and make sure that not everybody's get revised, but some people are getting strips, stuff like that. And then definitely, as far as the cuts go, one thing that we try to do each month or each week, really, when we send out our newsletters is to send out recipes. They're getting a lot of ground beef every month. And some people request more. Some people use a lot of ground beef. Some people are like drowning in ground beef, saying, what do I do with all this ground beef?
00:20:33
Speaker
So sending out just different recipes for how to cook your roasts or different ground beef recipes or some people have never seen a flank steak before. And so they don't know what to do with that.
Managing Subscriptions and Business Growth
00:20:44
Speaker
But giving out recipes has also been a huge bonus, I think, and it helps people utilize all their cuts of meat.
00:20:51
Speaker
We pretty much say, here's pretty much what you can expect with a half a beef. And if there's some of these cuts that you don't prefer, we can have, you can get round beef instead of a chuck roast, if you don't want chuck roaches or instead of brisket. Yeah. Well, and that's nice. I think that also being able to almost like sprinkle those more high dollar items out throughout the year kind of incentivizes that subscription purchase as well, which is awesome. Yeah.
00:21:15
Speaker
I guess as kind of a final question, what would maybe be your guys's, and I guess you could do these together or if you both have three, then awesome. But what would kind of be your three things you think all farmers should kind of be keeping in mind as they're setting up or maybe just reassessing how they go about subscriptions within Barn to Door? Yeah. So, so for one, I would just reiterate knowing.
00:21:36
Speaker
whatever subscription it is, just knowing what it costs to produce whatever it is you're producing and then you have, you know, some profit built in there. So I guess that's one thing I would reiterate. And then also just the, like Amy mentioned, the importance of patience and being, you know, being willing to grow slow. And then I guess this isn't necessarily related to subscriptions, but just.
00:21:58
Speaker
related to us as farmers is just the importance of communicating our values as farmers and caregivers because, you know, I mean, subscribing to a year long, that's a big, a big commitment on on their end.
Closing and Resources
00:22:10
Speaker
You know, that's a lot of trust that they're putting into and they're not just trying to do that random like they were, you know, for another reason. And so
00:22:16
Speaker
One thing I don't think that we hit on that's also important when you're setting up restrictions, you have to say where your delivery sites are going to be. So thinking through where are you going to deliver so we have like six options, I think.
00:22:32
Speaker
Every month, no matter what, I will be delivering to these six options. And so when are signing up for their subscription they choose which location is closest or most convenient for them. And then the same way with not just the subscriptions but anybody that orders from our website, those are the only six options and so
00:22:52
Speaker
I know for sure that I have to deliver my subscriptions. And then if I sell any extra stuff, that's just kind of a bonus. So again, kind of nailing down your delivery sites. What's going to be a good location for the pickup and then a good location for you to schedule in and each month.
00:23:08
Speaker
And then not making sure you don't over-commit, like we talked about before, that if you think that you're going to have one cow available every month, then make sure you only do a certain number of subscriptions and not over-commit. And then hopefully you can continue to grow and maybe you'll have two cows available every month as your subscriptions grow, you know.
00:23:31
Speaker
I want to extend my thanks to Amy and Will for joining us on this week's podcast episode. Here at Barn to Door, we're humbled to support thousands of farms across the country, including farmers like Amy and Will, who implement sustainable agricultural practices and support their local community. If you would like to ask Amy and Will any questions directly, you can meet them and other farm advisors in Barn to Door Connect. To learn more and register to attend, go to barn to door.com slash connect sessions occur weekly.
00:23:58
Speaker
For more information on Old Ridge Valley Farm, visit oldrichvalleyfarm.com. And to learn more about Barn to Door, including access to numerous free resources and best practices for your farm, go to barn to door.com slash resources. Thank you for tuning in and we'll see you next week.