Small Farm Marketing 101 

One of the reasons why I keep Coming back is because of you and how you are just so sincere and knowledgeable

Good wholesome channel. You have a persona that very few people do. You also have the support of small farms across the country. Keep it up👍

Along the lines of your vinyl sign comment but with a grain farmer twist. A friend who has been retired a few years gave me the advice that it’s hard to convince a land lord your a “poor farmer” in a brand new pickup.

2:51 in, and your definition of advertising and marketing are spot on! I would surely use this video if I still taught agribusiness classes!

Good basic advice Pete. I'm a member of a property rental company we tried ads in the newspaper (expensive and very low responds), craigslist (low responds and fraud of our listing), real estate agencies (some respond) and community bulletin boatds (poor respond). The best we found was a premade street sign and a government house listing. Yes you have to determine the market you target, sell a quality product and the higher price will be justified. Our rentals are higher but we offer a quality home.

As always, Pete, your sincerity shines through here as you share your heart marketing your small farm! Keep up the great work, buddy! ;-)

A very well done video. Many "professional" marketers couldn't have covered the subject as well as you did. A thought occurred to me, one that I trotted out to a large group of florists many years ago when I was teaching a course ... I asked them what they were selling. They all replied "well, flowers of course". I said I disagreed, that I thought they sold expressions. Flowers are intended to convey an expression of love, of sorrow, and many other things. People could buy flowers at a grocery store if they just wanted flowers, but if they want to be confident that their intended message will be represented in the floral arrangement, they will probably go to a good florist. So, I think you are selling something more than food (which you spoke of when you referred to the three types of customers). Sell to your customers' motivation and value (the old value proposition), and you'll always have delighted customers.

Pete as always a wonderful video! I have learned so much from your channel! I’m just getting into farming again. I grew up working on a grain farm in Manitoba Canada. I was just recently discharged from Canada’s Federal Police Force, and I have PTSD. I started making hay this past year, and I’m expanding into poultry this year. I appreciate everything you do! Like I said....I learn something every video! Keep up the good work!!!

Can’t wait to see the MD run

Love the farm business videos! Thanks, Pete!

I love this channel. I want to be a small farmer someday and you really inspire me. I would just like to thank you for what you do for community and all the work you put in the videos you make. Keep up the awesome work.

You hit upon one of the larger problems with small farm economics. Your best markets are near population centers; your lowest cost for production is as far away from population centers as you can get. Small farms in my valley are almost all part time jobs that can’t run without outside income. Land isn’t cheap, taxes aren’t low and large population centers are a fair distance away. customer bases are generally long standing (often multi-generational), with on-farm sales accounting for a significant percentage of sales. Local farmers markets don’t support a large price premium over the local stores….which of course are now hyping “local sourcing”, even though their definition of “local” is a tad different from mine. Most of us here are in it for the life style, with the average age likely pushing into the 60’s. My hat is off to you for making your farm economically support you, but I know how much work and dedication that takes and the older you get, the harder that time and dedication becomes.

Good Morning Pete! Wow first comment!! Great videos. They have made me go with a local farming company for my meats!!!

Love the diversity of your channel, Pete! Thanks for what you do! Happy New Year!

I have been with your channel for most of this past year and I so enjoyed it. Thank you for your videos. It is a enjoyable experience during this difficult time. Well done

Thx for keeping the videos Farm & Tractor Focused. (and everything in between during winter)

Thank you for another informative blog/video regarding a small farm trying to survive in a difficult retail market.You are a genuine person and it shows in all your work.Congratulations...

I never realized you weren't to far away in ny. You definitely gave me some different customer acquisition ideas and your very lucky to have a city that close to you.

Hard work and consistency that's exactly what I expected and took from this pete 100% spot on!! Great video

I don't know how anyone.would not like this channel. Your videos are informative... Thanks for the Great Work...

People love a story, and yours is great 👍 I just would love to see you gently walk your customers to dealing with you directly. Whether at drop off points, or directly at the farm. On farm sales is a great opportunity, but if you make yourself a “destination” profits double to triple. God yes, you need population. When your customer base is one half of one percent, it’s a numbers game! I keep getting more locals though, but can’t survive on them. Thank God for the 5 million people in metro Chicago area!

Best RU-vid videos I've come across! New to this channel for about a month now. Thank you so much for your shared knowledge. Raising pigs here in the southeast. I love to see your pig information and business stuff So much appreciated. God bless you and your family farm.

Peter, thanks for the informative video. We're not farmers like yourself. We just enjoy learning what you have to offer. Thanks for a learning experience with every video.

Not so a traditional farmer. But I train, breed and show horses for a living. Always have. But, somewhat one in the same. I deal with the ups and downs of agricultural every day. But never could be successful, lucrative and sactainable without alot of what you said. Love your perspective and thoughts. Very informative to me. Keep up the videos! Love you all. P.S I always buy local when possible to support my neighbors

Thanks, helpful as always. My wife and I love the education you give, as it fills in some gaps. You show another option to a problem, for each episode. Good luck, and Thanks again!

What a wonderful video this is!! You are so authentic. I'm not a farmer, but I love getting in that farmer's "boat" ;-)

Thank you so much. This video is fantastic. Thanks a million.

I predict Pete will have 400K subscribers in about 3 years. Thanks Pete!

Voice of experience, always good info from this channel.

I remember being a kid on a small scale family owned cattle ranch in Texas. Day to day operations were ran by my grandmother while my grandfather was out working the oil fields. Now as I'm getting older were looking at moving and starting a small farm mainly for supporting our family. I really want to say thanks Pete. Your videos are entertaining and informative. They really help my wife (who is new to raising anything more than a dog). She watches the videos and then asks questions that she didn't think of before. One great example is our own 2 cylinder tractor... You pulled the head on the MD a week before we planned on doing the same for some maintenance. The weekend came and was surprised to find out while getting dressed she got out the buckets for draining the fluids and the tools she thought we'd need. And she said she watched the MD videos a few times to make sure she had everything. She ended up doing the work herself and said that it didn't look that scary after watching your videos. Thank you again.

That’s was a great video and just what I needed right now, as I have been thinking about it the past few days.

Wow, lot of info. Thanks for doing what you do. I sold seven hogs and two beef this year as a direct to consumer farm. I've found word of mouth will sell a ton of product. I am having trouble pricing my product, as I do feel guilty for charging a premium. Thanks again, keep up the good work!

Great info. This is where we are in the process. Thanks for all you do to share your knowledge!

Awesome like always! Greetings from Republic of Croatia 🇭🇷

Very well done Pete. Lots of experienced words of wisdom hear!

This is a great video! Great perspective and spot on! We advertise our vendors at our markets and when everyone cross advertise the reach is great!

Food for thought.

Thank you for the information this really helps. I've been thinking bout this for a while now.

I support my local farmers at our Farmer’s Market. Great people!

Hi love the videos😁😁makes me so happy when you upload

Thank you so much for sharing this info!!

Like your lifestyle and your philosophy. keep up the good work.

Lots of great information as always. Thank you

Your business principles certainly apply to much more than just farming.

Keep pushing Pete.

One more option, a farmer I've ordered from does orders delivered to the city every other month because he really does live in the middle of nowhere lol. He used to do it thru simple email but he's finally developed a good website where you can see the prices, put your order in and pay for it. He sends you your receipt and posts the day of delivery. He has a few stops at different ends of the city and a time and you meet him and pick up your order. He uses simple chest freezers on a trailer to keep things chilled. I think he's been quite successful doing it this way, there's not a lot of options for farmed raised meat in my city, there's not much agricultural land around us

Thank you for sharing. Very interesting & motivating . Have a nice day

Wonderful advice! I can't thank you enough for your time and knowledge that you share! Cheers from the other side of Cayuga lake!

