Peter is joined once again by Rachel and Chris Knowles from Trink Dairy and Tim Fussell from Fussel's Fine Foods to talk about adding value.
In this bonus episode Rachel and Chris Knowles and Tim Fussell speak more about their businesses and about adding value.
Farming Focus is the podcast for farmers in the South West of England, but is relevant for farmers outside of the region or indeed anyone in the wider industry or who has an interest in food and farming.
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Timestamps
00:01 Cornish Mutual jingle
00:14 Peter Green introduces the bonus and today's guests.
00:42 What does it mean to add value on farm?
04:12 At Trink Dairy, what does adding value look like?
05:10 Taking the leap to add value.
06:00 How critical is it to get the marketing of a product right at the beginning of its life?
07:20 Welcoming the public on to the farm at Trink Dairy.
08:38 jingle
08:45 Peter rounds up.
Cornish Mutual, farming insurance experts.
Hello, I'm Peter Green and welcome to this bonus episode of Farming Focus, which is linked to episode six of the show. If you haven't already done so, do head back and listen to episode six in its entirety. This will make sure that you get the most from this bonus episode. We're now going to hear from the Knowles family at Trink Dairy and Tim Fussell from Fussell's Fine Foods about their respective business journeys.
What does it mean to each of you to add value on farm? Tim, if we could perhaps come to you first of all please. We were left with no option. If we wanted to continue growing oil seed rate, which was a very important part of the rotation, we had no option but to try and find a way to add value. And in the first instance, we looked at manufacturing biodiesel with the oil, but it was hugely expensive.
The capital investment that we needed to do that and to create the volume of oil that we would have done was huge. And the duty we would have had to have paid made it very, very cost ineffective. So at that time as well, 2007, 2008, uh, rapeseed oil, there was one or two other farmers who were doing the same thing, cold pressing.
And it was a couple of celebrity chefs that had grabbed hold of the product as being very healthy. So we effectively said, right, let's have a go. We came up with a brand. We built a very, very rudimentary press and a cleaning system. Um, and we, and we started, I mean, we just. Basically, converted one of the old buildings on the farm, put a press in, and so much so that the only, I can remember, the only thing that we'd seen was the finished product.
Okay, so we had no idea about the process in between. And I can remember loading up the press in the first instance with oilseed rape, thinking that we were going to get this beautiful golden liquid coming out the other end. Of course, it didn't happen. You have this, you have a very sort of greeny, sort of sludgy liquid in the first instance.
And we were so disheartened, and we then suddenly realised, Ooh, maybe we've got to clean this, maybe we've got to do something to it, so, And I can remember then coming back, we pressed about 300 litres of oil into this container, And I can remember coming back, and we were so deflated, it was after all the anticipation, And we went back in the following day, and you could see where the sediment had started to settle out of the oil, And we thought, Aha!
That's what we've got to do, we've got to try and allow the sediment to filter out. So we then had to come up with all sorts of ways to filter it before we could bottle it, before it could be used. So it was a very, very steep learning curve. So that underlines the importance of sort of trying and testing your product, uh, a little bit.
Well, I think what it underlies the importance of is doing a little bit more research in the first instance. But I think what, what, what a lot of farmers are guilty of, and I don't think this is a bad thing, is they just go, right, let's, let's get on and give it a go. Let's give it a go, see what happens, and we'll learn as we go.
You know, so many people say, Well, I'm not ready yet, I've got to get all my ducks in a line, I'm not, you know, I haven't got this. And we didn't have time for that. You know, we just thought, Let's crack on, and we'll learn as we go. And we still, you know, even now, 17 years later, there's still stuff that goes, Ooh, maybe we should do that.
So, It's interesting. And from my perspective as well, we, you know, I've moved away from, uh, from being a farmer to actually running a business, which has different things that I have to negotiate, you know, just in terms of the marketing, label, design, label, production, buying glass, buying all of that kind of stuff, which when we were just growing our crops.
That's all we had to do. We just grew the stuff and we harvested it. When you start to add value, there's a whole raft of different things that you have to do. That's right. So you've gone from, from effectively selling a commoditized product to something where you are processing it and making it worth more in essence.
And that's where that value add comes in. Uh, Rachel, Chris. If I can come over to you in your operation, what, what does adding value look like? Well, so, so much of what Tim has said, uh, rings true for us as well. Um, if I, if I just take you back a little bit, I mean, you know, I'm, I'm the third generation of the family here as well.
Farming the two generations before me progressed by increasing the volume of the sales. My grandfather probably had about 40 cows. My dad got to about 120. Uh, I got to 300 and I think I saw that there was a ceiling there. We weren't going to be able to accommodate anymore. We weren't going to be able to go volumes.
So the only, the other option is the value. That's really interesting. And your first point there about effectively farmers being price takers and actually just getting on and. Moving so that your business could be a price maker that's quite a leap and it's not something that everyone will feel comfortable doing but it is really essential if we're going to move forward and add value isn't it.
No no no it is and i think it's it's probably quite scary the thought of it but the reality doesn't have to be it can actually be quite exciting and um. Almost liberating. And rewarding yeah. You know, I put milk in a bulk tank for 25 years of my career and I kind of knew what that looked like. So, so there was a little bit of, uh, an intrigue and an excitement as to, um, you know, explore a different channel of, of sale.
Cornish Mutual. Farming insurance experts.
Rachel, just coming to you, I'm guessing marketing, the way a product looks, the way it feels, how it's served to. The end consumer is pretty important how critical is it to get the marketing around a product sorted right at the beginning of its life rather than evolving it all the way through. Yeah very very important because first impressions last.
Um, I was very lucky, um, I had some local friends who helped us with our logo, our website, all our label design, road signage, right from the beginning, and I'm absolutely convinced that helped. Um, Chris was trying to persuade me right at the beginning that I could create a logo, I can do WordPerfect, he used to call it, you can create a logo, and it was like, no, no, we need help, I am not artistic, I am not creative, I'm a doer.
So yeah, that, and our branding has hardly, it's been tweaked a little bit, but not that anybody would probably notice. Um, but yeah, critical. It's recognized, it's recognized now. I would suggest the only downfall of having such good branding is that potentially we look too professional and that people might not recognize it as a family business.
That's interesting. Okay, so it's aligning the brand and how it looks with how you want the business to be perceived. That's really important, isn't it? It's very much been our story for the last few years. Yeah. We've, we've welcomed the public up to the farm, which is very unusual for farmers. You know, we've got, you know, we didn't design the dairy, the new dairy as it was 20 years as it is now.
But we built it 20 years ago. Um, but it, it suits the general public coming up to watch the milking. We have put glass windows in so that they can look through the parlour, um, to see the cows being milked. They can watch the milk being pasteurised. So, we're not holding anything back. We're not hiding anything.
And if they don't like what they see, And they don't have to buy it. Yeah, I think that transparency, Peter, has been part of our journey and part of our offering. And we've got a little map at the dairy that shows you where the cows are grazing that day. You know, people can stand and watch the cows waiting to be milked, um, going back to the field after milking.
So it's, you know, one of our earliest kind of, um, marketing lines was, you know, do you know where your milk comes from? Because if somebody came to the farm, or if then somebody bought our milk, somebody, somewhere. They had no excuse as to not knowing where their milk came from. Yeah, that transparency is really interesting one.
Cornish Mutual. Farming insurance experts.
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