Grazing Grass Podcast sharing Regenerative Ag Stories

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0:00:01 - Cal
Welcome to the Grazing Grass Podcast, Episode 106.

0:00:05 - Rachelle
Your network is your net worth. Who you surround yourself with is who you become.

0:00:10 - Cal
You're listening to the Grazing Grass Podcast, sharing information and stories of grass-based livestock production utilizing regenerative practices. I'm your host, Cal Hardage. You're growing more than grass. You're growing a healthier ecosystem to help your cattle thrive in their environment. You're growing your livelihood by increasing your carrying capacity and reducing your operating costs. You're growing stronger communities and a legacy to last generations. You're growing stronger communities and a legacy to last generations. The grazing management decisions you make today impact everything from the soil beneath your feet to the community all around you. That's why the Noble Research Institute created their Essentials of Regenerative Grazing course to teach ranchers like you easy-to-follow techniques to quickly assess your forage, production and infrastructure capacity in order to begin grazing more efficiently. Together, they can help you grow not only a healthier operation, but a legacy that lasts. Learn more on their website at nobleorg. Slash grazing. It's n-o-b-l-e dot org. Forward slash grazing.

On today's show we have Rochelle Meyer of Wholesome Family Farms and if that sounds familiar to you, it's because on episode 91, we had her husband, Jordan, on. Jordan talked about their farm, their operation, their journey. We asked Rochelle to come on and share more about her side of the journey, as well as marketing to the consumer and time management. It's a really good episode and I know those two topics. You may at first be like hmm, I want to talk about grazing animals. Those two topics are so very important for farmers, so I encourage you to listen. It's a really good episode. I've already taken stuff from it and applied it in my personal life, so I think you'll really like it.

And before we get to Rochelle, 10 seconds about my farm. On my farm, grass is growing not as quickly as I want, but it is growing. Get a little bit of rain. We could have more. I'm having a few calves born to cows that I'd purchased. I'm having a few calves born to cows that I'd purchased. The rest of the cows should calve in May and the sheep should lamb in May. So getting ready to really pick up on that, Last week we celebrated 1,000 members in the grazing grass community on Facebook, which is very exciting, and Levi won a free book for being our 1,000th member. It is just continuing to grow. I think already today I've approved like 20 new members Loving the conversation and what's going on over there. Enough about my farm and the podcast, let's talk to Rochelle. Rochelle, we want to welcome you to the Grazing Grass podcast.

0:03:31 - Rachelle
We're excited you're here today. Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

0:03:35 - Cal
So today's episode is just a little bit different because just a few episodes ago your husband was on, jordan was on episode 91. Now we have you on to talk about your part and we'll go further there.

0:03:54 - Rachelle
So to get started, rochelle can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your operation? Yeah, so I farm with my husband, jordan, and our seven kids. In Southeast Minnesota we're what's called the Driftless area and we have what I like to call a regenerative kind of conventional dairy, and then we direct market raw milk, grass fed beef, pastured pork, pastured poultry, and then we also have a grazing enterprise where we graze goats, and then we also just actually got sheep, so they're new to the farm and that's, in a nutshell, what we farm and we really focus on just soil, health and being able to raise our kids on a farm and just really enjoying nature and doing all the things.

0:04:38 - Cal
Just that list of items you all have going on immediately. How do you get to it all? But we're going to talk about that a little bit later. And before we get there, did you grow up on a farm? Has this always been a dream of yours?

0:04:51 - Rachelle
No, I did not grow up farming. I actually grew up in the country. So I grew up on a farm. My dad died when I was seven. He did have beef cows, but I really don't remember that part of my life. Died when I was seven. He did have beef cows, but I really don't remember that part of my life. And then my mom turned our entire 360 acre farm into CRP and then back in I believe it was 2019, she had rented that farm out to a neighboring farmer. And then that's when Jordan and I looked at that farm and we were like, oh, we need to switch this farm over, and so then we turned that farm into grass.

But, backing up a little bit, jordan and I went to the same high school. We met. I was 14. He was 15. And I just started coming out here and I just fell in love with farming. Truly, I really did, and I just knew this is where I wanted to raise my kids. This is where I wanted to raise a family. I knew this is where I wanted to raise my kids. This is where I wanted to raise a family.

0:05:52 - Cal
I wanted to give my kids the same lifestyle Jordan had growing up, and so then we just started down the regenerative path together and that's how we ended up here. When you all met, they were doing conventional dairying and as well as some other things, and you mentioned there that you all got interested or introduced to the regenerative side and started going down that path. Tell us about that journey when you started or what caused you to be interested in it and how you learned more.

0:06:15 - Rachelle
Yeah, so most people don't know this about me, but I am actually a retired nurse. At my young age I went to college for nursing and when I was a nurse, I had met an older gentleman at the nursing home and we had just chatted and he's I would really love it if you and your husband would run my farm, and so it was just a really good opportunity. That farm hadn't been sprayed in years and we could jump right into organic row crops. So we started renting that farm with his brother and Jordan was just listening to a lot of YouTube videos at the time and so we started with the organic row crops. We're doing some no-till and planting cover crops, rotating with some small grains and stuff like that.

And then we actually went to a soil health summit in North Dakota and this was back in 2018, the fall of 2018. So we had been organic row cropping for three years now and we listened to Gabe Brown, Jay Thurer and I think Christine Nichols was there. It was just a lot of really good soil health speakers, yeah, and we just left that. No joke, we left that just buzzing the coal car ride home. Jordan and I just talked about what we were going to do immediately things. We were going to change how, like our farm could just really start working with us, because we were struggling on the organic row crop side with just the weeds you know, the weed issues and the cultivating which we didn't want to be doing. And so we were like we're getting pigs, we're getting chickens, we're getting turkeys, we're getting cows, and we did.

0:07:54 - Cal
Did you do that immediately, or do you?

0:07:57 - Rachelle
ease into it. We went in like whole hog we. A month later we got our first six beef cows, and and then that following spring, we got chickens, we got the laying hens, the baby chicks, we got meat birds, we got baby turkeys. We started with just four pastured pigs and so we just did it all just because we knew how the diversity could change our soil the fastest. And we're like we're just going to do it all. That farm that we were renting had no fencing Our home farm so we used a little bit of the pasture there had no fencing, so we were literally starting from scratch.

0:08:34 - Cal
Oh, yes, yeah, Did you get? Did Jordan go out and work on the infrastructure? Did you go out and work on him?

0:08:41 - Rachelle
I helped Jordan quite a bit At the time. We only had four kids and so it was a little more to manage. I would honestly say Jordan did a lot of the grunt work. He was out fencing through dark with a headlamp on. He was getting up early doing all the things. I primarily was like taking care of the chickens, the baby chicks, raising them up, just doing the tasks I could bring the kids with. More of the fencing was his end and building the actual infrastructure stuff, and so it was a team affair. When you have kids and you're farming, it has to be.

0:09:13 - Cal
Right, it does. Yeah, and it's so beneficial to that. You're both working together with the same goal in mind and we did talk to Jordan about getting that infrastructure going and getting set up and getting started. But one thing that we may not have covered too much with Jordan was the marketing side. How did you all, did you start that and think, oh, we're immediately going to start selling to the consumer, or did that come later?

0:09:41 - Rachelle
We came into the raising of all the pigs, chickens, turkeys knowing we were going to market direct to consumer. And then our end goal was having some finished grass fed beef and I started our marketing business with the end goal of beef in mind. We wanted that to be like our signature product but knew that was going to be a couple of years down the road so we figured it was easy to just try and market for pigs. I think we just started with 50 meat birds. We knew if we started small we could build that foundation that you need.

0:10:14 - Cal
Y'all got the chickens and you're thinking, oh, we're going, chickens and pigs, et cetera, we're going direct to consumer. Did you start immediately working on or cultivating that market, or was that something you waited till you had product in hand before you did?

0:10:31 - Rachelle
So we started, I think just before the meat birds were ready. We were just we have 50 meat birds. If we don't sell them all, we could eat through them. And so I just was like I just reached out to the local community, I think we started with maybe 12 turkeys, and so I was like, hey, I just put a post on Facebook. We just started Wholesome Family Farms. This is what we're doing. Would anybody be interested in it? And I think I sold all 50 chickens. We sold all 12 of our turkeys were sold. So I think starting with that small number really helped and it helped give us a little bit of a pat on the sold. So I think starting with that small number really helped and it helped give us a little bit of a pat on the back. Oh, you could do this.

0:11:10 - Cal
Right, yes, yeah, how did that go for you? You got the pasture poultry going the turkey and you got them sold. Did you get really good feedback initially?

0:11:24 - Rachelle
Yeah, a lot of people just couldn't believe the flavor. Honestly, that's what a lot of it was. They just couldn't believe the difference in taste. And then I had been studying marketing a little bit. I started researching and just learning a few things because I knew I wanted to build a website and have a more of a consistent customer base. So I just learned the power of relationship building and so I every customer that bought a chicken, you know they got a recipe on how to cook a whole chicken. So it was just little things that we were doing to build that long standing relationship and I think that's what helped us going forward as well.

0:12:03 - Cal
And I've noticed that, looking at your website, you've got it where they can sign up and get a free recipe, and then I assume you're emailing your list every so often.

0:12:13 - Rachelle
Yeah, they get a weekly email list actually. So every single week, every week, it's just a relationship building email. Sometimes I'm selling something and it's just like recipes, tips and tricks, family life, what it's like being a mom. It's basically all things that Jordan and I are interested in that our customers would also be interested in, and I always say that relationships build trust and trust builds. That's your sales. So if you can really focus on building that strong relationship in the beginning, sales will just be a lot more natural and a lot more easy for you.

0:12:51 - Cal
On the email list and you're sending that out each week and it's tips and recipes and just keeping people in touch with that, just continuing and building that relationship. I know, for example, on the Grazing Grass podcast, we have an email list that I don't do a very good job of. I'll be the first to admit of that, but I know for me I don't get a lot of people opening it. Do you see a lot of success with people opening?

0:13:20 - Rachelle
it I have. This is actually it is a very good open rate.

0:13:23 - Cal
I have on average a 70% open rate and my list yeah, oh, yes, my thoughts on that, and this is me and my thoughts, but you're doing it consistently. You're building that relationship and, just like everything we talk about, relationship makes a huge difference and that's something I haven't done on the grazing grass email list that I need to work better on.

0:13:52 - Rachelle
Honestly, I could probably tell you it's the consistency. I send out a Sunday email and my customers are waiting for that Sunday email. If I don't send it on Monday or Sunday, I'm getting emails. By Monday, I'm waiting for your recipe, or I'm getting emails. How's it going? So it's the consistency and then providing the valuable content. I'm sure for you. Everybody's getting what they need by listening to your podcast episode. It'd be just your people that are missing an episode here or there. That email would help remind them. Hey, I always release a podcast on Thursdays. Go check it out.

0:14:26 - Cal
Yeah, now, when you think about your email list and them getting it, how are you? Are you building that email throughout the week or do you just sit down and type it out on Sunday and out?

0:14:41 - Rachelle
Yep, so actually I am a week ahead of time, if that makes sense. I find that, like in case life happens, because I don't know when my kids are going to get sick, I don't know Something is going to happen. So I find that if I'm a little more prepared it helps. It's good for me. So I usually write it out the Sunday before I pre-schedule it and then if anything changes we're like our farm store hours are changed for the week or whatever else it might be Then I just quick will go in and update it. But otherwise I'm writing them a week in advance. I sit down, for it only takes me about 45 minutes now to knock out an email and schedule it, and so I just sit down on the same days every week. Every Monday I'm writing emails on my blog posts and I just crank them out that way.

