Adding a Bit of Value to the Farm
OMSA presents marketing success stories
By Clare Illingworth  

At the recent annual general meeting, OSMA invited four entrepreneurial farmers to speak on the opportunities and challenges of value adding to an agriculture commodity.

 And while each speaker brought their own unique story to the table, they all had a common message for Ontario’s sheep producers: We have to work better for ourselves to seek and create new marketing opportunities.

 The most established producer in the group was Jay Strom of Strom Sweet Corn, located just west of Guelph. Over the past 26 years, the Strom family have built a reputation for producing quality sweet corn, potatoes and pumpkins, which they sell roadside from the farm.  

As Jay’s family grew, so did the need for a larger business. He moved from a simple roadside produce stand into family-oriented attractions on the farm. The most noted Strom farm attraction is the corn maze, where both kids and adults can get lost for hours in a five-acre field of corn.

 The trick, says Jay, is to keep costs low, add value to the product to improve sale price and get a lot of volume through the gates. One way he attracts families is by piling up to 1,000 pumpkins in the yard.

 “People have a different attitude (towards spending money) when buying a pumpkin for Halloween,” says Jay. “They’re buying for the kids.”

 Becoming this large wasn’t easy. While in a good year the Strom family can make $1,500 per acre of sweet corn and $2,500 per acre of pumpkins, there are a lot of working hours needed to make the farm run well. In the end, Jay feels he has created a modest living for his family, and they can still put on a good show. 

Bob Reid has a very different method for value adding on his farm. He, wife Linda, and children Brian and Emily have been managing a 140-head dairy goat operation for the past seven years.

 Bob discovered the dairy goat business while working as a writer with the local newspaper. Since then, he was the first farmer to supply goat’s milk to Mornington Heritage Cheese and Dairy Co-op, where he served as Chair and now Secretary, (and the story goes that he was also inaugural trucker, cheese packer, salesman and delivery person).  

This very successful marketing opportunity was the result of Bob trying to free himself of a restrictive goat milk market, resulting from few goat milk buyers. So he added value to his product by making cheese.

 “When you’re starting out, you have to be very flexible, humble and innovative,” he recalls. The move to join Mornington allowed Bob to enhance the reputation of his product and be involved in the marketing.

 As the business grew, the group hired a cheese maker and, several buildings later, Mornington is housed in Milbank, where they boast 100 members, 55 of which are non-farmers. “People are interested in what we are doing on the farm, they want to buy our local product,” he says. “As long as you believe in what you’re doing and work towards that goal, you can succeed.”

 Sheep producer Keith Todd also sees the wisdom in this statement. This third generation farmer operates a 1,200 head Suffix, Dorset, Hampshire and Southbound farm. He is also Sheep Enterprise Specialist with Land O’Lakes Feed and creator of a user-friendly flock management software package. The management program aims to help those producers who aren’t regular computer users to manage their growing flocks by keeping the most important information readily available.

 Technologies to make production more efficient and add value are being researched in other parts of the world, says Keith. He sees many new technologies created and used in larger sheep producing nations that he feels could also be utilized here in Canada.  

Keith views Ontario’s advanced sheep genetics as an asset to the industry. “We need to know how to assess these genetics and market these animals correctly across the province,” he says.

 Keith is working with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food’s sheep team on a test station to assess the genetic quality of purebred breeding stock throughout the province. “I’ve seen sheep all over North America and I believe we’ve underestimated the diversity and quality we have here,” he says.   

In his spare time, Keith is involved with the local 4-H Sheep clubs. He enjoys judging shows and helping members improve their sheep skills. “Working with the younger generation is helping get more kids involved it the industry,” he says. “I think there is a lot more potential for the industry to grow as the years go on.”

 Even without an extensive background in sheep, its still possible to create a superior value-added marketing opportunity. Entrepreneur and mystical philosopher, Eugene Bourgeois founded the Philosopher’s Wool Company in 1985, after finding that the margin between wool prices paid to farmers on the open market and those paid at retailers to be far too great.  

Philosopher’s Wool is a successful company that supplies quality knit wool products that still contain the lanolin for a naturally dry sweater. Because of this lanolin, no two dye lots are the same, so he and wife Ann use an innovative two-handed Fair Isle method to combines wool of different colours into a garment. They have even created a best-selling book on the method, selling 28,000 copies.

 Eugene took up sheep farming in the 1970’s while searching for a complimentary livestock to his mushroom growing venture. His goal was, and still is, to have the farm support itself by maximizing every aspect, including the wool. All too often, shearing cost can exceed the price paid for wool.

“We need to ask ourselves how we can market our products differently,” says Eugene.   

By creating his own market for wool, Eugene has paid an average of $1.91/lbs for fleece. This year alone he has sold 19,000 pounds. “I continue to believe that as farmers, we have to decide what it is we want our farms to do for us and then find a way to make that happen. We have to work better for ourselves,” he says.

 Philosopher’s Wool sweaters sell for $400, or a do-it-yourself kit for $100, with approximately 80 percent of sales going to the United States. Like Bob Reid, Eugene finds that his customers want to buy a piece of the farm when they’re buying product. “People want to participate in our dream, and our life,” he says, “because, like us, they love farming. We can all make a lot more money by paying attention and trying to develop new markets.”

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