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Many Tactics for Selling Pastured Poultry for Profit
157 Plays13 hours ago
In this week’s episode, Phil from Hopewell Farms (GA) shares how he has scaled his poultry operation from scratch to a profitable business. Hear how he thinks about costs, builds in recurring revenue and successfully prices & packages his birds.
For more Farm resources, visit: barn2door.com/resources
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Transcript
Introduction & Purpose
00:00:10
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Independent Farmer podcast, the go-to podcast for do-it-yourself farmers who are taking control of their own business, skipping the middleman, and selling direct to local consumer and wholesale buyers.
00:00:20
Speaker
This podcast is hosted by Barn to Door, the number one business tool for independent farmers to manage their business, promote their brand, and sell online and in person. Let's dive in to today's Independent Farmer podcast.
Meet Janelle: Supporting Independent Farmers
00:00:42
Speaker
Welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast. I'm Janelle, CEO of Barn to Door and your host for today's episode. As many of our listeners may be aware, Barn to Door offers an all-in-one business solution for independent farmers who are cutting out the middleman, taking control of their business, selling under their brand, and making sure their customers can purchase from them online and in person.
Phil's Poultry Operations & Equipment
00:01:02
Speaker
In today's conversation, we're going to get into selling poultry products directly into your community. Today, i'm happy to welcome back Phil of Hopewell Farms in Georgia. Phil has been working Barnes & Noble for a number of years and is part of our Farm Advisor Network.
00:01:16
Speaker
Since becoming an advisor, Phil has shared tips for building a local customer base in your community through educating and connecting with buyers. He helps train a lot of other farmers, basically. He gives them all kinds of good advice.
00:01:27
Speaker
He has successfully grown a six-figure operation, shares his tips and tactics with other independent farmers across the country. Today, though, we are specifically diving into how Phil manages, markets, and fulfills his poultry sales.
00:01:40
Speaker
Welcome, Phil. Thank you so much. The timing is great because every three weeks we harvest our chickens which we do turkeys too. So there's more to the poultry, this chickens tomorrow we'll be harvesting our next batch of birds.
00:01:55
Speaker
And I just stepped in from taking receipt of ah an additional like scaldor that we needed and that we got just in the middle of time. Yeah. So poultry processing and always selling on the brain right now, specifically.
00:02:08
Speaker
Yeah, i can appreciate that. It'd be nice to do a tour or an intake of folks like, hey, what's on your brain right now? Because not everybody would say poultry, processing and sc scalders.
00:02:19
Speaker
That's right.
00:02:22
Speaker
Oh, that's great. I love it. You know, it's on my brain. I'm getting ready for next month because it's the end of May. And so in our business, it's like, okay, you have to get all the things wrapped up in one month and then geared up
Phil's Farming Journey & Business Approach
00:02:32
Speaker
for the next. So it's a busy, busy time for us too.
00:02:35
Speaker
That's awesome. Okay. So that we can share all of your great ideas and processes and cadence and things that you've learned on poultry, and maybe we should dip into turkey. We'll we'll do that just for fun at some point.
00:02:47
Speaker
Before we get started, for those who maybe didn't listen to your other podcast episode, can you give them a quick 411 on your current operation, just your farm, where you're from? Yeah.
00:02:58
Speaker
How long you farmed, the upfront sort of bio, if you will. Sure. I'm on my home farm right now, which is 43 acres. And we recently began leasing 48 acres. So we're farming 91.
00:03:10
Speaker
And we moved here in 2019. We're sitting here and it's 2025. And we weren't looking to farm. We just wanted some land to play on. But we quickly got into farming and then it became all encompassing. So we got some cows because we want to do grass fed beef, which we still do.
00:03:27
Speaker
And then as I got into regenerative agriculture, just through some learning, you know, it dawned on me nature is very diverse and it's kind of weird for one property just to have one kind of animal.
00:03:37
Speaker
So the chickens do one thing to the land. Cows do. Pigs do. Turkeys do. So we diversified our animals really more for the impact on the soil. But now I'm very glad that I'm diversified because it brings me joy that I raise all of my own animal proteins that I eat and I get to provide all of the animal proteins to our customers.
00:03:59
Speaker
So I think that that part is fun. It's tough to manage all the different species, but I like doing it because you know I like to have all those different products. I love that. It makes so much sense, doesn't it?
00:04:10
Speaker
And I also kind of love that you coined yourself the accidental farmer. I really was. Yay! There's so many good things about that. For one, like my background was in business.
00:04:22
Speaker
I had zero farming background. And obviously I had to learn the farming, but I came about it from a business viewpoint, which it is a business.
Barn to Door's Role in Farm Efficiency
00:04:32
Speaker
So that has been very helpful.
00:04:34
Speaker
And also the business I was in before, I was very involved in my community and I still am. And that was helpful for, you know, getting going on customers because that's a lot of my marketing is like getting out there and speaking at things. There's a being out and about.
00:04:50
Speaker
Yeah. And you've been on various podcasts and did a lot of business consulting too. Correct. It's pretty special in my opinion, almost that you started with business and got good at business and then went into farming. Cause I feel like the majority of farmers that we help and assist through barn to door, we're helping them stretch their business brains, but they're incredible at the farming side. Right. And that's what they've been doing, but they're like, Oh, this is a business.