0:15:29 - Cal
Oh, very good, and I I totally you've got to have that lead time in there, because you don't know what life's going to throw at you and with you all, with so much going on and all your kids, your schedule could be turned upside down pretty quickly.

0:15:44 - Rachelle
Yeah, and I have learned that over time. You have to. I never used to do this, but I actually allow margin time in my schedule. So Fridays personally for me and the business side, the marketing side, meeting with customers I schedule Fridays off and I do that because I know Jordan's probably going to need my help with some extra tasks, that it takes two people throughout the week where I might not be able to write my blog post or whatever that might be. We also homeschool, so I know that somewhere the schedules are going to get changed. So if I just block Friday off and schedule nothing, I can catch up on the texts that I had scheduled at the beginning of the week and still not fall behind.

0:16:24 - Cal
Yeah, and you mentioned there about blog posts. So you're doing blog each week also. Those are usually monthly. So you're doing blog each week also. Those are usually monthly. Oh, monthly. Okay, let's talk about your direct marketing a little bit more and how you go about that. You are doing weekly emails, you're doing your blog posts. You've got your website where it's gathering emails. Is that the extent of your direct marketing, or do you do other stuff as well?

0:16:52 - Rachelle
Yeah, of your direct marketing, or do you do other stuff as well? Yeah, so we also do a farmer's market and we are at the farmer's market every Saturday, may through October, and so that's another way that we've been able to expand our reach a little bit.

0:17:06 - Cal
What do you find is the benefit of the farmer's market?

0:17:11 - Rachelle
Yeah, Honestly, our primary goal for the farmer's market is, like my number one thing is serving customers and just getting them on my email list, Because I know if I have them on my email list I can sell to them then year round, versus just through the market season, May through October. So that is my goal just to meet people, connect and get them on my email list. If I get a sale, great. But I know I can sell through them now all year long.

0:17:41 - Cal
Right and I'm sure that being there in person they start building that familiarity with you and they see you a few times and then, if you can get them on the email list, I think that works as a great funnel there. I know for us. We go to the farmer's market in Chelsea not as a vendor but as a consumer and we always stop by the same booths and a lot of times we buy something at a booth because that's a booth. We stop by and we just figure out what we're going to buy from.

0:18:11 - Rachelle
And actually this is a little bit of a sneaky thing on my part, but because we have seven kids, guess who gets to come to the market with me, the youngest. So I always have a baby and I'm usually wearing them on my carrier. And so then everybody stops by oh, what's your baby's name? Oh, and they're just goddling over this little baby, this cute little baby, and then I'm like, oh, by the way, let's chat some more. And it's honestly a great way to get people that probably normally would just keep skirting on by, to get them to come and stop.

0:18:41 - Cal
Oh, yes, I had wondered about that when you started saying that I wonder if the kids go, but so you take the youngest there and that works as a traction as well.

0:18:52 - Rachelle
Yeah, so the youngest one comes with and then actually Jordan, he watches the other, so they stay home with him.

0:19:00 - Cal
Oh yes, he is building himself quite the work crew.

0:19:03 - Rachelle
He is.

0:19:05 - Cal
You are selling so many products, so many different products, and that you've got your poultry, you've got your chicken, you've got your eggs, beef, pork, milk. Is there anything in particular that you find people have a lot more questions about or gravitate towards?

0:19:25 - Rachelle
Raw milk, it has been by far the easiest product to sell.

0:19:28 - Cal
Oh yes.

0:19:29 - Rachelle
And I don't know if it's because I know how to market now, so my website really attracts those people, or if it's just because the consumer is changing in general. People are becoming more aware of their health and how to nourish their bodies, and they're really doing a lot of self research, and so when they come to us, they know that's exactly what they want. And also, too, there's just not many farmers that are selling raw milk.

0:19:58 - Cal
For Minnesota. Are you all able to sell the raw milk at the farmer's market, or is that on the farm?

0:20:04 - Rachelle
Yes, everybody has to come on farm to get their milk.

0:20:08 - Cal
Oh yeah.

0:20:09 - Rachelle
So what's beautiful, though, is I have a little jar of milk sitting on my booth at the farmer's market, and it's amazing because people can see the cream has separated, so they can see that half the jar is practically cream, and they're like oh my, was that raw milk? A lot of people are coming up and they're like I used to drink raw milk as a kid, or I remember my grandpa talking about it or whatever, and it's another eye catching piece. And then they're like oh, how do I get this? And it's come to the farm and granted a lot of those customers. It would be a 50-minute drive for them, and I would say 80% of our customers are driving over 45 minutes to come and get our milk.

0:20:51 - Cal
Oh wow, Are they coming weekly? Is it biweekly? How often do they drive out there? It?

0:20:57 - Rachelle
really varies for everybody. Our milk stays good for a minimum of two weeks, so some people are on every other week rotation. Some people come for a month and then they freeze half of it. So it just depends on how far they have to drive, how large their family is and what they're also wanting to do with them. Milk products Are they just consuming it?

0:21:23 - Cal
just drinking it, or are they also making yogurt and kefir and cheeses? Are you finding a lot of people are just using it as fluid milk or a lot of people making it into other products?

0:21:38 - Rachelle
I would say most of our customers are just drinking it as fluid milk and then making it into other products are the once-off. So that's a lot of my recipes that I send out it's here's a yogurt recipe, here's a sour cream recipe. So then they'll try that recipe with some other milk that week and just to try new things. And I would say that it has helped our customers learn how to cook different.

0:21:53 - Cal
Oh yes. Have you received any negative feedback from the raw milk sales?

0:21:59 - Rachelle
No, we haven't had one unhappy customer.

0:22:02 - Cal
yet yeah.

Excellent. That's great and let's keep it that way. I find the raw milk sales very interesting because, as I've talked about before, I grew up on dairy had always had raw milk. I miss because, as I've talked about before, I grew up on dairy, had always had raw milk. I miss it. I don't. I drink a lot of milk still yet, just because growing up I always did. But the milk in the store tastes different than raw milk and I've kicked around the idea of getting some cows for raw milk and selling some, and I haven't got there yet. But then also, when I think about it, I think dairy goats would be easier, or even dairy sheep. Do you find when consumers are searching you out, they want raw cow's milk or they want raw milk, or do any of them are like goat or sheep?

