Putting the Culture in Agriculture with Kelsey Ducheneaux of DX Beef
In this episode of the Direct Farm Podcast, we're delighted to host Kelsey Ducheneaux of DX Beef. Listen as Kelsey shares the importance of regenerative agriculture and how she's been able to double production, again.
-
Allyssa: 0:51
Welcome to the Direct Farm Podcast. We've got a terrific conversation for you today with one of our Farm Advisors and a well-known advocate in the regenerative agriculture community. Kelsey Ducheneaux-Scott from DX beef. Welcome Kelsey.
Kelsey: 1:06
Thank you for having me. It's truly a privilege to be here.
Allyssa: 1:09
So great to have you here. I've been looking forward to this conversation for a while now. And just to be able to sit down with you, learn a little bit more about your background in farming, as well as your passion. So maybe if you want to start there, tell us a little bit more about yourself, your family history, as well as your passion for land and animals and cultivating the land around you.
Kelsey: 1:31
I am Kelsey Ducheneaux Scott. I am the fourth generation to ranch here on the DX Ranch. We're located on the Cheyenne river Sioux Indian reservation. I get to ranch alongside my dad and his siblings. My claim to fame, I guess is to be a plant and soil nerd. I graduated from South Dakota State University in 2015 and with a degree in natural resources management. And when I came home, I was so fortunate that my family just. Believed in me having gained knowledge while away at college. And they, listened to what I offered as far as different management shifts that we might be able to do to contribute to a healthier ecosystem here. And it's just kind of been uh, trial by fire, I guess, here on the ranch to continue to get better every single year in our production practices and making sure that we are meeting the needs and matching the resources within our ranching system. And one of the ways that we've identified to do that since my return home is to build out and expand on a direct to consumer beef business. And that is how DX beef came to be.
Allyssa: 2:48
I love how you say that you're a self-proclaimed plant nerd. I love that term. Very catchy. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about that? What, in particular about farming and regenerative agriculture, are you most passionate about?
Kelsey: 3:04
Yeah, well, the more and more that I explore and engage in regenerative agriculture the more passionate I get about the humans of the system. We often forget about humans being a biological species in this greater ecosystem. And I think that in order for a system to truly have earned the definition of regenerative that this system has to also be making the people healthier. That's what caring for the land is all about when you're growing crops. Who you're ultimately trying to feed. If it's not that you're directly trying to feed your, then you're feeding the animals, which will feed the humans. And if your production style isn't in a manner that has a cost benefit that, trends towards making people healthier, then the system is hemorrhaging. Basically. It's not going to be able to heal our food system as quickly as our food system is depleting.
Allyssa: 4:01
And I think you touched on it. You know, the ecosystem is more than just the end product, the result of what people see of food. It's beyond that, it's the animals, it's the land. It's the people. And you have deep roots in your community as well. That kind of speaks to that. And the importance of that. So tell us a little bit more about your community and what your community means to you.
Kelsey: 4:22
Absolutely. Well, I often introduce myself as the fourth generation Rancher on the DX Ranch, but of the 125th plus generation to get to care for the landscape here in the Great Plains. My family on both sides, we have really deep roots here. In caring for the landscape being land stewards on the farming or ranching aspect and in doing so, I feel like we, we do our best to mimic nature and that to me is an indigenous production style. We as native peoples were land stewards of this landscape long before the word agriculture was ever spoke on this continent. And I think that in order to truly be regenerative, we have to appreciate and value that land stewardship on this continent existed way prior to 1492. And this the system here was only regenerative in nature. It was only farm to school. We only did farm to plate. You know, we always bought, we always traded directly with the producer. Right. So I think that we have to remember that like the community of food and Ag systems. That's what puts the culture into the word agriculture. And I get really excited whenever we talk about ways to work, to heal that, to put the culture back into agriculture, and to, romanticize the thought of food and knowing the story of where your food has come from. And as a producer on the flip side, Yeah. Able to romanticize the production, right? Like I know that I'm caring for this product because eventually it's going to feed a community. It's going to be what brings a family together around the table and it's going to nourish their bodies and it's going to, hopefully the ultimate goal is it's going to contribute to a more robust and resilient and regenerated future for the generations to come. And so I think that it's just a really exciting time to be involved in the space of land stewardship and regenerative agriculture, because the recent pandemic really shook up consumers buying choices, you know, they're like, what the heck? I went to the grocery store, there was no beef on the shelf, or, you know, there, all of the vegetables were all picked over, you know, and then it starts to get consumers large-scale thinking about where is their product coming from? And we just need to figure out on the other side as producers, how we can extend that same hand outward in reaching back to the consumers and reconnecting them with their food source.
