Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide - Willie Elwood Bowling
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Old Homeplace Farm
Meat CSA Guide
Willie Elwood BowlingAll information included in the Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide is the direct result
of research and work done by the Bowling family on their farm. Feel free to pass this
Guide along to other farmers, but please respect our efforts by telling folks where it
came from!
Further information about Old Homeplace Farm can be found at our farm website.
© 2013 by Willie Elwood Bowling. All rights reserved
iiTable of Contents
Preface iv
How to Use this Guide 1
Overview of the Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA 2
Benefits of the CSA Model 3
Legal Considerations 7
Infrastructure Requirements 8
Finding Customers 12
Planning it All Out 15
Bringing It All Together 20
Coda 24
Afterword 25
Glossary 26
Production Calculation Examples 29
Miscellaneous Tips 33
About the Author 35
iiiPreface
HOW DID YOU GET HERE?
My family and I began the Old Homeplace Farm Local Meat CSA to address two issues:
we wanted to provide great food to our community, and we wanted to make a living
wage from our farm.
We had direct marketed meat through custom sales for five years before
beginning the CSA, but we were never able to reach a very broad customer base for
several reasons. Many potential customers had told us that they would like to purchase
our meat, but did not have adequate freezer space to store a whole animal. Other folks
had smaller families and did not consume enough meat to warrant the purchase of a
whole animal. Some folks were intimidated by the process of working with the processor
to choose their meat cuts, and other people were overwhelmed by the thought of
spending their annual meat budget in one fell swoop.
When we stepped back and looked at these issues from our customer’s
viewpoint, we realized that our sales model was not customer oriented. After an honest
evaluation we concluded that custom meat sales were more convenient for us than for
our customers. Simply put, we were making it difficult for folks to purchase our products.
After facing up to the reality of the situation, we determined it was time for a
change in our sales structure. We spent many hours researching alternatives to custom
meat sales, and finally settled on the CSA concept. After deciding to pursue the CSA,
we dedicated ourselves to designing the best system possible. Our overarching goal
through the entire process was to provide maximum value to our customers while
maintaining a sustainable profit.
HOW CAN THIS GUIDE HELP MY FARM?
Our objective for this Guide is to provide other farmers with the details of the Old
Homeplace Farm Meat CSA. We do not intend for this Guide to be an uncompromising
ivBook of Rules, but rather to provide you with a starting point for your operation. Every
farm and every customer base are different, but it is our hope that you can find some
ideas in this guide that will prove beneficial to your unique situation.
We think this book could prove very valuable to a farmer contemplating a meat
CSA. We have done our best to describe the inner workings of our CSA in detail, and
we think this primer could save you from reinventing the wheel. It is our hope that you
can benefit from our research, our false starts, and our practical experience.
Best wishes, and happy farming!
Will Bowling
vOld Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
CHAPTER ONE
How to Use this Guide
Thank you for reading the Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide. We chose to put this
Guide into e-book form because we feel this format increases the utility of this
document by providing connectivity and additional content. Community Supported
Agriculture (CSA) programs are flexible and accommodating by nature; we hope to
bring those attributes to this Guide.
Many of the concepts and terms presented in the Old Homeplace Farm Meat
CSA Guide may be unfamiliar to some readers. Rather than explain to every term within
the text (and potentially leave something out), we included a glossary at the end of the
Guide.
You will notice hyperlinks scattered throughout this Guide (you will recognize
them as the blue underlined text). When you click a hyperlink it will take you to another
location with more information about that subject. Some of these hyperlinks will direct
you to the glossary located at the end of the document, while others will take you to
external websites (if you have internet access on your device). After clicking an internal
hyperlink, you will need to scroll back to your original spot to continue reading. You can
try it by clicking here.
1Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
CHAPTER TWO
Overview of the Old
Homeplace Farm Meat CSA
• Subscription sizes and costs: 12 pound basket ($72/month), 20 pound basket ($115/
month), 30 pound basket ($170/month), 35 pound basket ($200/month)
• Subscription length: Six months
• Delivery frequency: Monthly, at centrally located drop-off locations
• Delivery season: Year round
• Minimum number of orders to begin a new drop-off location: 50 pounds
• Meats included in the subscription: beef, pork, lamb
• Meat composition of each subscription basket: beef (55%), pork (35%), lamb (10%)
• Cut composition in each subscription basket: 25% premium cuts, 75% daily use cuts
Each drop-off location is scheduled for the same day and time each month. For instance,
Location X delivery occurs on the first Monday of each month at 5:00 PM; Location Y
delivery occurs on the second Wednesday of each month at 6:30 PM; Location Z
delivery occurs on the second Thursday of each month at 6:00 PM. We contact each
customer by email, text, or phone call one week before the drop-off date to remind them
about the upcoming delivery.
All details current as of Spring 2013.
2Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
CHAPTER THREE
Benefits of the CSA Model
Suffice it to say, most farmers did not take up agriculture because they have a deep-
seated love for marketing. If we are not fairly compensated for our livestock’s value we
will not be in business very long, however, and a good marketing strategy is our best
tool to obtain fair prices for our stock. We have found the meat CSA model to be a good
vehicle for attaining this goal of financial sustainability. Before describing the details
specific to our meat CSA, however, it is important to understand the general CSA
framework.
CSA FRAMEWORK
CSA is an acronym for community-supported agriculture. The CSA marketing model
arose in Europe as a means for farmers to mitigate some of their financial risks. In a
traditional vegetable CSA the customer contracts a share of the farmer’s crops before
the crops are planted. In return for a guarantee of fresh produce deliveries throughout
the year, the customer pays the farmer a lump sum payment for the season’s production
at the beginning of the growing season.
The CSA concept arose because farmers often bear a substantial upfront
financial cost before their crops are harvested. By paying the farmer at the beginning of
the season, the customer is providing the farmer with operating capital throughout the
growing season. This provides the customer with some assurance that their farmer will
not go bankrupt over the course of the growing season. The CSA model is very fluid,
and can be changed to meet the individual needs of each farm.
3Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
The CSA marketing model did not remain confined in Europe, however; it has
increasingly gained market share within the United States. Some of the main benefits
this model provides to farmers are fair compensation, consistent cash flow, predictability
of supply and demand, customer loyalty, and the opportunity for cross-sells. The next
several paragraphs will detail how each of these benefits are directly reflected in our
farming operation.
Fair Compensation
The CSA model allows us to set the selling price for our products. After buying our farm,
we spent our first several years selling livestock into the commodity chain that defines
modern mainstream American agriculture. While this marketing model is certainly low-
maintenance, we were never comfortable with the role of price-taker, in which we
delivered our stock to the sale barn and hoped the selling price would be sufficient to
provide a profit. The CSA model has allowed us to be price-makers, in which we set the
price for our meat. Being a price-maker does not guarantee success, but is does
provide control over that piece of your financial destiny.
Cash Flow
For our purposes, cash flow is the timing of income from the sale of farm products. All
things being equal, distributed cash flow is better than lumpy cash flow. In other words,
if we make $30,000 per year, it is better to receive $2500 each month rather than
$30,000 in December. Distributed cash flow is often better than lumpy cash flow due to
the cyclical nature of some bills (think about your home energy bills, or quarterly farm
insurance), and to provide a buffer against emergency situations (such as a veterinary
bill or doctor visit).
When we produced livestock for the commodity market, our cash flow was very
lumpy. We hauled animals to the sale barn once or twice each year, so our entire annual
income came during one or two paydays. Even after we transitioned to custom meat
sales our cash flow situation did not improve, since all of our animals were finished for
slaughter during the same season.
4Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
The CSA model provides a built in solution to cash flow problems, however. We
have monthly meat drop-offs, and each customer pays for the current month’s product
at the time of delivery. This has distributed our income more evenly throughout the year.
We do not want to finance our farming operation with debt, and the CSA has made this
goal much more attainable, since it provides us with operating capital on a monthly
basis.
Predictability of Supply and Demand
When focusing on custom sales, one of our largest challenges was matching our
production to customer demand. There is a significant time investment involved with
successfully finishing livestock, and we never had a degree of certainty as to how many
animals we needed to finish in a given season. We always feared a customer would
change their mind at the last moment and decide not to purchase an animal, or (worst-
case scenario) fail to pick up their meat after we had paid to have it processed. Either of
those situations would have proven financially difficult.
The monthly subscription aspect of our CSA removed much of this uncertainty.
There is always a possibility that someone will drop out of their subscription early, but if
that happens it will not prove catastrophic to our financial well-being since the
immediate loss will only comprise a small percentage of the monthly income.
Customer Loyalty
The previous points focused primarily on the financial benefits we observed after
transitioning to a CSA model. Some attributes do not have a dollar figure associated
with them, however: customer loyalty is one of these.
We have seen customer loyalty increase dramatically since we began offering
our meat CSA. This loyalty is manifested in increased dialogue when “our people” see
an opportunity or challenge that we should be aware of, and has also resulted in
recommendations of our product to other potential customers. We think this increase in
loyalty is a natural outgrowth of the increased personal contact we have with each
customer as we deliver the monthly meat subscriptions.
5Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
This increased contact also provides great value to us when we get tired or
stressed. It may be easy to give up if all you are doing is growing cows, but we are
producing real food for real people whom we know by name. Advocates for local
agriculture talk about “knowing your farmer,” but as farmers we should never discount
the value of knowing our customers. We count our customers as friends, and are
humbled to provide their families with healthy food.
Opportunity for Cross-sells
The CSA provides us with a great opportunity to market other farm products to our
existing customers. For instance, we always send a “delivery reminder email” to our
customers a few days before the drop-off date. This reminder provides an excellent
opportunity to detail other items we will have available for purchase on the delivery date.
Cross-selling can prove especially beneficial if you produce a small surplus of a
product, but not enough to validate a full-fledged marketing attempt. Items that fall into
this category for our farm include raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and honey. We
do not rely on any of these items for our primary income, but they add up! The best part
about cross-sells, however, is that it is an opportunity to provide additional value to our
customers. The fact that we are increasing our farm income while doing so is proof that
opportunities to forge win-win solutions abound if we keep an open mind.
6Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
CHAPTER FOUR
Legal Considerations
Direct sales of meat can be very confusing to many producers because a wide array of
regulations exist at both the state and federal level. Suffice it to say, however, if you
have dreams of a sustainable business you should stay on the right side of the law.
I do not believe that the government should be able to force processing
requirements on small farmers selling directly to their customers. At the end of the day,
however, the legal system trumps my philosophical beliefs. We decided we would be
doing ourselves (and our business) a favor if we abided by the labeling regulations. This
meant that all the meat we sold had to be processed and inspected at either a state-
inspected or USDA-inspected abattoir. Kentucky does not offer state inspection
services, so USDA-inspected processing was our only avenue to meet the requirements
of the law. USDA-inspection is generally considered the best option anyway, since it
provides the producer with the widest range of sales options. The USDA inspection seal
can also serve as a point of comfort to some customers.
In the past, the most widespread obstacle to obtaining USDA-inspection for meat
was a lack of inspected abattoirs that served small farmers. Happily, this situation
seems to be improving somewhat as the local food movement grows throughout the
United States. We have several USDA-inspected processors within a reasonable
distance of our farm, and we live in a very rural area. The best way to locate USDA-
inspected plants is to visit the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service website.
The good news is that inspection does not generally add any additional
processing fees, so it should not adversely impact your bottom line.
7Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
CHAPTER FIVE
Infrastructure Requirements
PRODUCT TRANSPORT
Product transport can be broken into two periods: transport to the farm following-
processing, and delivery transport.
Transport to the Farm After Processing
Our processor is located nearly 100 miles from the farm, so it is essential that we have
some way to get the product back to the farm without thawing. In the very early days of
our meat business we simply rented an enclosed trailer (such as a U-Haul) and waited
for a cold day. This method was far from ideal, however. Those trips were filled with fear
of vehicle trouble, or road construction, or getting caught behind an accident.
Due to these concerns, we purchased an enclosed utility trailer that holds three
chest freezers. We place our meat into the chest freezers, then run an extension cord
from the freezers to a generator in the bed of the pickup truck. This allows us to move
meat straight from the processor’s freezer into cold storage. This removes any fear of
long delays that could allow the meat to thaw. The freezer trailer also increased our
operational capacity, since it enables us to deliver animals to the processor any month
of the year rather than waiting for cold weather.
Delivery Transport
All of our drop-off points are located less than one hour from the farm, so we are
comfortable delivering frozen meat to our customers in heavy-duty coolers. Our cooler
of choice is the Coleman Extreme Duty line, but any heavily insulated cooler works well.
8Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
Different views of the trailer we use to transport meat back to the farm from the
processor. This arrangement allows us to transport approximately 1500 pounds
of meat without ever leaving cold storage.
We can generally fit about 90 pounds of meat in a 150 quart cooler, but that is partially
dependent on how much care we take in stacking the meat to maximize available
space.
STORAGE
All meat sold through our CSA is frozen at the processor, then held at our secure on-
farm storage facility until delivery. While “on-farm storage facility” sounds grand, it is
really nothing more than a locked room with freezers. After picking up your meat from
the processor, your goal is simple: keep your product frozen until delivery! Before you
can reach this point, however, you have to decide how much storage space will be
required, and what type of freezer you will purchase.
Amount of Storage Space Required
Before beginning our CSA we had no idea how much storage space would be required
to hold meat from multiple animals of different species. We soon found it more effective
to think in terms of “pounds of meat” rather than “number of animals.”
9Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
A common rule of thumb is that 35-40 pounds of meat will fit into one cubic foot
of freezer space. This is largely based on the types of cuts you are placing in the freezer
(oddly shaped cuts take up more room than flat cuts). We generally fall toward the lower
end (around 35-37 pounds meat per cubic foot storage) of that range. In any event, do
not guess at your storage requirements and hope for the best! Use your production
planning process (detailed in Chapter Seven) to estimate your expected meat yield, and
then use that information to inform your decision about freezer types.
Chest Freezer or Walk-in Freezer?
Before beginning our CSA we were unsure if we should purchase a walk-in freezer or
several chest freezers. After researching the advantages and challenges of each
system we purchased chest freezers, but several factors played into this decision. Our
main considerations were initial purchase cost, energy costs, operational flexibility,
space efficiency, and potential power outages.
Initial purchase cost. When compared on the basis of storage capacity, we found
that chest freezers usually cost more than walk-in freezers. For instance, we received a
price quote of $7,000 for a standard 6’x6’x7’ walk-in freezer; we generally expect to pay
between $750-$800 for a single 24.6 cubic feet chest freezer. Given those figures, we
would pay a $500 - $1,000 premium to purchase enough chest freezers to provide the
same amount of storage space as found in one walk-in freezer.
Energy costs. In the past, energy costs between chest freezers and walk-in
freezers differed substantially. New efficiency standards were mandated for walk-in
freezers constructed after 2009, however, and the new generation of freezers are much
more affordable to operate. In fact, new generation walk-in freezers can be operated for
as little as $25-$50 per month, whereas some of the older generation freezers could
cost up to $350 per month to operate. Older walk-in freezers can sometimes be
purchased for less money than new freezers, but the difference in energy costs make
the new generation freezers a much better long term purchase.
10Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
Before the 2009 energy standards took effect, operating costs made chest
freezers the clear choice. After all, each of our Energy-Star certified chest freezers (24.6
cubic feet) only use about $5 of electricity per month. The increased efficiency of the
current generation of walk-in freezers means that the difference in operating costs
between the two systems are minimal.
Operational flexibility. We feel that chest freezers offer more operational
flexibility than walk-in freezers for small farmers with a relatively small customer base.