00:05:14
Speaker
helped me think of this as a business. And that's, you know, not only we do the software, you know, this, you're part of this, we do the software and the resources and everything to help them run and operate their farm as a business, which of course helps with everything helps with sales helps with efficiencies helps with logistics, you know, all of the business moving parts.
On-Farm Processing & Cost Reduction
00:05:33
Speaker
So I love that you started with business and then went into farming. I I don't know what every farmer would say out there, which end they would want to start at, but it is a chicken and egg people. You do need both.
00:05:45
Speaker
I will tell you, I did have to remind myself that it was a business because as I got going, I did just like want to grow. And I just was growing in my production. And I had this other income because I was still working off the farm at the time. And I wasn't really running. I myself wasn't running it like a business for a period of time. And I had to remind myself of that. And I made a bracelet.
00:06:07
Speaker
run it by the numbers just to remind myself to do that. Uh-huh. I can appreciate that. Like, it's so fun to grow. And if you can just put money there without actually thinking, wait, what is this costed out versus am I making a profit?
00:06:22
Speaker
Like nobody wants to spend money to grow food and then essentially give it away. at the end of the day, if it's a business, you need to be putting that food on your own table too. Let's talk a little bit about poultry specifically. So did you start with the cows and then you ended up getting chickens intentionally because of the regenerative cycle?
00:06:40
Speaker
Yep. I wanted to diversify that. And now that the chickens are the part that I'm scaling the most. And the reason for that, there's a couple of reasons for that. One. Love this We invested in and built an on-farm poultry processing plant. So If you process and sell less than 20,000 birds a year from your own farm and sell them within the boundaries of your own state, then you are exempt from USDA oversight.
Pricing Strategies & Packaging Importance
00:07:07
Speaker
So we could do it ourselves. and Nice. Yeah. And it was quite the challenge to Followed in the Georgia Department of Ag's regulations. But we did that and invested in building this plant.
00:07:19
Speaker
So that removed a bottleneck. And there's only one place in my state that you could get chickens harvested USDA. And it costs like $13 bird. Wow. wow ah So there's your margin out the window.
00:07:33
Speaker
That's right. And I mean, it costs me quite a lot and I'm happy to share for those listening. And there's ways you could do it different. There's plenty of things I did. I didn't and't know I was talking about, but all in, I mean, it probably cost me around a hundred thousand dollars to build my own plan.
00:07:45
Speaker
Wow. But I've got my processing costs with labor and packaging down to like $4 a bird. So I'm saving $9 a bird. This year, we should harvest between 6,000 and 7,000 birds.
00:08:00
Speaker
So let's say I do 6,000 chickens and I save $9 chicken. That's $54,000. chicken that's fifty four thousand dollars So that's half the cost of the plant. So that works. huh yeah And also chickens are my most profitable gross margin product.
00:08:19
Speaker
And having the plant allows me to do whatever cut-ups that I want to do. So I can play around with, and I can get help from Ryan at Barnador and resources and the other Barnador folks, as I think through, how am I even going to package it?
00:08:33
Speaker
How many breasts should I put per pack? How many thighs should I do? you know Because all those are questions to be answered. I do significantly better when I cut the bird up versus a whole bird. You're taking all my questions away from me for the future conversation, Phil.
00:08:47
Speaker
We're just tied in like that, you know. I know, I love it. Well, honestly, it's a good slippery slope to be thinking about cost and pricing and profit and being a viable, sustainable business in addition to being a viable, sustainable farm, right?
00:09:02
Speaker
It absolutely is the right thing to be talking about. But the reason I'm stopping you is because I know this from feedback from my marketing team. a lot of our listeners actually are current Burntador users.
00:09:12
Speaker
And so I'm going to stop here and pause because what I want to say is if you really want to run through cost with Phil directly, you should go to an office hour with Phil. So Phil, because he is part of our Farm Advisory Network, he hosts office hours. You can you can go online and they can actually find which one you're hosting if you just search for office hours. But the great part about it is, is they can find the one you're in and jump in there and you can talk about pricing out poultry. I mean, clearly you're like, hey, I can scale this, but I've done the math and done the crunching. And to your point, your beginning benchmark included
00:09:47
Speaker
the cost from a USDA facility in Georgia and those regulations, et cetera, et cetera, right? And the sunk cost of building the facility. So that's specific to Georgia. However, if you have the information from other farms all across the country and other states, you can help them put together that math as well and sort out, hey, how can I scale?
Resources & Community Learning
00:10:05
Speaker
How can I make this more efficient? How can I make more money doing the same thing, which is lovely, right? We're always looking to reduce the cost and increase the revenue even on our existing business.
00:10:16
Speaker
Yes. And another great resource is APA, the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association. A-P-P-P-A for those of you, three Ps in the middle.
00:10:26
Speaker
Three Ps. And they're awesome. And I have got a tremendous amount of value from, I went to the APRA conference in January, hope to go next January. And that's one thing I love about Barn to Door and being on the office hours, you learn so much from these other farmers doing things. So the more you can do that, the better.
00:10:43
Speaker
Yeah, I actually was on stage once there with Alex from Chucktown Acres at an APA conference. And we chatted about like email collection, honestly, of all things, because people were trying to grow their operations. It was pretty neat. And sort of buyer expectations, which is, of course, all also helpful for folks' business.