Pete nice video really enjoy watching them. Thank You!

Great marketing advice. I had some success with print advertising although over a decade ago. In a well read local weekly paper I tried the smallest (business card sized) display add that they offered and took advantage of a substantial 10+ add discount, thus I had an add every week for the season, and if it brought in even one customer a week I paid for the add. Then I provided some unique humorous content every week. This resulted in both the advertising and the editorial staff really appreciating this particular add far more than the $s that they earned from it, and they started placing it in good locations in the paper at no extra charge. Also the customers stared looking for and remembering it for its silly humor, something I think you appreciate. So sample copy for this type of add... Why did the chicken cross the road? Answers (printed upside down in smaller point grey tone ink) -To get to Just a Few Acres Farm. -For Petes chicken feed at Just a Few Acres Farm. -To visit the roosters at Just a Few Acres Farm. Etc. I'm sure you could come up with many more and much better ones than this. I would also suggest that for your repeat customer list from the farmers market that you enquirer about the other market venders, or other food suppliers that your customers also give their business to. Then familiarize yourself with these other suppliers to your customers and select from them the ones that you would like to work with and be associated with. Assuming that the feelings are mutual you could then explore cross promotion ideas and even mutually supported negotiations with other agencies like the farmers market placement committee etc.

This was fantastic, great advices

Thanks for giving it to us straight. Sounds like there could be real challenges for small farms not located near cities like Ithaca.

Excellent video to learn from.....Thanks......Larry @ Scoot's Organic

Nice, very relevant message. Cool cordwood saw, hopefully the bearings can be greased and aren't lock up. Best.

Like watching your videos. I have a small hobby farm myself in the upstate NY area.

Just like your channel. Very good information. Well done and explained

Wonderful, thank you

Great video is always Pete keep up the great work you educate us and you are very entertaining. When I was a kid we raised red durox and they were they are and extremely good hog if you like lean pork.

Awesome job

I’m pretty new to the channel, I just found out a couple videos ago that you were near Ithaca. I’m near Hamburg Ny, (near Buffalo if you didn’t know) and I have family over that way. This video is exactly what I’m interested in doing.

Thanks very interesting points. Keep up the good work.

Love the show

Thank you for the video. Im debating on selling freezer beef this year.

Excellent! Very informative, thank you. I did my first season growing meat chicken here near Moscow, Russia just last year. Look forward to restarting in end of March this year, adding eggs and cattle. Will steal with pride your knowledge :)

Thank you for the information. I shared it. Take care.

The thing about online sales is offering a unique, hard to find product, and trust. For example, A2A2 Dexter milk and milk products. Also, for facebook advertising to work you need you customers to share your page. I enjoy your videos a lot. Thank you

Received your book today. I’m so excited!!!

Happy 2021

This is so timely, thanks Pete. We are just working on our website and plan for our first year on our small farm. Being on a popular, scenic road in an area with an abundant amount of affluent summer residents and vacationers we are hoping to drive sales from a farm stand and local online promotion. We also have a good population center 30 minutes away and this region is known as a real foodie area so hoping we can avoid having to do markets and save a little $ that route. Will be interesting to see.

Love your videos

excellent!

This was really good!!!

Great practical info

Great info! We are a small farm with the same challenges you have faced. By the way, I don't think we are too far apart- we live in Northeast PA :)

I enjoy your videos thank you

Hello for me sometimes it's hard to put into words but I must thankyou. I do the same as you talked about, you sure have a great way of covering all the bases and being able to explain things your ability is awesome. This U Tube is a great advertising tool also but I know it's hard hard hard work that you do to produce things. Your ,,,how do I say,,, can be applied to alot of people in different fields that are self employed. Thankyou have a great day.

I love Watchin the Chanel I’m a 4th generation farmer myself but sadly all of our livestock was sold when I was a kid an then in 2015 I bought a cow calf pair which was the first cow to be on the farm in 10 years I’ve now grown my herd to nine cows an a bull I run black angus cattle an I’ll admit while I was in college it was hard to maintain the farm especially sense we still put square bales for our cows so feedin was interestin to say the least but anyhow thanks for the info From one farmer in Central West Virginia to another

I grew up on a dairy farm with about 75 holstein and 20 jersey, we sold bulk milk, the jersey milk was used to make butter . The reason I didn't take over the farm was 365 daily operations 2x day , 2 the farm was in New York the land of high taxes, stagnate milk prices .

Good stuff, Pete! Thanks for sharing. What is the make, model and year of the tractor you were standing by at beginning of your video?🇺🇸🚜👍

Hi. I'e been enjoying your channel for the past couple of weeks. I raise a few chickens for eggs and last year raised my first few meat birds, I love the tractor restorations videos you have done. But today I just had to leave a comment when I heard that I have an easiers hoe to row. Lol Keep up the good work.

God Lord! Are you a former teacher? You should be teaching Marketing 201. Good info.

I think we are watching a master class in marketing right here on this channel. Pete has gone way beyond marketing his farm products, he's building a "brand". I'm very curious if the popularity of this channel has had a material impact on customer inquiries/demand. It must have. I wonder if demand is outpacing supply at this point? Or at least threatening to?

Very informative, I love how you break down the information so that the layman (me) can be in your boat. Just one thing ....Where is the Dad joke? No marketing jokes?

Thanks 😊

I'm transportationally handicapped and live deep in the suburbs. But a big believer in, from farm to table. Otherwise, I'm down with buying direct.

Hi Pete, first off thank you for your videos they are key to helping us with starting our dexter herd. This is my first comment unfortunately it’s a question, our farm is a small farm 40 acres, in the heart of Ontario cottage county Canada. Being in new York I’m sure you have a lot of weekenders coming from the cities have you Tapped into that market for premium meats/grilling specific cuts.

Great video...here are a few thoughts...you have the ultimate marketing tool already, just refer people to your RU-vid channel if they want to see how you humanely raise your animals. Second, you have video skills down, you can make a video ad and have Google Adsense target the zip codes and keyword content viewers you want to reach...finally, don't discount mail order sales, but just as you cant compete with big market producers, don't compete with big market online retailers...you might be pleasantly surprised by the enormous profit margins you can achieve selling mail order American beef in Japan...

Pete you are a very knowledgeable man... Were you raised on the same farm your on now? I wished you lived closer to me I would buy from you ❤️

I should be in school but that can wait

The problem with being near a big city is that it causes the property values and taxes to shoot up like my blood pressure on a trip to the dentist. One county over from us has double the property tax of this county and is always looking for new ways to increase it. I think the happy medium is that smaller city nestled into the country side.

💯

hello, I'm new here and a new subscribed internet wierdo Good luck with you Farm looks cool, Bye!

My local store say supplies local but gets everything from the US (I'm Canadian)

Like #639 Thanks for the video!

I wish I could try your produce from Japan.

Great vid. Do you sell a whole animal for market??? I live (part time) about 30 minutes from Ithaca, and would be interested in that. Me and a friend of mine bid and won, on a beef this past August. Supported the local 4H club. Seemed like a good dea, good meatl. Would be interested in trying a hog this year.

Have you used (Hitch Pin) to advertise? It’s an online advertising for your specific area.

Got one for you Pete... "What's in that barn?" "Hay, cattle eat it in winter." "That must be hungry cat, didn't know cats eat hay."

Last tip for a successful small farm...Start a wildly successful RU-vid channel! LOL

My father had a neighbor that sold vegetables on a road stand.The neighbor had a jd tractor and a flat wagon that he would put his wears on.He would drive his car to the black dirt farms pick up the vegetables that he would sell.He load up the wagon and park it right by my fathers farm.When asked are they grown on the farm he would say yes they are farm grown.What farm he never said.Location and marketing in one shot.