0:22:49 - Rachelle
I would say I've only had three people looking for goat's milk, never sheep milk and goat's milk. There really isn't anybody around here doing it and all three of those people had infants that they were looking to supplement formula with because they couldn't tolerate even cow's milk.

And so, yes, I would say everybody, all of our customers are looking. So there is another, there's a couple other raw milk farmers within a pretty close vicinity to our farm, but specifically our customers are looking for one the 100% grass fed. They do not want these cows getting any grain, which we don't do, so that is a very specific thing they're looking for and they are very specifically looking for an A2 milk.

0:23:31 - Cal
Oh, okay, yeah, so that's important to know and I'm glad you brought that up. It's grass-based grass-fed, not grain, and it's A2, A2 milk. Very interesting with that. And when they come to the farm, do you already have it packaged in jars or something, or are they bringing their own container? How are you all doing the packaging?

0:23:56 - Rachelle
Yeah, so in the state of Minnesota, customers have to provide their own jars.

0:24:02 - Cal
Oh, okay. Yeah, I don't know what the law is in Oklahoma. I know they have to come to the farm to get it, but I'm not sure about that. Yep.

0:24:12 - Rachelle
And I actually we're talking about how customers can get milk. I have a couple of really good resources. This one is for farmers and if Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, I highly encourage any farmer wanting to sell raw milk or even any farm products and to consumer to go on there and sign up. It's $125 a year and they have lawyers right there ready to go, and so we had a lawyer write up contracts for us. You don't have to in the state of Minnesota, we personally just wanted that for our farm, and so you can do that for any of your farm products. And then the second resource is for somebody looking for raw milk. This is how I would say 80% of our customers find us is on Google because we are listed on realmilkcom.

0:24:59 - Cal
Oh, okay, interesting. One of those sites I'm familiar with, the other one I was not. I do know. I just know from my wife's coworkers. One of them she's always talking about needing to find somewhere with raw milk. It does seem to me that the market for raw milk is increasing.

0:25:23 - Rachelle
It really is and, like I said, I think it goes back to consumer education and just the average consumer now is just seeing how food is medicine and it is a lot cheaper to invest on the front end in your food than it is on the end of being sick.

0:25:40 - Cal
Oh, yes, very true. Yes, in addition to your raw milk, they have to come to the farm to pick up raw milk. Do you also sell direct to consumer your other meat products from the farm, or are those just at your farmer's Nope?

0:25:56 - Rachelle
So they can come on the farm. I'm out in the farm store right now, actually, as we're recording this, and we have freezers. We have a fridge with eggs and we have freezers so everybody can shop. All of our meats are in here in freezers, labeled, and then we have the fridge with eggs in there and so people can come, they can order ahead of time and I can have their package ready to go, or they can shop as we chat too.

0:26:18 - Cal
Do you have farm store hours or is it by?

0:26:27 - Rachelle
We do both. So we just do every Tuesday and Thursday evening just from 5 to 6 PM, just because that's really the only time that I know I'm a hundred percent going to be home, not milking cows or doing something else. And then we just do by appointment kind of any other day of the week, and we just will figure out something that works best for both of us.

0:26:42 - Cal
Oh, very good. Now a logistic question that I don't even know about your area. Do you all live on a dirt road, paved road? How far is it to town? I know you've mentioned already that most of your raw milk sales are a fair distance away.

0:27:02 - Rachelle
Yeah, so it's the highway to get out to the farm here and then we just have, I don't know, maybe a quarter mile, just like a gravel road to get to the farm store in our driveway here, so that's not terrible.

0:27:13 - Cal
And then it's just a seven minute drive to.

0:27:15 - Rachelle
Caledonia. Caledonia is a population of 2,000 people, so we live relatively close to town.

0:27:22 - Cal
Oh yes, of course Caledonia is not huge, but it's a decent population there. Of course I say that a lot of people are going to laugh at me for calling that a decent population. I live at Chelsea and it's about 2,000,. I live at Chelsea and it's about 2,000. Or I live near Chelsea and it's about 2,000 people.

My big thing. When I think about selling on the farm and I haven't done that I think at times that's where I want to go. At times I think it won't work as good as I think. My wife says I get in my head too much. We live on a gravel road and we're about. You get out of town, you hit a paved road for about six miles and then you've got a mile and a half of gravel. And to me, just growing up, I'm always like I'm on a gravel road. I can't do this. My wife says I get my head on that and people would come out here and get it.

0:28:12 - Rachelle
I just need to let go of the issue about the gravel road. I agree with her 100%. It's training your buyer, though. Get it. I just need to let go of the issue about the gravel road. I agree with her a hundred percent. It's training your buyer, though. We started when we started the farmer's market. It's training them buyers to still come to the farm in the winter months, even though it's inconvenient for them. Once you, it's just you go to your favorite stores. I'm sure you sometimes go out of the way to go shopping. So if you think about what are the thoughts that you're thinking when you're wanting to go to these stores, it's because you're looking for something specific, whatever that might be. So it's just really understanding what that end consumer wants and then just training them.

0:28:47 - Cal
Oh, yes, that's great advice. Going on with your farm store just a little bit. You're selling all your products there. Have you all considered or even thought about having other people sell product in there? And the thing that comes to my mind I'm not sure you all have honeybees, so honey might be a product as well. Yeah, so we do.

0:29:09 - Rachelle
We have partnered with another farmer for a couple of years now selling honey. We just sell very quickly, so it do. We have partnered with another farmer for a couple of years now selling honey. We just sell very quickly. So it's whoever comes into the farm stores. I have dabbled into offering a bunch of other products, and here's why One I would have to market that product at a significantly higher price. I'm talking significant because it's using my resources in order to sell that right. It's using my marketing skills. It's using it's taking up space in my farm store. It's it could potentially a customer might not want eggs because I have something else, or whatever that might be right, and so the way I look at it is I would have to charge a significant dollar for that product, and then it would. Then it's sitting on the shelves and then I have to worry about moving it and stuff like that.

