Developing Consumer Driven Markets for Southern Wisconsin Farmers

Developing Consumer Driven Markets for Southern Wisconsin Farmers

Summary

Eight ‘clusters’ of four or more farm families interested in developing valued added opportunities were chosen through an application process to receive support and technical assistance. The first year of the project has been spent choosing and getting to know the groups and their individual needs and pairing them with assistance providers. Market research was conducted to uncover under-served niches or market opportunities identified by several retail and wholesale buyers in the state. Research, literature review and work with the clusters will provide the base with which to inform and work with commodity leaders, legislators and state programmers to design policy supporting value added initiatives in the state.

Objectives/Performance Targets

• To share market information gained from meeting objective 1 with southern Wisconsin farmers and coordinate their responses to that information.

• To identify, analyze and selectively respond to markets in southern Wisconsin food products for food products from local, sustainably oriented sources.

• To explore and organize the development of legislative and state programs and policies supporting alternative marketing initiatives in Wisconsin.

• To share lessons of this southern Wisconsin project with the state and region.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Objective 1
An in-depth literature review informed us on research and media reports exploring consumer attitudes and market trends in local and sustainable products around the region and the U.S. Reports on value-added strategies were also collected. 12 farmers, selected upon recommendations of project partners and Extension Agents, were interviewed to get a general sense of the climate in several agricultural sectors, including grains, dairy, meat and fruit and vegetables. Personal interviews were conducted with 14 wholesale and retail food buyers in southern Wisconsin. Purposes of this ‘Early Market Scan’ were to look for consistent signals from buyers regarding particular product or marketing ideas, to look for opportunities where WI producers might consider fulfilling product needs for buyers, to explore buyers perceptions of particular values conveyed by WI labels and to initiate relationships with particular buyers for WI producers. Results of the research were put into a presentation format and will be summarized in a paper for review.

Objective 2
Additional funding for expansion of the project was received through an Innovative Food and Farming Systems Program (IFAFS), involving 3 other states, causing changes in the basic project design, but not the end goals. Farmers were solicited through an application process, publicized through state Ag papers, Extension agents and local media. (attachment A, B) Over 50 contacts were made with producers, resulting in submission of 32 letters of application. Projects were screened for basic feasibility using several criteria, and 21 projects were forwarded to an 8 member farmer advisory committee. Using final selection criteria, in June 2001 8 projects were chosen for assistance by the farmer advisory committee and project partners (attachment C). Meetings were held with each cluster group to determine the particular issues project partners could assist with, and attended by at least two project partners. Technical assistance has been customized for individual clusters, and will be ongoing through the end of the project (attachment D). Results of the market scan were conveyed to project clusters and discussed at a meeting in January, 2002 (year two). A grant writing workshop for the cluster participants was included in this learning session. Follow up discussions and responses will be facilitated through the ongoing one-on-one technical assistance, and a planned follow-up meeting for the clusters at the end of the project.

Objective 3
Early in year one several state commodity leaders were surveyed to explore their recommendations for agricultural marketing support in the state budget. Contacts made include the WI Corn Growers Association, WI Soybean Producers, WI Farm Bureau, National Farmers Organization and others.

Objective 4
Press releases went out to publicize the initial call for letters of application, and the project was widely reported on throughout local media. Members of two of the cluster projects traveled to Nebraska City, Nebraska at the end of year one to meet other clusters in the IFAFS project and tell their story. Members of several of the project clusters participated in discussion workshops about their products and/or experiences at the ‘Bringing Profit Back to the Farm’ conference in Feb 2002 (year two). Results of the ‘Early Market Scan’ were summarized in a workshop session at this same conference. (Attachment E) Several articles highlighting individual clusters have appeared in local and state media. (Attachment F, G) Summaries of project lessons will be distributed to various media, listed on websites and written into articles.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

• Assessment of the cluster selection process. Staff from our state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) asked to participate in the project in order to learn from our project selection and technical assistance process. We will be summarizing our lessons through the process and distributing to DATCP and IFAFS project partners. We anticipate that the critique of our process will contribute to the quality and efficiency of the selection for other projects, including the state Agricultural Diversification and Development Grants. The ramifications of this will be better targeted grant dollars for value added program support in the future.

• Potentials of the eight cluster projects are strengthened, and incomes of involved farms have already, or have the potential to, increase or stabilize. By taking advantage of a diversity of technical assistance, the approximately 25-40 families involved in our project clusters are given a better opportunity to succeed in their value added initiatives. As organizational developers, we often find that longer term ‘hand holding’ is essential to the long term stability of a group. By the end of year one, three of the clusters were delivering new products to customers, and three were seeing stability or expansion of their market for existing products. Two others are working on longer time lines, but are developing organizational strength and doing business planning. Though our project cannot claim overall responsibility for the success of the clusters, project partners have performed key tasks and educational roles, and thus have contributed to their success. One of the dairy clusters anticipates being able to pay their farmers $18.00 per hundredweight in 2002, and have recently sold 200,000 lbs of cheese at $4.00/lb in west-coast markets. The meat goat cluster is marketing $500 worth of goat meat per week (early 2002) with an anticipated gross margin of 20%, after having started with first sales in late summer 2001. An indoor winter farm market has started, drawing 100-150 shoppers weekly, with 12 consistent vendors. Vendors estimate the market has added as much as 15% to their annual farm income. A second market has started in the area, based on the success of the first.

• Success stories inspire others to try value-added innovations. Presentations at “Bringing Profit Back to the Farm’ Conference (year two) by the WI Dariy Graziers Cooperative and the Appleton Farmer’s Market each drew over 30 participants. Discussion was geared toward ‘lessons learned’ and ‘how to do it yourself’, and questions from the audience indicated several were planning on taking ideas home and initiating some kind of value-added project.

• Coalition building through personal contact with commodity group leaders will improve the effectiveness of efforts to develop consensus on how policies can best help farmers involved in value-added ventures.

Collaborators: