If you are value adding your meat product via a processing by having them make something like sausage or bacon, then you might be more tied to that particular process than you think.

Depending on how that entity makes that product and what they put in it, it creates a specific flavor profile. A flavor profile that your customer base likely associates with you and your farm.

But that flavor profile isn't coming just from you.

What happens then if that other piece of the puzzle goes away?

How do you then replicate that same product using another entity?

If the success of a particular product is in part based on an entity that isn't you, what do you do?

If the product changes, what will your customers think? Will they notice? Maybe, maybe not?

But it's something to think about, and it's the topic of today's show.

READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM?

The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it’s not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that’s right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com 

Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry

Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX

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Farming is one of those careers that are more than a career.  It's a lifestyle.  A lifestyle in every sense of the world.

Because for a big part of the year your life will be the farm.

Extreme work hours and murderous weeks are pretty much universally synonymous with farming.  

During parts of the season it's not uncommon to work 12, 15, or 18 hour days, putting in those types of days back to back.  

The work becomes everything during those periods and it is a long, long cycle of do this then this then this then this, then when you are tired and cranky, do more, and more.

It's those periods of the farm season that put you to the max and test your commitment to this lifestyle.

Fortunately those periods are just that, periods or snapshots in time.  They are temporary.

They are hell weeks, not hell months or hell years.  And if you can push through those hard times you are rewarded later on in the year by the exact opposite.  Call them heaven weeks where the workload is extremely minimal and many tasks and projects are now optional, not required.  It's the off-season.

For Darby, that off-season begins with the arrival of Thanksgiving.

And that's where we pick up today's show.

READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM?

The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it’s not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that’s right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com 

Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry

Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX

Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

If you are thinking about transitioning from a career in one field to a career as a part-time or full-time farming, you need to be careful in this stage.  The obvious reality is that you get infinitely many chances to make a business work, but the not-so-obvious reality is that everyone gets infinite changes, and most people will only use one. Their shot misses, it doesn't work, and it’s over.  They never get back up for whatever reasons - emotional, family, financial, emotional.  The goal of this episode is to help you become resilient enough not to blow yourself up taking those shots by taking some time on the front end to think through it and plan.

READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM?

The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it’s not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that’s right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com 

Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry

Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX

Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

The person buying Darby's turkeys isn't focused on the sticker - they have other reasons to buy a turkey from him, reasons that are strong enough for them to look past the price. Reasons like being locally raised, being raised in better conditions, being raised by a farmer that they know, and them as a customer being able to support a farmer and a method of agriculture that they believe in, and one that's preciously opposite the methods being used by the Butterballs of the world. It's these factors that have made growing turkeys an attractive niche business for Darby. And it might be a business that fits you and your enterprise, especially if you already have an established customer base. Think about that as we go through this episode, because today, it's a turkey day.

READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM?

The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it’s not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that’s right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com 

Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry

Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX

Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

Set yourself up for success from Day 1 by putting in place a plan that has a chance of success in reality.  There's some danger in putting in a plan that's too aggressive up front, because what happens on the back end when you don't meet your own level of expectations, unrealistic or not?  Not a situation that you want to be in.

READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM?

The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it’s not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that’s right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com 

Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry

Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX

Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

When it comes to a small scale livestock operation, there are two main choices that stick out when it comes to selecting starter enterprises: pastured poultry and pigs. This season we have discussed each of them in depth, looking at the nuts and bolts and pros and cons of these enterprises. And if I had to guess, I would assume that most people getting into small scale livestock start with poultry.   But that might not always be the best option.  In many cases raising pigs may be a better option given your market and your competitors in the area. Part of making at that assessment comes to looking at the potential numbers for each of the enterprises.   So far we have done that with poultry, but not pigs, at least not until today. If you go way back to episodes 8, 9, and 10 we talked a lot about the methodology of raising pigs in the woods. We covered a lot of the management, the infrastructure and equipment that use to execute a successful and profitable pig enterprise, now let's see how that all works out in reality when it comes to the numbers. What types of costs are involved? And how profitable is a small scale pig enterprise? Those are just some of the topics that we cover in today's episode, Part 4 in the series How to Raise Pigs Regeneratively in the Woods.

READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM?

The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it’s not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that’s right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com 

Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry

Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX

Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

What you will hear today, is an episode that I published about a year ago with Darby.  It's an interview talking about his transition into farming and his farm beginnings. If you think you may have heard this interview before, then you probably right.  It was published as one of the founders’ stories last year before PV3. Given the timing I think that re-airing this interview makes a lot of sense.  There's a lot of stuff in this interview that we haven't covered in GFL before.  And it should help fill in some of the gaps regarding his early days in farm and how he transitioned from nonfarm to full time farmer.  It also goes to show that the Darby that you hear today, wasn't always this way, like everyone, he too had to start at the beginning without any experience or knowing exactly what he was doing... I think that makes Darby's story relatable and applicable to many people listening to this show.

READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM?

The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it’s not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that’s right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com 

Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry

Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX

Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

Believe it or not, not all surprises on the farm are bad surprises. Not every surprise is a baby calf dying, turkeys arriving days early, and having a car crash through your fence on Christmas Day setting off a chain of events that has your cattle and thousands of dollars heading towards the highway. Some surprises are actually good surprises.... and recently Darby got one of those. It came out of the blue, and it's a good one. What is it, and how is he dealing with it.

READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM?

The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it’s not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that’s right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com 

Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry

Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX

Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

At any given time, in any place, in any area of business, there is usually an established set of businesses operating in that geographic area. If you are new to that area and/or if you want to start a business in that area, how do you compete? Think about farming. There are a lot of conventional and better than conventional producers of poultry, pork, and beef in many of the markets around the US and Canada. If you want to get into one of those markets, how do you deal with the competition? On one hand they are competition. On the other hand they are comrades, other small scale farmers, in the battle against big ag. And in some ways, the total market would be stronger if more locals were supporting more local farms. It's competition versus co-opetition. Directly competing in a battle to the death versus competing on more friendly terms knowing that the real battle is the little farms versus the mega industrialized farm complex. As a new farmer you have to walk this line carefully. If you are new farmer, then you could benefit from a lot of your competitors knowledge - knowledge about the market, the local climate, local processors and suppliers, knowledge about the livestock, knowledge about the local grasses. Despite being your competitor they know a lot that you would benefit from knowing, while at the same time, being your direction competition. When you start farming or start farming in a new area, how do you compete and deal with the competition?

READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM?

The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it’s not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that’s right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com 

Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry

Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX

Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

Today's episode is Part Two of our series on pasture. In this episode Darby will go into detail with a plan that converts conventional row crop into perennial pasture,dealing with invasive weed pressure, and practical considerations for establishing new pasture.  Things like should you mow long grass, why or why not, and when could you graze cattle on a new pasture, and even chickens. There's a lot of practical advice in this one. Hopefully some of this advice can help you get establish more pasture or improve the quality of your pasture. Because more grass, means more animals, and no extra land needed. It's like getting another farm for free.

READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM?

The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it’s not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that’s right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com 

Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry

Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX

Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod