GFP103: Farmer Profile - Ginger Shields
/
John: Hey there friends and fellow farmers. Welcome to another episode of The Growing Farms podcast. I am your host, John Suscovich, and today's episode is going to be an "Ask APPPA" show, the American Pasture and Poultry Producers Association.
At one of the annual APPPA conferences I brought my camera, I brought my microphone, I brought my friend Mike, and we recorded interviews with about two dozen people. I asked those two dozen people the same four questions. And the wonderful thing about this community is that our heart, the core mission of what we're trying to do, is build healthy soil and we do that by raising animals on pasture.
Now we are all there for the same reason, to learn and grow together, we are all bringing our own level of commitment, our own piece to the puzzle to those annual conferences and that is great.
Today's episode is going to be with Ginger Shields of Pastured Life Farm located in North Central Florida and the first question that I asked Ginger was:
“What is one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you were starting out? Your advice for the new guy.”
Ginger: My name is Ginger Shields, and I am from Pastured Life Farm located in North Central Florida.
I wish that I knew - when we began farming -- That it was okay to say no, that it was okay to say "We don't need to produce chickens year round".
We didn't need to have beef available 100% of the time. We didn't need to have pork available 100% of the time. It wasn't a sustainable model for a small farm to have everything for everyone all the time. We carried a tremendous amount of burden. Like "We have to produce more, we have to produce more", so we don't have to tell people no and we scaled up faster than what we were ready for.
So I really wish that I had known or could go back to my former self and say "It’s okay. You can tell people no. You can explain why we have seasons, why nature has seasons and why we replicate that in our farm model".
John: I really love that piece of advice. Something that I have heralded here on Farm Marketing Solutions is the desire, the need, the strategy of pushing consistency in your market. Having chicken available all the time so that when people want chickens you're the go-to person to provide it for them. I thought that was a core fundamental thing to have as part of your farm strategy. You know, especially if you want to get into wholesale accounts.
What Ginger highlighted here is that building the model around not only what the customer wants but what you want to do as a farmer is really important for the long-term viability and sustainability of you and your farm. If you're consistent with what you offer, when you offer it, and your messaging is clear, consistent, and concise it will be easy for people to do business with you. That is just a fantastic piece of advice.
If you don't like farming, you are not going to stick with it and that's hard. You know? It's like... why stick with something that you don't like to do? Which brings me into my next question. I asked Ginger:
What is the most enjoyable part about being a farmer?
Ginger: For us, for my husband and I - I am speaking for both of us - I believe that the most enjoyable aspect of farming is that we get to work with people that we like. We get to work with our family, we get to work with our kids, and we get to be together.
I am not sending my husband off for his 9-5 job, packing his lunch and he's coming home miserable after spending an hour and a half in traffic, and we're not apart for sixteen hours a day. We're working together. We both want to work on our farm, better our farm, and work with our kids and teach them the values and the morals and things that they can't learn anywhere else but on our farm.
John: That was a great answer, Ginger. I really appreciate the feedback; and for me, that also -- You know, I'm just going to say "ditto".
The fact is that I’m usually working pretty long hours. But I’m always close by so if my family needs me or wants to come find me they know where I am. I get to work with friends, business partners who are my friends, and I love the staff here at the farm or the brewery -- We just have the most amazing people and that makes the day to day very enjoyable.
At times it is a grind. Not every day is a holiday, but the fact that I am a member of APPPA and I have all of those people to turn to, I have a wonderful business here in Western Connecticut; and that my family is around all the time, I can structure my schedule around people instead of work...
It's a lot of work hours but I can structure my schedule to be around for dinners, to be around for school send-offs... If there is something that needs to get done in the family, my family always comes first; and the fact that I get to work and live around all these amazing people is why I did this in the first place.
Being self-sufficient is kind of a farce. You know? Being out in isolation by yourself is depressing and very difficult because you're not going to be able to do everything by yourself. So to surround yourself with wonderful people - I have that community, I have that connection, and I have that strength.
For when I am feeling weak, there is someone there to help prop me up, and when someone else in my community is not feeling 100% I am there to prop them up. There’s been a really good balance through the years. So for me, that has been valuable as well and I appreciate Ginger - your response to that question.
Now my next question - because this is Farm Marketing Solutions and that's what the channel and the podcast is all about - I wanted to know, Ginger:
What is one of your greatest marketing/farm marketing successes and how did you get there, and then what is one of your biggest struggles - and then what do you do about that?
Ginger: For our farm our biggest marketing success has been the ability to put ourselves out there. To become comfortable and confident in what we're doing; thanks to organizations like the American Pasture and Poultry Producers Association we have become confident in our practices, confident that we're bettering our environment, we're bettering the soil, and that the chicken that we're producing is far superior to anything that's available in the grocery stores.
Having those tools in our pocket to be able to approach customers, approach people at meetings like at Weston A. Price Chapter meetings, or at a CrossFit gym where we might pop in during a session and talk about our product. We find strength in having those tools, education, and information available for us to share. Also, confidence in our product that we didn't have when we were first starting out.
Our biggest marketing struggle has been definitely making the time. Marketing - it's another job! You're a farmer, you're a family, you're a mom, you're a dad... but you're also a marketer and a salesman. You have to make yourself make the time to market your farm. You have to schedule that time into your already busy, crazy life. That's our biggest marketing struggle and our biggest marketing failure. It's our area that we plan to improve on the most for the next few years; is to just work on our marketing.
Our markets are changing. Our customers are changing. Our demographics are changing. We have people much younger than us that are having food awakenings - we need to be able to reach them and it's a challenge to keep up with it.
