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Duke Phillips, manager of
Chico Basin Ranch near Colorado Springs, markets ranch amenities
to the public. |
In
Touch With Consumers
In five years of drought, Duke Phillips has watched
forage wither on his 87,000-acre Chico Basin Ranch southeast of
Colorado Springs. As his cow herd shrank, Phillips
and his family invited hundreds of guests to share ranch amenities—from
fishing to bird watching, from photographing wildlife to participating
in ranch roundups.
In the Cache Valley of northern Utah, wheat farmers
Wes and Jean Roundy hiked the marketing trail,
taking a family recipe from idea to product. Their popped wheat
snacks are now being packaged and labeled and finding space on local
store shelves.
Like Phillips and the Roundys, more and more producers are carving
out niches in the agricultural marketplace. Western SARE grants
offer impetus and courage to step into what is often a new and complex
world. Direct marketing can generate more dollars, offer greater
pricing control and add diversity. It also requires willingness
to deal with retailers and the public.
“We wanted to diversify and find more ways to create sustainability,”
says Phillips (FW00-028), “but we’ve had to market ourselves
and tell the public who we are.”
The Roundys (FW00-017) have learned to assess snack buyers and
how to reach them. “It seemed overwhelming at first,”
Wes Roundy says of his project, “but we found a lot of people
willing to help.”
Truly Wooly
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| Margaret Magruder
anticipates strong demand for “Hydro Shepherds,”
storm-drain filter bags made from low-grade wool. |
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In their struggle to market low-grade wools, a band of Oregon
sheep growers embarked on a creative escapade to spin off a host
of value-added products with catchy names, all made from the lesser
quality wool (FW01-040).
Wooly Pooch Pads and Wooly Kitty Nappers—dog and cat beds
filled with wool and cedar chips and covered with a cotton wrap
—are selling in stores and being promoted on the radio, says
project coordinator, Margaret Magruder. Hydro Shepherds,
fabricated from wool to serve as sediment filters in storm drains,
have been tested, and sparked interest, at the Port of Portland
and the City of Albany.
Members are also testing Safe Sax, oversized socks that fit over
soiled shoes or boots for dirt-free trips in and out of the house;
stadium pillows filled with wool and adorned with university logos;
and fire suppressant blankets made of wool for fire departments
and emergency car kits.
“We’ve had virtually no market for the last five years
for some of our wool,” says Magruder. “We’re hoping
this will provide a steady outlet and encourage producers to separate
their wool clip and market cleaner wool.”
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Daphne and Ron McKeehan
of Honokaa, Hawaii, opened an on-farm store to market their
hogs. |
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SARE Grants Spark Creative Marketing
In Honokaa, Hawaii, Ron and Daphne McKeehan
market pork products directly to consumers (FW00-135). Their hogs
are processed at a USDA packing facility, and standard and specialty
cuts are sold from a store they built on their farm.
“Our customers appreciate that our hogs are homegrown and
from a small family farm, and that we are operating under sustainable
agriculture practices,” says Daphne McKeehan.
In Portland, Oregon, The Food Alliance
helps producers capitalize on their sustainability. Its SARE grant
engaged marketing techniques—point-of-sale materials, brochures,
banners and flyers—to promote the sustainable approaches of
its producer members and their products (SW00-024).
David Chaney at the University of California
Davis is training ag-support professionals in California,
Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon and Colorado in
direct-marketing strategies (EW00-012). The idea is to increase
the number of marketing consultants available to producers.
To help more producers take the marketing leap, the Western SARE
Administrative Council is directing more dollars into marketing
grants.
Safety Net
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| Janie Burns
says the organic marketing cooperative formed in 1996 with a
SARE grant is providing the framework for alternative ventures. |
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When the tragic events of 9-11 crimped U.S. travel, the ripple
effect of reduced tourism cut deep into the Idaho Organic Cooperative’s
sales to high-end Boise, Idaho, restaurants. Cooperative
members withstood the jolt because most were well diversified beyond
restaurant sales, a diversity spurred by the cooperative, formed
five years earlier (FW95-046).
Janie Burns, project coordinator, says the cooperative
structure has facilitated construction of greenhouses to extend
growing seasons. Some members are cooperating to save, grow out
and market organic seeds. And several hope to develop a poultry-processing
facility that uses organic feed produced through the cooperative.
“Our SARE grant provided a small amount of money,”
says Burns, “but it has made a huge difference.”
Simply Sustainable
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