John and Lori Anne Lau, Soda Springs, ID
Oct 16, 2006 2:00 PM
By Kindra Gordon
This Idaho family shares their experiences in establishing a direct marketing program for grass-finished beef and lamb.
As the trend of consumers wanting to know where their food comes from continues, direct marketing of family farm raised-products – especially meats – is gaining momentum. A decade ago, a handful of producers could be found selling their meat to health conscious-consumers. Today, the business of direct beef sales – at farmer’s markets, in local communities, and on the web – is becoming more commonplace.
While selling your own farm-raised beef can be gratifying, it doesn’t come without volumes of hard work and effort. John and Lori Anne Lau and their two young children Tommy and Becca of Soda Springs, Idaho have experienced that firsthand.
They are the fifth generation of Lau’s to be farming and ranching in the Five Mile Meadow in southwestern Idaho, about three hours north of Salt Lake City. Avid stewards of the land and sustainable agriculture, in the fall of 2003 the Lau’s decided to act on their dream of direct marketing their own farm-raised meat. They held five steers and a few head of lambs from their herd to grass finish, and then set up shop every Saturday at farmers’ markets during the summer of 2004.
Lori Anne says, “Thankfully, the meat started selling, and people kept coming back for more. We haven’t really look backed since.” Here, she shares candid comments about what they learned in the process and their goals for direct marketing in the future.
What inspired you and your husband to start this new venture? Did anyone give you guidance in getting started?
Lori Anne says the first time she really considered direct marketing was when she heard Virginia author and farmer Joel Salatin speak at an Idaho conference several years ago. Salatin says the industrialization of agriculture has created cheap “food” that is flavorless, unsafe and produced under nightmarish conditions, and he believes consumers are increasingly aware of this and willing to pay more for quality food grown locally. Thus, Salatin is a proponent of small scale farming that is humane, healthy, diverse and profitable – as well as centered on family life. His most recent book, Family Friendly Farming, outlines how to approach both farm and family so that a farm not only provides a decent living but a good life.
After Salatin piqued Lori Anne’s interest – and confidence that direct marketing could be viable – stories in the Stockman Grass Farmer magazine inspired her further. “They have a lot of stories about folks directly marketing grass-fed beef and lamb in various parts ofthe country,” she says.
As their enthusiasm for direct marketing began to build, Lori Anne says they also came to the realization that they didn’t want to continue with the status quo. Husband John was working full time at a job that kept him from spending time with his family and was then trying to farm/ranch before and after work and on weekends.
So after kicking around the idea of direct marketing for several years, in the fall of 2003 the Lau’s got serious about making it a reality. They kept five steers to grass finish and began to research what needed to be done to direct market those animals. Lori Anne says information from university and other farms’ websites provided her a good starting point.
Today, the Lau’s grass-fed beef and lamb is sold as individual cuts, bundles of cuts for grilling or roasting, and as whole, half, or quarter carcasses. They are proud to say that their animals are never given hormone implants, are raised in a low stress environment, and any animals fed antibiotics are excluded from their meat offering. The animals are processed at USDA inspected plants and the meat is dry aged to promote tenderness and enhanced flavor. It is then vacuum-packed and frozen to prevent loss of quality.
What has been the biggest challenge?
Of their new venture, Lori Anne says the biggest challenge has been finding the time to do everything necessary. "Keeping track of the inventory, contacting customers all winter,setting prices, filing orders, logging sales, following up with storesinterested in our product, creating a website, creating materials to give tocustomers, it all takes time," she says, and adds, "Finding time to do all of these new things, while running our farm, taking care of our two small children and still having a life has been hard for both John and I."
Lori Anne says learning the meats business has also been essential. "There was definitely a learning curve of how best to turn an animal into saleable cuts. We had to listen to our customers to learn what they wanted. I also had to learn where each cut comes from so I could understand that if you get shoulder chops you can’t get a shoulder roast," she says.
Fortunately she says their butcher was helpful, and they have not one but two nearby processors they can work with. One has the capability to make sausage, jerky etc., which she says will be beneficial in the future for offering more variety of products to customers.
How have you created awareness for the beef and lamb you raise and sell?
Right now the Lau’s primary outlet is a booth at the two farmers markets closest to them in Pocatello, Idaho and Logan, Utah. They’ve also put fliers up on bulletin boards, at health food stores, farmstores, and post offices (but found out that last one was a no-no).
Lori Anne is also using the Internet as a tool to get the word out. She has created their own website with product and prices listed (see www.laufamilyfarm.com). In the future, she hopes to update the site with recipes, links to others, a calendar of events and other information that might be useful to customers. In addition to these efforts, they plan to do some limited advertising in the future, likely in the local newspaper and on National Public Radio in the Logan, UT area where many of their target audience is.
What are the highlights and rewards in undertaking the challenge of marketing your own meats? What would your goals be for the next 3-5 years?
"The highlights are customers who rave about our meat. It feels so good tohear people love what you have tried so hard to produce," says Lori Anne.
Having their family work closely together has also been a special reward for the Lau’s. Looking forward, Lori Anne says their primary goal is to create enough healthy, tasty meat and find enough customers who want to eat it to support their family business adequately. "To this end our goals would be to fine tune our production methods so our product is more consistent and produced more quickly. Our marketing goals are to find as many families as possible in our target areas who want our product and to keep them buying due to great meat, great customer service, and connectedness to the process."
The Lau’s also plan to continue their stewardship of the land by incorporating a management intensive grazing system (MIG) so they can further enhance the condition of their pastures.
Additionally, Lori Anne says they are seeking ways to potentially expand. "We have considered forming a small co-op with other families or may pay a premium for their natural grass-fed animals," she says. The Lau's are also looking at other enterprises to enhance their bottomline. For example, Lori Anne says they may look into marketing natural farm pork and poultry produced by others, for which there is a great demand, and which they can sell along with what they produce.
She adds, “Even if this business doesn’t end up supporting us adequately, I would never go back. If one of us has to get a job, or possibly we leave the farm, at least we tried to reach our dream. We didn’t just sit back and wish and dream, we really tried to attain it."
Visit the Lau family online at www.laufamilyfarm.com.
Subscribe to American Cowman Update e-newsletter!
Breaking industry news in your e-mail inbox every other week!
Subscribe at http://subscribe.americancowman.com/subscribe.cfm.