Pasture Based Farm Thrives During Pandemic

John: Hey there friends and fellow farmers. Welcome to another episode of The Growing Farms podcast. I am your host, John Suscovich, and today's episode is going to be an "Ask APPPA" show, the American Pasture and Poultry Producers Association.

At one of the annual APPPA conferences I brought my camera, I brought my microphone, I brought my friend Mike, and we recorded interviews with about two dozen people. I asked those two dozen people the same four questions. And the wonderful thing about this community is that our heart, the core mission of what we're trying to do, is build healthy soil and we do that by raising animals on pasture.

Now we are all there for the same reason, to learn and grow together, we are all bringing our own level of commitment, our own piece to the puzzle to those annual conferences and that is great.

Today's episode is going to be with Ginger Shields of Pastured Life Farm located in North Central Florida and the first question that I asked Ginger was:

“What is one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you were starting out? Your advice for the new guy.”

Ginger: My name is Ginger Shields, and I am from Pastured Life Farm located in North Central Florida.

I wish that I knew - when we began farming -- That it was okay to say no, that it was okay to say "We don't need to produce chickens year round".

We didn't need to have beef available 100% of the time. We didn't need to have pork available 100% of the time. It wasn't a sustainable model for a small farm to have everything for everyone all the time. We carried a tremendous amount of burden. Like "We have to produce more, we have to produce more", so we don't have to tell people no and we scaled up faster than what we were ready for.

So I really wish that I had known or could go back to my former self and say "It’s okay. You can tell people no. You can explain why we have seasons, why nature has seasons and why we replicate that in our farm model".

John: I really love that piece of advice. Something that I have heralded here on Farm Marketing Solutions is the desire, the need, the strategy of pushing consistency in your market. Having chicken available all the time so that when people want chickens you're the go-to person to provide it for them. I thought that was a core fundamental thing to have as part of your farm strategy. You know, especially if you want to get into wholesale accounts.

What Ginger highlighted here is that building the model around not only what the customer wants but what you want to do as a farmer is really important for the long-term viability and sustainability of you and your farm. If you're consistent with what you offer, when you offer it, and your messaging is clear, consistent, and concise it will be easy for people to do business with you. That is just a fantastic piece of advice.

If you don't like farming, you are not going to stick with it and that's hard. You know? It's like... why stick with something that you don't like to do? Which brings me into my next question. I asked Ginger:

What is the most enjoyable part about being a farmer.

Ginger: For us, for my husband and I - I am speaking for both of us - I believe that the most enjoyable aspect of farming is that we get to work with people that we like. We get to work with our family, we get to work with our kids, and we get to be together.

I am not sending my husband off for his 9-5 job, packing his lunch and he's coming home miserable after spending an hour and a half in traffic, and we're not apart for sixteen hours a day. We're working together. We both want to work on our farm, better our farm, and work with our kids and teach them the values and the morals and things that they can't learn anywhere else but on our farm.

John: That was a great answer, Ginger. I really appreciate the feedback; and for me, that also -- You know, I'm just going to say "ditto".

The fact is that I’m usually working pretty long hours. But I’m always close by so if my family needs me or wants to come find me they know where I am. I get to work with friends, business partners who are my friends, and I love the staff here at the farm or the brewery -- We just have the most amazing people and that makes the day to day very enjoyable.

At times it is a grind. Not every day is a holiday, but the fact that I am a member of APPPA and I have all of those people to turn to, I have a wonderful business here in Western Connecticut; and that my family is around all the time, I can structure my schedule around people instead of work...

It's a lot of work hours but I can structure my schedule to be around for dinners, to be around for school send-offs... If there is something that needs to get done in the family, my family always comes first; and the fact that I get to work and live around all these amazing people is why I did this...