00:10:59
Speaker
The last resource I'll drop in here, and then I want to to get back to your poultry operations. Barn to Door just started. You might not even know this, Phil. We just, with the Farmer to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, got who are amazing.
00:11:13
Speaker
It's very inexpensive. It's a hundred and change for a membership for a year. And if any of you know the cost of legal professionals or attorneys, you know that that's a steal because you can get on the phone with them and talk anytime and ask legal questions. And so we are working with them. They actually are going to host starting next month.
00:11:30
Speaker
We'll be hosting an office hour on behalf of barn to door for our farmers to go ask legal questions. Because, you know, the laws are so different. I know that there's some breakthroughs in North Dakota recently on raw milk, and there's lots of other things going on all across the country, poultry in particular, right? All the regulations. And so you can have a very fantastic legal conversation too. Again, i think that's all on the website where folks can find out when the office hours are when those are hosted.
Sustainable Practices & Community Impact
00:11:57
Speaker
You've got to have the information to make good business decisions, right? Yep. Got to have the info. Love it. Okay, quick back to the birds. Okay. So in particular, I always get a kick out of this, which is your farm is literally, i don't know, you tell me, does it stick out like a sore thumb in your neck of the woods?
00:12:15
Speaker
Yes. So Gainesville is the poultry capital of the world. This guy, I won't bore the whole story, but it's pretty cool. This guy, Jesse Jewell, he invented... Basically, industrialized chicken after World War Two.
00:12:25
Speaker
And I find industrialized chicken to be gross, but it was not started out that way. It was not started out with bad intentions, but it's tons of chicken farms, you know, which really, to me, don't even I don't even think of them as farms because it's just a guy who manages a warehouse, really, with all these birds he does not even own.
00:12:44
Speaker
And he's just running machines and carrying out dead birds. But all that say, there's a... That is gross. It's gross. But there's tons of chicken plants and chicken farms around here.
00:12:55
Speaker
And it is really cool being in this area. And all my marketing is focused on my county, Hall County. that I live in and doing kind of like a redeemed chicken. And it is great that there's all these different used resources. For example, like these drinkers, these bell drinkers.
00:13:12
Speaker
There's no shortage of drinkers or all my chicken tractors I use for the roofs. I use recycled aluminum on the rental farm that I mentioned, this 48 acres we started renting, there's old caved in chicken houses.
00:13:27
Speaker
And I told the property owner we'd clean up the trash for them. So I took all the good aluminum roofing and I used it for my chicken tractors, which just feels so cool. These old industrial chicken houses. That's very cool. What did you do with the footprint underneath the roof, which is going to be disgusting.
00:13:45
Speaker
It's been so long since it's been chicken you can't even tell. Okay. yeah Okay. I mean, and you know, soil will fight its way back if you give it some help.
00:13:56
Speaker
It sure will, especially if chickens were pooping on it for a long time. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah. My goodness. Okay. That's incredible. This is kind of a selfish question, but do you feel like in that community...
00:14:07
Speaker
because you are not industrial chicken factory farming. In fact, it's regenerative and pasture poultry and all the goodness that we all love. Are you having an impact on farms and people around you? What is that?
00:14:19
Speaker
Is there a tension there? Like, what is that like? Definitely there's a positive impact more on the beef side. I'll chat about in second. But the industrial chicken complex, let's say it, I wouldn't think really looks on me favorably because they look at our kind of operation as just this huge threat for bird flu.
00:14:40
Speaker
Whereas I look at it quite the opposite. Like I think our kind of farming is superior when it comes to mitigating bird flu. But all my buddies that are farmers and that have, you know, I'm involved in like Farm Bureau and stuff that's totally nothing to do with Regenerum, but it's just connected with farmers.
00:14:57
Speaker
mean, they think it's cool. Like they think it's neat. And especially when they taste our chicken, it's infinitely better. And they can tell they think it's cool. But as far as impacting the community, there are lots of farms in my area.
00:15:10
Speaker
They have poultry houses and they have cow-calf operations because they just had land that they inherited and then chicken houses got on it. So we are having a regenerative kind of all natural meat impact on the cow side because that's something easier for me. I can't produce enough cows for what the demand is. So I do work with some other farms say, hey, if you convert over to doing things all natural, don't use any hormones, don't feed the cows any grain.
00:15:38
Speaker
And then I, you know, purchase, they raise those and purchase some cows for me. So everything from that to getting my hay guy to not spray herbicide or synthetic fertilizer on the hay.
00:15:51
Speaker
Like if you're a business, I'm pumped about making the world a better place. And business to me is it's the best tool to do that. Oh, I love that. Thank you for sharing that.
00:16:03
Speaker
By virtue of your values, you're just sort of pushing the envelope in different places and throughout those relationships as well. That's really neat. I love that. If people get paid, they'll do good stuff. Yeah.
00:16:13
Speaker
They don't like, okay, I won't spray. Yeah. good. Okay. So if I'm listening here now and I'm trying to improve my poultry operations by hearing how you've done it well, let's talk about packaging and pricing and how did you decide your product mix, right? Did you try certain things at the beginning and you stopped doing those things and changed course?
00:16:36
Speaker
How did that evolve for you in terms of packaging your poultry and then pricing
Subscription Services & Inventory Management
00:16:41
Speaker
your poultry? Okay. Well, I started out doing all whole birds because that's all that I could do. And that went well.