0:30:04 - Cal
So we, we really haven't gone down that route, and I get that inventory management is enough for just your product. If you're then buying wholesale and selling or some other agreement, that's a whole nother level of complexity and overhead.

0:30:16 - Rachelle
Yeah, it really is.

0:30:19 - Cal
I know we've talked about the different products you all have and you all have a wide selection. Is there anything you think you're missing that you would like to add in the future?

0:30:29 - Rachelle
Actually that's really funny, you mention it we are actually downsizing. We are going the opposite direction. Actually, that's really funny, you mention it we are actually downsizing. We are going the opposite direction.

Oh okay, specifically because I found our customers love having all the products the beef, the pork, the chicken, the milk, the eggs but it's more. On my end, I can only market so many products and do a great job, and that is what my goal is. I would prefer to sell 10 times the amount of raw milk, then divide that over maybe five or six products, because when you're selling this many products, your finances are diversified, your marketing skills are too diversified, and so it's really hard to just focus on that one thing and ensure that you're at a high enough profit margin. You're selling and moving enough products. And then it's the buyer decision fatigue. They just can't decide and we kind of are backing off.

We actually will not be raising pigs for 2024, or meat chickens, and so we will just be strictly raw milk and a hundred percent grass fed beef. And also too, it's just, it's our farm itself. We also have sheep, we also have goats, we also have the conventional regenerative dairy, and Jordan and I and his between Jordan and I and his dad we're managing a little over 1,200 acres, so there's only so much that we can do without having to hire a pretty extravagant labor force.

0:31:58 - Cal
And you didn't even mention seven kids in there. So you all have a lot going on. Yes, I get that about. I hear from some farmers they're like we added this product because our consumers are out here and we're trying to stack whatever they buy something else. But at a certain point you do get that decision fatigue and they only have a set amount they can spend. And then how are they going to spend it? And if there's too much thought into it, it may just not.

0:32:26 - Rachelle
Yeah, and I actually found, after I ran and crunched some numbers, we actually make more money just selling raw milk and grass fed beef than we did when we had all the products. Because our consumers are.

Actually I'm educating them better on how to use just those two specific products, and so then they buy more. They actually buy more. They understand how to use it better, versus me having to teach them how to cook certain cuts of pork and certain cuts of beef and for them to remember how to cook a whole chicken and remember all these milk recipes. I find my consumers, their average buying amount, has increased because of that increased because of that.

0:33:13 - Cal
Oh, interesting yeah, which I can see somewhat, because as we think about what, as I think about what we cook in our household and we're very much beef centric because we've raised beef cows forever, so we always have beef in the icebox Chicken's a pretty good one we have in there. We processed a lamb last year just to see how it would go, and we like lamb and we enjoyed it, but we did not cook it very often or fix it very often, just because we're like oh, we got to figure out a recipe that we like because we haven't really been exposed to it.

0:33:47 - Rachelle
Yep, that's exactly the same way. We find that our customers, because they're going down the health journey, they do shy away from pork a little bit just because people are looking for the non-soy, non-corn pork and then some people's bodies just react to pork differently and then a lot of times it's then they want bacon. We use a natural cure, but there's still the curing process just reacts differently to certain people's bodies. So we find a lot of people just want to eat clean beef, nothing in it, raw milk, and that's just what they want.

0:34:20 - Cal
Interesting. I can fully see that Now you mentioned something there. When you're feeding, like for your chickens, are you all going to continue to do your layers and selling eggs?

0:34:30 - Rachelle
We actually. So we're not doing eggs either. We're feeding like for your chickens. Are you all going to continue to do your layers and selling?

0:34:34 - Cal
eggs. We actually, so we're not doing eggs either.

0:34:35 - Rachelle
We're doing them for ourselves. This spring going forward. We only have 50 chickens. If we have extra eggs, our customers will get them, and we usually we just give them away as a little free gift. Otherwise our family just eats them, and that's just specifically not because the enterprise wasn't profitable. It's because we have found we are spread too thin and so we need to really focus on the things that make sense for us and our farm.

0:35:02 - Cal
Oh yes, I'll go ahead and ask the questions about the layers, since you are consuming them yourselves. Are you using non-GMO feeds?

0:35:10 - Rachelle
Yes, so they just get a non-GMO feed from the local feed mill. We did for a few years. That's how we raised our turkeys. We actually grew our own. It was like a peas, flax, lentils, barley oats, a mix. We just grew that ourselves. We didn't even grind it or anything. We just gave it to them whole and our turkeys they grew actually too fast off of it.

0:35:36 - Cal
And we found that was actually it was. We made so much more money growing the feed ourselves. Oh yes, yeah, I know for us to get non-GMO feed. It's just outrageous here, and I'm not a hundred percent sure. I know there's certain portions of the market that's very concerned about it, but I'm not sure it's a great concern in our area yet. We're probably working that way though.

0:35:56 - Rachelle
Yeah, I think it goes both ways. Either consumers already know they really want it or other consumers they just are more wanting just to support that local farmer that they know are raising really healthy clean food, know are raising really healthy, clean food, and I can see that.

0:36:09 - Cal
Yes, rochelle, I really. There's been a lot we talked about, but I really want to talk about time management and that's going to be our overgrazing section. So let's go ahead and transition to the overgrazing section where we take a deeper dive and, like I said, time management, because you all have so much going on your kids, the conventional, the grass fed, the store, the farmer's market let's talk about how you manage your time, just for a little bit.