John: Now that is a great response because a lot of people get into farming because they're introverted. Being out in the field by yourself, you spend a lot of time alone. A lot of farmers like to grow, fix, nurture, animal husbandry or however you verbalize or verb that, but not all of us are outgoing.
It's amazing that you might hear me say that I -- I have recorded 650 or pushing 700 videos now, and I still get uncomfortable when someone else is just watching me record. I am comfortably down here in my basement, talking to a camera alone with my dog asleep on the floor. That is where my comfort zone is, and it has been a journey for me to be comfortable enough to walk into a room and be like "Hey everybody, how are you doing? My name is John Suscovich".
That is something that I have worked on over time and being comfortable putting yourself out there, sharing that information... You are passionate about agriculture. Otherwise you are not -- Why are you listening to this podcast or watching this video on YouTube? Because you want to do this. There is a reason why you are committed.
You're following Farm Marketing Solutions because you're starting to make a business out of farming or you are looking at a lifestyle change. There is something in you that motivates you. It drives you to get back to the land, to live a healthier lifestyle, to produce food that is nutritious and supports your community, and that is amazing.
That passion, that heart, that fire that you feel right here... share that with people! Don't be afraid. And with me, you know... there's a lot of fish in the sea. I give farm tours every weekend. Sometimes my jokes land and sometimes they don't. I have learned to read a room and see how that conversation is going.
Putting yourself out there... you do it and you're going to fail sometimes. Then you're going to do it, and you're going to succeed sometimes. You're going to be like "That farmer's market rocked!" or "That conversation that I had with that person really went well!" and when it goes well or if it goes poorly, learn from those circumstances. If it went really well, why did it go well? Because you connected around a certain topic or idea. Is that something that you can reach other people with? If it didn't go well, was it because you misstepped or misspoke or maybe it wasn't the right person?
Think about sales as dating. You're not going to date everybody. Not everybody is going to be a perfect match. You're going to have good customers and you're going to have bad customers. You're going to have easy customers and you're going to have hard customers. You shouldn't spend all your time trying to convert people. You should serve the people who want what you already have to offer. It's a little bit easier to sell that way. And you're going to find those people by sharing your passion, sharing your ideals, sharing your story, sharing your name on your website. Please.
It becomes easier over time, but I'll tell you - it can be a struggle. So just have the confidence in yourself to put your heart out there. Get hurt a little bit. Come back from it. Chickens are going to die. Cows are going to die. Crops are going to go bad. Sales are going to be lost. But also... Chickens are going to grow. Cows are going to grow. The grass is going to grow. The sun always shines at some point and it does get a little easier with time.
Now, because I recorded these at an APPPA conference - The American Pasture and Poultry Producers Association, APPPA.org, I wanted to know:
What are the benefits of joining APPPA? What are the benefits of going to the conference? What do people get out of being a part of this organization?
For me, I am a paying member. I have an annual subscription that I renew. I get the newsletters. I am part of the forum. It's amazing! I just learn so much all the time -- And for when I can't answer other peoples' questions, I post questions on the forum and get answers back from people all over the country. It's really amazing.
So I asked Ginger:
What is the best part about being an APPPA member, and what is the best part about being at the conference?
Ginger: The biggest benefit to being an APPPA member is access. You have instant - almost - access to professionals producing twice as much, three times as much, or maybe even a hundred times as many chickens as you are.
They have been doing it longer, they have experienced the same failures that you have and if you can learn from another farmer's failures and prevent that failure yourself it's going to be so much easier for you in the long run if you can learn from another person's failure.
I can't remember who said this quote:
Anyone can learn from another person's success, but a truly intelligent person can learn from other's peoples' failures.
We all have a sharp learning curve as farmers and so if we are able to maybe lessen that curve, maybe lessen the blow a little bit, and maybe prevent some of those catastrophic things that naturally happen as farmers because we don't control the weather, we don't control the environment, and we don't control so many factors.
Who would choose a job where you have so little control over anything? It's like, "Why did I go into this job where there's a hundred outside variables that I have zero control over and still expect to have a good outcome?" What a terrible idea! But we all do it, right?
And that's where the APPPA conference becomes an invaluable tool; you get to see these farmers that you've been interacting with, maybe on the list serve or via email, and you get to be in the same room together. You get to commiserate a little bit together.
You get to shake each other's hands, understand each other's struggles, and nowhere else can you get a bunch of pastured poultry producers who are already kind of out here on the fringe in the same room and just be together - and that's really cool.
Nobody needs to have someone - another person - on the pulpit, selling you something, telling you what you should or shouldn't do. We need to be together. We're better together.
John: Ginger, that's a good plug, and I will add that Ginger is on the board of APPPA and has been a big inspiration for me. She is kind, caring, and tough as nails. She is everything you would want in one person, and just a great representation of what I feel the future of agriculture is.
She has been doing it for a while with her husband Dave and all of her children. She is now a good friend of mine. We text back and forth; and just the fact that she put herself out there and recorded the video for me - this was really great - and I want to thank you Ginger and Dave.
Dave's interview will be coming up in the future.
If you want to learn more about APPPA and how to become a member, you can go to APPPA.org.
I have over 100 episodes in the archives. You can find those on Google Podcasts, on iTunes, on Stitcher and on Spotify and probably a bunch of smaller stuff. If you can't find it on your platform, write in and we will submit the feed to that so that you can get it as well.
This is a new type of podcast that I am doing. I am going to publish these APPPA interviews as well as some farm updates through the year, now that I have this medium back again. I have fixed all the technical problems which feels really good.
Feel free to leave me an honest review on any of those pod-catching platforms. It helps the podcast get discovered.
Thanks for taking the time to listen and/or watch, because we're releasing this in both video and audio format on YouTube and all of the pod catching things. And until next time, I will see you on the field.