We have purposefully maintained a relatively slow growth rate: we want to fulfill
obligations to our existing customers before bringing on new CSA members. If we had
purchased a walk-in freezer as our initial storage space we would have had a large
amount of unused freezer space until we expanded our customer base. Chest freezers
have allowed us to sustain controlled growth without maintaining excess storage
capacity.
Space efficiency. Chest freezers are energy efficient, but they are not space
efficient. Walk-in freezers undeniably store more product than chest freezers for the
same amount of floor space. We have found that efficient use of space becomes more
important as we grow our customer base; we will eventually run out of room to place
chest freezers. For us, the “tipping point” to transition from chest freezers to a walk-in
freezer will be approximately 500 pounds of subscriptions per month.
Potential power outages. Chest freezers have the benefit of being small enough to
run with a generator during a power outage. We rarely lose power, but we want the
capacity to run our freezers if an extended power outage does occur. You can operate a
walk-in freezer from a generator, but you need to be careful to not exceed your
generator’s rated wattage capacity. Most walk-in freezer compressors are much larger
than those found on chest freezers, so it can be easy to exceed your generator’s
capacity.
11Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
CHAPTER SIX
Finding Customers
EXISTING CONTACTS
Our first move after committing to the CSA was to reach out to all of our existing
contacts. Some of these folks were already customers, while others had expressed
interest in purchasing our meat but had been unable to buy a custom processed animal
for a variety of reasons. These individuals already supported our mission, so we wanted
to give them the first chance at this new opportunity.
LOCAL NETWORKING
We are grateful to live in a rural community where everyone knows everyone else. We
used this network to our advantage when beginning the CSA. Any time we bump into an
acquaintance we are almost sure to be asked, “What’s going on with the farm these
days?” We took this opportunity to tell folks about the CSA, and about our hopes for the
new venture.
No one else in our area had previously attempted a meat CSA, so the project
seemed very novel to most folks. This unfamiliarity worked to our advantage since it led
people to discuss the CSA even when we were not around. These conversations
probably began with the statement “You’ll never guess what those crazy Bowling’s are
up to now...” but that does not matter. All the talk increased local awareness about the
CSA, and we picked up several new customers as a result.
Local networking is not a passive effort, however. We continually search for
opportunities to increase awareness of our farm throughout our community. We have
given farming talks to various local groups, provided educational tours to high school
12Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
classes, furnished free meat to local cooking shows, and served samples at area
cooking events. Events such as these hold great potential to help us develop our
business, but their true value lies in establishing us as part of the community. We
provide details about the CSA if someone specifically asks where to purchase our meat,
but otherwise we just focus on providing quality information to the attendees. We want
folks to think of us as helpful farmers who provide a great product, rather than as a
generic business just interested in opening another customer account.
ONLINE PRESENCE
As soon as we committed to the CSA concept we began advertising it through our
online venues. Our online presence includes our farm website
(www.OldHomeplaceFarm.com), third party food websites (Local Harvest, Eat Wild),
and social media (Facebook). None of these sites are fancy — we are farmers, not
computer programmers — but today’s marketplace requires a basic online presence.
Our basic strategy for connecting with customers on the internet requires that we have a
dual focus that accounts for both discovery and validation.
Discovery Period
The discovery period relates to the first time a potential customer finds our farm
through any online venue. Our goal in the discovery phase is simply to build awareness
about our operation and our products. A brief online introduction does not necessarily
mean that person will become a customer, it simply establishes our presence. The
discovery phase is often catalyzed through an indirect conversation or generic search.
For example, many people enter the discovery period when someone on
Facebook “likes” or comments about our products or farm, and this conversation is
noticed by that individual’s Facebook friends. The discovery period can also begin when
people do a general search (usually based on geography) on Eat Wild or Local Harvest.
In these cases, the individual is not specifically looking for our farm, they are just
searching for a local producer whose farming philosophy meshes with their own
worldview.
13Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
Validation Period
The first introduction that many folks have with our operation is through a secondary
website such as Facebook or Local Harvest, but we really want to direct people to our
farm website. If we are successful in sending the potential customer to our farm website
it signals the beginning of the validation period. Our farm website provides more
detailed information about our operation and products than is available on the
secondary sites, and this in-depth information allows potential customers to get a better
view of who we are. The ultimate goal of the validation period is to inspire the potential
customer to contact us for more information. At that point, the relationship changes from
passive information consumption into a real conversation.
HOMEGROWN EVANGELISTS
We have found that providing good value to our customers is a more effective
advertising strategy than paying for marketing. If your customers feel great about the
product they receive, they will do their best to spread the word to other people they think
will appreciate your product.
We have institutionalized this “evangelism” in our method of arranging drop-off
sites. Our monthly deliveries take place at a central drop-off location. We will provide
deliveries to any place within a reasonable driving distance of our farm (currently a 40
mile radius) without adding any additional delivery fees. However, we do require that
each drop-off location have a minimum of 50 pounds of subscriptions per month to
cover our transportation costs.
While this formula does minimize transportation costs, it has also expanded our
customer base. Since the delivery minimum is above the amount that any one
subscription holder can purchase, we sometimes see an individual who really wants to
set up a new drop-off point recruit new customers to reach the delivery minimum. This
has effectively magnified our influence, since our existing customers help locate
individuals they think would enjoy our product. We feel this is a win-win situation for
everyone: we expand our customer base, the first costumer gets a drop-off point in their
desired location, and the new customers are able to source niche meats that can be
relatively scarce in our area.
14Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
CHAPTER SEVEN
Planning it All Out
The CSA model has dramatically improved our farm’s profitability, but the increased
income is really our compensation for the additional planning required to provide
convenience to our customers. Our system requires relatively little maintenance on a
daily basis, but it does require operational planning be done in a timely manner. After all,
you can not grow a crop of livestock overnight! The bulk of the logistics fall into four
categories: initial planning, production planning, financial considerations, and delivery.
INITIAL PLANNING OF THE CSA STRUCTURE
Our first action after deciding to pursue the CSA was to contact everyone who had
purchased or expressed interest in purchasing meat from our farm. Rather than simply
informing everyone as to how the CSA would be structured, however, we provided our
proposed framework and then asked for input. This proved beneficial in three ways.
First, it allowed us to create a CSA model that provided real value to our
customers. As it turned out, several of our original CSA ideas were not what our
customers wanted! For instance, our initial thoughts about package sizes were not in
line with our customer’s views. We originally considered setting our smallest
subscription size to 25 pounds per month. As it turns out, however, very few of our
contacts were interested in receiving that much meat each month. Had we not asked for
input, we would have launched a model that was not beneficial to our customers.
Second, by seeking customer input we allowed folks to take ownership in the
CSA. This meant that our customers (correctly) felt they were part of the farm team,
rather than just clients who bought our products. This sense of stewardship led to better
15Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
relationships, since both parties (the farmer and the customer) worked to make the
process more beneficial for their counterpart. People want to be involved in cool and
exciting endeavors. We feel that a well-crafted meat CSA can provide such an
experience for our customers.
Finally, we included a launch date when asking for customer input. Since we had
limited numbers of subscription slots, the combination of scarcity and a launch date built
an element of urgency and excitement into the process. This combination led to buzz
that introduced us to several new customers.
PRODUCTION
Proper planning takes into account the number of subscriptions we have sold, the
length of time until our next round of processing, the estimated meat yield from our
animals, and the number of animals we will need to produce. It is imperative that we
take time to do this planning. Our customers are counting on us, and we will not be able
to effectively meet their needs if we do not properly plan.
We do our production planning in a series of steps:
Step 1: Calculate how many pounds of meat we need to produce during
the next production cycle.
Step 2: Determine how much meat we need from each animal species
included in the subscription.
Step 3: Calculate how many animals of each species we will need to finish
to reach our meat poundage goal.
Step 4: Determine when your next production cycle will occur, and
schedule your processing dates accordingly.
While that sounds somewhat complicated, it is a very straightforward process. Please
refer to Appendix A to see an example calculation.
Production planning really is not that difficult. In fact, much of the beauty of the
CSA model comes from the amount of control that production planning affords us.
Production planning allows us determine exactly how many animals we will need to
16Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
produce to satisfy our customer base. This knowledge allows us to make informed
production decisions, but it also provides us with insight into our future finances.
PRICING CONSIDERATIONS
Pricing our product proved to be one of the more difficult - but important - decisions with
which we were faced. Our situation was further complicated because we opted to sell
the whole animal through our CSA to avoid being caught with an oversupply of daily use
cuts at some point. As such, we had to price our meat in a fashion that provided a good
value for a wide variety of cuts while still maintaining our profitability. We succeeded in
developing a price structure that was fair to both our customers and us, but in the
process of doing so we identified several key factors that must be considered before
setting the meat price.
Production Costs
This includes feed and mineral costs, the purchase price of replacement animals, water
delivery, and any production infrastructure. Production costs are our largest expense
category in with the CSA, so an accurate accounting of all costs is required to set meat
prices at a level that guarantees profitability.
Processing Costs
Processing costs must also be considered before setting a meat price. Our processor
uses a variable pricing structure based on animal weight (for instance, the processing
charge for our beeves is $0.50 per pound of hanging weight). As a result of this variable
pricing structure, we never know for certain what our processing costs will be until we
deliver the animals to the abattoir. However, if we know the animal’s anticipated live
weight at processing, we can multiply the average dressing percentages for the species
by its live weight to estimate the animal’s hanging weight. This allows us to estimate our
processing cost early in the season.
17Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
Transportation Costs
Transportation costs are a very real expense for our operation. Our processor is located
almost 100 miles from the farm, and we also travel approximately 160 miles per month
in the course of meat deliveries. These costs have a tendency to be overlooked, so we
found it helpful to take accounting of them on an annual basis. Fuel costs will likely
change over time, so we perform our calculations with that variability in mind.
Overage
We find it important to account for the amount of overage we inevitably encounter when
pulling product. Since our pricing structure is such that we charge a set fee each month
based on subscription size, we cannot recoup the overage if a package weighs 13
pounds as opposed to 12 pounds. This seems like a small issue, but it can add up to a
substantial loss over the course of a season. We make a concerted effort to minimize
overage, and we usually hold the average between 1–1.5% (by weight) per month.
Loss of Vacuum Seals
We sometimes experience a small amount of loss when packages lose their vacuum
seal. We opt not to sell these packages. The issue is largely cosmetic, but there is also
an increased likelihood those packages will be freezer burned. We use packages with
broken vacuums for our own home use. It does not take long to set these packages
aside, and it ensures that our customers receive the best product possible.