0:36:40 - Rachelle
Yeah, so I actually learned this process back in 2019. I learned the power of mindset. So I actually learned a whole different concept of time and how you can manage it and how most of the time I'm saying time all the time most of the time actually people tell I can't get it all done, when you tell yourself that you're never going to get everything done, because all of our thoughts create our actions, which then give us our results. So I learned that if I tell myself I can be a really organized person, I know how to manage my time, then I actually found I was more productive when I did schedule things, I was more willing and apt to actually follow through with the things. And then I learned how to actually schedule my days with intention. So I was actually doing the tasks that needed to be done. I prioritized and then everything else wasn't meant to get done. And when I learned those concepts, it really changed how we managed our farm and how we managed our family and how we managed our life.

0:37:58 - Cal
One thing before I ask you more on that that self-talk is so huge. And one pet peeve I have all the time when you ask someone, everyone's always so busy. You're not really busy. It's what your priorities are. We'll go on, because I'm sure I say I'm too busy too often as well. So when you learn that power and mindset and you're going through that, how did you change your system so that you could implement it? And what's that system look like now?

0:38:28 - Rachelle
Yeah. So before I learned the concepts of mindset management and time management, I like to say we just wung it. We just did whatever needed to be done at the time. So if the feed guy showed up unexpectedly, we just unloaded the feed, we just did whatever was happening. And when you're doing that, you feel like a victim. You feel like everything is happening to you. The cows got out oh, now I got to go put them back in. Oh, now the seed guy is here oh, we got to go do that. Oh, I also forgot to order chicken seed. Now I have to go run and go get chicken seed. That's what our days looked like. It was just like doing whatever was happening to us.

And so then, once I learned that I can actually live a life based on my priorities and actually how I teach this to people is really our brains are actually meant for survival. Right, it's the caveman we grew up. When we were first developed, all we had to worry about was surviving the saber-toothed tiger, feeding our families, just living off the land. That's what our jobs were. It was just to survive. We still have the same brains, but we have different circumstances around us, so really your brain can only focus on one priority at a time. But society teaches us we can have all these priorities. So I like to tell people to pare it down to five, to pick your top five priorities, schedule those things and then everything else wasn't meant to get to. You can get it. You can get to it at a later season of life, or maybe in the wintertime or later on.

0:40:04 - Cal
But right now you only need to worry about those five top things You're talking about, for me, instance, my marriage, my kids. Are you using broad subjects like that, or are you trying to pinpoint them a little bit?

0:40:16 - Rachelle
Nope. So it's, for example, my top priorities right now are number one, my family. Number two it might be my health. Number three, my farm business. Number four if there is a number four stuff like that Faith actually for me is number one, then my family, and then it's my health, and then it's my farm business last, and so everything else. If it doesn't get to, it wasn't meant to get to, and so once we started living our days like that, it frees you up to just not worry about the other things. Then you can say no so easily. Raise you up to just not worry about the other things, then you can say no so easily. If someone's, will you join this committee board to help us do this project? Sorry, that's not one of my top five priorities right now. Maybe in a different season of life I could help you, but right now. So it just makes it so clear and it makes it exactly what to say no to and what to say yes to, because you can only take so many things on your plate?

0:41:07 - Cal
Yes, and I think, as you mentioned earlier, if you're running and putting out fires just because you're waiting on things to come to you, you are worn out from just that mindset of doing that. So just changing to your priorities and working from that direction makes a huge difference, or I would believe it would huge difference, or I would believe it would.

0:41:34 - Rachelle
Oh, I was just going to say not only is your brain warm out from all the decision fatigue, but truly you are wasting more time than you realize.

0:41:40 - Cal
I know for me one thing I really struggle with if I have something scheduled like at noon or one o'clock, I barely get anything done in the morning because I'm so concerned about that afternoon's appointment. I don't know how that fits into everything, but that is me.

0:41:57 - Rachelle
And a lot of it is because of the thoughts that you're thinking about that afternoon appointment. So is it thinking, oh, what happens if this other task takes too long and then I'm late?

0:42:11 - Cal
Yes, that's what it is. It's, I need to go do this, but what if it ends up taking longer?

0:42:16 - Rachelle
That is a thought. That is a thought. You get to decide how long tasks take. And this is a mindset bendy thing people do not realize. People say a blog post will take me four hours. No, you decide how long a blog post takes, you. I choose that a blog post takes me one hour and I write it in one hour to completion. And if I'm not, I would say if it's not. See, the problem is most people want it to be perfect and I strive for B plus work. Now, I am totally okay with B plus work. If I have time later on, a couple weeks down the road, a month down the road, and I say I would like to rewrite that blog post and it could be an A minus, I'll go in and rewrite it then. But I strive for B plus work and I choose how long tasks take.

0:43:07 - Cal
Oh, yes, I know if I have a deadline, I'm really good at procrastinating until the deadline's here. So if it's the deadline is in 24 hours or the deadline's in two weeks, I can use that all that time to get to that deadline and actually do the work. But then when you get to the deadline, you're cranking it out. I am.

0:43:41 - Rachelle
Yeah, it's easy at that point and I know just my mindset. There has to change in working on that, because when I'm to get this done, you're feeling really energetic, really motivated, and you crank it out and you get it done. That is how Jordan and I act with every single task on the farm. And in order to do that, you have to think thoughts that make you productive like that. But you also have to give yourself the space to be able to think and rest, because that's what your brain wants Ultimately. Your brain is meant to avoid pain, seek pleasure and rest. That is what the human brain this is scientifically proven. That is what the human brain is meant for. So if you can fulfill those three things in your day, I save it for the end of the day. But I tell myself I'm going to work really hard, really productive, all day long and then at the end of the day I can rest with my kids on the couch and watch a show.

0:44:43 - Cal
Oh, yes, yeah, very good. I do know that I struggle there because I keep going and I keep going, or I feel like I do, and then all of a sudden I'm just completely exhausted and I end up taking a day or two off and I just feel like I didn't get anything accomplished, and my wife's always just need to let go of that. You don't have to be doing something all the time.