00:16:47
Speaker
And I started eating it. was like, wow, this is so good. I still do some whole birds, but I moved to cut up because I do get a higher margin. So for example, and I'm happy to share what we price at and everything, but I always try to think of how can I make things to be what people want, what's easy for them to cook.
00:17:05
Speaker
And as much as I can, easy for them to contemplate and purchase. So people love boneless, skinless breasts. I particularly am a dark meat man and I like a skin on bone and thigh. Myself is my favorite, but people pay a premium for breasts.
00:17:20
Speaker
And so I charge $20 for a pack of breasts, which is like two breasts or the breasts from one, je one chicken's worth of breasts. I do $20 a pack. Yeah. That's a good margin. Like compared to the whole. Yeah.
00:17:32
Speaker
And that's pretty good. Because you're doing the work to cut it up, ironically, and that's closer and more approximate to what that end buyer wants. Yeah, and I do everything by the cut. I sell the breasts.
00:17:45
Speaker
I sell a pack of four thighs. I sell a pack of eight drums, and I sell a pack of 12 wings. And it's not by the pound because that to me is just so much more difficult. I'm selling things and I'm utilizing online tools, so they need to purchase an item for a price.
00:18:02
Speaker
So not selling by the pound is a big win. And I am able to now through barn to door, like on the whole birds have a large and a medium and a small whole bird, let's say, you know, I can sizes, but getting away from selling by the pound is a big win to me.
00:18:17
Speaker
And yeah, because people do love breasts and also tenders, I forgot we do eight tenders to a pack. and Okay. How much do you charge for those? The tenders, it's also $20 for an eight pack.
00:18:29
Speaker
Eight. Yeah. Right. I get it. Yep. So all in, like if I cut up a chicken, then that chicken is going to be a retail value of like $44 if cut up. if i cut it up That is also very helpful, Janelle, to run it by the numbers because, again, since I'm taking pounds out of it, I know my exact revenue per bird because last time I checked, every chicken has two wings, two thighs, you know two breasts, one on each side. So I don't worry about the variables of pounds. I know my retail input for chicken.
00:19:04
Speaker
Yeah. Value. me Yep. Yep. I love that. I know that we have farms that do it both ways, right? But I do love, especially on poultry, on smaller proteins in particular, that it can make a lot of sense to just do set price, especially when you can figure out your set cost and just know that you're clearing a margin, clearing a margin, clearing a margin. And it's saving you time too, which if you value time, you're actually bringing your costs down even more because you're not having to get cute with poundage on, you know, on small cuts versus we have a lot of farms who will take deposits on half whole hogs and quarter half whole cows or that sort of a thing. And, you know, that's great because they can vary and turkeys. I don't know if you do that way with turkeys, but those are expensive birds. So we have farms that'll take a 50 or a hundred dollar deposit on a turkey and then charge the difference when Thanksgiving rolls around.
00:19:54
Speaker
but Well, for the audience too, I do half cows and whole pigs also. And I do it in a similar manner in that a half cow for me is 175 pounds.
00:20:04
Speaker
And so I charge $12 a pound, 175 pounds. So it's a half cow package. It's $2,100. And yeah, they don't have to worry. i don't want my customer. I mean,
00:20:16
Speaker
They don't have to do math. Yeah, they don't have to do math. And if the cow is 400 pounds of meat, so there's 25 extra pounds per half, well, I have a retail store and I plunk it in that, you know, but I want to be as easy for them
Marketing & Direct Delivery Logistics
00:20:29
Speaker
as possible. I want to make it easy to buy from me.
00:20:32
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. It's probably worth repeating, the easier it is for a person to buy, which means self-serve purchase online with a set price so they know exactly what they're paying, they don't have to do any math, they don't have to pick up a phone and talk to anybody, they can shop any time of day or night, is a win for farmers because there's no friction in that process.
00:20:55
Speaker
So that's just a big, big deal. And then of course, if you tack on door-to-door delivery or local pickup, it gets even more obvious for people to complete that purchase. Because again, it's convenience and no friction in the process for buyers. It's a real thing.
00:21:08
Speaker
It really will impact sales. And I don't want to talk about price. I'm more expensive. And so like I want ultimate clarity. I want people to just be easily able to see this is what I pay and this is what I get. And if 80 percent of the people say, oh, I don't want that and click out.
00:21:26
Speaker
Well, that's OK. I just want the 20 percent that want to buy for me or whatever percent for it to be easy for them. Yeah, if you're selling out, whether it's 20 or 80 or 43% of the people, it doesn't actually matter if you're selling out, right?
00:21:40
Speaker
Yeah, i appreciate I appreciate the math. Like in my county, I don't know how many people out there are, but there's plenty. you know And if I sold the animal proteins, and now we started doing organic veggies too, if I sold but just the animal protein piece to 1% of my county, I'd be crushing it.
00:21:58
Speaker
It's all I need. We talk a lot to farmers and you know this, but we talk to a lot of farmers about that. Like we have farmers that consider shipping and we're like, you don't become a logistics machine. Like you already have a farm and a business to run when you add shipping. And it's not, it's not that like, we certainly have some farms that probably about 5% of the farms you need barn to door will do shipping of some, usually the shelf stable items.
