 All right, good evening everyone. My name is Isaac Bronco. This is part two of our webinar series this spring. Tonight's topic will be building a contractual relationship with your producer. And we have three panelists tonight. We have Ron and Beth Wolfe from Wolfe Suffix, Trisha and Donna Fearing from Fearing Cattle Company and Spencer worked from six and one meets. So we got a diverse group of people tonight. We originally had another processor scheduled but that fell through. He's traveling internationally. So thanks to Spencer for filling in for us. Glad to have you here. With any business relationship, it's important to build a good interaction with your processor, especially when it comes to developing a local meets program. As you're relying on them to get that meet out and ready and processed for your customers. And so without further ado, we'll start with our first panelists tonight. Ron and Beth Wolfe will give a little bit of a background over themselves and their operation. And then we'll continue on with Trisha and Donnie Fearing and then we'll finish off with Spencer work before opening it up to questions from the panelists or from the audience tonight. If you wanna go ahead and start Ron and Beth, that'd be great. Well, thanks Isaac for inviting us to be part of this first and foremost. It's an honor always to be asked and share what we think we know. But Wolfe Suffix has been something that has been around for 40 some years which started out as a 4-H and F of A project. And it's a hobby that has gone kind of wild on us. We currently are running about 85 head of registered Suffix use and that has gotten a little bigger than we wanted but an opportunity come upon us this winter and we bought out a dispersion. And so we're in the seed stack business first and we just completed two weeks ago our 19th annual production sale. And so we're trying to sell rams and use it around the country. And we were fortunate enough like we just talked a little bit ahead of this that we had the national champion Suffix U this past November. And so it's kind of changed a little bit about our audience, but not all the sheep that we have in our place are show sheep or breeding stock. And thanks to my wife here and I don't remember six years ago she decided that we needed to try something different because we are fairly close to a livestock barn and everything 60 miles away. But when you only go with 10 head or less of fat land or sometimes at the mercy of how many they need and we weren't always, you know what we thought we were getting the best price we could available. And so she started exploring a few options for us and farmers market was something that we looked into and she pursued. And so we went with that and the preface is a little bit or I will say in the back end we've had five years in a row now that we have not marketed a lamb at the sale barn. So we have gotten to price every sheep that has left this place. And so be it in cuts or holes and halves of breeding stock. And so we kind of are able to control our market. Now this year with the extra lambs I hope that's still the case but that has been working well for us and we have some relationships with a couple of restaurants in Fargo. And that is where we do our farmers market we only do one just because of a time constraint mainly it's work being and we'll probably talk about that next week but doing that is a lot of work just in a timeframe and getting everything ready. And so in a nutshell, I guess, that is where we wanna be. One thing about being doing this home we have a commitment that we're gonna have to fatten our lambs be it whatever the feed price is. And so yeah, $7 corn is not a favorite to buy but we have customers and expectations are looking for us. And so we can't bail on our lamb crop because our feeling is and Beth will I let her take over here shortly our feeling is if we tend to back away somebody else will step in and take it over. And Beth's got some insight because she's more of the brains of the farmer's market and I just try to get them there. Well, I think that Isaac just wanted an introduction so I think that was a big one. I think Ron did a good job with that. Basically I help out as much as I can I help Ron with chores if I can and our girls are part of our program and it all boils down to what we're gonna learn tonight and that's really having a good relationship with your processing plant. And we're lucky that we do have a processing plant just nine miles away from us a lot of producers are not that lucky. So we try and we try and keep Dalton happy he tries to keep us happy. I don't, I think that's probably. And I don't know, go ahead Isaac and direct us what you want us to go on. One thing about it with our really probably and then I don't know Spencer's probably got a better thumb on it but it's hard to find processing plants out of butcher lambs. And we are seeing that and now we've got some friends in Western North Dakota that are bringing their lambs down there. I know some people up by Grant Forks that a lot of processing plants don't want to deal with this. And we've been fortunate because the local one here is federally inspected which is important to us, you know and having a meat license we either need to be state or federal when we started it was state and this plant has gone through the third ownership since we've done this. And so we've had to make relationships with the new owners. And sometimes they're, you know flexibility is, you know give and take on both people parts of it. And I think the thing that we're fortunate enough is we have a product that doesn't need to hang in the locker a long time. And so when we're conscientious about it cause we know locker space is a big thing for a lot of these is when our product is ready to go we try to get it picked up and get it out of there. And I know that plays well with them because we're freeing up space for them. Yeah, no, I guess a question I would have is do you guys mind explaining how you got started building that one-on-one relationship with your processor? You wanna take this? Well, Ron probably sees them more than I do. Typically to be honest when they hear from me it's usually a phone call that they're not real excited to get because I'm very picky. I'm very picky about how our product look, how our label looks, how the packaging and the whole, you know, how things are cut. And so Dalton knows that if I'm calling after we've picked up the meat, then he needs to like, we need to have a conversation about what I liked, what I didn't like. And he's young and he's willing to learn and he understands, you know, if I feel that, like