Execution Year

What a year!

2012 was fraught with challenges, and yet we are still standing. I would prefer not to go into too much detail as not all of the mistakes or accidents were acts of god, but after a couple of record breaking storms,  a few broken structures, and unprecedented turkey mortality we are ready for a new year.

Of course, the feather in our cap is that Kevi Jr has been thriving, but we are also thrilled that the business is still afloat and growing (though modestly).

Please ignore all the STUFF in our lives!

2013 will be the first year we will actually just farm. There are no new babies on the way or surprise moves planned. It is just a year to focus on efficiency and fine tuning. The folks on TomKat told us in the banking world this is called an "execution year."  The name just drips optimism, but it really does offer us a lot of hope. We are coming up on 3 years of operating our own business, and there are a number of things we've left on the back burner (like the blog) while we've tried to keep our heads above water and our animals happy.

This year we are looking forward to full participation in our new Good Eggs "Webstand". The  platform is everything we could wish for and the company that started it really appears to care about how well they are aiding farmers. You can see it at www.goodeggs.com/earlybirdranch. It's very cool.

We are also planning to expand our pig enterprise in 2013. The demand for and reviews of these forest raised beauties has been great and their effect on the forest quite positive. The big hurdle is in how to scale the operation properly, but it is certainly worth doing. We are excited too because once we have a large enough and consistent enough supply we can approach folks like Chipotle and New Leaf. We are also hoping to find a charcuterie so we can begin selling cured meats that truly showcase the deep flavors that our style of production can imbue.

The last major change we are looking to make will be focusing on record keeping and organization.  Not as interesting, perhaps, as pigs, but certainly important to the business.  So far, we've kept a minimum of records for our own use, but we want to have easy-to-understand numbers on feed consumption, mortality, sales, and weather in digital formats!  With our combined experience using Excel for data analysis, this should be no problem!

And now, because this post sorely lacks pictures... here's the eggmobile and its hens as the sun rises over the hills of TomKat Ranch!