00:22:20
Speaker
um But at the end of the day, it adds a layer of work for the farmer to then have to deal literally with shipping and shipping costs and food waste. Often things get damaged along the way, which is a whole other cost at a certain percent of everything that they send.
00:22:35
Speaker
And yet there is some community somewhere near them that has some people that want their product. And sometimes Phil, it's like if you're willing to even drive in once a month or twice a month,
00:22:48
Speaker
that's enough to move all your product. It's pretty cool. And you're right. If it's just 1% of the people done, drop the mic. You've completed the cycle in terms of the sustainability of your business.
Subscription Box Structure & Customer Empowerment
00:22:59
Speaker
I love that. So I love it. Set prices across all of your items because you've figured it out. I love that you figured out per bird. And frankly, i was chuckling that you've packaged them that way because when you're thinking about dinner,
00:23:12
Speaker
Yeah, I'll just grab one package of two breasts. That's enough. Like I can make that go from anywhere from like two to six people, depending on what I'm making. I used to buy whole birds and cut them up and do that. I would literally put them into those Ziplocs of like, here's all the tenders, here's all the drumsticks, here's all the wings.
00:23:27
Speaker
So I can appreciate that you have moved the needle closer to the buyer in terms of what they want. And then set prices are just brilliant. That's awesome. Okay. Do you do subscriptions? I 100% do. And I do not have like a chicken box or a beef box.
00:23:41
Speaker
And this is critical for inventory management too. I have the family meal, but I got, I have three options. I've got a weekly box, which is, A dozen eggs and two to three meats. So we go out every Wednesday. We deliver to people's door, which is one of the reasons why staying within my county is important to me because Caleb the farmhand goes out every Wednesday and he's going door to door dropping these boxes like we're Amazon.
00:24:07
Speaker
Yep. And I need route density. I can't have him bebopping all over at Tarnation. He's got to go boom, boom, boom, door to door to door. So I think this last week, I think we did a pack of drumsticks, a pound of ground beef, and a pound of pastured pork sausage.
00:24:21
Speaker
The week before, it was like a pack of bacon, and then it was a pack of chicken breast. So it's a farmer's choice box, which is absolutely critical because, you know, if everyone was just getting the drumstick or getting the breast, now I'm going to have a whole bunch of drumsticks or thighs. So pick what goes in. Now, there's two things which are important for the listeners, I think.
00:24:45
Speaker
Of course, I don't have everything figured out, but this is something that's been helpful so far. is you obviously have to only do stuff people they're going to want. Like people might order breasts more than drumsticks, but they are going to like drumsticks and they're going to be fine with it. It's not like I'm sending out chicken feet, which would have a much more limited audience.
00:25:04
Speaker
I will take those. There you go. That makes the best chicken broth in the world. But no, i know I know what you mean. I was hoping you were going to say that. I was going to ask because here you have all these carcasses if you're parsing everything out.
00:25:16
Speaker
and Anyway, go on with your subscriptions. Finish that first. Well, so the managing the inventory, it's critical for me to pick what goes in the box. And so my offering, my value proposition is highest quality and convenience.
00:25:31
Speaker
It's a subscription. It's delivered right to your door, but it is not, my value proposition is not customized. So I do have where if you order a certain amount, you get free delivery and you can pick whatever you want.
00:25:44
Speaker
But my subscription box is just what goes in there. Oh, yeah. And then I have to provide empowerment, Janelle, because since they're not picking exactly what goes in their fridge every week, I have to empower them. So a lot of people, when I do put whole birds in the box, a lot of people have never cooked a whole bird or they've never cooked anything.
00:26:03
Speaker
a pork shoulder steak or an eye of round roast. And so we send an email out at which here's what's coming in your box this week. And I mean, I think we use chat GBT or something to put some recipes in.
00:26:17
Speaker
Here's how we like to cook. What's going in there? You've got to empower them. Yeah. Because ah i have had people before I was doing that, they would stop getting the subscription box because they were like, hey, you know, my freezers got kind of full and I really don't even know how to cook this.
00:26:32
Speaker
So we got to make life easy for them. And it's not hard to do. Well, and I feel like what you're providing, honestly, are the items down the middle of the fairway. I mean, everybody eats all parts of the bird anyway, right? They just might have favorites.
00:26:45
Speaker
You're not trying to, even though I see you have cow tongue in your store, which is awesome. And I kind of want to meet the people that also buy that because I bet they're very cool. yeah But like most of the product on there, and I love that there really is an audience for everything. Don't you love that?
00:27:01
Speaker
Oh, yeah. for the majority of people what's showing up on their table every week wings drumsticks breasts ground beef you know a roast might feel like a little stretch and yet if you cut it up and make a skewer it's fine right like so it's not this is not rocket science so it's not a big hurdle So you just make some suggestions
Creative Uses for Poultry By-products
00:27:20
Speaker
to folks, right? And it's a meat they're already familiar with and cooks much the same way. So I think that's great.
00:27:25
Speaker
I love the rotating items. I think for me, that feels like Christmas every week. There you go. That's our plan. Well, and then... Once you have the clientele and I'm going to their house every week, then you can offer to add on some different things. So for example, I have been turning the carcasses and the necks and the feet into bone broth, which we cook up and pack it here.