our girls had a roast the other night that they had a lamb and they sent us a picture. And I'm like, you make sure you send me that picture because I wanna talk to Dalton about the way that roast was cut because I was not happy with it. And he'll be like, okay, you know, I'm sorry that that happened. And now that I know what you want, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it better. He's done an excellent job with our packaging, with our logo, I'm really tickled about that. He does a great job with trimming the meat so he does not leave a lot of fat on there. I mean, our lambs are very lean the way it is, but still sometimes it's like, okay, that might have been a little too much fat. The first owner, we had known him for years. He had been there, well, since we've been raising lambs, I kind of feel like he's always, you know, so then when we decided to get our license, he was probably the most helpful, getting us going, telling us what we needed to do. And, you know, we had a great relationship with him. The second owners happened to be daycare parents of mine. So we had already had a relationship established. And so working with them went very well as well. And then with the current owner, like I said, he does a great job. And Ron honestly has the most face-to-face, you know, I'll call and I'll tell him how I want, how I want the lambs done. And like this year, I've decided, I'm gonna pretty much just have a standard. I'm gonna go in and have a face-to-face with him because sometimes we're a little something between the person that takes the phone call and the person that cuts the meat. Once in a while, there's some kind of a hiccup. And so I wanna make sure that we work through that. And this is what, his only second day? Yeah, he was the meat cutter over the last, but from the last owners. I'd like to, you know, the thing is the expectations for us is we went in and scheduled our, I did my butcher dates back in December. I think it was December or even the end of November, just to guarantee that I had a spot there, a monthly spot. And they appreciated that. And I mean, we took the time and we went through and we tried to get it, you know, a month apart and talk about, you know, the amount of lamb we have. And the communication as we get closer, they let me know, you know, are you ready to come with these? And they're flexible enough. If I wanted to try to slide one in an extra one, or I'll call them and say, you know, I don't have that extra one. I'm going to be one short. And they like that. Cause then, you know, it gives them an opportunity to maybe let somebody else come in on, you know, cause they have so many they can do a date when they do it. But, you know, like Beth said that the fortunate thing for us is they are right in town. And the next closest one that I would know, I might have put 40, 50 miles on to get a lamb butcher and, you know, under an inspection. And so the convenience is important. And the fact that it is convenient to us makes it probably a little more the give and take on our end of it, just because we appreciate the convenience too. Yes. Awesome. Thank you for that insight. That's really good. Yeah, no, it sounds like you guys have had developed a pretty good relationship and the federal inspection is a great pool to have in your... And it's nice for us going into those two restaurants or whatever to have that stamp on there. Plus we do some in the South Dakota and it just, you know, gives us a little more freedom, you know, that we don't even think about until you look at the package and there that stamp is and that opens up the border or whatever, you know, or you go to the restaurant and you have it and they can trust that product then, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, no, that's awesome. That's a good thing, yeah. Well, I guess we'll move on to Tricia and Donnie if they're ready, just if you guys wanna introduce yourselves, give a little background and then talk about your experiences with your processor. Well, thank you. Yeah, thanks for having us on here. I guess I got stuck doing the introduction. We are a family operation. We got started together in 1998 when we got married. I grew up registered in commercial Angus operation. So we were always kind of marketing some bulls and some females along the way. Tricia grew up on a Hurford ranch. Her dad also marketed some Hurford horned Hurford bulls and females along the way too. And so when we got started, we worked off the farm for a while. We had lived in town in North Dakota for seven years. We built our herd and then we were able to move and start leasing a place, I guess, in 2007. And that got us started more with our cow calf operation. Meanwhile, we were selling bulls, private treaty and also through sales. We really got our things going, I guess, in 2012. The place that we're on, we bought it and kind of got things more revved up, but we were not a huge operation. Run anywhere from 100 to 125 cows. And we're down a little bit now because of the drought but we're trying to build back. As we were marketing along, kind of the same as wolves, as having, as not as many steers and not as many females were taking them to the sales barn, we were tired of kind of maybe not getting the true value for our genetics. And that's kind of why we got started in the meat business, especially on call cows. They always felt like we were a nickel or dime less. Then what the market maybe was doing and we felt like we could add value to them. And that's how we got started kind of in the meat business. And I'll let Tricia talk about that. So it was in 2015 that we started direct marketing. We started off with like five head for that year. We started with a processor in Myl City, Montana, was also a federal processor. We had a really good working relationship with them and things were going along really well. We had been there for about five years. We're developing some value added products. And anyway, we went out there in April and they told us that they were selling the plant and they hadn't really told their employees this even but within about a month to two months time period we went from having scheduled slots every month to having to call in every Monday morning and see if we could get slots, which they were bringing their own cattle from Billings to Myl City to have processed. So we kind of saw the writing on the wall that they were trying to, and there was numerous other producers that were bringing in forehead a month on a consistent basis. And we had been visiting with them and we all kind of figured out what was going on. It was kind of the, we'll slowly push you out and do our own thing. So we kind of went into panic mode. We were able to get a few processing spots in Hazen. We had been visiting a little bit with them prior to this happening and they were gracious enough to fit us in. We also were able to get a few in to Williston, both are federal plants. And so we kind of went through a transition period and about, I'm gonna say it was July of 2020, we were in Dickinson, most of our direct marketing we do is over social media. We do a farmer's market here in beach during the summer. But anyway, we were delivering meat to Dickinson one night and another producer pulled into the parking lot that was also delivering meat. And it just so happened to be some friends of ours from the Kildere area. So we started visiting with them and he asked us, he said, well, would you guys ever be interested in purchasing or buying in on a processing facility if you had the opportunity? And we kind of like, well, yeah, we definitely would consider it. And so about, I don't know, maybe a week or two had gone by and they called us and we're asking if we were interested. And so needless to say, we ended up purchasing part of six and one meats at New Salem and that was in October of 2020. We've been there obviously since then. Spencer, I was joking around earlier now that you're on tonight, I can't talk about you. No, Donny and I, we are very fortunate after going through kind of that inconsistency there for a little while of not knowing how many, it's hard to have a business plan when you don't know when you can get animals in. So right now we take basically four head a month into six and one meats at New Salem, which for us, we're north of beach, 12 miles. So it's 140 miles, about 140 miles that we travel to the processor. We make one trip down with cattle and then we make another trip down to go pick up our beef and it's a really good, we're in a good situation now. But we also appreciate that good situation after having gone through the inconsistency of being able to find that processor. And I think a lot of people struggle with that. Being able to own part ownership in the business has been a huge advantage to us. You kind of have that comfort of knowing from month to month where you're at, what dates you have Spencer lays them all out in front of us for basically the whole entire year, which we know our date, we know what day we have to be there. Anything else you wanna add? No, and just that relationship, I think as we've went along, it's so crucial to build those relationships not only with your consumer, but also with like Spencer, that was the daughter of the owner out at Miles City. She did all the cutting instructions and she actually, she did a lot for that plant out there and she didn't even know that her parents were selling the plant, I think until like a week before they had actually changed it over in a hand. So it came by her a kind of off guard. But I think and after dealing with Hayes and Wollison, you just, you get used to the way things are cut. And like you said, I think Wolf said too, is how things are presented and labeled. And it's so crucial. The consumer wants a high quality product. They want it to be consistent. They want it to look the same, taste the same. And I think as you can build those relationships all the way through, it's a win-win situation. And we learn something new, I think too, just about every time too, we're still learning. It's trying to get cattle through the right weights or carcass weights or this or that or genetics. It's all intertwined. And when you have Mother Nature kick in the butt like it did in 20 to 21 for us for the drought, it really changes your whole perspective. But I think on the processing side, it's all about relationships and keeping that door and communications open. Awesome. Thank you that that was very informative. And it's good to see we have a Spencer with us tonight too because he gets to share a little bit about his experiences too with working with producers. And I guess we'll go ahead and go to Spencer and then we'll get ready to open up for questions from the audience. Thanks, Isaac. As Isaac said, my name is Spencer Wert. I am the manager at 6-on-1 Meets. Before I came onto 6-on-1 Meets, which would have been in January 2020, I was at NDSU, I spent five years at NDSU managing the meat lab either assistant manager or manager of the NDSU meat lab. Before that I managed a shop in Bowdoin, North Dakota for a couple of years, right out of college. I think Trish, Donnie, Ron, Beth, you all kind of hit it right on the head of how things need to go in your guys' shoes. So I mean, I've managed a cooperatively owned butcher shop. I've now 6-on-1 Meets is owned by six different people. So on the terms of, I think you titled this webinar, one of the bullet points says a contractile relationship with your processor and Trish and Donnie are in a unique position because they're owners. Ron and Beth, it sounds like you guys just are awesome people and we're able to get awesome relationships built with your processors, but it is difficult because well, both of you, for instance, one's beef, one's specifically lamb. And I think what people who get into this meat direct selling, right, is don't quite realize that there is a hundred different ways to process an animal. There's a hundred different ways to present a steak or a chop or a roast or, you know, and that's where that trial and error, honestly, it has to come through you as a producer with your processor because explaining it, right? Or sending it through an email or even trying to explain what you want over the phone is very difficult. I'm trained in a certain way. The next butcher is gonna be trained in a different way. We both have in our head, what we want to present, what we want to package, but you at the end of the day have the final say of what you wanna sell to your customers. So getting on the same page is easier said than done and it takes time, it takes a lot of communication, it takes sending pictures, Beth that you described earlier and Trisha and Donnie, we send pictures back and forth all the time. Technology has, I think, really helped everything, right? You guys know that between selling on social media but then also resolving issues that occur because no matter what, there's not a processor out there that is not going to make a mistake because meat processing is not an exact science per se. So yeah, getting your foot in the door with the processor, for instance, when I came in to six and one meats, the previous owners had a lot of large customers that put through, you know, that around 50 head a year. The day I came on