Classroom session (held at the Holiday Inn located in Corydon, IN). Snacks and beverages provided free

of charge by Darby and Luke during classroom session.

Please note that there will be time for questions from students during each and every presentation the

entire day!

7:00-7:30 am – Registration

7:30-7:45 am – Introductions

7:45-8:45 am - Marketing (Luke Groce)

Luke will cover the idea behind his approach

• Helping people tell a story about themselves.
• Establish who you’re marketing to, and tell a story where they are the hero;
• Storybrand framework for constructing a pitch
• Our pitch “plotline”, and doing the same thing with pictures
• How we use Instagram/facebook, email, website
• Farmers market presentation, flyers, signage, etc
• 
  

8:45-9:45 am - Farm Sales Models (Darby Simpson)

Darby will walk you thru the 10 models he uses on his farm that has successfully sold as much as

$200,000 in product during a 12 month period. Everything from farmer's markets to bulk sales and

monthly programs, Darby will cover every program his farm has had success with.

9:45-10:00 am – Break

10:15-11:15 - Market Analysis (Darby Simpson)

In this presentation, Darby will demonstrate how you can successfully begin to sift thru your specific

geographic area in order to begin building a successful marketing campaign. Darby will cover how to

define your “area”, research competitors, marketing options you might want to employ, considering your

personal context when marketing and more.

11:15-12:00 - Meat CSA (Luke Groce):

• What it is
• Why we do it/what it means for our farm
• What’s in the shares
• How we administer program
• How we distribute

12:00-1:00 – Lunch (on your own)

1:00-1:45 - Restaurants and wholesale accounts (Luke Groce)

• Finding restaurants that might match up well with you
• Get to know people in kitchens
• Know how to pitch the chef
• Maintain the relationship, learn names in the kitchen
• Delivery time = marketing time
• Other partners: Buying clubs, groceries, farmers.

1:45-3:15 - Retail Cut Selection (Darby Simpson)

In this session, Darby will walk you thru how to accurately build a spreadsheet to calculate your costs,

value your time and set prices on retail cuts. He will cover poultry, pork and beef showing you his

personal spreadsheets that he uses for his farm. He'll also discuss packaging, getting a private label made

for your products with your your processors and more.

3:15-3:30 - Break

3:30-5:00 - Farm Production & Enterprise Overview (Luke Groce)

During this presentation, farmer Luke Groce will take you on a virtual tour of his farm. He will

cover each one of his farm enterprises (chickens, ducks, turkeys, pigs, sheep and cattle) and talk about

how they manage each enterprise on the farm. You'll see what tools, fencing, techniques, equipment and

management practices are used for each business model. He'll also discuss the use of hired labor on his

farm this season and how that has made a positive impact both personally and professionally.

This virtual tour will be followed up with a full day on Luke's farm the following day to see each

enterprise in person. The on farm tour will be interactive, where you can ask questions of both Luke and

Darby about management practices. Luke and Darby will also be sharing tips and tricks they have

learned over their combined 20 years of farming experience to make your farming journey simpler and

more profitable.

5:00-5:30 – Open Q&A with Darby and Luke

During this last session, we'll have some open discussion time where all students can ask any

final questions from the days presentations, or from areas not covered by Darby and Luke.