Balancing Farm and Family
In this week's episode, James talks with Valerie from Grass Fed Cattle Co. (MN). Valerie and her husband, Jared, raise their children on their Farm, and have learned to balance Family time with work. Hear Valerie's best practices for finding this balance while serving her local community.
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[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast, the go to podcast for do it yourself farmers who are taking control of their own business, skipping the middleman and selling direct to local consumer and wholesale buyers. This podcast is hosted by Barn2Door, the number one business tool for independent farmers to manage their business, promote their brand and sell online and in person.
Let's dive in to today's Independent Farmer Podcast.
James Maiocco: Welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast. I'm James, the Chief Operating Officer of Barn2Door and your host for today's episode.
As many of our listeners may be aware, Barn2Door offers an all in one business solution for independent farmers who are cutting out the middleman and taking control of their business, selling direct under [00:01:00] their own brand. In today's conversation, we're going to be diving into balancing your life on the farm while raising a family.
And today I'm happy to welcome back Valerie of Grass Fed Cattle Co. Valerie is a part of our farm advisory network and she has worked with us for five years since becoming an advisor, and has brought knowledge on building a sustainable family farm as well as hosting our content and social media and marketing academies.
I'm excited to talk to Valerie about setting boundaries for farm work, while balancing and maintaining a busy schedule on the farm and raising children. Welcome Valerie, it's great to see you again.
Valerie Luhman: Thanks for having me, James.
James Maiocco: Well, I have to say, over the last five years, you have grown from a young, aspirational farmer into a wonderful, obviously, business owner and a mother.
And, you know, that's pretty awesome. It's been great to see your life unfold. What a blessing you've been. I'd love to start with your farm, right? Tell us a little bit about the farm when you and Jared first got married and got started. Tell us how you got [00:02:00] started.
Valerie Luhman: Yeah, we got married back in 2018.
He was already back farming full time with his dad, John, here, by Goodhue, Minnesota. And we raised some organic crops, some conventional, and mostly raised by bulls for Pharo Cattle Company. So we've registered Red Angus Herd of Cattle and he was doing a little bit of direct marketing, just like some friends and family, teachers, things like that in the community.
And he liked it, but it was a lot of work. He just did it on spreadsheets and things like that. But, primarily the bulls was our big market and we got married. I moved to the farm with him in 2018 and yeah, the rest is history.
James Maiocco: Well, I wouldn't say it's history, that's just the starting of your history.
Right? That's exciting. So, now, Jared grew up on a multi generation farm. How long has his family been farming?
Valerie Luhman: Quite a while. His grandpa actually purchased this farm. So this particular land has not been in the family for a super long time, but, I don't know how many generations before his family's been farming before that.
James Maiocco: So if it's his grandpa, now his father. You and you [00:03:00] guys have children, so that's four generations.
Valerie Luhman: That's right.
James Maiocco: That's a big deal. That's awesome. Well done. So you guys got together and you said the family was previously doing bulls. Talk to us about that transition moving into selling direct.
What was that like and how did that evolve?
Valerie Luhman: Yeah, so we were kind of just looking at a small business website in 2019 and they have small businesses that are for sale. His brother was staying and we saw Grass Fed Cattle Company for sale and we both had been enjoying the direct marketing side of the business and said, maybe we should actually look into this.
Like we were just kind of looking at things as a joke. But we ended up purchasing the business from another couple who had started it, eight years previous. And, yeah, we kind of just made it our own from there, but, yeah, it helped a lot, having some systems in place. Changing from when Jared just did the direct marketing with the spreadsheets to actually having an online store and things like that.
So, [00:04:00] it's kind of just a side part of the farm still to this day. The bulls are still our primary market. We mainly finish out our open heifers, and then we buy some grass finished beef from other producers in our area, and then some in Wisconsin as well. So, not all of it's coming from our farm, but, some of it is.
James Maiocco: Got it. And so, I know that launched our relationship, with Grass Fed Cattle Co is when we started to work with you and support your online store and your brand. But, let's talk a little bit more about the significance of building your brand, right? And the significance of being a family owned farm.
What does that mean to you? And how do you believe it's helped increase loyalty or helped you connect with your buyers as well?