board, those producers stopped by the shop to introduce themselves because if they didn't have this facility to continue their business, they were, well, kind of in the same shoes that Trisha and Donnie were before they bought into six and one. So that is an important aspect to really focus on because change of ownership can change everything. Mindset of that next owner on what are they focusing their business on, six and one meats is, I don't wanna say solely because we do processes, lambs, goats, pigs, things like that, but our main focus is beef, we're in cattle country and there's a huge demand for beef. Now that being said, there are a lot of processors popping up across the state of North Dakota and actually a lot of them are getting their federal inspection or their state inspection. So I think there is more opportunity now as a producer to get into an inspected facility than there has been in the past even two years, three years. So the opportunity is growing, but of course that the biggest meat consumption in the state and what's raised the biggest is beef and I think that's what most facilities focus on. We do other red meat species, so lambs, goats and hogs once a month, we try to squeeze people in, that's one of those species that's very difficult to get a long-term schedule built because between slaughtering, fabrication, packaging, then we have our value added line that for us, for instance, that's always one week you have 200 pounds and next you have a thousand. So that scheduling on a processor side becomes very difficult. And Ron, you mentioned that lambs don't take up much space, which they don't. That's the huge benefit of processing lambs, but it's on a business standpoint, what's hanging on that rail is also on a processor side, what we get paid on. So you got to do 15 lambs for two beef per se, it's probably a little less than that, but I think that's honestly one of the biggest reasons why a lot of processors don't do lambs, but there is opportunity and I think with this expansion in the state of all these plants opening up, I think there's going to be availability for all red meat species to be processed in all these plants, hopefully that's just the theory of money, but. Awesome, thank you for that, also insightful and it's great to have a processor join us tonight and I guess we'll, we got some questions on the chat board already and I'll go ahead and read them out loud so we can get them for the recording that will go on to the YouTube page. So the first question we have is how much discount are you willing, are you giving your restaurants and food service customers? I see you gave a response kind of in the chat if you want to build off that and kind of give your answers for that. Well, we don't, we sell and then both of our relationships are the restaurants where people we met at Farmer's Market and so the first product that they associated with us was what they bought at our Farmer's Market and I really think we don't give a discount because of the fact that we have our product I think price very fairly and so if we don't sell it there we'd probably sell it to our customers. It's more of a convenience thing for us that they're, we don't have to travel very far to get the deliver it if we had to go somewhere to do it and have the extra time and miles, we could easily justify it but we just feel like our product is fairly priced the way it was if we look at where it is retail wise be it at Walmart or stuff or of those for American lamb we're probably even cheaper. I mean, locally the Walmart we have in Aberdeen where our current prices are less than that and so we just figured that we are offering a premium product and lamb isn't available for everybody and not that we think we have a corner on the market but we charge them accordingly and then looking at the menu I think they still get their extra value out of it and that's, we've tried to and I'll just say with the two restaurants we try to support them back and eat there and it's fun to eat your own product or somebody else makes it and it's on the menu and but I truly think that for us we just sell it for what we normally do and we haven't had an issue with it they haven't asked us for me like Beth says every now and then we'll throw in a meat stick or something like that or even throw in a coffee cup or something like that and let them know that we appreciate it but they've never asked for it and at this point in time we see no reason that we have to offer it. When we decided to set our prices it was important to me to put American lamb on the North Dakota consumers table but most of the people that I talked to when I said why don't you eat lamb? Everything I always heard was well I can't afford it and it's too fancy of a meat I just want to do beef and pork because I understand that. So I sat for a long time and looked at a lot of USDA pricing and suggested prices and things like that and I just really felt that it was important we need to make a profit above what we would get at the sale bar. I personally believe and I kind of drug run along to that belief of we don't need to gouge our consumers and I'm not saying that anybody that chooses to set their prices different I'm not saying that that's what they're doing I'm just saying I just want to make I just want to take that middleman out I want to make a little bit more than we'd make at the sale bar and that's what I'm happy with. Yeah I just if we made I mean we're just a small hobby farm we made any more than that than the US government would come after us even more so it's like make enough to cut out the middleman and get a little bit of money in our pocket. All right, yeah, no that's a great answer. I saw Trisha and Donnie answered two from the beef perspective if you guys want to build off Ron and Beth that'd be great. I need to clarify I guess in my answer a little bit we sell a lot of quarters halves and holes that's probably 60% of our business. The other 40% we have a very small percentage that is retail cuts. A lot of our other stuff is ground beef we have Spencer make beef sticks we've been doing summer sausage more recently we've done some beef rinks so it's ground beef and some processed meats that we are selling package by package. I don't want to sit and sort packages of beef when I get for beef back home my time is worth something to me and I would if I have three or four products maybe six products that I can do that with that's fine but I don't want to sort 30 cuts of beef and find a compartment for every single cut of that beef and half go through and do that inventory process all the time. So like our ground beef we do not give