Farmer Spotlight: Sheeder Cloverleaf Dairy 1 Year Later
Back in Spring 2020 we sat down with Grant Sheeder of Sheeder Cloverleaf Dairy to share his story of transitioning to direct to consumer sales paired with direct delivery. He found great success with marketing his door-to-door milk delivery service on social media and has continued to grow his operations through 2020. We recently caught up with Grant to see how his dairy business has evolved after moving online with Barn2Door.
“My dad used to drive trucks for UPS for 10 years and had cows, sheep and pigs on the side; we were always involved with farming. He wanted to do something different that he could pass on if we chose not to work in the corporate world.
He bought some land, cows and started milking in 1996. At that time, the prices were pretty good. He paid off some debt and became successful, but the fear of not having good, stable milk prices lingered over his head. Eventually, my parents decided to take it to another level and build a processing plant, so that we could milk and bottle in glass bottles, right on our farm.
In 2006, we began that venture where we started doing on-farm processing. My parents traveled the country, learning how to do it from other Farmers --- what to do, and what not to do. After I came back from college, and I began working full time on the farm where I'm currently at”.
Covid Impacts on Dairy Operations
“When COVID rolled through in early 2020, we had concerns of how we were going to weather the storm, not knowing really anything about how the market would react.
We had discussions of doing home deliveries in the past, which had really resonated with us. If there was ever a time to try it, now was the best time to start home deliveries. We surveyed our customers on social media, and the pure nostalgia of the “milkman” was something that everyone was eager to experience.
We started delivering our milk locally, along with a few other products, to make the trip worthwhile for the customers. It really resonated with our market. We are pretty excited about offering the milkman experience to our market and Buyers are loving it as well.
It is great to see our Buyers so excited about having all these fresh products from our local vendors delivered right to their doorstep --- and the growth for our Dairy business has been amazing.”
Grant leveraged the convenience of door-to-door delivery to expand the value of his delivery service by partnering with other local producers to bundle other add-on items alongside his dairy products. Buyers were eager to sign up and spend more.
Scaling With Barn2Door
“To support our home delivery service we connected with Barn2Door, which was hands down some of the best money we ever spent. I am not savvy when it comes to computers. So, teaming up with Barn2Door has been a lifesaver --- they helped set-up our Farm store, milk subscriptions, route management, and upgraded our website. Barn2Door helped tie everything together with our website, social media and email so make ordering easy for Buyers.”
“Barn2Door’s customer service has been excellent. If something needs to be changed, I send a simple email or open up chat with support and it gets taken care of very fast. It's been a blessing to have this solution at a very affordable rate, along with the service we get with it.”
The Outcomes for Sheeder Cloverleaf Dairy
Grant’s business has thrived over the past year. Sheeder Cloverleaf Dairy grew from about 600 followers on Facebook to almost 6,000 in less than one-year. More importantly, their sales increased dramatically. “We went from 30 deliveries a month early on, to more than 1200 per month in less than a year. We keep growing on a weekly basis with new customers signing up online. Sales have accelerated with our home delivery program.”
“With Mailchimp we can keep customers updated about the Farm --- new products, new delivery routes and other changes. It's easy, since Barn2Door contacts and products are directly integrated with Mailchimp. Everything just works together.”
At Barn2Door, we are thrilled to support Sheeder Cloverleaf Dairy revive the milkman in Iowa, and service happy local Buyers. Looking ahead in 2021, Grant hopes to continue to grow his business with the purchase of an additional delivery van to keep up with Buyer demand in his local community. Thanks for all that you do Grant!
To learn more about how Barn2Door could support your Farm in growing a local delivery service for your products, watch this 5-min video.