Valerie Luhman: Yeah, I think for us as a family, it's so important that we get to work together. We get to spend a lot more time together than some families who work off farm jobs.
We get to have three meals a day together a lot of times or, at least a few, some of them are, you know, picnics out in the field this time of the year during harvest and, sometimes [00:05:00] during the summer they end up being more like an afternoon lunch, because of all the things we have going on.
But, that's the beauty of it is the flexibility and just being able to be together as a family. Jared's dad joins us for meals a lot of times and can play with the kids and it's just a huge blessing for us to be a family farm. I would say to our customers, it's just huge that we can relate to them and connect with them, being a family and you know, that they have families too. They want to support other families. They want to know who they're purchasing from and be able to connect with them and trust them. And, so, we've built those relationships with the families. And I think that means a lot to them to know that they're supporting another family that is doing the best they can to care for their land and livestock.
James Maiocco: Well, I know that's a very big deal. I mean, for us at Barn2Door, we've done lots of big surveys about different language and how you describe your farm. And I know when a farmer includes the word family owned that nine out of 10 people identify that as important, in terms of who they buy from, right?
So, that's very big deal. Talk to me a little bit [00:06:00] about how do you convey your story of being a family owned farm to your customers and prospective customers, how do you reflect that in your brand or in your communications?
Valerie Luhman: Yeah, it's a little trickier for us just because we do have some other farms we're purchasing meat from.
But, I would say the way I tried to do it is to talk about what's going on with our family on the farm often, on our Facebook, Instagram, through our emails, when customers ask how we're doing, kind of give them an update on the family and the farm. Just any kind of communication I can do.
And then beyond that, just talking about other farmers with them too. Chuck and Joan are some of our farmers from Wisconsin and they raise the best grass fed beef. Like it is always perfectly finished, super consistent and they just didn't have a desire to direct market. And so, us purchasing from them, another awesome family farm, we're able to sell their beef, get them a little bit extra money for the great job that they're doing, and just support them as well. So, we're able to tell their story to our customers as well. And, [00:07:00] trying to communicate that with customers sometimes takes a little bit more work, but we've really enjoyed working with other families and just kind of having that community of other producers, we can relate to.
James Maiocco: Well, can you tell me a little bit about, you know, like what you communicate when sharing about life on the farm and working at a family farm? Like what is, you know, sharing too much versus too little, right? No one wants to hear that, hey, we got in a disagreement this morning and have you post that on Facebook, right?
So, no one wants to hear your side of a tizzy between the two of you. But, what are the things that are real and authentic that enable your buyers to connect with the story or the relationship or the life that you guys are building on the farm.
Valerie Luhman: Yeah, I think we just try to share experiences with kids on the farm.
Maybe that picnic we talked about in the field. This time of year we try to just share some funny tidbits. I'm trying to think of one I shared recently about Colton, talking about our cows, drinking apple cider vinegar, um, that people thought was pretty funny, but yeah, just anything that, you know, people can relate [00:08:00] to and has happened on the farm.
We try not to share too much of our kids faces, just for their privacy. If it's a family photo and it's further away, then sometimes we'll share that, but otherwise we try not to share their faces. We don't share our farm address, except for a pickup location, we have to have that listed on there.
But, other than that, yeah, I would say we try not to share anything that's too, too personal. But, we do sometimes share the challenging things that happen too. You know, maybe not disagreements we have, but just struggles before we've lost a batch of chickens or when we've had a rough time with a calf or something like that. My husband got injured by a cow and we shared that with our customers and you know, they were so supportive, so kind, and they always are understanding, but especially in that time, people ask how we're doing very often and how they could help. So I think, yeah, it's definitely a fine line, but people want to know who you are, and they want to purchase from someone they trust. So at the end of the day, I always try to remind myself of that. If one of the kids is having a rough time or something and a customer's there, [00:09:00] it's okay to prioritize that kiddo and, the customer will understand and they still want to support us.
So, that's kind of my theory on it at the end of the day.
James Maiocco: Those are some good best practices, right? I loved your feedback, particularly around like the privacy of your children, right? Because I believe many of the farmers we talk with have similar sentiments, perhaps not wanting to share the faces of their children at a young age, right?