discount on the discount that I was referring to and my answer would have been our summer sausage the beef sticks, the beef rinks. We recently just started working with our local grocery store and in the past have done some stuff at the convenience store we're trying to get back into a convenience store right now so and I do feel that's it's a I don't know it's a great opportunity I think people when they go into gas stations they like to see that there's a local product in there. I know like when we go to New Salem to deliver we always stop at Roods Oil and there's lamb from freezes in there lamb sticks and some other local products so it's nice to see that and even as we travel across the state we enjoy being able to support other people that are doing that as well. Good, I guess we'll move on to, oh Travis posted a question that says Spencer you stated that there are some North Dakota hacking plants that are transitioning from custom exempt to either state or USDA inspected are these plants seeing value and flexibility of marketing products? Yeah, I think as a processor getting your inspection opens up way more many more avenues for you as a business to create revenue off of you know we'll use value added as an example as a custom exempt plant you're gonna have your venison that comes in once a year which is huge for a lot of these custom exempt plants you're gonna have a few random batches here and there for people who want your product and are willing to order the you know 50 pound batch of it's once you cross that threshold and become inspected I see it as a means to create to continue to create more value continuing down the line so we can take your product your ground beef that's worth whatever it is to you create it into something that's worth twice if not more value to you which is you know trickles down the line and that's kind of what why I think value added specifically is important and you do see other plants in the state that are actually just inspected on the value added sign not necessarily the slaughter and processing and there's just so many different ways to do it but yeah to answer Travis's question directly I think that's the biggest reason why a plant would want to transition is because there is a market where we're sitting here with you know two of them for sure that they need plants that are federally inspected and there's a market there's a lot of people out there who are turning this direct sales into a legitimate business. Yeah no that's a great point I know that's one struggle my family's had back home is we're having issues finding a federal plant because Kansas City is not far away and it'd be great to get our product to that urban market for sure. We have another question for Trisha and Donnie what are you selling whole halves and quarters for and how much per pound of ground beef? I don't know if we mentioned but we are 100% grass fed, grass finished. We do not feed any grain we do feed hay in the winter obviously alfalfa grass hay and then like hay barley. So right now on our quarters halves and holes we're at 475 a pound and that's on hanging weight and that includes cutting and wrapping and delivery within a two hour distance from us and we'll work with people outside of that. We have had people buy from outside that area and then just go directly to New Salem and pick up there at the plant. Ground beef right now and we've been at this price for over a year it might be a year and a half we've been at $6 a pound on our ground beef. So there again I feel the same way that Beth does I mean we have to make a profit we have to figure out our fuel to haul these animals to the processor to haul the meat back to deliver the meat to Dickinson or Watford City or Williston or wherever it is so you have to value your time at something plus you have to get at least what they're getting at the sales barn otherwise what we're doing is not worth doing it other than the fact that I want to provide local people with a local source of meat and protein and so I guess that's kind of where we're at right now. No, that's a good answer and thank you for that. Do we have any other questions? You can submit them through the chat you can join through camera or audio it's up to you we're pretty flexible here if there's any questions for our three panelists we got another one that just came in. In Texas, you don't need to be USDA inspected to sell inside the state. It is my understanding that you only need to be USDA inspected if you want to originate the state outside of the state that the animals harvested in. Yeah, no, that's correct. Selling within the state you only have to have state inspection. However, a lot of our producers and both of our panelists here have the opportunity to sell to the surrounding states it sounds like and doing that it does become a little tricky getting it to those producers or to those consumers outside of North Dakota in this instance. You guys are welcome to add to that. Well, one thing I would add to that for us our house is a mile from Montana. So for us, if we weren't federally inspected we would basically have one direction to go and this opens up the opportunity for us to go to Baker, Glendive, Sydney. Those are probably the main three towns I've had some people ask for Mile City but we like to kind of keep that two hour distance around us. So the federal inspection is huge for us. Can I clarify that question a little more? So as I understand it, that from Texas I can have a Texas inspected product and I can ship to any state as long as the originating point of sale is from Texas. But if I move that product outside of the state and then try to initiate the sale then that's when the USDA gets a pennies and a one. That's how I understand it. So the reason I'm bringing this up is a lot of people feel like that they need to have a USDA inspected facility but after you research it further your state inspected in a lot of cases can be adequate. And then if you're not doing any retail sale you can go with an uninspected meat is still, and that's what I do. Most of my stuff with my lamb and beef is I'll have the product, the animal sold before I take it to the plant. So I deliver it to the plant. I give them the cut sheet from my customers got my customer's name on it as well as mine and then I pick it up into doorstep delivery. So it can be uninspected meat have a not for sale sticker on it. And that really saves a lot of headaches for me because I have more flexibility on the facilities that I can use to do my harvesting. So other states may be different. So that's what we have in Texas. Yeah, no, I'm not sure. Like you said in Texas it might