Beef cooperative - Part 2

Beef cooperative - Part 2

Summary

The Adirondack Grazers Cooperative is a group of beef producers from small to mid-size family farms in New York who naturally raise and finish beef. The co-op was formed in June 2012, thanks to an initial SARE grant.

The goal of the cooperative is to build financially viable farms in New York State by selling grass fed beef to markets in New York City, and other major markets, in order to increase revenue back to the farms.

 After initial success in selling fresh beef to butchers and restaurants in New York City, the goal of the second 2013 SARE grant was to increase fresh beef sales in New York and to expand those sales to other cities. We also aimed to develop a market for frozen beef to be marketed direct to customers, through local food distributor Regional Access and to restaurants. In addition, we wanted to increase the number of film portraits of the farmers on our web site and to develop a longer documentary on the formation of the co-op.

Objectives/Performance Targets

 We have continued to work with the Cornell Cooperative Extension to get the word out to farmers in their newsletter and regular e-mail bulletins, and in holding monthly meetings and workshops at the CCE offices. These meetings are open to members, potential members, as well as to anyone who has an interest in grass fed beef farming, meat and marketing. We have also expanded to work closely with the Oenida and Otsego County CCE officers, who support our new farm members in the Finger Lakes Region.

We have also increased our full membership in the co-op from thirteen (13) farms to thirty seven (37). The number of non-members farms who attend meetings and hope to join has increased from thirty seven (37) farms to one hundred and fifteen (115).

We have continued to build our list of interested farmers and have hired a Membership Coordinator to visit farms to go over Protocols, check that farmers are compliant with those Protocols, take inventory and herd and pasture size and to talk about the benefit of joining the cooperative.

As a result of our work we have had requests from other CCE groups to speak on panels and we will continue to do that, as well as attending and participating in conferences, including UVM’s 18th Annual Vermont Grazing & Livestock Conference; NOFA-NY Winter Conference 2015; CCE’s Winter Green Up Grass Fed Grazing Conference and the NYS Beef Association Annual Winter Conference in January 2105.

In the fall of 2013 the Grazers started supplying Fresh Direct, an on-line retail site in New York City. Over 2014 they have become an important partner in our growth and development, working with us to establish stronger Protocols and consistency and to increase both Membership and sales. We started selling to them at 10 beef every other week. That has increased to 10-15 every week.

We have built a comprehensive web site, a logo, a Facebook page and a new brochure that customers can refer to.

We have been filming farmer’s portraits since the summer of 2012 and have continued to film every week since then throughout 2013 and 2014. These portraits are posted on our web site for customers to see exactly where their beef came from and how it was raised.

Sarah Teale, an Emmy nominated filmmaker, has teamed up with Lisa Jackson, who is also an Emmy award winning documentary maker, to produce these portraits and together they are also produced a feature length documentary, Grazers: A Cooperative Story, on the cooperative and its members. They received a NYSCA grant ($18,200) to complete the editing process and a grant from the Woodshouse Foundation for Outreach ($30,000).

The film premiered at DOCNYC, New York’s prestigious documentary festival in November 2014. Several farmers attended a full house screening on Sunday, November 16^th and took part in a length Q&A after the screening. A screening was hold held for farmers at Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, NY on Friday, November 7^th. The film will be screened at the upcoming NOFAA Conference in January 2015 and will be distributed to ag colleges, educational institutions, sustainable food groups and sold in retail markets. It will also be available through I Tunes and Netflix. POV (PBS) have expressed interest and we are talking to them and to several distributors.

The Grazers have also been fortunate to receive grants and support from the Woodshouse Foundation ($25,000), the New York Farm Viability Institute ($75,000). Our accounts are managed by a bookkeeper that we hired in 2014 and by Farm Credit East, who extended a line of credit to the co-op ($50,000).

• Grazers documentary poster
• Grazers documentary postcard

Accomplishments/Milestones

We are proud to have:

• Increased our farm membership from 13 to 37 farms with 115 additional farms expressing interest

• Expanded our members farms from Washington County to Otsego, Rennselaer, Dutches, Delaware, Shenego, Tioga, Greene and Columbia Counties

• Sales this year were $967,306.78 by the end of November 2014 with projection of $992,671 by the end of the year. (see attached financial spreadsheet and P&L through November 2014).