When they get older, they can make their own decisions, right? But as a young minor, like it's obviously important to be mindful of that respect, right? But I also love the fact that you are being, you know, authentic about some of the struggles, right? Like I do remember, actually I found out about it on social media because I follow you, about Jared getting injured and it immediately, like you said, it endeared me to like, I sent you an email to check in.
It's like, hey, how's he doing? I'm sorry to hear that. But like you said, it draws people closer, right? Because you're a real person, behind the business. Given the importance of time together as a family, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how it's changed your perspective on the [00:10:00] business.
Any best practices for our listeners in terms of like how you manage your schedule or about being specific between work and family time? Given that you work on the farm, how do you get away from work as a family?
Valerie Luhman: Sometimes we do it better than others. I would say this time of year we do a lot of work together.
And we kind of bring family time into our work. And sometimes, that makes it tough, but it's, it's a blessing too. We, we do try really hard to not have our computers out and answer a bunch of calls and things around the kids. So, we try to keep mealtime electronic free if we can and really enjoy that time together.
I would say Jared and I end up doing an hour or so of work usually when the kids are in bed. And that's kind of our work time. And then I have some time in the middle of the day when the kids are both napping. I'm looking to the side at the monitor and see that our toddler is not napping. He's in fact drumming on something in his room.
But that's okay. He is happy in there and that's great. The other one is sleeping. So, yeah, you know, that's kind of the beauty of a small business [00:11:00] and also the challenge sometimes. And so, yeah, we do try to set some boundaries of, here's our work time, here's our family time.
And then, we do try to just enjoy our time together. Especially when we're out just moving cows or something where we can take it a little slower and have the kids with us. We're looking to invest in a ATV of some sort pretty soon here for some land we're gonna start renting and Jared and I are hoping to get a side by side instead of a four wheeler just so we can take the kids with us more often.
They love to do that. We love to have them with us. So, yeah, we do try our best to set boundaries. Of course, I'll get calls from customers and, you have to prioritize that too, sometimes, and there are times I answer and I say, I'm having a rough time with the kids, can I call you back at 2 o'clock or whatever time?
The people are really understanding about that too, and I guess the same goes for our kids as well. Usually if I say, I really need to answer Linda, who's calling, they're usually pretty understanding that it's somebody wanting meat and, it's funny how much they understand at such a young age.
James Maiocco: Well, I have [00:12:00] to say I think that's really great advice, particularly around mealtime. I know we do that, and I'm not working on a farm, but even in our household it's the same thing. No electronics, no phones at the dinner table. Sit down and enjoy a great meal together, and really enjoy the intimacy that a meal brings, right?
Have real authentic and honest conversations around the dinner table. I don't think enough families do that these days, honestly. I think I read a statistic the other day that only 3 percent of families eat all meals together, right? So just shocking to see such low numbers, but, such an important time, right?
So, great feedback. Thank you for sharing that. Given the importance of time together as a family, have you guys ever looked at hiring any assistants or seeking volunteers to help out on the farm from time to time to lighten the load?
Valerie Luhman: Yeah, we have some. We have a few people that help on the farm. Not so much on the grass fed cattle company side. We have a business partner that helps us pretty often when we need help. So, that's been really valuable. He lives closer to our freezer [00:13:00] space in the city. So, that's been really helpful. We have a few friends and family who also live in the cities that will help us when we need.
And that's just really nice to have, especially in the winter, if it's super snowy and we don't want to make the trip up there, if there's a couple of people coming or something, they can always meet them then. Otherwise, I would say customers are understanding about, you know, if we need to reschedule for some reason, but for the most part, it's still just us.
But, we have done some things with deliveries. We started hiring that out and tried to just make it a bit more efficient so that we weren't using so much of our time for Grass Fed Cattle Company. But on the farm side of things, we've hired a few things done. We sold our baler and hire that done, and a few other things so that we can be more efficient with our time and, not have to use so much outside work.
James Maiocco: Yeah. Time is your most precious commodity, right? I mean, that's such an important part of your business. I think a lot of farmers perhaps don't place enough value on their own time and protecting it, right? Cause it just goes by so quick. Let's talk about the [00:14:00] impacts of time and particularly your operations as your businesses evolve, right?