be different but my understanding here is that it has to be, I mean, you can't ship it across state lines. Now, if someone from Minnesota came over to North Dakota like to the Red River Farmers Market where Ron and Beth sell at and bought it. It's personally, they bought it and they can transport across state lines. I could be incorrect about that. If somebody wants to chime in but I believe that's my understanding of it. Dean, as you describe, you're selling an animal and when you sell the animal then the person that picks up that animal can take it to whatever state in America that they aspire because you sold it as an animal and then had it processed there. When an animal is harvested at a state inspected slaughter plant then that product is not legally allowed to be sold in another state. Okay. All right, we had some more questions in the chat function. Patricia and Donnie, what does it cost to process an animal where you are at? I'm gonna defer this question to Spencer to make sure that I get the correct numbers. Our rates right now are, oh gosh, am I gonna remember them off the top of my head? I might have to pull up QuickBooks quick. $90 to slaughter beef. We have a disposal charge of $35 and then it's a dollar a pound processing on the rail that includes grinding, stuffing and wrapping. We do have additional fees associated with vacuum packaging and anything small, further processing like tenderizing patties, things like that are all additional fees, but that's the base price for beef. In interesting, and Ron and Beth, maybe you'd be able to chime in on this. Lamb is one of those unique things if we're bringing finance into the equation because might as well, right, it's kind of fun. Lamb's you see done so many different ways at different plants and I've seen it done in multiple ways. We still charge processing lamb based on per pound, but you see a lot of plants moving towards just a blank fee and that fee includes the slaughter, processing, disposal, everything into one and as a processor that helps us budget a little better or would per se budget a little better when we're doing lamb's because I don't know what your average lamb's are dressing out at, but ours that we do are anywhere from 80 pounds to 120 on the rail. So they're kind of all over the place. So yeah, there's lamb goats and even pigs. They're just that other red meat species is just kind of a different ball game on a price per pound basis compared to beef. All right, got another question for Trish and Donnie, Ron and Beth, with your beef and lamb, how did you work to make creating label? Did the plant help you with this and putting it on your packages for sale? I guess I'll start a little bit. We have our own logo and then I'll defer to Beth, but so getting to the familiarity and consistency, I mean, we have apparel, we have signs and I think our logo is kind of unique with a wolf head with a suffix sheep in it. And so that is what we try to incorporate in everything so people can equate that and it stands out a little differently. And we just updated it, but so yeah, we have given them the label or logo and we had to just with this last one, we had to pay a new fee to him and eCharges, which is fair enough because they print it and stuff and puts our phone number or all of our contact information and Beth dealt with it a little more and I'll let her fine tune that answer. And to start with going all the way back six years when I first talked to Ron Mahoney who was our butcher at that time, he talked me through what needed to be on the label as far as safe handling and the stamp that needed to be on there, he talked us through everything we needed to have on our label. And then from there, the first couple of years we did not have our logo on it and it wasn't until about two years ago because this would be the third year that our logo has been on our packaging. And then that was the second owners that said, hey, we can put your logo on there if you want. One thing that's first our ground, they would put just in that regular, the pork sausage, the red and white and it said pork on there, not for sale. And then they'd slap our label on top of it and I'm like, can we do something different, please? Because this is lamb, this is kind of confusing. So we did end up going with the white packaging, the little white bag and then our logo on it. If you're gonna, to sell your product there are guidelines that you have to follow as far as what is on your label. And that's important that you have all of those things on there and you talk with your processor to make sure that you've dotted your eyes and crossed your T's as far as your label. All right, Trisha and Donnie, you wanna build off of that a little bit? Yeah, we kind of have a similar situation. Like our packaging before just said fairings grass fed beef there was no logo, nothing else on there. And that wasn't until after we were here in North Dakota processing that that was done. But when we bought into six and one meats we worked with Spencer. We had a logo developed similar to you guys. And then that is on a label that goes on. We have pound and a half and one pound packages of ground beef. So our one and a half pounders, excuse me, are in the white tubes with a label that have our logo on them. And then Spencer was able to order custom bags for the one pounders. So that actually has our logo stamped right on the chub which is kind of nice. They've been really nice to have. And then steaks and roast, of course, get the same label that the one and a half pounders do. But he pretty much did all of that work for us as far as the paperwork, the processing. And we're very thankful for that because he has an amazing amount of knowledge at department. So I defer to him a lot. Nope, that answers that question. We had another one and all three you should be able to give some insight into this. What experience do you guys have with making sausage or getting your processor to make sausage? We actually, the only product that we have that's outweighs we have lamb sticks made. And very popular because it's 100% lamb and they welcome that. I mean, they have a lot of different variations to that. And the first year that we tried that, we did both brats and lamb sticks. And we tried jalapeno and cheddar and then all of a sudden it was, well, we raised lamb. And they offered it to us at Costco a little extra but it was like, I don't raise jalapenos, I don't raise cheddar cheese, we're gonna go with this. And they're very easy to work with because like Spencer said, it's all value added. They make more money at it. And so, their process is available. It's just that you decide