County’s beef producers look for new markets

By PAM BUNCH Daily Courier Staff Writer

SPINDALE - With recent events prompting more and more Americans to look for natural, locally grown meats and produce, area beef producers had an opportunity last week to learn about alternative beef production and marketing.
The workshop was held at the Rutherford County Cooperative Extension office and featured four speakers. "Tonight, we've gotten together a group of folks who have some experience in this industry to talk to you," said County Extension Director Steve Duckett. "It's little bit of a new area for a lot of us, kind of a growing market." Chase Hubbard, assistant farm manager for Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa Valley, talked about the history of the college and the importance of the farm to the college community. The 275-acre farm now produces beef and pork, marketed directly to cus­tomers.
"The foundation of our program is utilizing forage," said Hubbard. "We consider ourselves grass farmers first and foremost. In other words we manage our farm for forages. We use cattle to harvest the forages, but we spend a lot of time developing a good healthy forage in our system so that the cattle really get an effective gain from them." Hubbard said he believes that utilizing forages on a farm is the very best way to increase the bottom line for beef producers, by drastically cutting the costs of buying feeds, producing hay and fuel. He also discussed the importance of genetics to good beef production.

Peter Marks, program coordinator for the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP), discussed local markets. "We think that the number one way to still have a strong farm economy in western North Carolina is that there's strong demand for local markets," he said. ASAP is a non-profit organization supporting farmers and rural communities in western N.C. and southern Appalachia by providing education, men­toring, promotion, web resources, and community and policy development. ASAP produces the Local Food Guide listing sources of fresh, locally grown produce and beef from area farms. "We work on how do we create and sustain demand locally," said Marks. "Our organization exists, in many ways, to give you time to make a living off of your farming by selling to local markets, and we have ways to help you."

The Local Food Guide is just one way that ASAP is helping farmers to advertise their products locally. ASAP utilizes direct marketing of its member products at farmers' markets, farm stores, to chefs and restaurants, and local grocers.
"Locally, there's way more demand than supply," said Marks. "We surveyed people and we found that beef is one of the top things that if you have people who are enthusiastic about buying from local farms." He added that consumers seem to be looking for good quality, clean, antibiotic and hormone-free beef. Grass-fed beef is also gaining importance to consumers according to Marks. However, he warned against jumping into this emerging market without crunching the numbers and being certain that they can make a success of it. "We at ASAP can sit down with you and help you do that," Marks said. "We can help you with marketing, get you in the Local Food Guide, help you pick out your packaging."

Casey and Meredith McKissick are founding members of the Foothills Farmer's Alliance and owners of Crooked Creek Farms in Old Fort. Foothills Farmer's Alliance is a non-profit farmer's marketing and educational organization working to connect foothills area farmers with consumers across the region through direct marketing. The alliance works as a marketing agent for farmers, allowing small farms to concentrate on production. They are also an educational organization to create more opportunities for peo­ple interested in local beef, as well as many other subjects. "The third thing is to help cre­ate value-added opportunities for farmers," said Casey. "We're involved in a project now, just kind of on the edge of it, a poultry processing plant in McDowell County, a center pro­cessing facility that will be available for independent farmers." In addition, Foothills Farmers Alliance provides product liability insurance through membership in the organization.

Tim Will, executive director of Foothills Connect Business and Technology Center, talked about the Farm Fresh Store Initiative, which is an Internet website currently being developed to connect local farmers to chefs and restaurants in Charlotte who are looking for specific fresh produce and meats. "According to the N.C. Department of Agriculture, every dollar brought into a farm economy by a small farm producer, it has an 8 to 1 multiplier," said Will. That means, with at least 4,000 head of beef in Rutherford County at an average of about 700 pounds each, there would be at least 2,800,000 pounds of local beef produced. Figuring about $2 per pound, that's $5,600,000 made by local farmers, which could generate $44,800,000 for the local economy. Will said The Farm Fresh Store will provide a direct connection between buyers and sellers. "We're going to make a marketplace, a brokerage I like to call it, that will put together 2,000 chefs in Charlotte with the food producers in Rutherford County, said Will" The project is still under construction and there are many details which have to be worked out, but Will encouraged local farmers to take advantage of the NC-Real program at ICC and to stop by Foothills Connect to talk about the project, and to use the technology and computers available there.

For more information on any of these projects or organiza­tions, contact the N.C. Cooperative Extension Office in Rutherford County at 828-287- 6010.
Contact Bunch via e-mail at pbunch@thedigitalcourier.com