00:27:50
Speaker
But I have a dehydrator that's supposed to arrive next Wednesday, and I'm going to start dehydrating all those feet and vacuum sealing those and the chicken organs to sell for like a raw, all-natural dog food.
00:28:04
Speaker
And amazing. Any of my customers with dogs, then I can just say, hey, we're coming to your house every week. Would you like to add on 15 bucks a week and feed your dog? Add the subscriptions. Just build them.
00:28:17
Speaker
Stack them. That's really awesome. I love it. We have a whole range of farmers that we work with, Phil. And i think we have one farmer who is crushing it with only pet food. Come on.
00:28:28
Speaker
I kid you not. They just found that the margins were incredible. The regulatory hurdles are a lot less because it's not for humans. Isn't that funny? Like, yeah, raw milk you can give as pet food and all these various things. And anyway, so what you're saying is, is our pets eat better than us because there's the laws against what we're what we can and can't consume, which is just so interesting or sell, I should say. But yes, no, I appreciate that.
00:28:54
Speaker
Okay. This is awesome. So subscriptions, yay. You have that going on You've streamlined how you package and price. to the convenience of the buyer, which is incredible. Do you have any specific things you think about when you're marketing your poultry to buyers? Like, is there a certain time period?
00:29:09
Speaker
Do you sell your round? Do you create FOMO in any way? ah Well, you know, I get the first chicks mid-March and I will get my last batch of chicks in August to then have harvested in October because then it gets a little too cold after that.
00:29:23
Speaker
I sold out in like December or January this year. So but I am thinking of like, I want to provide people with those different animal proteins every week. So I've got to build up a significant inventory I'm going to continue to have it through the
Pre-selling Strategies for Thanksgiving
00:29:38
Speaker
winter.
00:29:38
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Some things of marketing that I utilize, out like for the turkeys, which this year we should do like 500. Because I have a plant, then I am able to harvest all the... Now, this iss kind of scary because the logistics are so tight.
00:29:53
Speaker
But I pre-sell the turkeys, which I sell for $8 a pound. And I harvest them the Monday of Thanksgiving. And then people come pick them up Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. So they're fresh or frozen.
00:30:06
Speaker
And that is a powerful tool. It's a crazy couple days, but it is the best turkey that you can get. At doing 500, and last year I did like, i don't know, 200 or 250, I was the largest provider of fresh, never frozen turkey in the whole state because I'm like the only one.
00:30:25
Speaker
Wow. Wow. That's incredible. And you sold out. Oh, yeah. And i again, I'm doubling this year, which is scary in a way, but I really don't care. I mean, there's a demand. It's on me to get the word out and market all the customers from last year. They keep coming back.
00:30:41
Speaker
So you got to go big or go home, Janelle. You really do. ah Well, you could do it. You could do No, I appreciate that. So do you do set price? Do you do like a small, medium, large?
00:30:52
Speaker
Not on the turkey. You sell those by weight? I sell those by weight. Again, with my mission, if I want to make it easier for the customer, I can have a good idea of the weight now that I've done it several seasons by the timing. So I will get them in July.
00:31:06
Speaker
I'll get the poults, that's a baby turkey, in July for the harvest in late November. And there will basically be two sizes, which are determined by toms and hens. And I'll know what they are. So two years ago, I got them maybe three weeks earlier.
00:31:21
Speaker
All the toms were between 28 and 32 pounds. Wow. And that is too big. I mean, so I ended up giving a lot of people who wanted like a 15 pound bird.
00:31:32
Speaker
That's all I charged them for. So I kind of lost out. So you have to know what you're doing on the operation side to like plan what you'll have to sell. That makes some sense. I love, well, I'm secretly kind of proud because, you know, the Barn to Door platform enables farmers to do any way you want to sell.
00:31:51
Speaker
Like if you want to sell set weight and flat pricing for all of the above, which does streamline and save time for farmers. and set very direct expectations to buyers. But in cases like turkeys, which can be of a whole range of sizes and is a very premium product, farmers can take, I hope you do this, Phil, so you'll have to let me know, but can take deposits early on, essentially sell out ideally well before the season. And
Operational Efficiencies & Customer Engagement
00:32:17
Speaker
then once all the birds are weighed, they can go back in and literally list the final weight and charge those customers. And then it'll automatically subtract that deposit. So you're still not having to talk about money.
00:32:30
Speaker
You can just go complete the sale yourself. Dang. And see, didn't even know. I am taking the deposit, but then I just have them true up when they come that day. So you're saying I could just go in and hit the cart again for the Delta. Yeah.
00:32:43
Speaker
It's all in there. All you have to do is you enter in You can literally decide if you want to just charge a certain price. You can change it back and forth there too, whether you enter the weight and then it will calculate for you the price and subtract the deposit and charge the customer and send them a receipt.
00:32:58
Speaker
Fantastic. Yeah, so they don't have to worry about it You just have to write it down, go back in, punch in the numbers. And then again, you're not having to talk about money to customers, which isn't always the most enjoyable thing to talk about. Why not instead ask about their day or how are you going to cook the stuffing that year?
00:33:14
Speaker
That's right. You've thought of it all, Janelle. You've thought of it all. I think farmers like you help me think of it all, which is just awesome. no Our goal is to remove friction for farmers that are trying to sell, right? And all the ways that farmers could do and need to sell.