• Projected sales for 2015 are $1,225,000

• Increased Payments to farmers for their steers from $45,829 (all of 2012) to $283,528.45 by the end of 2013. Payments to farmers by the end of November 2014 totaled $844,200.14

• Pasture acreage involved increased from 1,850 acres in 2012 to an estimated 5,000 acres in 2013 and to 6,298 acres in 2014

• Herd size of cooperative increased from 652 head of cattle in 2012 to 3,863 head in 2014

• Created a value-added market for frozen beef in small, local markets like Putnam Market in Saratoga; Bedlam Corners in West Hebron; Walkers in Fort Ann; the Cambridge Coop and Machs in Pawlet, VT.

• Formed a Partnership with Fresh Direct, the large New York City on-line market, who currently take 10-15 cattle per week through New York Custom Processors in Bridgewater, NY

• Established a relationship with Main Street Wholesale Meats in Farmingdale, NY to sell fresh, custom cuts

• Increased slaughter slots at Eagle Bridge Custom Meats from 2-4 per week

• Hired an Operations Manager (Elizabeth Collins) and Membership Coordinator (Berni Ortensi) and a second, local Coordinator for January 2015

• Rented an office in Cambridge, NY to allow the Staff to work together in one place.

• Built and maintained a comprehensive web site (www.adkgrazers.com) a logo, a Facebook page (facebook.com/adkgrazers), new brochures and business cards. (see attached new brochure)

• Filmed farmers and co-op meetings throughout 2013 and completed the documentary Grazers: A Cooperative Story with assistance from a NYSCA grant ($18,200) and an Outreach grants from the Woodshouse Foundation ($30,000).

• Received grant support from Woodshouse Foundation ($25,000), the New York Farm Viability Institute ($75,000) and Honest Weight, a cooperative market in Albany that are mandated to financially support other cooperatives ($25,000).

• Used the Woodshouse Foundations grant to hire a Software Designer from RTI to design and build an ADK Scheduler to coordinate Schedules, Inventory, Slaughterhouses, Contacts, Delivery and Customers. We now have fully completed our Inventory lists and the Scheduler

• Continued our relationship with Farm Credit East, who extended a line of credit to the co-op ($50,000).

• ADK Grazers Development Spreadsheet

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

The main measure of our results so far has been in increased sales and we have attached our Financial Spreadsheet for 2014 with projected sales into early 2015.

We have also increased Membership and have attached a full list of member farms. 

We have also completed a full Live Animal Inventory which can be accessed on our ADK Scheduler.

Access to the new software is as follows:

site: adk.longerdog.com

username: nonadmin@adkgrazers.com

password: nodata 

The main effect of our increased income has been to pay out almost a million dollars to farmers this year. We were also able to hire additional staff. We have increased the hours of our Operations Manager (Elizabeth Collins), hired a Membership Coordinator (Berni Ortensi) and intend to hire additional Membership Coordinator staff in January 2015. We have also hired a bookkeeper and rented an office in Cambridge, NY.

We were featured on the front page of the Business Section of the New York Times in September 2014 which can be viewed at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/business/benefits-of-joining-the-herd.html?_r=0

The documentary, Grazers: A Cooperative Story, premiered at DOCNYC, New York’s prestigious documentary festival in November 2014 and Teale and Jackson appeared on the Leonard Lopate show (NPR) to promote it. As a result fo the festival they have been approached by several distributors and by PBS and they are concidering their options for a wide release of the film in 2015

There is a credit to SARE and to Carol Delaney at the end of the film which can be viewed at:

https://vimeo.com/109005320

The password to view the video is: grass

The film will be shown at the NOFA Conference in January 2015 and we are open to any screenings. The larger purpose of the film is to show how a cooperative can make a financial impact on the farm community and bring a living wage to farmers

• ADK Grazers P&L through November 2014
• ADK Grazers development report 2014

Collaborators: