Nebraska Beef Producer Shares Lessons on Farm-to-Table Marketing

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Meet Hannah Klitz

Hannah Klitz is a Nebraska producer and entrepreneur who markets and ships her farm’s beef directly to consumers and sells locally at a retail store. She is also monetizing her knowledge of the process through an online course she has developed for other producers.

The course started as a way for Klitz to answer the many questions she was receiving from other producers on social media, including those with complex answers. Lesson topics cover everything from finding customers, to meat inspection laws, to packaging with dry ice.

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Transcript

Please note: This transcript has not been edited.

Lisa Foust Prater: Welcome to the 15 Minutes with a Farmer Podcast from Successful Farming, I’m your host, Lisa Foust Prater. My guest today is Hannah Klitz, a Nebraska beef producer who markets and ships her farm’s beef directly to consumers. Now, she is monetizing her knowledge of the process through an online course she has developed.

In each episode, I have a quick 15 minute conversation with a farmer to hear their story and share their experience, expertise, and life lessons. 

Hannah Klitz: So growing up, I lived in more of an urban area in Colorado and we had eight acres where we predominantly just had show cattle and showed in 4-H. When I was 13, my family moved to Nebraska. We really expanded our cow herd. And that’s where I fell in love with production agriculture and the cattle industry more, which led me to major in animal science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and then have minors in the Nebraska beef industry scholars and the Engler entrepreneurship program. So through all of those experiences, just really decided I wanted to advocate for the beef industry and try to tell our farm story better to put a friendly positive face to the farmer.

It’s a hard job too because you have to know so much about so many different things, even just like the other side of the argument and different points there, I feel like it’s important to know your research and that’s a challenge, but something I try to stay up to date on so that I can have those tough conversations.

Lisa Foust Prater: Yeah, that’s so smart. So I was reading that you’ve taken some sort of brave leaps throughout your career, even though you’re still young. And one of those that I thought was so interesting was when you were in college and you were looking at farm to table and you learned about this operation in California. Tell us about that and what happened there.

Hannah Klitz: Yeah, so I was really involved with the Engler Entrepreneurship Program at UNL, like I said earlier, and I had a mentor there who really pushed us outside of our comfortable bounds. So part of my advice from him was just researching other companies across the United States who are doing similar things that I wanted to build with a farm to table beef company. And one of my friends found Five Marys Farms, which is located in Northern California, Instagram and showed me their account and said you need to follow them. And once I looked into their business more, I just realized that was my dream business at the time. So they sold their family farms, beef, and lamb nationwide. They held retreats out on their ranch and really educate like what they do day to day on their farm. 

I was telling my mentor about this and he’s like, well, you should intern with them. And I was like, but they don’t offer any internships like darn it. And he’s like, write them a letter and ask them for an internship. And so I wrote them a physical letter and mailed it and they accepted me to come down for the summer. And that was such a pivotal point for them to take me in and teach me the business, taught me how to ship beef, taught me a million different things, but I am so thankful for that opportunity that they let me come there for the summer, but also for a mentor to push us outside of like the norm. And if they don’t offer an internship, you can still ask. The worst they can do is say no kind of mentality. And I, yeah, that was just such a pivotal experience for Oak Barn Beef too.

Lisa Foust Prater: That is so fantastic. Having someone to work with while you’re learning and you’re in school like that and a good advisor or mentor is so key. That’s such a great lesson for life really is, just ask. The worst anyone can say is no so it does not hurt to ask. And you did, and that turned into a really, you know, important milestone in your in your process. So after you got out of school and you started with your business, just give us the CliffsNotes version of getting your business started and what that looked like.

Hannah Klitz: Yeah, so I actually started the business when I was a sophomore in college. Back in 2018 is when I started. So it’s almost seven years now that we’ve been in business, which is crazy. But when I was like at the university still, I was working really closely with my family farm, about 45 minutes away from campus. So took a lot of trips home and helped with the cattle, my beef room was there. We converted my old 4-H show barn into the beef room.

