On the shortest path

Many growers find success selling produce straight to consumers.

By Greg Booth

Les and Betty Pagel always know where their turkeys are going. Their customers always know where they came from.

“They like saying, ‘We bought the turkey right from the turkey farm,’ ” Les says. “It’s a bit of a unique meal for them. It’s a talking point.”

The Pagels, who farm just outside the Brainerd, Minn. city limits, are part of a growing number of Minnesota farmers selling directly to consumers. Using word-of-mouth, newspaper advertising, farmers markets, fairs and more, producers are capturing more of the consumer’s dollar for themselves.

“Farmers are looking for options to help them realize a higher margin,” says Paul Hugunin, ag marketing specialist with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. “One of the ways to do that is to direct market.”

But, he cautions, “It’s not for everybody. It takes a different set of skills. It’s going to take some more time, some more energy to do that.”

Producers aren’t just going it alone, they’re also cooperating with each other to get closer to the consumer. Whole Farm Cooperative, for example, a group of Central Minnesota farmers, sells meat, cheese and other farm products directly through churches such as Judson Baptist Church in Minneapolis (see Ag Innovation News, July 1999).

Members of another Minneapolis church, Lutheran Church of Christ the Redeemer, purchase chickens directly from Morning Has Broken Farm near Granite Falls, Minn.

The Internet is becoming part farmers market, too, with Minnesota links such as the St. Paul Farmers’ Market, Friends for the St. Paul Farmers’ Market, Healthy Powderhorn Farmers’ Market in Minneapolis, and the Minnesota Farmers’ Market Association.

It’s people more than profit

Larry Olson, who with his wife, Carolyn, and youngest son, Matthew, raises chickens, pork and beef on Morning Has Broken Farm, sees direct marketing as more than added profit for the family farm. “It’s creating friendships and relationships that make farming a lot more fun. I’d have to say that over the years we’ve done direct marketing, I’ve yet to have somebody not pay me.”

Olson says he’s “dabbled in (direct marketing) ever since coming back to the farm, starting with friends and relatives. ... We certainly take a bigger portion of the dollar that is spent on food when it’s done that way.” The Olsons get lots of word-of-mouth advertising, but also run ads in the Sun suburban newspapers and have a Web site connected with Prairiefare, a group of central Minnesota sustainable farmers.

The Pagels, on the other hand, don’t advertise at all, save for a sign in their front yard, and they’re not on the Internet. Les started raising chickens after he lost his job in a lumber yard, and Betty was looking for inexpensive food that tasted better than what she could buy. “Taste -- that’s the biggest difference,” she says. “It’s just like the old fashioned chicken. It’s chemical-free. We feed it the way Grandpa used to feed it.”

Les bought 200 chicks that first year; he was “scared to death. I thought, what are we going to do with all these chickens? Because we can’t eat them all ourselves.”

“We thought maybe other people would like them, too,” Betty says. She thought right. This past year, they raised 240 turkeys, 2,000 chickens, 15 steers, 15 hogs, sweet corn and assorted vegetables. Next summer, they’ll cut back on the vegetables -- at 61, they want a little more of the summer off.

‘This is our farmer’

Like the Pagels, the Olsons see many repeat customers. “Most people purchasing aren’t doing it for the first time,” says Olson. “They know that there’s a difference.” Some customers want meat free of additives; others are looking for humane treatment of animals. “And some are just interested in good tasting, farm-raised food.” The Olsons keep a database of customers and correspond throughout the year, letting them know when chicken or beef is available. “Customers stay with you because they like being able to say, ‘This is our farmer.’”

“We are seeing people be successful, and serving as models for other people to follow,” says Hugunin. “There are folks taking livestock to Lorentz Meats in Cannon Falls and being successful in a relatively short amount of time -- we’re talking one or two years.” Lorentz Meats processes direct-to-consumer orders.

For many farmers selling straight to consumers, success is both material and intangible. “We have customers still buying chickens from us who started when we did six years ago,” Les Pagel says. “There’s the personal satisfaction of happy customers and the profit part.”