00:33:30
Speaker
Nothing makes me happier, honestly, than when we find out that farmers offer subscriptions because most all farmers haven't done that before or they're expanding the subscription offers. And to have recurring sales week week, month over month, it's not just a business changer. It's a life changer for farmers and nothing makes me happier.
00:33:51
Speaker
cool And on the note of subscriptions and pet food and kind of connecting those things that we talked about a little bit of the recurring revenues important, it's convenient for the customer, but it just it tethers you and the customer more together because you're bringing the stuff there every week.
00:34:07
Speaker
And so you can do more value added products. For example, like dried chicken feet, dog food. I am taking a further processing step and I can do all sorts of things that people want.
00:34:19
Speaker
I have the relationship and I can just offer, hey, would you like this? Would you like that? Well, and you've already pre-sold the basics, right? So now you're like, okay, that's just my foundational business. Now I can actually, instead of worrying about selling all of that, you instead get to think bigger and you know you get to think more about your business.
00:34:39
Speaker
Nothing makes me happier. I often describe it to folks. ah you know, the process of hopefully helping farmers have literally a system to run their entire business end to end and make it easy, including easy for their buyers, but easy for themselves.
00:34:51
Speaker
You give them a system and instead of feeling like sometimes you're drowning, all of a sudden things start to get organized, fall into place, save you time. Your head goes above water you then also increasingly have time to start thinking, looking around and even swimming, right? So it's like when you can save time and get organized on your business, then you actually can be creative and have information to make decisions.
Advice for Poultry Farmers
00:35:14
Speaker
And it's just, it's so fun to watch.
00:35:17
Speaker
It's so fun to watch. I love it. Okay, any final tips on poultry? Anything that I have forgotten to ask that I should have asked or tips or advice that you would have for farmers who are in the poultry industry wanting to make it better, wanting to change things, try something new, or get started?
00:35:35
Speaker
Yeah, I'll give a quick thing of advice for people who are thinking about poultry and then something for people who are already in it. So the thing about poultry is you to look at your business. When I just had cows and I was selling mostly half cows, that's a lot of revenue at once, but it takes me several years to get a cow to where I can sell it.
00:35:54
Speaker
Well, pigs, I have them for, let's see, I mean, have pharaoh pigs here, so I have their gestation periods just under four months. I harvest them at eight months. So that's a year that I'm buying feed and everything before I can sell a pound of sausage.
00:36:09
Speaker
Chickens are eight weeks. The turn is so fast and you need multiple turns. So chickens, every eight weeks I can sell them and get revenue to then help support my farm.
00:36:23
Speaker
Pigs, you know, 12 or eight months, depending on how you look it. So you need all of that. So the diversification of your production time is very helpful.
00:36:33
Speaker
It's important. Also, chicken is delicious. And the omnivores, the chickens and the pigs, I think they have the biggest difference in taste. When people taste your product,
00:36:44
Speaker
and you do a pasture-raised chicken, it is so much better than what's at the store. Go and do some samples. Go to a farmer's market and just give away chicken wings that you cooked. Give people a wing and let them fry it. So it's a great thing. What I would say to people who are already doing chicken is that man, the processing really is a big bottleneck, at least in my area. It might not be in your area.
00:37:11
Speaker
And, you know, doing your own processing is a whole other beast. It's really not farming. It's manufacturing. It's converting a squawking chicken to vacuum sealed, you know, boneless, skinless breasts and thighs.
00:37:24
Speaker
But if you really want to go big on chicken and you don't have a processor in your area, I would really consider it. And again, you're going to have to go big and be prepared. You got to really want to sell a lot of chicken. But if you do, I'd build your own plant.
Route Density & Local Marketing
00:37:37
Speaker
That is some rich advice right there. And it's also like know your options and opportunities from a processing perspective, right? Like that's almost like one of the first couple of check boxes, it sounds like.
00:37:48
Speaker
I can't resist one more question before. So route density, you mentioned, which I love and we would love every farmer to have because you are making your time more efficient.
00:37:59
Speaker
We also have a lot of farms that actually end up making money on delivery. So can you give for some, like, do you charge a delivery fee? And also, do you make money like a lot of our farmers do because your route is dense enough?
00:38:11
Speaker
And then I guess my next question to that is any marketing tips that you would have to increase the density of a route? 100%, you got to go about all of it with route density in mind. So I specifically targeted subdivisions.
00:38:25
Speaker
I went, I didn't blast, I didn't do very broad, I went subdivision specific. So I picked the biggest subdivisions and that has been helpful. I don't charge for delivery because I do have where you could get a delivery for like $10, but I made it so that you get delivery with the subscription because that's the behavior that I desired.
00:38:47
Speaker
is to sign up for that. So I just factor that into the price of the subscription. So I'm basically getting paid i like $5 for each delivery. And let's say I pay the guy who goes and does it 17, 15 hour and I put gas in the delivery vehicle. So let's say I've got $20 an hour.
00:39:05
Speaker
So if I've got built in $5 per delivery, I've got to do at least four deliveries per hour for it to make sense. And we probably do I don't know, eight deliveries an hour.
00:39:16
Speaker
So yeah, so we should be making money on it. But yeah, you got to go where people congregate. So we are starting to do more pickup spots like at gyms and coffee shops. So I go to one place.