And then as this has progressed, my husband and I got engaged in 2020 when we graduated college and started moving our business to his hometown of West Point, Nebraska. So that’s where we’re located today. We first moved it on his parents’ farm. We actually still work very closely with his parents’ operation and converted an old hog barn into a like my beef room then. And then recently back in 2021, we moved to a building in town and now have a storefront in West Point, Nebraska, as well as like it holds all of our freezer and where we ship from too. So our predominant business is on. Yeah, our predominant business is online and we ship nationwide. So that’s about, I would say, 85% of our business and then 10% is in store traffic. So people who stopped by were open Thursday and Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. And then 5 % more of like a wholesale we sell ground beef to some restaurants and things as well as like beef sticks and jerky to a few convenience stores. 

Lisa Foust Prater: When you’re talking about all these things were happening, 2020, 21, and of course, you know, that’s COVID time. And that was a time when a lot of people really started doing a lot more thinking about where their food comes from, and also about how stocked their freezer is. So that was, that was interesting timing for you. So talk about that.

Hannah Klitz: Yes. Yeah. So while we were planning a wedding and moving the business and everything else during that time period, there was also a pandemic going on. So it was an interesting few years. The biggest challenge that we faced was getting butcher appointments. So it used to be that I could call the butcher two weeks ahead of time and get some cattle in versus everywhere was so booked out. So we were using, I believe, four different butchers at one point which is just really challenging, not only logistically, but each butcher packages and cuts differently than the other too. So there was a lot of inconsistencies there to try to deal with. But with this big boom came a big boom in demand. So we had our freezer absolutely full at the beginning of it all. We were sold out of ground beef and all of the cuts that were typically not sold out of during that time.

I went into 2020 with, I think I had seven subscribers. So our monthly or bi-monthly subscription box subscribers. And then when I was starting to run out, that was the only way that I pre-sold beef was with our subscription boxes, just because it gives a little more flexibility for what cuts can go and where. And we got up to 97 subscribers at one point in 2020. So we went from seven subscribers up to 97. So there’s obviously a lot of learning that went through that process and trying to improve processes too when you go increase that much. But overall we were really thankful to see this movement of people wanting to buy directly from farms and support farmers and stock their freezers that way too.

Lisa Foust Prater: Your marketing and promoting your product is such a huge part of your business. It’s clearly not just getting the cuts of beef and selling them. There’s so much more that goes on in between that process. And clearly you’re very good at the marketing. So is that something that you always were interested in or learning about or did you have to just learn a lot of that on the fly?

Hannah Klitz: A lot of it on the fly. I think the hardest part of selling direct to consumer is finding the customer. So that’s something I learned pretty early on is that the marketing part was going to be a huge part of the business. So I started listening to a lot of audio books and podcasts from digital marketing experts and really like honed in on those skills. So we’ve came a very long way, but I, as an animal science major, I didn’t have many marketing classes or any formal education around it. But now I’d say I’m pretty well versed just from finding those experts. 

Lisa Foust Prater: And I know that there are some folks in your position who maybe hold those sort of trade secrets like close to their, you know, close to them and maybe aren’t as willing to share with other would-be competitors about how to get into this business. But that is something that you have embraced and you are offering, you know, consulting calls and also the farm to table meat sales course, which I definitely want to talk about. But first, just tell us how you got to that point of deciding, I’ve learned all this knowledge, I’ve taught myself all these skills and these, you know, fine tune these processes. What gets you from that point to the point of actually marketing those skills?

Hannah Klitz: Yeah. When the pandemic was happening, I had a lot of people reaching out to me during that time who were just looking to get started. because I had two full years under my belt by that point, I had worked through a lot of the things that they were working through. And so I tried to think through, I was also very busy during this time. So how could I create something that would get them the value instead of just answering like one off Instagram messages in a hurry that doesn’t get the full information. So to solve that problem and make sure I’m serving people the best I can, I thought through how to build those offerings and the one was the online course. So really building a full wealth of knowledge of almost everything I’ve learned. don’t think I held much back in that course.