0:45:06 - Rachelle
And that's it too right. When we are working so hard. Oftentimes as farmers, we will work until we are burnt out. And then, when we're so burnt out and we finally want to rest, we literally shame ourselves for resting. We're like, oh, we can't take a break. We should be doing this, Right? Yeah, so actually you are still using energy because you're telling yourself these thoughts like I should be doing this. I can't be resting, there's a million things to do. Now I'm going to get behind, right. All these thoughts are using energy in your brain. So when you're still resting, you're not actually resting. So instead, it's just you just got to let it go. Whatever got done today, great, it's still going to be there tomorrow, because everybody knows on the farm, you're all it's. You're always going to have something to do. Everything is never going to be done.

0:45:59 - Cal
So you have to live in the mindset that it'll still be there for me tomorrow, which is so true, and and I'm on that journey, but I'm not as far along on that journey as I would like to be. And one thing when you talked, about your.

0:46:09 - Rachelle
Oh, I was going to say that right there, telling yourself I'm not as far ahead on the journey as I'd like to be. That's a thought that's not serving you.

0:46:19 - Cal
Just, I have too many of those thoughts, so I need to work.

0:46:22 - Rachelle
Yeah, and it's just starting to become aware of the thoughts that you, that that aren't serving you anymore. Jordan and I, we got rid of the thoughts of you can't hire help or you can't make. If you hire help on the farm, you can't make money or I'm too busy, I can't get it all done. We just don't say those things anymore.

0:46:39 - Cal
Oh, yeah, yeah. How did you get to that point where you all didn't say them, just a conscious decision? Did you have to? Did you all provide feedback and on each other to help each other do it? How did you get there so that you didn't have those thoughts or comments?

0:46:56 - Rachelle
Yeah, it just really. It starts just being intentional and actually having conversations in your own brain more often. That was my path. Jordan's path is totally different. He listens to podcasts and actually. So I am a certified mindset coach now and I have educated him enough so we can coach each other. So he'll say stuff and I'll catch him and I'll be like I thought it's not serving you and he's all, you're right. Or vice versa, I'll say stuff and he's I thought it's not serving you and it's oh yeah, you're right. So it's catching each other, but also being more intentional with yourself and the thoughts that are going through your brain.

You really have to learn how to slow down, and this has been really challenging for me because my brain goes 100 miles an hour, if most people haven't figured that out already. I talk as fast as my brain goes, or I try to. Brain goes or I try to, and so I have had to learn to slow my thoughts down, catch myself and then ask myself is that thought serving me or is it not serving me and how can I change? And so it might be putting sticky notes on my computer to remind myself thoughts that I'm working on, because it's thoughts actually create a pathway in your brain, so they actually create your belief system, and so it's basically like driving down a paved road. That path is so easy, just saying I'm too busy.

That path is so easy. It just it comes naturally. It's easy for your brain to say so. It just naturally says it. But if you're working on a new thought, like I, can be organized. That's like driving on a dirt road. It's rocky, it's going to be hard at first to tell yourself that, so you have to keep reminding yourself and I like to put sticky notes everywhere and then eventually that dirt road will become paved and that will be your new pathway in your brain. So it's just working on those things.

0:48:46 - Cal
You mentioned a very practical example right there, using Post-it notes to help you keep help you think the right things. You mentioned a very practical example right there, using post-it notes to help you keep help you think the right things. What other practical and I hate to say the word practical but what other things do you do today to keep you on track? For example, are you using to-do lists? I know you're working with priorities. Do you do reflection upon those?

0:49:16 - Rachelle
Yeah, so I actually do not believe in a to-do list anymore because it overwhelms.

Your brain does not know how to decipher a to-do list and decide what is priority, what is not priority, what makes sense to work together.

Your brain does not work like that. So I have found that I sit down every Sunday and I actually sit down, I do a to-do list, so I break down all the things that need to happen in four different areas so my farm, my marketing, my personal life and then anything that's upcoming that I need to know. So I break it down and then I prioritize them and it all goes on the calendar, every single thing I think about. I sit down a little over an hour and I do this, and everything that comes to mind, from ordering a kid's birthday present to my kid needs to go to the eye doctor and get their eyes checked Everything that comes to mind in that moment gets pre-scheduled, and so that's how we keep track of everything that's happening in marketing and business, farm life, in our personal life, and I have found that process has saved me 10 to 20 hours every single week because I can prioritize and actually focus on the right tasks that are going to make me money and move me ahead.

0:50:25 - Cal
You mentioned a couple things there. One you can focus on those tasks and prioritize them. That's going to move you ahead and I find that when I think about it, I know the actions I need to take to move ahead, but then I often end up doing something else and putting those off. But one way you talked about there was using a calendar to keep it all scheduled and going. So your calendar is your master list. That maybe list is the wrong word, but that's keeping you on track and going.

0:50:57 - Rachelle
So the calendar isn't what's keeping me on track and going.

Yes, it's knowing what's coming next, but truly Cal the reason why you don't follow through with tasks is because you're not operating in what I like to call a be-do-have mindset. You think that when it comes time to take the action, you're just going to whimsically take the action. That's not the way our brains work. We actually have to be operating at a higher level In order to do the things. I have to become a totally different person. We have to identify as someone else, because when you take those actions, it's going to be really hard in our brains. They don't want to work right. They want to avoid pain, seek pleasure and rest. That's what our brains want to do. So if you have to take action, that means you aren't going to be resting anymore. So you have to become a person that does the things.

So when it comes to writing an email, of course I would rather be outside playing with my kids, but I tell myself I am a person that keeps commitments to myself and then I do the things. Or if we get up at three o'clock in the morning to milk cows, do I always want to get up at 3 o'clock in the morning? No, I get to. I get to be the person that gets to wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning and milk my cows so I can have the farm and life I want. Get to be that person. That's the difference, oh yeah.

0:52:24 - Cal
Yeah, very good. The calendar. Are you all doing that electronically? Do you have a whiteboard? Do you all share a calendar? What does that look like?