Price Adjustment
Finally, we have found it wise to leave ourselves an avenue to adjust prices in the
future. Our policy is to lock in prices for the duration of the subscription period (currently
six months). That way, all prices change at the same time. This continuity keeps life
much more simple for both us and our customers.
DELIVERY
Our delivery philosophy is simple: set it up in a fashion that maximizes our customer’s
convenience. This means that we try to accommodate folk’s schedules as much as
18Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
possible when setting up new drop-off points and delivery times while still maintaining
centrally located drop-offs. We used an email survey to set up our initial drop-off points
and times, and that worked really well for us. It did take a little time to find a consensus
that worked with everyone’s schedule, but the process was not too hard. Some of our
most important lessons regarding deliveries are listed below:
• First, make each delivery point a recurring day each month. For
instance, Location X delivery occurs on the first Monday of each month
at 5:00 PM, Location Y delivery occurs on the second Thursday of each
month at 6:30 PM, Location Z delivery is on the third Tuesday of each
month at 4:00 PM, etc. That way, when the folks at Location X see the
first Monday of the month drawing close, they will always know their
meat delivery is due, and schedule their day accordingly.
• Consider the other recurring activities in your community. Many of our
customers attend church on Wednesday evenings, so we avoided that
time slot.
• Finally, try to schedule your drop-off times during the week. Our
customers are more prone to be out of town from Friday evening to
Sunday afternoon, so we avoided weekend drop-off times. We want to
avoid the hassle of scheduling alternative pickup dates whenever
possible, so we avoid weekends.
19Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
CHAPTER EIGHT
Bringing It All Together
The previous chapters have outlined the framework of our CSA, but this chapter
provides detail as to how it all comes together.
DAILY FREEZER INSPECTION
We make a habit of checking the temperature of our freezers each day. We do this for
two reasons: it ensures we are providing safe product to our customers, and it
drastically reduces the chance that we lose our product if there is an equipment
malfunction.
Many new freezers have a digital thermostat on the handle, and an alarm that
sounds if the interior temperature rises too high. While the on-board electronics are nice
features, we do not entrust the integrity of our product to them. Instead, we place real
thermometers inside the freezer, and then check the temperature by opening the lid.
These precautions may seem like overkill, but each freezer contains approximately
$5,000 of meat when filled to capacity. To our reckoning, a daily visual check is cheap
insurance.
INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
Good inventory management is essential to success. We use a simple computerized
spreadsheet system to track of our meat inventory. When we pick our meat up from the
processor, we enter tallies for the weight and number of packages of each type of cut
into a spreadsheet. This initial tally lets us see how much total weight and number of
packages we have on hand at the beginning of that production cycle. After each month’s
20Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
deliveries are pulled from the freezers we subtract that month’s deliveries from the initial
tally. That way, we keep a running total of our meat inventory. We do not want to call a
customer and explain that they will not receive their monthly meat delivery because we
did a poor job tracking our inventory.
We use a computer spreadsheet program for our records, but a paper-based
system could also work. Whatever technique you adopt, however, it should be in place
before your first delivery takes place. Missing one delivery cycle could force you to re-
inventory everything to get the correct tally.
PULLING PRODUCT FOR DELIVERIES
We always pull product several days before the delivery date to allow us adequate time
to make changes should something come arise. Our goal is to minimize the amount of
time the freezer lids are open, so we always work in pairs to pull product. That allows
one person to focus on pulling product while the other person concentrates on tracking
Picture of our inventory spreadsheet. The spreadsheet allows us to quickly see
how many pounds of each cut of meat remain in our freezers.
21Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
inventory. We pull the product for one customer at a time to keep us from getting
confused.
As soon as we finish pulling the entire order for a customer we place it into
plastic bags and write the customer’s name on each bag with a Sharpie. We also label
each customer’s bag with a number (1 of 5, 2 of 5, 3 of 5, etc.) so we can quickly see
how many bags the customer should receive when we arrive at the delivery point. This
reduces the chance that we overlook a bag of meat during the rush of the drop-off.
We use an Ipad for inventory management while pulling our product. We created
a spreadsheet template in Numbers (an inexpensive spreadsheet program available on
the Ipad) that allows us to quickly choose each cut of meat from a drop-down menu and
then enter its weight in the next column. For instance, we can choose “ground beef” and
enter 1.01 pounds, or “leg of lamb” and enter 2.63 pounds, or “pork chops” and enter
2.49 pounds, etc. The spreadsheet provides a running total for the weight of the meat
we have pulled, which allows us to focus on pulling meat without manually adding all the
different weights together.
We used a paper-based handwritten tracking system with a calculator for the first
several months our CSA was in operation, but it was not very time efficient. The Ipad
and spreadsheet template allows us to pull approximately 125 pounds of product per
Pulling product for delivery. Note the Ipad beside the
basket of meat.
22Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
hour; our average when using the handwritten tracking system was approximately 45
pounds per hour. The Ipad and Numbers combination is really simple, but it saves us a
tremendous amount of time.
DELIVERY
We make every effort to streamline the efficiency of our drop-off points to minimize our
transportation costs. This entails working out times and routes that allow us to hit
multiple drop-off locations on the same day whenever possible. Our delivery days are
hectic as we move from one drop-off location to the next, but it drastically decreases the
amount of time and gas invested in the delivery process.