Cause you just mentioned a few things that you've outsourced like deliveries as an example. Are there other things or points in your marriage and becoming parents that changed in your business operations as you evolved from just being a young couple who just tried to do it all to now being a family on farm with a lots more obligations and a thriving business, right?
Like, how have you thought about that in terms of other aspects? Fulfillments? It sounds like it's one. Is there other aspects of your business as well that has evolved?
Valerie Luhman: I would say fulfillment would be the biggest thing. I think we've just become more efficient on our inventory side of things as well, trying to make sure that what we're offering is enough choices to serve different size families, but not so many choices that we're overwhelmed or our customers are overwhelmed.
That has helped a lot, but yeah, mostly it's on the fulfillment side of things. We started working with a delivery company to do all the deliveries. We started getting where we just couldn't get them all done ourselves [00:15:00] in the window. We had provided the customers and it was just getting very stressful, and so having a company that we can communicate with well and they can get it done, send multiple drivers at once if there's a lot of deliveries that day has been really helpful. And then, I would say the other big change, I was working full time at Aldi, managing a grocery store, when we first purchased the company and managing Grass Fed Cattle Company, Jared was farming full time, and right away, we had two pickup options every week. We're about an hour and 15 minutes from the location here on the farm. And so, it was a lot of trips up to the cities to meet customers. And, we started asking people what days work best, what times of the day, and brought that down to we go up there four times per month now.
So, we have two Wednesdays, a Thursday and a Saturday each month to still meet the customer's needs if they can't make it, you know, an evening or on a Saturday or whatever it might be, but, just try to be a bit more efficient, have more orders each time. I would say that [00:16:00] was one of the bigger changes we made right away.
Then we added in the deliveries. Then, that kind of took off and we started working with the delivery company. We just kind of updated our delivery zones so that we can be more efficient with the deliveries we do have now that we're getting more. So we just continue to update things as we're able and try to, like you said, make the most of our time since that is a very, very precious commodity.
James Maiocco: Well, I will say for a young business owner, you are very savvy beyond your years, Valerie. Well done. I mean, the fact that you guys have been really, really smart about thinking about how you're operating your business and evolving it, really hats off to you and Jared for being so smart and being thoughtful about how you prioritize your family, right?
Because I know a lot of farmers, unfortunately, run themselves ragged and that can cause a lot of turmoil personally and emotionally, not just for them, but perhaps with their spouse or with their kids. And stress, it can be really deteriorating, right? That's certainly not anything that's going to be good long term.
Valerie Luhman: [00:17:00] Yeah. I just wanted to say Barn2Door has been a big part of that for us too. We never would have been able to manage this business while raising our registered beef herd and having kids without Barn2Door. I mean, just the pick and pack list and having everything organized and really user friendly.
I would not consider myself somebody that's super savvy. I'm glad you think so, but I feel like it's pretty user friendly and we just really are appreciative of all the time that you and your team have put in to make it a tool that works well for us. So yeah, thank you very much for your help in that.
James Maiocco: Well, we're grateful and honored to have the opportunity to support you and other families like you because, again, if we can use software to automate some of those things or just collect the orders so that, like you said, you don't have to pick up the phone during dinnertime because guess what?
People know how to order online, and you can always just message them back with like, hey, here's a link to our store. Keep it simple, right? Everyone knows how to order from Amazon online. There's no reason they can't order from your Farm online as well, right? Just make it easy.
Valerie Luhman: Right.
James Maiocco: Fewer interruptions, the [00:18:00] better.
What would you do differently thinking back to, you know, what you did five years ago when you first began to where you are today? What are some steps that you think were really good moves versus what things you may have done, you know, perhaps in a different order or however you see fit?
James Maiocco: Like what would you have done?
Valerie Luhman: Yeah, it's a big question. I think, one of the things I'm very glad we did and I wish we would have done more of is surveying our customers or just calling them up and ask. I know when we did and when we have surveyed them, it's been so valuable, the feedback we get and what people are looking for.
