Download - Specialty Grains - Three Monkeys Farm
The Farmer; Trent Tebbe Grew up on a grain farm in Tipton County, IN
Seed corn and soybeans
Commercial corn and soybeans
Wheat
Popcorn
Three Monkeys Farm 14 acre lease with Morven Park, Leesburg
First farmer in their farm incubator program
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A large, high end market with a growing interest in locally produced food
Utilize Virginia Grown and Virginia’s Finest
A history of growing grains in this region
Grain can be raised locally at a competitive price when shipping is taken into consideration
Farmers receives <20% food dollar
http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-dollar-series.aspx
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Local
Organic
Heritage/Ancient grains
Gluten free grains
Open pollinated, non-GMO corn or flint corn
Farm to Fork
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Farmer Ground Flour New York
North Carolina bread flour project Carolina Ground
Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain CSA Massachusetts
Butterworks FarmVermont
Bluebird Grain Farm Washington
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Sod was chiseled and disked by a custom operator
Additional disking and culi-mulcherpasses were made
High calcium lime and chicken litter were applied
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Producers
Storage & Cleaning
Distillers
Brewers
Bakeries
Malt House
Mill
Consumer
Markets
Restaurants
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Grain Distribution Process
Cleaning
Milling
Labor
Organic Certification
Naturally Grown Cert
Testing for food grade
Marketing
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Loss
Service Fees
$1000+
Less than organic
$250/test suite
Variable cost
Every additional activity will have some associated cost
Stored product can be lost◦ Pest damage
◦ Water damage
Crops will be sold over a period of time◦ Impacts cash flow
Expected sales may cancel
Additional delays while alternatives are found
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Do your research!
20+ page application (for crops) Field Maps, boundary management
Additional procedures and forms
Understand fees
Inspection
Record keeping: 5 year minimum
Different certifications for crops vs handling
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Storage
Infrastructure Appropriate scale equipment
Procurement costs
Custom operators are scarce
Losses during cleaning
Losses during milling
Learning/mastering new activities
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Expansion
Reduce manual labor
Work on infrastructure
Identify potential partners at all levels
CO-OP?
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Value Added activities and spending time on building relationships through marketing can provide for a greater profit from the same farm
Challenges to incorporating value added activities
Bottom Line – Good farming is the core business!
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