Because I want to, the way I look at it is like us small guys are not competing against each other. We are all just beef producers trying to move a few head a year. It’s not, there’s enough fish in the pond that we’re not really butting heads too much. It’s more of the convenience of grabbing beef off of the grocery store shelf. Like that, if we can get more people to buy farm to table, I think that’s a much better direction that I would like to see.

Lisa Foust Prater: And it’s the kind of thing that once you create it, I mean, you can always, of course, make updates as warranted, but once you create it, it’s there and available and you’re not having to, you know, take time away from your family or other parts of your business to go through these details with someone because you’ve already got it recorded. And just looking through this course that you have, I mean, you have so much, so much information on here and detailed things from, you know, meeting new customers, email lists and websites, laying out your costs, selling locally versus shipping, meat inspection laws, permits, insurance. I mean, there’s so much here. Choosing a butcher, social media, you really go through it all. And then all the way out to shipping options, dry ice, supplies, all of that kind of information.

You’re just laying it out there and I can just imagine someone wanting to get into this business, seeing that and thinking, my goodness, all my questions are answered. So that is just, that’s phenomenal. So talk about the process of making this course happen.

Hannah Klitz: Yeah, it’s really hard because somebody will message on Instagram or something and be just like, how do you ship beef? And there’s so much to it that it’s hard to just put it into one simple answer. Really the shipping is what I get the most questions about because there’s just so many logistics and it can get so costly. So we’ve done a lot of tailoring to that point. And I think that’s what drives the most interest in it. But I also think all of those other assets are extremely important in building the foundations of it as well. So I try to include everything because of those reasons. But as far as building it out, when COVID started, I just simply filmed like a few videos, Zoom recordings of me talking like this, just sharing all of that information and just kind of sold it on our website. So they got a link to that video when they purchased that and it was extremely low cost, but I wanted to have those kinds of interactions and get feedback on everything first before I built out a whole course. so just throughout all of the questions that I received or, even like the Instagram messages, things like that, then I built that curriculum based on the questions that I had been getting asked the years before that.

Lisa Foust Prater: Right. You got that opportunity in a way with your internship in California and seeing firsthand how they were running their business. And then, you know, as you worked your own business plan out and, you know, worked out the kinks and then now you’re sharing that with other producers as well. I mean, what a great way to pay that forward. Just and just the mentorship, you know, making it available, even though I mean, it is obviously it’s a paid service, but it’s still just incredible that it’s even available.

Hannah Klitz: Yeah. And we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere close to where we are today without all of the people who are willing to help us too. And so I try to keep that in mind. Especially as a student, I think people were more willing to allow me to come tag along or answer my questions and things like that. And it does make a big impact to people’s businesses, but lives too.

Lisa Foust Prater: Yeah, absolutely. And it just changes your life. I mean, now your business has another aspect to it that is beyond the beef production. You have those skills. You might as well market them and use them. What would your advice be to someone maybe similar to your younger self when you were in school and you’re thinking about, “This might be a business I’m interested in. I love raising cattle and working with people”. So, you know, what would your advice be for someone to just get it going?

Hannah Klitz: I think that like the hardest step is just getting started. So whether you’re just going to market one head of beef this year, or are going to increase that to five or however many head, like just booking those butcher appointments, baking those first steps, creating a Facebook page, all of those things that seem so hard, just do it and you’ll learn as you go because you’re not ever going to know everything when you’re starting you learn as you are doing it.

And looking back now, I can’t believe I got started as much as I did with the little knowledge I had, but everybody has to start somewhere and just keep that in mind that nobody gets to this stage overnight.

Lisa Foust Prater: Well, Hannah, it’s just been so fun to talk to you today and I love seeing what you’re doing and especially that you are, you acknowledge your own skills and that you’ve marketed them so well and are helping other people in the process while you’re supporting your family and taking care of your own business. So good for you. Congratulations.

Hannah Klitz: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Lisa Foust Prater: Thank you for listening. Open the latest issue of Successful Farming or visit us online at agriculture.com for more interesting features and news for your farm. Join me next week for another episode of 15 Minutes With a Farmer.