Just right away, we surveyed people when we purchased the company and they wanted pastured chicken. So, we added that right away and that really took off. So, yeah, I think that's been valuable. Just the feedback we've received from customers. I was trying to do them once a quarter, but I think I only ended up doing like maybe one or two last year.
So, definitely haven't done them quite as much as I intended to. But, like I said, yeah, it's always been valuable feedback when we do send out the surveys. I think beyond [00:19:00] that, probably just simplifying from the beginning. As I think back to how many trips we made up there, it wasn't always Jared and I together, because he'd be on the farm and I'd go up by myself or vice versa.
And so, I feel like, the beginning stages, I wish we could have simplified things and done more of it together. But beyond that, I mean, I think it's been a really fun journey to be business owners together and figure things out and adjust as we need it and bringing in our business partner Brian was so valuable for us just to have another set of eyes on something and someone with previous business experience. And so, that was really fun for us to have somebody else to bounce ideas off of. And I guess one thing I probably would have done is have more customers sample things or have more family and friends involved in some of the decisions we made and just have some more outside opinions from people that we really trusted.
But, yeah, I think all of it's just been part of the journey and the process. And if I were to start again, I think I would start off really simple with a few different buying options for [00:20:00] customers, I'd get really good at that, offer a little bit, a few different options for people to pick up or get it delivered.
And then, just survey your customers and see what they're looking for and kind of continue to expand from there slowly. We were really ambitious when we started out wanting to add subscriptions and deliveries and sample boxes beyond just our bulk boxes. And we sort of added all those at once.
And so, that's where I'm coming from is, I think I would try to do that a little more step by step and not all at once, just to get really good at each of those things before jumping into the next. But yeah, you know, we're just so blessed to have the customers we do and, to have your support and be able to farm as a family.
So, it's been a really fun journey.
James Maiocco: I think that is such great feedback because I think a lot of young farmers can relate to what you're saying. Not just young, but any farmer with, you know, is getting started, has big ambitions and lots of ideas. And, what I'm hearing from you is like, number one is you don't have to be all things to all people, right?
You can perhaps limit the amount of product offerings or limit the [00:21:00] number of delivery and pick up options you have to something to work well with your family, right? The market's quite big. It's not like there's any shortage of demand of people wanting to eat local farm food, right?
There's no shortage of demand. This is more a question of like, can you serve the right customers and make it work with your family and your priorities and build a healthy business, right? So, really great feedback. Any other last bits of feedback, comments or advice you'd like to share with people before we sign off?
It's been really great to get your thoughts.
Valerie Luhman: I think just beyond that, we did do some shipping at one point, and it did take a lot of extra time. I've shared this on Academy classes and things before. But, I think, you know, it was pretty tough, but we ended up no longer shipping just because we were looking at how many people there were in the Twin Cities.
And now I can't remember how many millions of people, but we were like, what are we doing shipping to other states, when there are millions of customers that we haven't reached right here, where we can deliver to them in like a 10, 15 mile radius? And how much simpler and how much [00:22:00] more sustainable is that than trying to ship everywhere?
So, that's one other thing that I would say was part of kind of the adjustment we made when we had kids was like, how can we still serve people really well, but also have You know, more of that sacred family time that we felt like we were missing. So, yeah, I would say to just as a farmer, continue to challenge yourself, to find that balance.
And if things are not feeling balanced, you know, find some different people who you can sit down with and who you trust to ask the big questions and try to make those adjustments to get back to a life where you feel a little bit more balanced and, you can be grateful for the time you have with your family.
James Maiocco: Great feedback, Valerie. As you know, wisdom comes from many counselors, right? And so there's no silver bullet. You got to find what's going to work right for you and your family farm business. I want to extend my thanks to Valerie for joining us on this week's podcast episode. You can check out more of Valerie and their farm on Instagram @GrassFedCattleCo.
Here at Barn2Door, we are humbled to support thousands of independent farmers across the [00:23:00] country and delighted to offer services and tools to help farmers access more customers, increase sales, and save time for their business and for their family. If you're an independent farmer who is just getting started or transitioning to selling direct, or if you've been at it for a while and want to simplify your business, please visit us at Barn2Door.com/Learn-More. Thank you for tuning in today. We look forward to joining you next time on the Independent Farmer Podcast.
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