36 Farm News First > BetterFarming.com Better Farming September 2016 take $3,000 worth of meat but you bring $2,000 home and only get $1,000 worth of sales.” Bio, a web content management service operated by Bridging Intelligence in Elora, has developed the specialized content management system that provides farmers with ready-made tools to conduct online sales and keep track of inventory. For a fee, Bio hosts and provides the Farm to City website template, sets up the virtual store and walks farmers through the process of how to manage inventory and sales. Customizing the system to fit in with an individual business’ brand is easy for someone with some basic knowledge of website coding language, Van Groningen says. A manual, which can be downloaded from Beef Farmers’ website, rounds out the program. The manual includes information such as an introduction to the online web content management system template, advice on how to secure drop sites, and contact information for meat proces- sors and public health units. It also provides advice on items such as pricing, marketing, labelling, product cuts, mer- chandising and other factors to consider when setting up the business. The program was designed to help farmers move ahead a little faster with a direct marketing venture and make essential information easily accessible, Van Groningen says. “There’s still work that needs to be done by farmers to understand the system, but it will be a lot less than if they are trying it on their own.” Van Groningen says he and his brothers are still learning how to attract and coordinate drop sites in their own Farm to City venture. Currently, the company maintains four drop sites and obtains regular customer orders. The sites include home driveways and a food co-operative parking lot in Hamilton. Site hosts are offered a five per cent discount on their purchases for accommodating the drop-off and promoting products to others. “We’re finding that’s quite an incentive,”Van Groningen says. The business grows mainly through word-of-mouth. “We did attract one site through social media,” he adds. Coordinating drop-offs is another challenge. Everyone wants delivery at the same time – around 6 p.m. “It sort of limits the volumes that we can do. That’s something we’re trying to figure out,”Van Groningen says, noting the ideal would be to space deliveries out through the day so one person can be dedicated to the job. For producers thinking of launching similar ventures, Van Groningen advises to start small. “Don’t plan on taking over the world tomorrow,” he says. Instead, start with people you know, such as existing customers or people you or your family might know who are interested in buying from you, and determine how to make service convenient for them. Use social media. Van Groningen, also president of the Ontario Indepen- dent Meat Processors, notes there’s lots of room in Ontario for direct-to-consumer sales. “We’ve got tons of meat imported into this province that we can work on displac- ing,” he says. The Farm to City model is “one more tool that we can use to try to do that a little bit.” BF Feenstra Equipment Ltd Athens 613-924-2805 Gateview Equipment Ltd Kingston 613-544-6363 Halnor Farm Equipment Waterford 519-443-8622 Ken Brownlee & Sons Earlton 705-563-2212 Kerby Independent Tract Sterling 613-395-2176 Kucera Farm Supply Ltd Alvinston 519-898-2961 Beards Farm Supply Coldwater 705-325-3133 Blue West Equipment Courtland 519-688-0909 Bromley Farm Supply Ltd Douglas 613-649-2457 Coleman Equipment Inc New Dundee 519-696-2213 DeGagne Enterprises Inc Kenora 807-468-5540 Doug’s Small Engines Castleton 905-349-3027 *Offer ends 09/30/2016. Offers valid only at participat in promotional program. Some restrictions apply. Fin financing. Offers subject to change or cancellation wi All KIOTI ® Tractor Model Customer Appreciation BONUS 0 % FINANCING * Pl up $ 1,000 * DIRECT MARKETING