Allyssa: 6:58
And I think being able to kind of look back, reflect on the past, know what's worked and kind of go back to those roots, but also looking at the future as well of, like you said, how can we heal the land? You know, things have evolved. And changed over the years when it comes to farming, but getting back to those basics as well, the regenerative agriculture, like you, you touched on the culture of agriculture, which I love that phrase as well. Maybe touch on a little bit more about how DX Beef has evolved over the years. It sounds like you've implemented a lot of new kind of direct to market business strategies, but you still are also looking to your roots and how you've been able to kind of approach farming from the beginning.
Kelsey: 7:40
Absolutely. Well, we started in 2019 and just doing like buying animals by the quarter, half, or whole and selling them mainly to family and friends. We in 2020 took a large step towards legitimizing and expanding the business by securing butcher slots at Brock's Butcher Block in Oneida, South Dakota. He's a state inspected processing facility where we are now able to get our beef state inspected and individually labeled for resale on the per pound or per package basis. That allowed us to start to provide our product available to a wider scope of consumers, right? Because not everybody has freezer space to take a whole quarter of a cow. And not everybody has the ability to pay for a whole quarter of a cow at once, nor do they need one. I mean, it might be a single individual living in the household. Was there a need for an entire. 80 pounds of beef in their freezer. It's going to take them forever to get through it. So, you know, by offering and diversifying the chance to buy different quantities and different cuts. We saw a tremendous spike in the number of customers. I mean, throughout 2020, we ended up gaining an additional 200 customers. However, We didn't really have to expand our sales service area very far. Closing out 2020, we had 90% of our sales right here on Cheyenne river, Indian reservation. So within Dewey and Zebot county, it's around 3.2 million acres. But there's like four or five. Grocery stores across those 3.2 million acres. So, we're a fairly rural community, but access to locally produced and locally harvested foods is not very prevalent. And at the time when we got started, there really wasn't a whole lot of direct to consumer beef businesses or any kind of meat businesses that existed here locally. We're fortunately starting to see more and more. Producers marketing their product directly to the community members or to the members of their community. But it's not it's still not a saturated market by any means. I mean, we still don't have local beef available in our grocery store, which is insane to think, you know, so we have a long way to go and healing our food system, but it's been just really, we're fortunate and we feel incredibly humbled to be able to be a part of the healing process. Recently we doubled our production capacity again here at DX Beef. We're projected to process around 122 animals in 2021. And that has allowed for us to have the on-hand inventory to be able to try to grow and expand our service area a little bit. We have been participating at the Black Hills Farmer's Market. It's a couple of hours away from here, but we actually have a customer base that's from Cheyenne River here that is now located living in the Black Hills area. So it works out well for us to sell online through our Barn2Door website for a delivery scheduled on the same day as the Farmer's Market to the Black Hills area. So it gives us kind of that baseline guarantee, knowing that while even if we travel all the way out there, where at least delivering product, we don't have to worry about if we're going to be able to, you know, make the trip worth our. Or while, or, you know, go out there and not sell any product. And so it's just been really unique and I ha I can't go too far into this interview without valuing how important it is to have family and friends that support the development of a small business in this space. If it was not for my husband, my brother, my sister, my parents, aunts and uncles jumping in and chipping in to making it work. I wouldn't be able to afford to stay in business, but they offer a lot of volunteered time. We often have a evening of grilling out steaks to appreciate and value the contributions that they make to the growing business. But definitely couldn't do it without them.
Allyssa: 11:53
Well, I have to say, I am so excited for you. Like that is awesome news. Just to hear how much growth you've experienced this past year. And to know that you've been staying relatively close to your current service area and looking to. But just knowing that the market is there, the opportunity is there and buyers are seeking local food. So it's just kind of a matter, I guess, of reaching them and making sure that they're aware that, you know, there's these local farmers out there who are wanting to sell direct to them. So maybe touch a little bit more about how you pivoted last year. I know there were a lot of changes, right? Both economically and otherwise. So how are you able to reach your customers online in addition to, you know, offering bundles or offering delivery services? How are you able to make it more approachable for customers looking to order directly from you?
Kelsey: 12:44
Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I ended up having found Barn2Door in October of 2019. And it was one of those things where it was like, okay, Kelsey, go big or go home. You're going to buy this website platform and you're going to make yourself use it. Or you're just going to stop because at the time prior to Barn2Door, I mean, I was primarily functioning on like Facebook messenger and it wasn't, you know, eight to nine responses with every individual. Possible customer before we would get to the point of them actually like thinking about purchasing a bundle, right. So it would be like, do you use hormones? Do you use antibiotics? Is it grass fed? Is it corn finished? You know, all of these questions that would come in about the product. And I was like, okay, obviously I'm not doing a very good job, like marketing or telling the story of my product by just having a Facebook page. Like I need something more. Additionally to that, I didn't have anything for a customer relations database to like manage my customers and to save their information and to track what they've ordered and to follow trends as far as order sizes or, order timing. And, you know, all of these things are critical in marrying a food business to a agricultural production business. Right? So my ranching day-to-day directly impacts what sort of products I'll have available for sale even, you know, 9, 10, 11 months from now. So I have to be thinking about what those trends of purchasing look like and know where my customer base is at and when they're going to be buying and what type of product they're buying and Barn2Door in October of 2019, honestly held me accountable. I became a member of the Barn2Door family, and that's truly what it was. Them like accepting me into the family and my account manager at the time he was like, Okay, this is going to be your homework. And next week, when we meet, I need you to have this done. And I needed that because I wouldn't have committed myself to that sort of work on the business itself. I would have been too busy working in the business of getting deliveries scheduled and stuff instead of making the system function better for me and more effectively. And then the concept of like zero interaction deliveries became very appealing to my customers. So we ended up doing delivery routes and having pickup locations and utilizing those different aspects of Barn2Door. The messaging system of being able to like drop a note in there and then send a message to the customer or to reschedule their delivery time. Because, Kelsey got a flat tire or something like that. All of those, like a function that saved my sanity throughout the really exponential growth that we were able to match as the market demanded it.
Allyssa: 15:42
Yeah. I think that's so crucial to touch on, you know, the saving time you mentioned sanity, but as well as covering, like, yes, we want to, you know, save Farmers' time, but also the buyer time. Being able to have those resources available, to be able to share your story, like you said, messaging on social media is all great and fine until you realize that you're growing at scale and that's a heavy load, you know, constantly you have to go back and forth and message your customer about what they can expect about their buying experience. So maybe touch on a little bit more about kind of further your experience with Barn2Door as a farm advisor. You're also a customer, obviously. So what have you noticed on the product innovation side, some of the services and the support that you've been able to kind of focus more in on the day to day the farming and kind of have this lighter lift on the marketing, the branding, the promotion side.
Kelsey: 16:33
Yeah, absolutely. Well barn2Door's integration with MailChimp is phenomenal. My customers that are buying on Barn2Door are automatically getting integrated into my mail lists, mailing lists. So it might've been somebody that made one single purchase back in, June of last year, but because they purchase through my website now, when I send out notifications of our specials that we're having in June of this year they're getting them to their email and it tracks how many clicks are taking place and what is attracting my customers to my website or maybe what. Is being missed. My social media game has become excessively more linked to sales. So I'm no longer posting just a word written post of, Hey, I have one fourth beef for sale ready for pickup in July. Give me a call at this number. Now I'm saying DX beef has one eighth of beef available, order here. If somebody is going to see that post who does want it, they're four clicks away from saying, yes, that's my beef where before it was like, oh, they'll send me a message or might leave me a voicemail. And then I would have to get back to them. And also the amount of time it saved me on being able to just have a readily marketable product that is available for purchase. And easy to purchase. I feel like that's been a, really a driving force in my ability to keep the product flowing.
