Numbers on our small-scale, diversified farm carry a lot of weight and they are usually bordered by some very fine lines. Those fine lines are the spaces that make the difference between not enough, just right, and too much.
Just this past week, we (the Genuine Faux Farm) had the opportunity to donate 50 dozen eggs to the area food pantry that is held once per month. We were then fortunate to also be able to sell 60 dozen eggs over the next couple of days (57 one day and 3 dozen the next). And we still had four more cartons in the egg fridge and one or two in our own fridge.
For those of you keeping track at home, that’s 116 cartons of eggs or… one thousand, three hundred and ninety-two individual eggs (1,392). I used the words to write it out because I thought it sounded and looked more impressive that way.
Between the two of us, we washed each and every one of those eggs by hand over the course of time they were laid by our hen flocks. That might explain the pruney skin on our hands!
It’s not a plug and play world
I think one of the more difficult things to get a handle on when you are a local food producer is how much of any given product is enough. There is the obvious temptation - especially when you are having success with a particular crop or food item - to adhere to the theory that more is always better. For example, if I sell out of eggs every week when I offer 30 dozen, maybe I should double my production. Then I could sell twice as many eggs and, in theory, bring in twice as much money.
In fact, I can’t tell you how many times over the years I have been given unsolicited advice from customers, potential customers, and occasional passers-by that fall along those lines. I also can’t tell you how many times I have silently reminded myself that (most of) these people mean well - even if they don’t have a clue about what they are talking about. These are the same people that tell me my prices are too high because they don’t think it is “so hard to grow garlic - after all, they grow garlic (about a dozen plants) every year and would never charge that much.”
The first thing you have to realize is that costs and labor hours are not static. I think some of these individuals forget that if I produce twice as many eggs, I have to have at least twice as many hens. And I have to wash twice as many eggs. Or, they forget that it doesn’t take the same amount of time, effort and expense to raise twelve garlic plants versus three to four thousand.
But, even if they do think that far, I suspect they do not realize that costs and labor hours are not necessarily linear either. If I double egg production, it is not necessarily true that my costs and labor hours will double. In fact, we have found that there are sweet spots where the expense to income ration is most favorable and others where they are less favorable. And those numbers can vary from farm to farm and from season to season.
Egg balancing act
Anyone who has worked in sales can also tell you that there is another variable at play here that I haven’t even mentioned. Demand for your product can be very hard to predict. In other words, we have learned - over the years - that we can never expect to sell exactly the same number of cartons of eggs every time we offer them. So, even if we could somehow convince our chickens to lay EXACTLY the same number of eggs every day, we certainly cannot control how many customers will buy each time out.
The solution, at least for our farm, has been to keep careful records of egg production and egg sales. This gave us the data to be able to get a feel for the number of hens we need to produce enough eggs so that we rarely have to turn people away - but also so we don’t have fifty dozen eggs that won’t produce income! So, what happened this time? Why did we find ourselves in a situation where we donated fifty dozen eggs?
First, let me point something out. Tammy and I are fortunate to be at a point in our farming lives where selling or not selling every dozen eggs our hens produce will not make or break us. And, people who need help getting food by going to a food pantry or a food bank are no less deserving than anyone else of quality and tasty food. But this financial freedom is does not hold for every other small-scale, local food producer. In fact, it wasn’t always true for us.
There was a time when being placed into the position of donating fifty (or more) cartons of eggs could have been classified as a mini-disaster for us.
I have news for you (if you haven’t raised chickens). The chicks cost money and you need raise those chicks so you can have laying hens. You have to feed, water, shelter and care for those birds about four to five months before they start laying and “earning their keep.” So, there is a period of time where you are out the money for your investment before some compensation comes in.
It takes a while before you build up enough capital where an issue like overproducing for your customer base won’t hurt as much. And while most growers I know are very generous and actually like to donate quality food where it is needed, they’d like to do it while also paying their bills (and maybe paying themselves a bit too).
Planning for consistency allows for exceptions
So - back to the question at hand. What happened that we had fifty cartons of eggs available to donate to the food pantry?
I’m glad you asked!
Wait? It wasn’t you? Well, I’m glad I asked, then.
We have settled on a pattern where we acquire new chicks every Spring. They typically start to lay sporadically in September. But these are pullet eggs, which are often smaller than most customers prefer to receive. By the time we get to November, the new flock is laying a reasonably consistent number of eggs per week of a salable size. We provide these birds with extra light and shelter so that they normally will give us consistent production through the winter. Though there might be periods of extreme cold where numbers decline.
The flock will continue to produce through the Spring and into the Summer at their capacity unless there is a disaster (such as a raccoon taking out a significant number of birds). But, as Summer progresses, the number of birds (and eggs) begins to wane. While this flock could easily produce for another year, their reliability declines. Which is why we have a new flock of chicks that are being raised each year to take their place.
As the new flock enters the period where they will lay at “capacity,” we seek out new homes for the old flock. There is normally some overlap between the laying periods of two flocks - partly so we can continue to have consistent production for our customer base.
Well, this year we have had a longer overlap for reasons beyond our control, which means we will overproduce our demand until the old flock departs for their new home. And that’s part of what happened this year.
The other reason? Well, we are actually maintaining flocks that are slightly oversized for the demand we expect because we want to be able to provide some eggs to places like St Elizabeth’s Bread Basket at the college. Or the food pantry. Or to provide eggs for a local church’s breakfast. It might be a few dozen here and a few dozen there, but it’s still part of the plan.
After all of these words, I can sum it up by saying that our plan for consistency includes some space for donations. It also includes space for special sales when the inventory backs up. And it includes mechanisms for those times when a predator takes out a dozen hens and the new flock isn’t laying yet.
In the end, it’s about making it look consistent - and maybe even easy - to the customers, the potential customers, and the casual passer-bys. That way you will know you can trust us (and other small-scale food producers like us) to have product for you. The hope is that you, the customer, will respond by being consistent with us (or the local food producers you patronize) in return for our efforts.
But, in my mind, it is even more important that the customer (and the general public) have a better understanding of what a small-scale, diversified farm does and why they do it. I believe you can understand that something is actually difficult while still trusting that the skilled people who run these farms can be trusted to do well for you. The next step is for the customer bases to show the local food producers that they can be trusted with consistent purchases.
I think we can do it. Even if it does take a little more effort from each of us.