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  • From: "Rob Wallbridge" <rob AT songberry.ca>
  • To: <thamnophis AT gmail.com>, "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Business models: Market specialization
  • Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2011 23:06:02 -0400

Hi Joe,

Great question - I'm surprised there haven't been more responses. It's a
balancing act I'm continually playing with here on our farm. I started off
doing the full variety, but as other demands on my time increased and other
factors came into play, I backed away from the CSA and farmers' market model
and focused more on supplying stores and box programs (and a few
restaurants) with a smaller variety of produce. In the past two years, I'm
back into the farmers' market game and have been increasing my variety in
response. So here are my observations:

- diversification spreads risk but it also increases management
requirements; you still need to prioritize taking care of your "staple"
crops and let less significant ones fall by the wayside if you must
- all buyers (stores and individuals) appreciate the concept of "one-stop
shopping" for as many of their needs as possible; you may lose a commercial
account to a competitor if they can deliver more variety than you can on a
consistent basis
- the efficiency gains in specialization vary a lot from crop to crop and
for certain crops, you'd need to scale up in a huge way to compete on price
with the really big players
- transportation and marketing take up big chunks of time that too often go
unrecognized by growers; spreading these costs over a number of crops at any
given time is a bonus
- knowing your cost of production on a per-crop basis (even if it's just a
rudimentary calculation) is key to knowing what to grow more of or less of

Hope this gets the ball rolling a bit more!

Cheers,
Rob

Rob Wallbridge
Songberry Organic Farm
24 Sixth Line, Bristol, QC J0X 1G0
rob AT songberry.ca
www.songberry.ca
facebook: "Songberry Organic Farm"
twitter: @songberryfarm

-----Original Message-----
From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Thamnophis
Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 9:58 PM
To: Market Farming
Subject: [Market-farming] Business models: Market specialization

Hello all -

I'm interested in your thoughts about the benefits of specialization
VS the more common generalized market farming business model. It seems
the most common business model I see is a farmer trying to produce
many crops over the course of the year, thereby taking full advantage
of their space and the time available in a growing season.

There are obvious inefficiencies in this model, but depending on your
target audience, may still be the most profitable over all.

But I'm seeing an expanding market - institutional buyers, grocery
stores, etc. So it seems that specializing in a few crops may produce
an advantage over your competition. Specialization would (maybe) allow
me to sell at a lower price point and still make a profit.

So my question: Are you weighing the costs/benefits of specialization
and if so what conclusions have your musing (or even research) led to?

Joe
Boone County, IA
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