That said, we do allow adequate time to visit with our customers for a few
minutes at each drop-off location. Most folks are eager to talk for a few minutes after
receiving their delivery. We take care not to become so enamored with delivery
efficiency that we lose sight of the big picture. These folks have anticipated their delivery
all month long, and want to spend a few minutes touching base with their farmer when
the delivery date arrives. We owe it to our customers — and our business — to budget
in a few extra minutes for conversation at each drop-off point.
23Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
CHAPTER NINE
Coda
Why do you farm? That is the question you should ask yourself before beginning a
meat CSA.
If your agricultural ideal is to live a rural lifestyle and rear your animals without
engaging with society-at-large, a CSA is probably not the best fit for your operation. And
there is nothing wrong with that — direct marketing isn’t for every farm or every farmer.
However, if you dream of producing a quality product for your patrons, if you
desire to increase control of your farm’s financial destiny, if you have determined to
make the most of your farm’s capabilities, the CSA path will likely suit you well.
If you do choose to establish a CSA, there will be times when you question
whether the hassle is worth your efforts. There will be days when customers forget to
pick up their meat, days when you feel too busy to leave the farm for a drop-off, days
when things just don’t go your way. But in spite these setbacks, you can succeed if only
you maintain your resolve. When those hard days materialize, remember this: your
customers are depending on you.
After all, you are a farmer. You are filling plates, and fulfilling needs.
24Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
CHAPTER TEN
Afterword
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about the Old Homeplace Farm Local Meat CSA! We
realize there are many things in this Guide that may not apply to your operation, but we
sincerely hope you found something that provided you with a new viewpoint of another
farmer’s attempt to reach profitability. That being the case, our advice is to view this
Guide through the lens of your own unique situation, apply any items that will increase
your profitability, and discard the remainder.
Please pass this document along to other farmers who may benefit from our
story. After a dearth of several generations, the time is ripe for family farmers to provide
food for our communities again. We respectfully maintain that a meat CSA is one way to
embark on this beautiful adventure.
In closing, please do visit our farm website and contact us if you have any
questions. After all, we’re all in this together!
This Guide was provided for free to in an attempt to increase the profitability of
family farmers. If you found it worthwhile, please consider visiting our website and
making a voluntary contribution via PayPal to show your appreciation. Thanks!
25Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
Glossary
Abattoir A livestock processing facility.
Carcass cutting yield The percentage of the carcass that ends up as usable meat.
Average carcass cutting yields are 45% for beeves, 53% for pigs, and 45% for
lambs, although individual animals can be higher or lower. Carcass cutting yields
are calculated by dividing finished weight by hanging weight, then multiplying the
answer by 100.
Carcass weight See “hanging weight.”
Cash flow The amount of money coming into the operation from the sale of farm
products. Cash flow can be either distributed (spread somewhat evenly
throughout the year) or lumpy (coming in only a large lump sums).
Custom meat sales A business model in which the customer purchases a whole or
half animal. The farmer usually determines purchase price based on live weight
or hanging weight.
Custom processor An abattoir which does not have any government inspector
onsite. Legally, custom processing is only available to livestock owners who
intend to use the meat for personal consumption. Custom processors will mark
meat packages with a stamp stating “Not for Sale.”
CSA Acronym for “community supported agriculture.” Traditional CSAs are
characterized by the farmer charging a fee at the beginning of the growing
season in exchange for product delivery throughout the growing season. The Old
Homeplace Farm meat CSA is different in that customers pay monthly fees for a
set amount of product, which is delivered throughout the year.
Dressing percentage The percentage of the live animal that ends up as the carcass.
Calculated by dividing hanging weight by live weight, then multiplying the answer
by 100. Average dressing percentages are 62% for beeves, 74% for pigs, and
54% for lambs. See also “hanging weight.”
Federally-inspected processor See “USDA-inspected processor.”
26Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
Finished weight The final weight of usable meat following processing. It is the
amount of packaged meat you will place in the freezer.
Finishing The process of taking livestock to your desired processing weight. You
should give extra care to providing optimum nutrition and living conditions to your
animals during the finishing period, since the last few months of an animal’s life
are very important to producing a quality meat.
Hanging weight The weight of an animal carcass after the head, hide, and offal have
been removed during processing. Also called carcass weight.
Live weight The weight of an animal on the hoof, prior to processing.
Offal The intestines and organs of an animal that are removed during processing.
Production cycle The production cycle is the time between processing sessions
when we are actually growing the animals. We currently process in late spring
and late fall, so have a summer production cycle (between spring processing and
fall processing) and a winter production cycle (between fall processing and spring
processing).
State-inspected processor An abattoir which has an onsite inspector from the state
Department of Agriculture. Meat that undergoes state-inspected processing is
allowed to be sold within that state, with certain caveats. Check with your State
Department of Agriculture for further clarification and rules. Not all states
offer this service.
Subscription composition The percentage of meat in a CSA subscription
contributed by each animal species.
USDA-inspected processor An abattoir which has an onsite inspector from the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). USDA-processing is generally
accepted as having the most wide reaching benefits to the farmer, since the
product can be sold across state lines.
Vacuum packaging Meat packaged in freezer-safe, clear plastic wrap. Vacuum
sealed meat generally has better storage life than meat wrapped in butcher
paper, but it also appears more professional.