what you want and how you want your product to be presented. And like with lamb, like I said, it's a product that we 100% lamb sticks and that's what we're gonna stand by. And we probably will add some brats again this year when we had them a few years ago they were one of our top sellers. But they're more expensive to make and I am married to a man who's tight with his cash. And so they're more expensive, he's not really good at what to do them. And that's, I mean, I can respect that but we have some extra lambs this year so it will be a great way to make sure that we get those lambs processed and we'll make some customers very happy because they keep bugging us for brats again. The biggest thing is in getting back to making money on it and you throw the processing, all of a sudden four brats at $12 a package, you all of a sudden, my conservative side says, geez, that's a lot of dollars for a wiener dog, three bucks, but people buy them. And with lamb or whatever, farmers market it's seasonal. So if you're gonna have them done, grilling season is when they move easier. And then that's kind of how we have to go with the whole packaging and whatever and kind of go with the seasons and that kind of thing. But that's for a different deal. Go ahead, Trisha and Donnie, if you guys got some experience with it. We've done some country style sausage. We started out trying to do that 100% beef and our meat being grass fed is also lean. And I don't mind it being that lean, but I do feel that it's probably a little bit on the dry side. So what we started doing was adding, I think, is it 30% pork that you've been putting in it, Spencer? I think it's 30, 25? Yeah, 30. Okay, that's what I was thinking. But so we did some country style sausage and then we've had Spencer do an all beef summer sausage, which I love and we do not put any, we don't want any MSG, I don't want any added nitrates or nitrates in anything. So try to keep the product as pure as possible. The summer sausage has been amazing. People really enjoy that. Now we've started packaging it in sliced packages so that we can go to the convenience store with it. And we've done beef sticks, which just we've done an original one. And then we've done a hullop, no one. I know we have some other options, but we haven't really veered outside of those two for the time being. They're good sellers, they're handy for people, lunchboxes during the summer. And we have a lot of people that even pick them up during the winter too. Do you have anything to add? No, just that Spencer's summer sausage, if everybody was like my daughter, Taylor, we would take Cloverdale out of business. Yeah. Cause she loves it. Well, yeah, you want to talk about processing sausage as a processor, I'm Spencer. You don't mind giving them a little input? Yeah, I think it's unique and it's one more opportunity for you as a meat seller to brand your product. So I'm gonna use fairings as the example because like Trish touched based on their brand is uncured, right? Which is, we won't get into the science part of it, but it's a way to market and you see uncured all over the labels in the grocery store now and it's becoming, the large plants are really pushing it as well because they see the demand from their customers. And I think it's just such a great way for you to add more value onto your products. Ron and Beth, you said it costs more and it does because it's a lot of more work for us to do as processors. And I think, and I have this conversation, I've helped probably two, three producers start in the past year, they're only just help them out get their labels set up, get all their eyes dotted and teased crossed and get everything figured out tonight. That conversation comes up a lot because when they start punching numbers with their ground beef is worth $5 and they're paying me $250 or $3 a pound to process that $5 pound ground beef into ring sausage or summer sausage. And then you're looking at $8, $9 at your cost to get it processed. And that conversation comes up a lot but to be able to be sufficient, all parties are efficient and financially successful. All parties have to make their margins and you as the end retailer can't be hesitant to sell for what you need to sell it for. Because if we don't make our margins on the product we ain't gonna be able to make it for you anymore because we're losing money on it. So there's a lot of different ways to look at it but you'll start figuring out different methods and packaging and pricing to where it looks better on the eyes so it doesn't shout out $20 a package for upon a half product. But yeah, the value is there and if you find a recipe that you enjoy and you are passionate about and you wanna market it with your name on it I think that's key. We use a lot of house recipes which we're lucky that we do because we're able to make sure we keep out those select ingredients that some of our customers don't wanna see on that label like the MSGs, I got some other customers who absolutely don't want any sugar, dextrose any form of sugar in their product. So it gives us the flexibility as a processor to kinda twist that recipe around to fit the producer's needs. We also use a lot of prepacks from seasoning companies which as a processor helps us be a little more efficient to get the product done, completed and out the door in a timely manner which becomes very difficult of course as a processor and that's kind of the key in my world is I joke with everybody that we're behind every Monday and we're caught up by Friday and if we're not caught up by Friday we got major issues going on. But yeah, it might just be because of my past that sausage is kind of what I'm passionate about. I know a lot about it. I know a lot about it, the science behind it but yeah, I think it's just a great opportunity for all parties involved to again add value. Awesome and then continuing on with you Spencer we had a question that was for you with packaging and labeling is there any problems with vacuum seals or labels and how can we ensure quality control of these products? Oh yes, vacuum packaging is packaging as a whole even as a processor and you, those of you who have had animals processed I'm sure you've had some wonderful conversations with this guy right here about issues because vac bags, depending on the product is the type of vac bag you need to use and just one little tweak with the vacuum bag will cause issues, the thickness of the bags. There's just so many things that go into it more than just throwing it into a bag and putting it on a backpack machine to make sure and ensure that that seal stays. The biggest thing that we battle is bone-in product bone-in product with our packaging setup which is a double chamber vacuum machine is very difficult. When we package it, it is fully sealed. Everything's fine and dandy you'll put it in a freezer for two days or a week or however long it takes for the customer to come pick it up. It's still good, but sometimes during transport things can happen and that's honestly the biggest issue with vacuum sealing. I'm a huge, I mean you have to vacuum seal you guys know that you sell retail you have to your customer has to see the product. But yeah, it's difficult and you gotta learn little tricks not only for us as a processor but you transporters is just as important as well. Label wise, I don't see many issues with the type of labels we use and what comes into play there is at one point of the process the processor is applying that label. Our protocols is the label actually goes onto the back bag before the product is sealed so that it has a dry smooth surface to stick on and when that product is pulled that label shrinks with the package. The only downfall to that is if that label isn't perfectly put on the package which in human error it can become wrinkled or some along those lines. Labeling itself using the different processors and the options that they have. We have a labeler that I can upload any image into. I know a lot of processors that use pre-printed colored logos or labels. That would be an instance where as a processor we would charge you to get that label made because it can only be used for you. Now I don't charge people if we're creating a black and white label that my label machine can print on demand because it's just the quick change the file format uploaded into the machine get it squared away and it goes away. It doesn't, we don't have any additional costs or stocking that we have to do in order to make our system work but again, every processor is different. Awesome. Yeah, no, we're getting there to the eight o'clock hour. We had great discussion. Can we get a closing statement from each of our panelists before we wrap it up tonight? And we'll start with Spencer since he's still on the screen. First off, thanks Isaac for inviting me. Sorry I didn't email you back however many months ago. I get busy and I forgot. Yeah, there's, I just really wanna emphasis that there's so many different ways and options and availability and there's just so many different things that you as a direct meat sales producer can do dialing in, focusing on what exactly you want, what you want your product to look like and Ron and Beth stress that right away. I think that's kind of key as a person who's selling product. Figuring out that relationship with your processor to make everybody's life easier and more fluid and efficient is the name of the game. Awesome. Trisha and Donnie, you wanna go next? We'll just go in reverse order of the way we started. Go ahead. Yeah, I think the relationships are like we said before it's huge and with your processor and with your consumer and I think it's all a learning thing. And like we said, the value added side of things we are like we're trying some different products this summer and so we'll learn and see how we go with that. I think as a producer, I think when you go down this avenue I think it just opens up so many more different things and not everybody wants to do that. I mean, there's people, Trisha's got an uncle, he's fine with great CalCaf man but he sells his calves the last week of October and he's like I do not wanna look at consumers face to face. He said I couldn't do what you do Donnie and so it's not for everybody and you gotta find what your niche is and what you wanna do and I think that's the biggest thing to come out with and find products that work for you and find your avenue and ask lots of questions. I'll add to that, just keep the conversation open between you and your processor and it's a give and take honestly is what it is. It's something like for us we're always thinking I guess and I'm very glad that Spencer mentions other things to us sometimes have you ever thought about this? And so that and be able to understand that we're not the ones in the meat plant every day processing these animals, cutting them up going through all the steps of this and as an owner of a processing facility you look at that a little bit differently and we've all of our owners have said this from the beginning that we need to make sure that we treat our staff right as best we can and because we don't wanna be the ones standing they're having to cut the meat. I mean, that is not our skills and abilities. Spencer does an amazing job for us. He has a great staff right now and we're very fortunate for that so. Moving on to Ron and Beth. Thank you for coming and joining us. Trisha and Donnie, it was greatly appreciated. Yes, thank you for having us on. And yeah, thanks Isaac for reaching out to us again. It's always like I said, fun to be part of this and they pick up, there's always something to learn from other panelists but getting back to our processor and they try to do the best they can for us and if you treat them fairly and respectfully they're open to criticism or asking, can we try something else or? We've thrown some things at Dalton and somebody wanted a French rack and we had no expectations ahead of time and we put it together and we took it to the customer and they were excited about it and the first person we went back to and we reported to him that what you did was acceptable, they were excited about it and so not only do we, if we have issues which Spencer, he brought that up and you guys as co-owners and customers know that it's like Spencer said they're human, everybody's got a different way but also make sure that if you are pleased with the product or whatever, to let them know because they're just like anybody else or anything else like that they always like to hear the good stuff too and if you do have a good relationship heavens knows you want to continue it because from Spencer's standpoint or any processors and we've seen this over the years to get your foot in the door and be a regular, Trish and Don started and stated that that all of a sudden that got pulled out from underneath them and they set up a new one especially when you have a current business and clientele could be tough and so getting back to communication and flexibility and being upfront with each other means a lot it really does and we've been fortunate in our dealings with this. Well, awesome, thank you. This concludes our webinar for the night. Thank you to everyone for joining us. It was a good experience and a good discussion tonight. Thank you.