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Ever
hear the adage, “Change is good?” Following this frame
of mind, the Old Creek Ranch in Cayucos is in the midst
of their own distinctive changes. A longtime family
owned and operated commercial farm, the Blanchard family
has recently opted to make some dramatic alterations
in the way they do business; steering clear from the
commercial marketing norm they have followed for many
years. What's the change? The Blanchards have recently
entered wholeheartedly into the realm of direct marketing,
which puts a whole new face on their entire agricultural
profession.
First established as a commercial dairy in 1949 by Robert
Blanchard Sr., Old Creek Ranch is a longtime multifaceted
operation—now owned and operated by son Robert Blanchard
Jr., and his wife, Terri, in partnership with Robert's
sister, Caroline Musolff.
Many smaller-volume farmers like the Blanchards are
now discovering direct marketing as a viable sales alternative—a
niche that offers them a way to thrive in their specific
business by personally facilitating the marketing of
their own agricultural products.
Traditionally utilizing wholesale packing houses and
sales yards as their sole means of distribution, direct
marketing for the Blanchards is much different. Unlike
wholesale, it not only offers the farmer the freedom
to market with specific brand identity, but also allows
them the ability to select their own product price—enhancing
profit potential.
Following the ranch's motto, “Grown in harmony with
nature,” the Blanchard family believes in abiding by
farming and ranching practices conducive with the environment,
and everything produced by Old Creek Ranch follows those
considerations.
Keeping their unique style in mind, the Blanchards conclusively
decided last year to put their all-natural farming and
ranching attributes to good use—by targeting their goods
to the budding consumer market for high-quality, local
agricultural products produced with environmental sensitivity
and all-natural sensibilities. Now all of their items
are produced and sold under the exclusive Old Creek
Ranch label, providing their products with distinctive
visibility and brand-name recognition.
Their product line currently consists of grass-fed beef,
Hass avocados, Valencia and Navel oranges and even ranch-fresh
eggs. Other products such as home-baked goods, grass-fed
lamb and goat meat are also being developed to add additional
diversity to the Old Creek Ranch line.
And let's not forget Old Creek's very own orange juice
brand, squeezed and bottled at the ranch's certified
kitchen, using recently purchased commercial washing
and pressing equipment.
“We just started selling the juice, so it's brand new
for us,” said Dave Hoffman, Old Creek Ranch manager.
“Right now, we're juicing between seven and nine gallons
at a time, and hopefully, soon we'll be doing 20 to
30 gallons everyday.”
The Blanchards began selling their farm-fresh products
directly at farmers' markets last August, and now regularly
attend six of the weekly local markets. Customers can
also find Old Creek Ranch products at New Frontiers
Natural Foods in San Luis Obispo.
“If you buy orange juice at New Frontiers, it's made
out of our oranges,” Terri said. “We hope that soon
you'll go in there and you'll see that the avocados
are Old Creek Ranch avocados. That's our expectations.”
Bob and Terri's daughter-in-law, Yvonne Blanchard, is
spearheading all marketing aspects for the Old Creek
Ranch product line, helping to integrate into local
retail and food service outlets.
“We want to find our way to more gourmet stores, health
food stores, restaurants, and bed and breakfasts within
probably about a 20- to 30-mile radius,” she said. “Places
offering local, high-quality food items. That's the
next step for us.”
All orchard crops are grown without the use of pesticides,
herbicides or fungicides. The Blanchard's 200-plus chicken
flock is also incorporated on a rotational basis throughout
the Old Creek orchards, serving a dual purpose at the
ranch. Not only are they providing eggs, but also adding
excellent natural fertilizer for the orchard's soil
structure.
The Blanchards also incorporate the family's “harmony
with nature” philosophy with their beef herd at the
Pecho Ranch, situated south of Montana de Oro State
Park. For over 10 years, the Blanchards have maintained
an approach to grazing management known as “high density,
short duration” which they say helps to improve rangeland
ecosystems through continuous vegetation production
and replenishment. The family's beef cattle herd is
produced without the use of antibiotics and hormones,
and is fed exclusively on a natural diet of grasses,
forbes and legumes. The Blanchards have managed cattle
at the Pecho Ranch for nearly 30 years.
Yet another facet to the Old Creek's burgeoning product
line is Cayucos Cellars wine, created by Bob and Caroline's
cousin, Stuart Selkirk. Known as the “winemaker of the
family,” Stuart and his family now utilize the elder
Blanchard's former dairy building at Old Creek as his
own winemaking and racking hideaway, crafting 600 to
800 cases per year of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon,
Pinot Noir and Zinfandel. A portion of the winegrapes
used in production comes from the ranch's own vineyard
acreage, with additional portions from vineyards in
Templeton, Adelaida and eastern Paso Robles.
“We figured that making wine in that old dairy building
is a better use for it than milking cows,” Bob said.
“It smells a lot better in there than it did 40 years
ago.”
One shouldn't assume that direct marketing is in any
way a short cut to easy money. For the Blanchards, the
transition has been a learning experience with its own
unique challenges to overcome.
“In our view, product marketing is a totally separate
enterprise,” Terri said. “It's not production, and it's
not farming. People want to think of marketing as just
a way of improving your ranching operation, and I think
you need to look at it as a separate enterprise. It
requires different skills.”
The catalyst for Old Creek's recent transition was based
most notably on the Blanchard's existing Valencia orange
supply. Bob says that for years now, wholesale prices
for their Valencias have gone from bad to worse, reaching
the point where packing house production costs drove
prices down even below break-even levels.
“On the commercial market, the at-the-gate price basically
is zero,” he said. “We could send our crop down to the
packing house and end up getting a bill from them after
the crop is all packed and shipped. So we had to ask
ourselves, do we pull the trees out, or should we continue
to take care of them?”
Although Old Creek would be considered in many ways
as an “organic” farming operation, the Blanchard family
has chosen not to seek official organic certification.
Their reason is simple: They don't feel the need to.
Last year when weighing the options of certification,
Bob and Terri consulted with other local organic-type
growers similar with their own farming philosophy. Bob
says what they learned, surprisingly, was that many
who were once certified organic are now disassociating
themselves from the “O” word.
“In their view, once the USDA got involved in the certification
criteria, they watered the criteria down to allow corporate
and imported agriculture in under certification rules,”
Bob said. “And they've all felt that they've held themselves
to a higher standard than the USDA is setting for certification.
So what they've done is come up with their own terms
and marketed their own philosophy, and so that's what
we chose to do too.”
Many aspects of the family's new enterprise are still
in the development stages, but Bob and Terri say that
customer response so far has been very favorable, which
makes them very enthusiastic about the future.
“This is a totally different enterprise, with a lot
of future and opportunity for a small farm,” Bob said.
“We're a small farm, so we have trouble competing. But
on the other hand, the advantage is we're in a great
location in terms of proximity to an emerging market
that has the willingness and the ability to pay for
our products. Just since August, (we have) grown to
the point where we're very enthusiastic about it.”
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