00:39:28
Speaker
Offices are a good one too. I think a lot of times people don't think of offices. Like at our office actually host some farmer CSA. And so anybody at the office can, you know, it's instant FOMO when your desk buddy is getting farm food every week. I will tell you that right now.
00:39:42
Speaker
I love that. I walk around with radishes in my hands and, you know, the farm fresh eggs and people, you know, everybody wants it. Well, and that would be like, how can you get food in the hands of the most people with the least effort?
00:39:58
Speaker
You've got to do that. But yeah, exactly. But you have to go to them. You've got to go to them. yeah or And I do a good bit of things to bring people to my farm. So we do a free farm tour. But that's not like, you know, my goal of that people always buy meat when they're here.
00:40:15
Speaker
But ah really, a goal would be to build friends and educate and have fun because I like to. But from a sales goal, I would want that to lead to a weekly at home delivery.
00:40:26
Speaker
Yeah. Not everybody wants people on their farm all day, every day either. No, actually have time to do other things. That is a rarity, but I will tell you there has not been better marketing for me than having people out to my farm.
Broader Farming Mission & Community Impact
00:40:40
Speaker
And that's just who I am. I enjoy that. But when they see, i mean, that's my value promise. I don't need to be organic because I don't need to prove something to someone as a stranger.
00:40:51
Speaker
They have seen the chickens. They've seen the pigs. They've seen the cows. They've cows. They feel connected. I love it. I love it. So many good bits of advice. so many ideas.
00:41:02
Speaker
We even mentioned some resources. Hopefully that was helpful for folks. If you do go between set price, and I have to say this because I'm not sure if you use our POS, you do. yeah So you probably know then if you do sell all the chicken online, so anybody can make a quick decision at a set price, you can in person switch to weigh those birds and charge by weight and it will still track all of the inventory precisely across both.
00:41:29
Speaker
Which is, again, like I will proudly admit, like we're building for farmers, right? That's the goal. It's like, what does a farmer need is the question we ask when we build software to meet the needs of farmers. And that's an important piece. they you know It might make sense to charge by weight in person, but online sales, you want the birds to literally fly off the shelf.
00:41:49
Speaker
Set prices are a good idea. I do want to say too, to the audience, you know I mentioned that I like having people come to the farm, which sometimes is kind of Not everybody likes that. But we've talked so much about business and like, you know, I have again, i have this bracelet, run it by the numbers.
00:42:03
Speaker
And it's important to make a profit on your farm. But none of us are doing it to get rich. Like i want to make the best return I can for the farm so I can grow my farm and I can feed more people and impact more land.
00:42:16
Speaker
And my favorite part of the farm is having people that I get to serve And it's so important to pay attention to your numbers, but it really helps you know to just have that focus. I want to serve the planet. I want to serve these people and love on people. I'm just doing it through farming.
00:42:33
Speaker
And that is also key. Yeah, I'm so glad you said that. And it's actually a great sort of important note for us to end on because, wow, what a good feeling to know that you're helping people be healthier. And it's so clear across our country today and everybody, and would suspect everybody would agree we could move the needle towards health and food is food and then down to the soil, frankly, right, is where that begins. And so It just makes me so happy because you're literally gifting people health when you're handing them what you produce on your farm.
00:43:06
Speaker
That's amazing. That's miraculous. It really is. And the more you grow, if you maybe you just want to have your family working on the farm, that's awesome. You're providing a beautiful life for them.
00:43:17
Speaker
If you want to grow beyond that and then you get to start to have employees, now you can add a very meaningful vocation for those people. You're just touching people in so many ways with your farm. So I think it's incumbent upon all of us to do the best we can to go grow it, feed more folks, feed more soil, build meaningful vocations. It's such a beautiful thing we get to do.
Conclusion & Resources
00:43:39
Speaker
I love it. Oh, that's so great. Thank you for spending time with me today, Phil, and for digging in on poultry and sharing more about your farm and your heart, really, as you're feeding Georgia at this point and setting such a good example. Thank you for everything that you do.
00:43:52
Speaker
I want to extend my thanks to Phil for joining us on this week's podcast episode. You can check out more of Phil and the Farm on their Instagram at HopewellFarmsGA. So as in Georgia, yes. So at HopewellFarmsGA is where you'll find him on Instagram. And as mentioned earlier, if you're Barn-to-Door farmer, check him out. Go check out when his office hours are. You can pop into there and and hang out with him directly.
00:44:16
Speaker
At Barn-to-Door, we're humbled to support thousands of independent farmers across the country. We're delighted to offer services and tools to help farmers access more customers, increase sales, and and save time for their business. If you're an independent farmer who's just getting started or transitioning to selling direct, or if you've been at it a while and want to simplify your business management, visit barntodore.com, learn more.
00:44:37
Speaker
Thank you for tuning in today. we look forward to joining you next time on the Independent Farmer Podcast.
00:44:51
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on the Independent Farmer Podcast. At Barn to Door, we are passionate about empowering independent farmers to build a thriving business. To all the farmers out there, thank you for all you do to grow amazing food, care for the soil, and serve your local communities.
00:45:06
Speaker
You are the backbone of our country. For free farm resources or to listen to prior podcasts, go to barntodore.com backslash resources. We hope you join us again and subscribe to the Independent Farmer Podcast wherever you stream your podcasts. Until next time.