Yield percentage An animal’s finished weight divided by its live weight, expressed as
a percentage. Yield percentage shows you how much final product you receive
27Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
after the offal and bones have been removed during processing. Yield
percentages will differ between individual animals, but in general some breeds
will do better than others. More muscling and less bone translate into higher yield
percentages. The higher the yield percentage the greater your profit margin.
28Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
APPENDIX A
Production Calculation
Examples
Step 1a: Subscription size (pounds) x number of subscriptions = monthly total
! (pounds)
Step 1b: Monthly total (pounds) x number of months in production cycle =
! total pounds of meat per production cycle
For sake of this example, we will make the following assumptions:
• Subscription sizes: 10 pounds, 20 pounds, 30 pounds
• Subscriptions sold: 10 subscriptions of each size
• Production cycle: 6 months
• Subscription composition: 50% beef, 30% pork, 20% lamb
• Live weights: beef (1,200 pounds), pork (280 pounds), lamb (100 pounds)
• Carcass cutting yields: beef (45%), pork (53%), lamb (45%)
29Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
The calculations are found through these steps:
Step 1: Calculate how many pounds of meat we need to produce during
the next production cycle.
Step 2: Determine how much meat we need from each animal species
included in the subscription.
Step 3: Calculate how many animals of each species we will need to finish
to reach our meat poundage goal for the production cycle.
Remember, to perform a calculation that includes percentages, move the percentage’s
decimal two places to the left to transform the percentage into a proportion. For
instance, in Step 2 subscription compositions will be transformed from 50% beef, 30%
pork, and 20% lamb to the proportions of 0.5 beef, 0.3 pork, and 0.2 lamb.Step 1:
Calculate how many pounds of meat we need to produce during the next
production cycle. This is a two-part process.
30Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
Step 2: Determine how much meat we need from each animal species included in
the subscription. To calculate desired meat poundage per species, we multiply the
subscription composition of each species (what percentage of the subscription is made
up by each species) by the total weight for the production cycle.
Step 2: Total pounds of meat needed for production cycle × species
composition in subscription = total pounds of meat needed for each
species
31Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
Step 3: Calculate how many animals of each species we will need to finish to
reach our meat poundage goal. This is a two-part process.
Step 3a: Live weight of finished animal × carcass cutting yield = approximate
pounds of meat per animal
Step 3b: Total pounds of meat per production cycle ÷ pounds of meat per
animal = number of animals needed in production cycle
Since it is obviously hard to raise a partial animal, we will round the next production
cycle up to 4 beeves, 8 pigs, and 16 lambs. By rounding up we will also be accounting
for product overages and broken vacuum seals.
32Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
APPENDIX B
Miscellaneous Tips
Customer Management
1. Maintain a customer list that includes name, phone number, email address, and
mailing information. A time sensitive issue will eventually arise, so it is best to have a
variety of ways to get in touch.
2. Occasionally throw in a free item from your farm that you think your customers will
enjoy. Your customers are going out of their way to support you and your product, so
be sure to show your appreciation.
3. Do not forget to bring some small bills on delivery day. Someone will need you to
make change, guaranteed.
4. If Customer A gives a reference that leads to a new customer, mail customer A a
handwritten thank you note. Also include something extra in their next delivery, and
thank them again for their recommendation.
5. Anything you do to include your customers into the life of the farm will help build
loyalty. Have a customer appreciation barbecue, send Christmas cards, write an
occasional newsletter with farm updates, invite them to bring their kids out for a
picnic and farm day, etc...
Processor Considerations
1. Make your processing appointments with the abattoir early. We schedule our
appointments at least two months in advance, but three months is better.
2. Make sure your animals have as little stress as possible throughout their lives, but
especially during the final months before processing. Research has shown that a
single stressful event can significantly affect finishing gains and tenderness for
33Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
weeks after the event. Low stress handling while loading and unloading for the trip to
the abattoir is especially important.
3. If you raise pigs, park the livestock trailer in the pasture with them several days
before taking them to the processor. Leave the door open and put some feed inside
the trailer during this acclimation period. If your acclimation is successful your pigs
will load themselves for the trip to the processor.
4. Deliver your animals to the abattoir early in the morning to avoid heat stress. You
also want to plan driving routes that avoids stop-and-go traffic and towns.
Product Management
1. Storage strategy can make life a lot easier when it comes time to pull product for
delivery. We store similar cuts together, and dedicate freezers to different animal
species.
2. If you have different subscription offers, make a chart outlining rough guidelines for
each offer that you can glance at while pulling product for delivery.
3. You should not co-mingle personal product (such as your home-processed
vegetables) with the product you are offering for sale. We keep our “for sale”
freezers separate from our personal freezer.
34Old Homeplace Farm Meat CSA Guide
About the Author
Will Bowling was already a young adult before embarking on his farming journey, but he
has wholeheartedly embraced the lifestyle of local agricultural production and marketing
in the ensuing years. This passion for local markets and independent farms is
manifested in his desire to help increase the profitability of other small farmers. Will has
presented talks describing his family’s farming methods at various regional and
statewide agricultural functions, and has been published in national sustainable
agriculture magazines. He is involved in Community Farm Alliance, the Eastern
Kentucky Food Systems Collaborative, and the Kentucky Agricultural Legacy Initiative.
When not working, Will enjoys backpacking, kayaking, and playing old-time
music in the Appalachian mountains that surround the farm. He can also be found
frequenting any square dance within two hours of wherever he happens to be!
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