Allyssa: 18:07
And I think that's so great too, that you've learned from your own experience and you're also able to share. Now in this conversation, but also last year we featured you in a webinars series. Do you want to touch on a little bit more about the trainings that you've maybe noticed through Barn2Door from the direct conference to the academy, to the webinars series that you participate in?
Kelsey: 18:26
Oh, absolutely. It has been so much fun being a part of the Barn2Door family, because like I said, you do feel like a part of the family. Barn2Door, isn't just a run of the mill website platform that you can purchase to give them some of your commission. You can see a direct impact on the work that they are doing to healing our food systems as well. Like there's the mentorship network that's created to connect more farmers and ranchers with others who they might be able to, you know, share sale tactics. Or, you know, there's this podcast that helps to share my story outward with others who hopefully will figure out something or learn something from what I have to say. You know, there's access to the free ebook downloads that are directly related to how to better grow and and run your direct to consumer business. There's just been so much content that's published by Barn2Door that is not only relevant to my needs as a a small. Food business owner, but relevant to the work that I'm doing on the website and on the, on marketing my product. So it, it really goes hand in hand like that technical assistance in knowing how to navigate the platform is matched with, additional educational opportunities that are provided at no cost to me. Because of Barn2Door's, commitment to helping to support a more regenerative food system.
Allyssa: 19:57
And I just love how much you've already shared in this conversation. I know so many farmers are going to glean a lot of great info from just your own experience, as well as the lessons that you've learned and you're able to pass along to. So thank you so much for that. I kind of want to dive a little bit more into, we touched on earlier the burger bundles and talking about delivery. So maybe tell us a little bit more about that. What was your decision or the process you went into and deciding maybe delivery, offering bundles. In addition to that makes it a little bit more convenient for buyers and also helps you in the long run to kind of improve efficiencies through your business.
Kelsey: 20:34
Yeah, absolutely. Well, one of the things that I noticed very early on is like I said, there is no local meat in the grocery stores. So like the idea of buying beef directly from the consumer, I don't feel it as like a very. Well known opportunity. Or yeah, that idea isn't well known by the consumers on how to buy directly from the producer. So when you're talking about selling a fourth of beef, that means nothing to the general consumer. Like that, that like for us on the farm or on the ranch, we know that's going to equate to x amount of steaks or it's going to take up this much freezer space because we that's how we get access to our meat. Typically is we harvest our own in that, in those spaces, if we're fortunate enough to have access to a processor now for the general consumer they think about meat in the form of recipes, right? Like, oh, well this taco dish recipe requires one and a half pounds burger, and I want to cook it for my family Thursday night. So I'm going to go to the grocery store and pick up one and a half pounds of burger. So when you're talking to them about why they would. I see a financial benefit or value in purchasing a fourth of beef instead and doing it in a way that doesn't scare them off with the sticker shock of how much it costs to buy that much meat. Most people don't even see that much meat in one place at one time ever. So it's hard for them to imagine. So sometimes you have to talk them about eating that over time and how much you would spend on that much product. If you went to the grocery store and bought it, and why having it all sourced from one animal is so important and knowing how the animal was produced. And if you get a certain size bundle, you can actually customize your cuts. If you don't like tenderized round steak, well, that's fine. You don't have to have any, but there's so much question around selling at that scale because consumers just aren't connected enough to their food system to be able to. Ask those questions or want to know the answers to some of those questions. So what I found is that, like, when you talk about selling 20 pounds of burger, like the family then equates 20 pounds of burger to, oh, well, I can grill out for my family of eight, 10 times because I cook two pounds burger every time. And so it starts to more readily translate back into direct costs associated with preparing a meal to feed their family. And it is helping them to then justify in the future. When I say, well, I have an eighth of beef available, you would get all of that burger that you just got. Plus 20 pounds. Steaks and roasts, so then it kind of starts to get them transitioned into hopefully buying in bulk, just because there's for most depending on who they're sourcing their meat from, there is the added cost benefits for the consumer for buying in bulk. But the. The taste preference also, I think is something that a producer has to spend some time educating their consumers on. There are consumers who, when they get for their first time ever get a home raised package of hamburger, like they're not gonna know that meat's supposed to have a flavor right, like, there's supposed to be flavor in that beef and you're not supposed to have to doctor it up with tons of spices and you're not gonna. I see a ton of, fat or water cooking out of that meat because it's not cut basically with additives. It's so much more pure and there's going to be a different eating experience. And if you're not like helping create that dialogue with your consumers so that they feel comfortable asking you those questions, you're ultimately going to end up with an unsatisfied consumer. Like they're not going to. Come back again because they cooked their grassfed beef too hot and it ruined their cast iron skillet, you know, and like just little things like that, where if you are the producer and when you're trying to get a consumer that's never bought from the producer before excited about it. We have to be willing to share in that learning experience and help them not in a condescending way, in a way that is appreciating that it's not their fault, that they're not connected with their food source. Just like it's not my fault. I can't be more readily connected with consumers with the majority of my product.
Allyssa: 25:10
I think that's a great point to bring up and it kind of reminds me a little bit on what we call the three E's, which is. Entertain, e-commerce, and educate. And it's just kind of a way to track your messaging and how you interact with your buyers, especially online, whether that's through social media or like you touched on earlier with Mailchimp and your newsletters and emails. And I think, especially for beef, you have to educate, you have to tell your consumers on what to expect. Like you mentioned, you know, the taste, your beef is supposed to have flavor to it and that's, you know, normal. And by the way, that makes me hungry right now. Just thinking about that. But being able to time it and know, like, for example, we're heading into July pretty quickly here and it's grilling season. A lot of people probably top of mind right now are like the weather's getting nicer. I'm breaking up the grill. I want some burgers. I want to have, you know, some family come over friends. So you're able to kind of work that into your messaging and also how you promote yourself without just having that direct CTA of go buy this beef. But here's why, here's the value behind it too.
Kelsey: 26:12
Absolutely. you know, I have some customers who are like, I wasn't going to tell you this, but because I'm embarrassed, but I ran out of beef and my son really wanted spaghetti. And so I bought a package at the store and he won't touch the spaghetti. You know, like those are the stories like for anybody listening that is considering getting into the direct to consumer market. Those are the stories that are so satisfying. Like they make you as a producer. Feel like you truly figured it out. Like you are feeding people and there's so much dignity and humility and, just passion that. Starts to brew up inside of you when you connected with a consumer who values and appreciates what you've had to contribute to their eating experience. Now there's obviously, I mean, as with any business, There's going to be consumers or customers who may insinuate that they're not happy or who may like be confused in the buying process. And, those are conversations that you're just going to have them. You're going to have to navigate them. But what is really important and what I want to impart on people is like, We have, we know as producers that we're raising a superior standard product. And when you are putting your product into the food distribution side of the industry that's your name and your reputation. That's also going on to that product. So make sure to take the time to explain what your name should mean and tell them about your reputation or what is it that makes you a reputable producer and really consider that we as producers selling directly to consumers, we're telling them that our product is a premium product because of XYZ. And we should know what those things are and we should revisit those three things that make us a standout business, as often as we can in the development and the growth of our businesses. It could have been really easy for me in March of 2020, when beef prices were through the roof and the local processing facility plantations were closed down to spike my prices, but I remembered what was important to me and that's feeding my community, healing, the system, increasing access to locally produced foods. And my prices stayed the same pre COVID post COVID. And during COVID, like that was a pledge that I made to my consumer base. And I feel like it's. It's what has helped to build out my reputation here at DX beef is that we have the consumer in mind with every business decision that we make.
Allyssa: 29:03
Hm. Yeah, I think that's so crucial to know, you know, your story. I think sometimes brand or messaging your voice, your brand voice kind of gets thrown to the side. You know, it's like, okay we're creating a product. That's great. But being able to communicate that to your community and knowing that for you, your community is central to everything that you do. So of course, that's going to have an impact on how you price your products and how you make businesses to students too. Well, in addition to running DX Beef, I kind of want to pivot here a little bit and talk more about IAC. So you are the natural resources director for the Intertribal Agriculture Council. So tell us a little bit more about your experience and your role at IAC.
