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| Michigan woman offers beef through her ‘self-serve’ farm |
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| By SARAH B. AUBREY
Indiana Correspondent
CEDAR, Mich. — Nancy and Tim Keilty, have found a niche supplying naturally raised beef from their Hereford cattle to a discerning consumer market.
The owners of Cottonwood Springs Farm, near Cedar, Mich., and the affluent resort town of Traverse City, are raising their two children rurally on part of what was once a cherry farm.
The beef business began partly out of necessity as Keilty had difficulty finding a good market for her steer calves.
She searched for a market for her cattle, but came up a bit short when trying to market steers, especially, to local 4-H kids.
The county fair in her area does not focus strongly on “club calf” showing, so Keilty felt her quality stock were not getting her where she wanted to go. So, she decided to diversify her farm into the burgeoning natural meats business.
In the winter of 2000, Keilty developed a simple survey that she sent out along with a personal letter detailing her plans to offer locally raised natural beef from her purebred cattle. Initially, she surveyed restaurants, thinking that she would enjoy serving that market, at least at first.
“The response was great. We heard back from over 80 percent of restaurants in Leelanau County,” Keilty said of her survey’s success.
The results from that survey are lasting even today because Keilty knows her market.
“These folks aren’t the McDonald’s drive-through type,” she said. “They are health-conscious, affluent people.”
Keilty has even been surprised by some of her “converts.”
“I even get customers who are what I call ‘reformed vegetarians,’” she explained, adding that some of her customers have proclaimed that they had sworn off meat until they tried hers.
Armed with knowledge and definite interest in her beef venture, Keilty set out to sell the customers. What started as an idea to turn a better profit is now Leelanau Natural Premium Ground Beef.
The farm serves two restaurants, attends one farmer’s market and sells her product locally through her neighbor’s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm at nearby Sweeter Song Farm, also of Cedar, Mich.
The product sells out every week at the summer farmer’s market, however, Keilty finds that the at-home pick up location she established is one of her biggest business outlets. Outside her home an old garage has been remodeled into an office and the pick up location for the meat. Inside, customers can stop by - without appointment and unannounced - to pick up her ground beef by self serve.
There are two freezers and a money box sits on a table nearby. Customers write down what they took, how much it cost, and leave their cash or check behind. The product is constantly replenished, but it’s still basically first come, first served.
“We’ve never had any problems,” said Keilty of her trusting sales style. “I’m never here, it seems like. People just come in, get what they need.”
The on-farm pick up has become more like a family outing for some of her customers who stay around to browse photos of the farm and read about the cow/calf operation in her scrapbook.
“I think the best seller is that they (can get product) right here on the farm. We mainly get customers through word of mouth,” she explained.
The farm supplies just twelve steers per year for the meat business, a number that Keilty has considered growing if her oldest daughter and son-in-law return to the farm from living out East. While she sells beef year-round, especially from the self-serve shop at home, the winter months are much lighter.
“Winter can be pretty slow around here, but its nice to take time off,” Keilty acknowledged.
Even in the down time, visitors to the farm trickle in for farm tours.
“We schedule tours. There are two set up for fall. People have really enjoyed having a personal visit and the opportunity to learn,” she said.
The internet is used for Keilty’s marketing and information. She has her own site at www.cotton woodspringsfarm.com and includes her listing on many other sites including www.greatbeef.com
She also lists in her community with the Local Helpers site so she can be included in promotions that people visiting from out of town will receive as welcome information. Additionally, the farm participates in ‘Taste the Local Difference’ a listing at www.localdiffer ence.org that showcases farms and wineries in Northwest Michigan.
As far as promotions, Keilty works with attractive packaging add-ons to please the eye and tempt the palate. Her brother-in-law is a chef, so along with his personally designed recipes, she utilized 2x2 square recipe cards that are tied onto a customer’s bag with twine. The cards include the recipe, farm logo and a brief description of the operation. Since she doesn’t spend much on advertising, word of mouth really brings in enough customers to sustain the business. She feels her customers buy the product because it’s the type of meat they want and need.
“We’re just taking the practical and promoting it,” Keilty said simply.
While many meat businesses focus on customization and a variety of cuts, Keilty keeps her business extremely simple making it manageable for her. The entire animal is ground except for the tenderloin and the offal, or organs, which are sold separately. The ground beef is marketed under the ‘premium’ label because Keilty says the quality is excellent due to grinding all the major muscles into the final product. She uses a standard 85/15 percent mix ratio of lean to fat.
“We can’t get it much leaner or we’re afraid it wouldn’t hold together well enough,” she said noting that some customers have asked for a leaner product but she wants her consistency to remain high.
All the ground beef is sold in 1/3-pound patties that are cyro-vacuumed into packs of four or six each.
The product is antibiotic free and has no added hormones. It is also primarily grass fed, though for a short time at weaning she employs a creep feeder to get them going. While the ‘grass-fed’ moniker has become interesting to some consumers, Keilty hasn’t felt a strong enough demand from her marketplace just yet.
“We considered investing in a grass-fed association or going certified organic and we’re looking into it, but people trust us right now and that’s the thing you have to have. We have the confidence of our customers,” she stated.
This farm news was published in the Sept. 12, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
| 9/12/2007 |
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