Farmer Spotlight: Old Rich Valley Farm
Old Rich Valley Farm is committed to producing the healthiest proteins through their pasture-based management system to sustain the land and embrace the lives and health of their animals. Located in the state of Virginia, Old Rich Valley Farm raises pastured beef, chicken, and pork to give their local community access to high-quality, healthy meat.
We recently sat down with Will and Amy Campbell to talk about Old Rich Valley Farm and get the scoop on how they’ve kept up with demand by pivoting online with Barn2Door.
A True Family Business
Will, Amy, and their three children run all Farm operations from marketing to tourism and deliveries. “We get to run a business and raise our kids all at the same time, which is fun and exciting. Our relationship as a family has been strengthened by working together, and we’re a tighter family because of the way we Farm.” The Campbell’s family and farming values stem from Will’s grandparents, who instilled the importance of hard work and ethical farming practices. “We wanted to get back to the generation of farming that was focused on sustainability - our grandparents would harvest a hog every Fall, so we want to return to the way it used to be. Our kids have affected this too. It changed our perspective on health. We want to make sure our kids are fed well, and we want them to appreciate that life becomes food. This is important to us.”
Selling Online
To serve more people in their community, Will and Amy decided they needed a way to reach more customers. “We live in a rural part of the country, where we’re out in the middle of nowhere. We can produce a lot of food, but without being next to a big city, all of this food is for nothing if we don’t have someone to get it to. Building our Farm presence online has enabled us to reach people that we couldn’t have otherwise. We’re thankful for the technology at Barn2Door that allows us to better serve our Customers. Without it, we’d be in trouble.”
In addition to selling direct, Will and Amy have also expanded their product offerings. “We started doing beef cattle, and we’ve added pigs, chickens, and more. With just Will and I working on the Farm, we’ve been blessed with how many people want to buy local meat - they come back every month to get more!”
Knowing how busy their lives are on the Farm, Will and Amy strive to offer their customers the convenience of accessing local, quality meats. “Our goal is not to raise cheap, convenient food, but to raise high-quality food, embracing life and health. We want to make it as convenient and consumer-friendly as possible. This has been a struggle for us, and why we chose to transition to selling direct because before, we didn’t have a website or an online store.
When someone would call, text, email, or message us for an order, it was hard to manage. It was scattered and unorganized, which wasn’t good for them or us! But being online has helped us keep everything organized, allowing us to offer more convenience to our customers.
Subscriptions Give Peace of Mind for Everyone
Last year, the pandemic created a processing bottleneck across the country. Will and Amy implemented a subscription program that gives their customers recurring access to pastured proteins they can rely on while also allowing Will to organize processing dates over a year in advance. “We started offering subscriptions and herd shares for our beef, cows, and pigs last summer. The subscriptions have not only helped us plan but have also helped the consumers know that they’ll have a consistent supply or proteins every month. Customers can subscribe and pay monthly and have their shares divided up over 12 months.
This helps us know how much product is going to move each month. Like many Farmers, we don’t have unlimited freezer space nor much wiggle room with our inventory. The subscription model has helped us simplify our operations and plan ahead. Our customers, too, are happy knowing they have a consistent source of pastured proteins, regardless of what’s happening in the food system.”
Barn2Door has given Old Rich Valley Farm the ability to offer flexible subscription options to meet their customer’s needs. “Subscriptions are something we could not have done without Barn2Door and the online store. It’s so easy for Customers to hop online and choose which subscription they want for pickup or delivery drop. Then, their payments go through automatically, so we don’t have to worry about it for a year. The pick and pack lists get printed every month, and the whole process is simple. Before we took orders through Facebook, emails, texts, and calls, it was so hard to keep up with. Ordering online and offering subscriptions through Barn2Door has been such a blessing.”
Building Customer Relationships through Facebook and Email
Will and Amy connect with their local community through Facebook and email to share recipes, Farm stories, and highlight different products. “In the beginning, we were just using Facebook where we would share videos of us and our kids farming. This is where we got a good amount of traction within the local community. Now, we’re focused on collecting more emails and connecting with our customers through weekly newsletters - powered by Mailchimp. In these emails, I share what’s going on the Farm, when and where the pickup locations are for the month, and any special recipes or stories. We get a lot of feedback that people enjoy reading about our Farm. Our Barn2Door Farm store is also directly integrated with our Mailchimp newsletters, too, so that’s been a great way for customers to easily place an order.”
The Outcome for Old Rich Valley Farm
2020 was a pivotal year for Will and Amy Campbell. When asked what’s next, Will said, “we know the sky's the limit in terms of opportunity and potential, but we also know we can’t do everything! We want to get better at what we’re doing and become more efficient. We’ll stick to our values, and we hope there’ll be other people that value what we produce. We’ve learned that the beauty of selling direct is that you get to control your prices, so we’re focusing on a model that is both profitable and sustainable.”
At Barn2Door, we’re proud to support Old Rich Valley Farm in their mission to educate and serve their local community through access to healthy pastured proteins.
To learn more about how Barn2Door could support your Farm in building a thriving direct-to-market Farm business, watch this 5-minute video.