Kelsey: 29:44
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I started with the intertribal agriculture council as a volunteer youth event leader in 2010 or 11 was my first exposure to the IAC. One of their annual conference events, which brought youth together to explore what careers in food and agriculture looked like and what that meant as a young leader in India country. And I fell in love immediately with the passion and the community that existed in the group of people that attended that conference. And I remember thinking man, I want to, this is who I want to spend my career with. I started out at South Dakota state as a pre vet major, but quickly just couldn't shake that experience that I had back in 2010 at that annual conference. I started full time with the organization after I graduated high school or after I graduated college as a youth programs coordinator for Intertribal Ag Council and the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, it was kind of a shared role that I had in helping to stand up some regional youth events that would hopefully inspire more. Young people behind me, like I had been inspired at that national event. But eventually I grew into the position of being the natural resources director. We had. A need across the organization to have some focused effort around some ongoing partnerships that we had with the natural resource conservation service in serving more Indian producers through conservation planning and on the staff. And I kinda threw my name into that hat and volunteered to contribute to some of that work. And pretty quick, that workload became something that, demanded full-time effort by me. Up until recently I fulfilled that position and I transitioned into the new role of director of programs and really my goal and my hope as the director of programs is to identify ways that my experience working with youth, working with producers, working with agency staff can. Help to identify more efficiencies in our programs and more overlap and hopefully inspire more you know, support of the organization's efforts wide scale so that we can increase the resources that we're able to provide to our youth and producers all across the country.
Allyssa: 32:11
That's great to hear that. You're kind of like you mentioned, you know, paying it back of your experience. What would you say would be your final piece of advice for farmers who are considering a direct to market business? What are two to three steps that you would suggest that they take as they build out their business plan?
Kelsey: 32:28
I would say It's important to, to make sure and have two very distinct hats, right? One day you may need to show up on the ranch as the rancher, that's focused on the, on ranch management another day, you may need to put on your beef business owner hat and. Focused specifically on the functionality of the business. And it's really easy to blur those lines and to be thinking about what product you're going to sell based on what the market of the livestock is demanding, or, you know, how good or bad it's doing. And that can get real messy, real fast. So you need to be able to very clearly define when you're thinking like a food business owner and when you're thinking like a land steward or a livestock business owner that'll be really helpful as you try to make the transition. It's a realization I wish I would have made very way earlier on than I actually did. Another thing that I want to make sure and share is, There's this concept that gets pushed out there in the industry about the need for higher yields, more inputs because it will result in more outputs, XYZ and really what truly matters is. Are you happy doing what you're doing and is what you're doing, paying for itself. So really consider and reflect on those components prior to jumping in to doing something. Whether it be, do you need 17 labels on your beef product? All certified and verified. If it's going to cost you a thousand dollars each to just be able to carry that product, or should you put that, $17,000 towards building up customer relationships with the client base, that's a local and doesn't feel the need for third party verified labels on your product. You know, so. Where is your product going to be selling? And what does those, what are those consumers going to be thinking about? What's going to be important to them. And how are you going to preserve your sanity and make sure to be inspiring the next generation behind you in the work that you're doing.
Allyssa: 34:48
Great advice. I think that's, something that's tangible, they can get started right away and something that you can, adapt over time as well too, and make that shift and make that pivot. Thank you so much, Kelsey, for joining us this week.
Kelsey: 35:02
It's been a pleasure. Yeah. Thank you for having me.
Allyssa: 35:05
Yeah. Yeah. So great to talk to you and just learn a little bit more about your experience as a farmer, as well as all those lessons that you've learned from being a part of IAC to how you interact with your community and care for the land and heal the land as well. I think it's truly inspiring and I think every farmer listening in can definitely take something from this conversation. So thank you so much for joining us. Here at Barn2Door we are humbled to support thousands of farms across the country, including farmers like Kelsey, who implement regenerative, agricultural practices and support their local communities. So for more information on DX Beef you can visit DXBeef.com and to learn more about Barn2Door, including access to numerous free resources and best practices for your farm, you can go to Barn2Door.com/Resources thank you for tuning in, and we will see you next time.