Sourcing For Your Farm, For Less.

I posted on my Instagram last week about our current model for sourcing and buying our milk jugs and the responses and messages came flying in: “no way!” and “I had no idea you could do that!” and “tell me more!”. Thus, I wanted to share my insights with you here, because we are the value these days of about $20,000 each year SAVED by sourcing our milk jugs directly.

So let’s back up. In 2019, Buttercup, our first heifer, calved and the milk started flowing. We were sourcing glass milk jugs and reusing at the time because we weren’t really selling. Our initial plan was to go all glass: we live in a town with a glass manufacturing plant and I wanted to use the roots of our town to sell our milk. Once we started working on our creamery inspection, however, that idea fell to the side. Our inspector informed us that we had to have commercial washing system priced at a minimum $15k in order to reuse glass bottles. (I assumed we could use a sterilizing dishwasher: silly, silly me). We didn’t have that money, so we threw aside the glass bottle idea for the time (it’s still on my wish list, though). We moved onto the world of plastic milk jugs.

My first google searches led me to companies like Uline, which are great, but also ridiculously expensive and require $400 freight shipping. Not only did I not want to pay their price or shipping, we don’t have a lift gate or a skid steer, so we had no way to accommodate a semi truck at our farm. So we knew we had to get scrappy and find a better way.

As I mentioned, we have a glass bottle manufacturing plant in our town and I had already visited the sales department who were more than willing to work with us, as a small company, to help produce a bottle we could use. So I learned I could approach manufacturing companies via their sales department and try to source directly. I did so many hours of research and finally stumbled upon a plastic milk jug manufacturing plant about 1.5 hours from us. I called their sales department and they were just as gracious as I had hoped, sending us a wholesale catalog and creating us a business account. The plant only produced half-gallon jugs, though, so we were a little disappointed we couldn’t sell gallons of milk. But we were so glad to find out that the wholesale rate was 70% less than the Uline rate. 70%!! To the tune of $20,000 each year saved by purchasing our milk jugs (now half gallon and pints) directly from the manufacturing plant. And that even factors in the cost of the rented box truck and fuel.

I’m not going to pretend that it isn’t inconvenient, however. We spend a lot of valuable farm time driving that day, but it’s so much smarter financially for us, as our business is still growing, to save and get scrappy where we can. One day, we’d love to have a storage facility and be able to source an entire freight of bottles, delivered by a truck to us. But that day isn’t today, and we’re okay with that.

Fast forward four years later and it turns out, the fact that we couldn’t buy full gallon jugs was really a win! The plant only produced half gallon and pint sized containers for milk. The half gallons were actually a great business decision! We found customers more willing to pay a higher rate for a half gallon of milk than they would for a gallon. Picture this: our half gallon started at $5.5 each, which is nothing to a consumer these days. But $11 for a gallon seems steep! I’ve grown to like the half gallon model and honestly, even when we are able to use glass someday, I think we’ll keep it at half gallons for our farm. It suits our aesthetic and our customers are used to purchasing this size from us.

I am the type of person not willing to settle when I hear a price or an option that seems unreasonable. I’m not willing to accept defeat. So I keep looking for better. I’m not always a winner, and sometimes I have to settle for a price I don’t like. But as long as I know I looked and tried to find the best way, I can handle that. And I know you can, too! You might not have a manufacturing plant within driving distance but I”m sure you can find an aspect of your business to cut costs or find a new way to purchase at less cost. We did the same thing with our flavoring sauces/powders: sourcing from a huge warehouse once each year saves us hundreds of dollars. And when you’re a new, growing business, every dollar matters.

I’d love to hear from you and get your ideas of how you cut costs on your farm business!

Thanks for following along,
XOXO
lisa