Tag Archives: harvest and market

Organizing Direct-Market Lamb Sales…the Daily Farm Adventures {72}

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All of our customers buy directly from us here at the farm. Customers give us money, we give them an animal. We sell live animals only. That avoids extensive liability and food safety issues. If they want it processed by someone, we sell them the animal and then arrange transport to an approved facility for butchering and they pay the butcher directly for the processing at that inspected, approved facility. Last week I explained that our Fall lamb harvest is mostly Muslim customers buying for Eid (the celebration of sacrifice). Supplies of fresh, … Continue Reading…

Serving Muslim Customers at the Farm as Christians…the Daily Farm Adventures {71}

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We had our lamb harvest day on Saturday this year, so we’re wrapping up another sold-out lambing season here at The Lowe Farm. 90% of our customers are repeat customers, or a referral from a regular customer, and this is our 4th sold out year. Mr. Fix-It and I had a long talk the other day and we decided that being more transparent in our experiences might have a lot of value for our readers, and maybe some other small farmers out there. Based on some of the…um…unkind comments that we have … Continue Reading…

In the Fields…the Daily Farm Adventures {65}

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Saturday afternoon we took reservations on all our lambs. Yep, the whole crop is spoken for. Customers will be coming on Oct 3rd and Oct 4th to pick up or process their animals. We also sold all our eggs and a handful of chickens. Remember all those free chicks we ended up with in the spring? We’ve been able to raise them and sell birds to several other folks to turn them into a profit. So what’s next, right? Fall is also breeding season, so in addition to keeping our … Continue Reading…

Hay Bales, Duck Eggs…And Other Daily Adventures

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Now that lamb harvest is over, we’re full-swing into prepping our place for winter. (And since it was 37 degrees this morning at chore time, I’m thinking not a moment too soon!) The first thing is food for the animals. You’re looking for a consistent quality and price for your hay–and it’s hard to find around here! Over the next couple weeks we’ll pick up a couple trailer loads of hay and a pallet of bagged feed. A pallet is 45 bags, by the way. We use Purina food (again, … Continue Reading…

5 MORE Tips for Direct Marketing Farm Products

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On Friday I shared some lessons learned from the last few years of selling lamb live and direct to our customers. Today I’d like to share a few more thoughts about direct marketing to your customers. Oh yeah, and some adorable pictures of Penny playing with one of our bull calves over the back fence. 1. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Or your eggs before they’re laid. Or your lambs before they’re grown. That’s why we don’t take deposits more than 4 weeks out on animals. You don’t know what … Continue Reading…

5 Tips on Direct Marketing Farm Products

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We completely sold out of all our lamb this year. Every single one of them, right down to the littlest runt, was gone by the end of our lamb harvest day. That’s a good year. Here’s a few lessons we’ve learned over the last couple years with the farm that might be of some help to you. (Since writing this, be sure to check out our second post 5 MORE Tips for Direct Marketing Farm Products!) Sort and mark sale animals first. We sort all the lambs out from the … Continue Reading…

Picking Cotton and Loading Bales

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I think cotton is my favorite crop. As someone who doesn’t grow any crops, anyway. I love the way it grows tall and dark green (compared to soybeans anyway), the pretty pink and blue summer flowers, the way the bulbs form, and then slowly fill, until they start to burst at the seams… I’m not a big fan of the smell when the farmers start spraying the defoliation stuff. Or when the plants turn all brown and stick-like and the cotton hangs out like wisps of trash…But I find the … Continue Reading…

Around the Barnyard

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It’s almost harvesting and culling season around here. We’re starting to assess everyone’s future prospects. Freezer lamb? I’ve got several prime looking singles this year. Breeding stock? I’ve also got several excellent twins to choose from this year. Free to good home? Good thing we have some breeding flock replacement prospects because I have a few that are just not working out with our system. It’s not my favorite season on the farm. There’s hard choices to be made. Giving them a number does keep me from knowing each and … Continue Reading…

Thankful for the Harvest

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It’s wheat harvest time around here. There’s combines and trucks and dust and noise down every road (and I mean every one–even the highways around here!) and it’s a fascinating process to watch. But as I’ve driven around this week watching it, it’s also rather…well…violent. There’s nothing soft and peaceful (or quiet) about it. The Bible uses a lot of harvesting parables and illustrations and I think this is part of the reason. Life is not gentle and peaceful and easy–the value is reaped from the work, from the sweat … Continue Reading…

Wednesday Windings 10/06/2010

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I got the chance to go to a Close to My Heart card crop over the weekend and make a bunch of Halloween and Fall cards with a bunch of other crafty ladies. I discovered that I’m not a fan of clear cards.  They look good, but there’s three times as much work involved in hiding all the “working parts” of the card. And I got a great feel for using purple as a Halloween color as well as the standard orange and black (which is still a favorite of … Continue Reading…