Raising grains for the local community

The Farmer; Trent Tebbe Grew up on a grain farm in Tipton County, IN

Seed corn and soybeans

Commercial corn and soybeans

Wheat

Popcorn

Three Monkeys Farm 14 acre lease with Morven Park, Leesburg

First farmer in their farm incubator program

2

A large, high end market with a growing interest in locally produced food

Utilize Virginia Grown and Virginia’s Finest

A history of growing grains in this region

Grain can be raised locally at a competitive price when shipping is taken into consideration

Farmers receives <20% food dollar

http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-dollar-series.aspx

3

Local

Organic

Heritage/Ancient grains

Gluten free grains

Open pollinated, non-GMO corn or flint corn

Farm to Fork

4

Farmer Ground Flour New York

North Carolina bread flour project Carolina Ground

Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain CSA Massachusetts

Butterworks FarmVermont

Bluebird Grain Farm Washington

5

Winter Rye

August 2013 – July 2014

6

Well aged horse barn material was applied to pasture

Lease signed in June 2013

7

Sod was chiseled and disked by a custom operator

Additional disking and culi-mulcherpasses were made

High calcium lime and chicken litter were applied

8

Rye drilled in October

9

10

11

12

Locke’s MillBerryville

13

Producers

Storage & Cleaning

Distillers

Brewers

Bakeries

Malt House

Mill

Consumer

Markets

Restaurants

14

Grain Distribution Process

Cleaning

Milling

Labor

Organic Certification

Naturally Grown Cert

Testing for food grade

Marketing

15

Loss

Service Fees

$1000+

Less than organic

$250/test suite

Variable cost

Every additional activity will have some associated cost

Stored product can be lost◦ Pest damage

◦ Water damage

Crops will be sold over a period of time◦ Impacts cash flow

Expected sales may cancel

Additional delays while alternatives are found

16

Do your research!

20+ page application (for crops) Field Maps, boundary management

Additional procedures and forms

Understand fees

Inspection

Record keeping: 5 year minimum

Different certifications for crops vs handling

17

Storage

Infrastructure Appropriate scale equipment

Procurement costs

Custom operators are scarce

Losses during cleaning

Losses during milling

Learning/mastering new activities

18

Expansion

Reduce manual labor

Work on infrastructure

Identify potential partners at all levels

CO-OP?

19

Value Added activities and spending time on building relationships through marketing can provide for a greater profit from the same farm

Challenges to incorporating value added activities

Bottom Line – Good farming is the core business!

20

Facebook◦ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Three-

Monkeys-Farm-LLC/115609805312449

Twitter◦ 3MonFarm

Instagram◦ ThreeMonkeysFarmVA

21