Small Farm Marketing

In March of 2012, I completed a research study on small farms located in the state of Maine and how they utilized Social Media to boost farm sales. What I discovered was much more important though. Each of the farmers that I interviewed used techniques to Social Media Marketing that was special for that farmer, but more Social Media Interaction did not always equal more sales.

Here you can see the participating farms and where they sat with annual sales. You can also see how they interacted with their customers on the Social Media Platforms that they wanted to share with me. Farm #3 and Farm #7 were at opposite ends of the profitability spectrum. Farm #3 was taking money out of credit cards to pay their bills each month, and Farm #7 was sitting comfortably with money in the bank for the upcoming season. Right in the middle was Farm #5, having a little money in the bank and using reinvesting almost everything into upgrades. While this seems like a small section of the more than 3 Million small farms nationally, it is a great example of the various types of small farms.

It is also worth noting that the majority of small farms across the United States report less than $20,000 in sales annually. Let's look at a few reasons why!

• Small Farm's are usually family run and often do not have enough staff to handle the daily tasks plus marketing, financing, contract negotiation, and the other heap load of stuff that gets piled on a farm owner.
• Small Farm Owners are usually in it for the love of the farm (animals and crops). They often let the profitability factor slip to the side until it is too late.
• Some Small Farm Owners are people averse and would rather cuddle with a goat than stand at a farmer's market and deal with the public.
• Many Small Farm Owners have to work multiple jobs to afford the farm and their lifestyle.

So I took a closer look at the participants in my study and what made the successful ones profitable and the others not as profitable. I also looked a little at the education and skill level of each of the farmers and what they brought to the table. If you would like to read the whole study, it is available for sale on Amazon. What you won't read in the published study is my observations on the personality of the individual farmers and how this seemed to play a bigger part in success than anything else.

In one particular case of an organic farmer; the farmer had potatoes left over at the end of the sale season. The general sales price for the potatoes was $4 per 5# bag. The farmer had to make the decision whether to drop the sales price of the potatoes or do something else with them. Considering that this farmer also raised animals...... Instead of dropping the sales price and setting up the farm for failure the following season, the farmer chose to cook the potatoes for a short time and offer them to the animals as feed. A 50# bag of animal feed ran the farmer $25 - $40 depending on the type. Even though a #50 bag of the farmer's potatoes was worth $50, and the farmer expended a small cost to boil the potatoes for safe animal eating, the farmer still was in a winning situation. The farmer had no outlay for feed expense as the potatoes were already on hand and the farmer saved hundreds of dollars on feed purchases. Not to mention the farmer's customers did not see the price of the potatoes drop, and so they would expect to pay the same or more than next season.

Another situation that you will not see in the published study is where a Small Farm Owner runs a successful Agrotourism venture and the venture is heavily based on the farmer feeding the visitors. This single small farm moved away from selling crops and animals at the market and moved towards using those grown/raised items to feed guests to the farm. This farmer moved to charging visitors anywhere between $45 - $89 per person, per day and included in that charge was a meal. That meant that the farmer did not have to leave the farm, making his disability easier to manage. On top of being able to manage the farmer's disability easier, the farmer had a steady income year round and he no longer had to worry about the seasonality of his products.

The takeaway from this study was that a Small Farm Owner is more likely to be profitable if they are working towards the following goals....

1. Only raise or grow what you love. If you don't love it, you will grow to hate your job quickly.
2. Play to your advantages! If you are disabled, customize your environment to work for you.
3. You don't have to focus on profitability, but you do have to look at it. If you do not have goals in mind, then the years will pass and pretty soon, you will have debt, but no money to pay it.
4. Social Media plays a part in success for farmers who are good at using Social Media.
5. Lastly, do not be afraid to outsource or get help for the areas of farming that are not your strong points. For example, if soil micronutrients and macronutrients are not one of your strong suits, then consider hiring a consultant to teach you more. No time for managing a website or social media, consider using a service like the shopsmallfarms.com portal to cover it for you. Worried about finances, then consider hiring a consultant to sit down with you either over the phone or in person once a month to keep an eye on your books and let you know where you can do better.

Sometimes it is the little things that change our lives and make them easier to live. There is no shame in asking for help and the farmers in my study who did were some of the most successful.