Search results

Griffieon Family Farm

Griffieon HomesteadThe Griffieon’s are a family-oriented century farm located just north of Ankeny. Craig and LaVon have four children - the sixth generation to be raised on the land. Currently the Griffieon’s have a diversified farm with beef, laying hens, broilers, turkeys and sheep and they raise corn soybeans, oats, and alfalfa. Their initial start with direct-marketing came when their eldest son, Nick, decided to raise and sell pastured poultry. He built pens, bought the chicks and bought the feed from the co-op. Nick lost eleven dollars on his first 100 chickens and even though he lost money, he set out to do it again and bought 150 more chicks. Knowing costs were a factor the first time, he bought corn from his dad and a non-medicated pre-mix from the elevator and used a grinder-mixer to make his own feed on the second batch. With these changes Nick had a value-added product which could be marketed at a higher price. Soon after, Craig stopped using growth hormones on his beef calves and followed the non-GMO, antibiotic-free plan and began direct marketing beef, lamb, pork and turkeys. Setting their own prices for products assured the Griffieon’s a profit on each animal sold.

Their markets began by Nick reaching out to neighbors to purchase his chickens and friends from the Ankeny Farmers Market. Return customers would then come to the farm to purchase their meat. The majority of their markets have grown by word of mouth. Later on they created brochures and a website. In 2008, the Griffieon’s joined The Iowa Food Cooperative, an online marketing cooperative. Each market account acquires one third of their sales and each year they continue to grow. This past Christmas Season they sold more quarters of beef and whole and half hogs than ever before.

Broilers

Griffieon’s raise 660-740 straight run broilers each year in batches of 220 at a time. The first three weeks they are in the brooder house and then move to pasture for 4-5 weeks. While in the pasture their pens are moved every morning to fresh grass where their feeders and water tanks are filled. When the broilers are around 7-8 weeks they weigh between 3.5 and 5.5 pounds. From here they are loaded at dusk and hauled to be processed in Bloomfield Iowa.

Poultry processing in Iowa is a challenge for small-scale producers, as there are only two state-inspected lockers for poultry in Iowa. One of those locations, in Bloomfield, Iowa, will be closing at the end of 2019, making it even harder on small farmers to process their meat in a state-inspected facility and keep costs low.

Layers

Each year roughly 80 layers are raised for eggs. They start them in the fall and use the poulet eggs during the winter and larger eggs in the summer. In the summer months eggs will be sold out every single day. Once the hens no longer lay eggs they are butchered as stewing hens.

Turkeys

In the spring the Griffieon’s raise pasture-raised turkeys. The chicks are purchased in May and are finished in October, just in time for Thanksgiving. When they started with turkeys, they raised Heritage turkeys but as those grew in popularity it became too expensive to turn efficiently. Currently, they raise Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys.

Beef

They raise Limousin beef cattle that come from a herd that has been on the Griffieon farm since the 1960s. They are typically butchered around 15-18 months of age and weigh around 1200 pounds with carcass weight of 1000 pounds. They can be processed at any state inspected locker as long as the state inspector is present to see the live animal. Beef is available and ready for market year-round.

Pork

Processing is very similar for pigs as it is beef. They can be processed at any state inspected locker with the state inspector present. They are processed around six months of age weighing around 260-300 pounds with a carcass weight around 170-200 pounds.

Lamb

LaVons eldest daughter, Autumn, raises Katahdin sheep. The lambs are around nine or ten months of age when processed. Lambs weigh roughly 110 pounds live weight and have a carcass weight of 60 pounds.

 

LaVon indicated there have been a few challenges along the way…

Pricing is difficult. It is challenging to figure the amount of time you have put into an 18 month calf and really value what your time is worth, while keeping the cost of the meat as low as possible.

“Defending your pricing to the public is another challenge.” Many times the customers who come to the Griffieon farm to purchase meat or eggs are aware of the costs, but the customers at the farmers’ market are often comparing the Griffieon’s prices to the stores prices. LaVon created an informative sheet titled “Why Do These Chickens Cost So Much?!?!” After the customer has read it they don’t question another price. A lot of work is put into producing any of the animals and it takes time to inform them.

Along those same lines, Griffieon’s have “trained” their direct-market-customers. Many who come to their farm to purchase their products know how to find what they want, add up their bill, and pay with cash, check, or credit card without directly interacting with a family member. Others still feel more comfortable if they are there to help.

Advice

“Take care of your customers, answer questions, ask questions and they’ll take care of you.”

Category: