Cory's Country Lamb
Overview
Iowa is one of the top three producers of lamb in the nation and a leader in world production. One of the premier sheep genetics facilities in the world, which also spearheads the technological revolutions taking place in sheep insemination, is located in northeast Iowa. Yet lamb is not a high-demand meat product in the stores, nor is it common on Iowa family tables.
For Mary Cory, who with her husband Tom owns Cory’s Country Lamb on their farm in Elkhart, this poses an opportunity to educate Iowans, alter their palates a bit and move along the food chain to become producers, processors and marketers of lamb products.
“It seems that if you want to make it in farming these days, you have to get bigger and bigger,” said Mary Cory, who is primary manager of the farming operation. (Tom teaches agriculture in the Des Moines schools.) “That wasn’t in the cards for us.” So the Corys looked at what they could do, what they were “passionate about.” They wanted to raise lambs, she said. And they needed to find a way to continue to do that and to increase the profit. Cory said they decided to go further into the lamb operation and to sell directly to consumers. Their research indicated no one else was offering the same service.
Current products include: sheep jerky, ground lamb, brats, loin chops, sirloin chops, leg steak, leg roast, shanks, stew meat, summer sausage, Frenched rack of lamb, whole leg, boneless rolled legs, crown roast, bones for stewing or pets, Wool Wax Handcreme, and Christine’s Kitchen Cookbook (lamb recipes from a Colorado sheep grower who also runs a bed and breakfast).
Background
The Corys have farmed about 300 acres, raising corn, soybeans and lambs, for about 15 years. Until a few years ago, they also raised beef, offering those in quarter, half or whole sections. The lambs went to the sale barn.
Then four years ago, they embarked on more direct sale methods. They put an ad in the paper, offering whole or half lambs. They sold five. The next year they began to sell lambs at the spring through fall farmers markets in downtown Des Moines (26 Saturdays) and in West Des Moines (22 Thursday evenings).
Both direct sales methods and farmers markets seem to be leading them somewhere positive. They sold 100 lambs by these direct methods three years ago; last year, they sold 180; and this year, about 225.
According to Cory, the farmers markets are a huge time commitment each year. She spends between 1,500 and 2,000 hours involved in them annually. At the markets, lamb is offered by the package or frozen. Orders are taken. And this year, samples (lamb-burgers and brats), as well as recipes, were given out. All of this activity began taking place from the back of a small pickup truck. This year, a cargo van was used.
Cory products also have been featured at the Home & Garden Show in February in Des Moines. Cory estimated they have easily given away 10,000 samples of sheep jerky; recipes often are also given away and cookbooks for lamb products are sold.
Four to six restaurants are among direct sale customers, but that business is sporadic, she said, because it requires calling on the restaurants once each week.
Cory lambs are processed at a Mingo locker, 12 miles from their home, where she said they have an excellent relationship and the turn-around time is held to two weeks. But the increase in sales volume has also created some potential problems. They are pretty much at capacity in terms of available labor at the locker. The current labor shortage in the state, she said, comes at a time when, “We haven’t even tapped the markets that exist.” Options are being considered in terms of labor sources and building a network to support further production and processing.
Cory said the enterprise and exploring its potential are extremely labor intensive for her. As a return to labor, she estimates only about 50 cents per hour. Volume is increasing and, as she noted, “That is the ticket. But it creates other problems.”
Breakeven pricing is at about 65-68 cents per pound, which on some days is available on the open market. In direct sales, she estimates, they receive 90 cents per pound.
Opportunities
Any potential problems have not hindered the business minds of the Corys. They plan to further explore using the pelts of the sheep to create a business in leather goods specialty items. Normally at the locker, there is a cost to take the pelts to the landfill. So Mary Cory decided to bring the pelts back from the locker to sell to others for their products or to create her own product line. Samples of leather in a variety of colors and a few sample items show potential if the manufacturing and marketing relationships can be worked out. Currently Cory’s Country Lamb advertises tanned sheepskins and natural sheepskins for infant mats.
She also plans to use a carefully developed mail list of past and repeat customers to direct market products before holidays – Thanksgiving and Easter in particular. “This year we are trying to look at a more targeted approach.”
In the last two years, the direct marketing approach has produced an increasing number of customers from ethnic groups who purchase the lambs, then butcher themselves. Last year, she said, one or two were sold this way. This year, the estimate is set at 12 to 15.
As they proceed to further define the avenues their business will take, the Corys have surveyed 450 of their customers to find out what products, if produced by them, would be big sellers. That list of potentials for direct selling or selling at group markets includes lamb and chicken products, eggs, dry beans, a variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers, as well as items that take some handling, such as flours, salad mixes, gourds, potted plants, Indian corn and broom corn. The questionnaire also asked if people would be willing to participate in some of the labor involved in raising and handling homegrown products. They see potential in the community supported agriculture efforts springing up around the state.
For more information about Cory’s Country Lamb, contact:
Mary Cory, 20941 NE 56th
Street, Elkhart, IA 50073
Phone: (515) 367-2000