0:52:34 - Rachelle
Jordan is not a calendar person and I have learned to be okay with that. So I still calendar every single Sunday and then every single morning we have what's called our morning meeting and we call and talk on the phone and it's hey, what do you have going on today? What do I have going on today? How can we reach a common goal and still get everything done? So I use my calendar and, jordan, will I need your help here? Can you fit in here? I always set aside like a three hour chunk in the morning, usually from eight to 11. I know Jordan is probably going to need my help with something, so I just don't schedule anything that way. If he's, hey, can you help me move cows today, I'm like, yes, I can.

And if he doesn't ask me to do something, then I can work on other things or work ahead or just spend time with my kids. So we communicate every single day what he needs, what I need, and then I schedule all the business, marketing, family life stuff on my schedule.

0:53:34 - Cal
Oh, very good, Very good. Let's transition just a little bit before we get to Famous Four, talking about this coaching. You provide coaching available for others. Can you tell us how that works and how someone could get in touch to get started on that or to do that?

0:53:53 - Rachelle
Yeah, so I actually started a membership for farmers. So it's an online community where farmers can learn our marketing strategies, our business strategies, our time management processes all of the processes that we have used on our farm to grow and then I also offer mindset coaching for them, so they can. That's what I found is the difference. You can consume all this information on YouTube, on podcasts, but it's you learning your own brain so you can change your thoughts to get the results you want, and you can't do that without a mindset coach. Once you have a mindset coach, you can learn how to do it on your own.

I will forever have a mindset coach because I have seen how important that is for me and my growth. I have grown exponentially every time I have invested in myself, especially in mindset, so I wanted to be able to open that up to farmers, and it was something that I felt like I wanted. I wanted a community of farmers that were also aligned with what we were going after, and so I created it, basically because Jordan and I were feeling lacking, like we wanted a community of farmers. We could bounce ideas off each other.

0:54:59 - Cal
Oh yeah.

0:54:59 - Rachelle
And when we first started we would have loved to have somebody that was giving us the business strategies that we're working, whether you're selling direct to consumer or just a regenerative farm and just having your commodity enterprises right. There was just nobody out there that had the mindset like we did. So we built this community so farmers could have the resources that we wanted when we first started.

0:55:22 - Cal
And how does someone join that community?

0:55:24 - Rachelle
So I have a website it's themindfulfarmerscom, and that's where you can learn about more about Jordan and myself and the community itself, and then I also have a free private podcast for farmers. They can head over to themindfulfarmerscom forward slash time and that is where I actually break down my entire time management process and in a free private podcast series for them.

0:55:49 - Cal
Very good. Those are excellent resources. We will have those in our show notes for our listeners. But it is time for us to move to the famous four questions. Same four questions we ask of all of our guests. So, Rochelle, what is your favorite grazing grass related book or resource?

0:56:09 - Rachelle
I would say my favorite resource is probably YouTube University. I have found that I am actually a very visual learner, so I like to be able to listen and then watch the videos, and specifically people that are like Greg Judy or Gabe Brown when they're on farms and like really getting into doing things. That's where I have personally learned the best.

0:56:34 - Cal
It's a tremendous resource. I thought you might say the mindful, mindful farmerscom, but I guess maybe I should plug in Jordan's YouTube channel.

0:56:44 - Rachelle
Wholesome Family Farms YouTube channel is where it's at.

0:56:48 - Cal
Yes, exactly. Our second question what is your favorite tool for the farm?

0:56:58 - Rachelle
Oh, my favorite tool, I would say my cell phone. I would say that because if my kids are crabby, I can hand them my cell phone. If I need something from Jordan, I can hand him my cell phone. If I need to look something up, I need my cell phone, and as vague, as naive as I sound, I used to never be one. That was all for technology, but your cell phone can be a really great resource. I can, jordan and I. A really great app is called Fields Area Measure, and so we are going to utilize this a lot. This year.

Since we have high schoolers helping us on our farm, we can map out the paddocks and then just send it to them in a text message. Here's the paddocks, here's the pins where the corners of the fence need to be, and basically we can pre-plan for them without having to be there, and so there's a lot of apps and resources on our phones that can really help us be more productive.

0:57:50 - Cal
I completely agree. Our third question, rochelle what would you tell someone just getting started?

0:57:56 - Rachelle
Yeah, I would say to go find a farmer that is doing what you want to do. And I always say your network is your net worth. Who you surround yourself with is who you become. So if you can find a farmer, ask them questions, it will save you so much time, so much money, so many mistakes, and I would say probably 99.9% of the time. Most farmers are more than happy to share what works and what doesn't work.

0:58:28 - Cal
What's that saying? You're the average of your five closest friends. I think that really comes into play there. Yes, and lastly, rochelle, where can others find out more about you?

0:58:41 - Rachelle
Yeah, you can head over to themindfulfarmerscom.

0:58:45 - Cal
I appreciate you coming on. We'll have that link in the show notes, but really enjoyed you coming on and sharing about what you and Jordan are doing, as well as the coaching and time management.

0:58:56 - Rachelle
Yeah, I really appreciate you having me and I hope that both my episode and Jordan's episode is just helpful for people and just to really inspire them what's possible.

0:59:06 - Cal
I completely agree. I really hope you enjoyed today's conversation. I know I did. Thank you for listening and if you found something useful, please share it. Share it on your social media, Tell your friends, Get the word out about the podcast. Helps us grow.

If you happen to be a grass farmer and you'd like to share about your journey, go to grazinggrasscom and click on Be Our Guest. Fill out the form and I'll be in touch. We appreciate your support by sharing our episodes and telling your friends about it. You can also support our show by buying our merch. We get a little bit back from that. Another way to support the show is by becoming a Grazing Grass Insider. Grazing Grass Insiders enjoy bonus content, monthly Zooms and discounts. You can visit the website grazinggrasscom, click on support and they'll have the links there. Also, if you haven't left us a review, please do. It really helps us, as people are searching for podcasts and I was just checking them and we do not have very many reviews for 2024. So if you haven't left us a review, please do. Until next time, keep on grazing grass.

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