PROJECT ON-FARM

TITLE OF THE CASE STUDY

Direct sale and processing of milk

MAIN DATA OF THE COMPANY

Name of the Company

Petr Šobáň’s family farm

Country

Type of the Company

Farming Activity

Direct selling way

SELF – INTRODUCTION OF THE FARMER

Petr Šobáň is a young farmer (27 years old) from Czech Republic, he studied agriculture at the Mendel University and he also attends CEJA meetings as a representative for SmaCR (association of Czech young farmers). About his farm, he is taking care of the family farm with his parents. They have two employees: one is milking and the other one is in the dairy making the products processing the milk. On the farm is working with Petr his brother, his parents and also his grandparents and other siblings are helping. They have got about 55 dairy cows; with heifers and bulls, they have a total of 115 cattle. For now, majority of the milk is going to the big dairy and part of it is being processing and direct selling. They process cheese (fresh cheese and cheese for the barbecue), yogurt, cottage cream and fresh milk; also, beef. They are also selling fresh milk in their village, but still minority; Petr hopes that it will increase but nowadays they are full capacity of the dairy. Regarding to rates, 25% of the milk is direct selling (if he doesn’t take into account the agriculture income).

CHANGES / INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS ADOPTED

The innovative solutions they adopted were not exactly aimed at processing or selling, but as a kind of advertising for them and increasing the number of customers. This is their way to present their farm and their products to people, and to increase customers. In this sense, they started to hold open days at the farm. For example, in July they plan to hold a "Day at the farm" again during the day and in the evening, they cooperate with their neighbours, who is going to have traditional music. In addition to this, during these weeks, when the school year ends, they are doing excursions for schools and kindergartens (it is very popular now). Some of the strategies he uses to call people to the activities are social media, the website and also the stalls in the shops (his shop next to the fresh milk machine and the surrounding shops in other nearby villages).

WHY AND HOW YOU DECIDED TO INTRODUCE  STRATEGY CHANGES / INNOVATIONS

He was the one who started these ideas, and the rest was a cooperation between the family members. He was inspired by other farms doing similar things, and also by schools, and then he turned it into the option that his farm could carry out. Petr did not like the process of selling milk wholesale, so he had to look for such strategies to start processing and selling his products directly. He likes on farming for several main reasons: first, because with direct sales he makes more money (e.g., by eliminating transport); but also because on-farm processing adds more value to the milk and also connects people to its origins. Petr believes that original things should be more important.

WHAT OBSTACLES DID YOU MEET

Generally speaking, Petr has not encountered any major obstacles in his innovation process on his farm. On financial difficulties, for them it is manageable, they have no problems for now (beyond possible public support). More than financial obstacles, he talks more about time, which he has to dedicate to all the direct sales and the kind of advertising he does. He also mentions that, as far as technical issues are concerned, they are mostly related to paperwork and bureaucracy than anything else.

EVALUATION OF THE RESULTS

Petr's overall evaluation of his farm's results is positive. In terms of valorisation of the products, he has managed to give them those home-grown touches, bringing the farm closer to the customers and making them appreciate and buy directly from him and his family. Moreover, as he said at the beginning of the interview, both his brother and his parents and other members of his family work and help in the development of the farm, so family involvement is at a maximum. In addition, his dairy is at full capacity, so much so that he is thinking of expanding it soon. Finally, the satisfaction he feels with his work is huge, not only because of the benefits he gets from it, but also because he enjoys what he does.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENT AND WHAT ARE THE PERSPECTIVES IN YOUR MIND

He is quite satisfied with the decisions made in the past, he would like to take the farm a bit further and make the dairy bigger, because today it is already at full capacity. Of course, looking back one can always see that many things could have been done better, but at present he is quite satisfied with the results. In the medium-term future he has several plans: firstly, he would like to build a bigger dairy; he would also like to have a kind of self-purchase (a shop close to the farm or own house) so that people can go directly to buy the products; thirdly, he would like to increase the direct sale of meat, which is not so sophisticated, as they have to do everything by hand (and it is too much); finally, he would like to create a website.

FINAL SENTENCES

General Evaluation

Petr gives a positive assessment of the development of his farm in recent years. He is quite satisfied with the changes made. He likes that the farm is getting better: "it is getting nicer, because you have to make it nice for people to visit", says Petr himself.

Suggestions for other farmers

There has to be a fire in him to do something different and to want to do it. Look at the market around yours to see if there is a gap, and if you like it just take the opportunity in that gap. Then put passion and work at it. You have to be teachable, because if you decide to do something, you will have to study a little bit the management and the processes you want to do. Just do it.