DESCRIBE ANY UNEXPECTED RESULTS OF THE PROJECT:

*Please note that the total number of 6,310 participants includes the following: 

1. The total video views to date (5,593)
2. The total participants who attended the workshops/seminars (189)
3. The total participants who attended workshop presentations and webinars as noted in the project steps  (528)
4. This number only includes direct participant viewers and attendees and does not include larger promotional reach through tools like social media and press.

*Please note, the total number of 15,086 website visits includes the visits to the following NC Choices website pages (ncchoices.com) where SRMEC events and resources were posted during the project term from June 2, 2014-Dec.30, 2015.  The count also includes the number of visits to the Carolina Meat Conference website (carolinameatconference.com) where SRMEC events and resources were posted when we created that website in Feb.2015-present.  Our team developed this new conference website in addition to our NC Choices website to provide a better platform for attracting sponsors, sharing videos, pictures, etc.  The total visits do not include google analytics for the Center for Environmental Farming Systems' website where women events and media were also posted since I do not have access to the analytics for that site.  However, those visits are available upon request.

1. NC Choices website: homepage.  The homepage is where women in meat program photos, announcements, applications, and resources reside are shared on an ongoing basis through spotlight highlights (4,310 visits).
2. NC Choices website: Women in meat seminar application page (961 visits)
3. NC Choices website: Carolina Meat Conference and Meat Institute pages where the conference and women in meat info were shared before creating a new website Feb. 2015 (1564 visits)
4. NC Choices website: Video page where all SRMEC videos and series reside (456)
5. The official Carolina Meat Conference website created Feb. 2015 (7,795)

*Please note, the leverage cash resources $53,065 includes all the sponsorship income for the conference since we did not get sponsors for individual sessions but rather the conference as a whole ($34,101) plus the cash resources already noted from Women in Meat seminar sponsors, etc. ($18,964).  The non-cash leverage of $42,155 includes all the grant support for the conference ($32, 705) which includes support from outside partners such as providing Cooperative Extension agents with full scholarship and lodging to the conference.  It does not include paid salary or staff time off of grants.  This amount plus the non-cash leverage already noted from Women in Meat seminar and previous activities ($9,450) is how I got to our total non-cash leverage amount.  

*Please note that the evaluation includes the individual the women-focused session evaluations at the conference as well as an overall conference survey that was conducted online and sent to all conference participants the week after the conference ended.  We chose to do both individual sessions as well as an overall survey (which includes both women-focused and non-women-focused workshop) so that we could gain feedback on the entire conference experience (including the mix of speakers, paid tracks, location, etc.) rather than just per-session feedback.  

Unexpected Changes:

As you will see, rather than holding one "Beyond the Farmers Market" session at the meat conference, we held 3 sessions aimed at a female audience that addressed how participants could identify and analyze plans and strategies when selling meat into different markets.  We felt we could both better reach a larger target audience by folding this topic into 3 sessions each covering a different aspect of selling meat to different market outlets: 1. meat fabrication (matching cuts with retail/wholesale demand) with Kari Underly, 2. women in the meat business discussion of their current business and sales strategies, and 3. an in-depth look into how to determine what the market will withstand and how to hit your target audiences.  Since the topic is so big, we felt that changing our plan to include three sessions covering the topic worked well and helped us cover more material to more people.

The Beyond the Farmers Market Session 3 held at the Carolina Meat Conference titled,  Fore the Love of Chuck: Extracting High Value Items Out of the Forequarter, was met with some unexpected changes.  One of our team members mistakenly used the chuck for a demonstration the evening before leaving only the hindquarter (rather than the forequarter) for Kari to demonstrate.  Since it takes weeks to plan all our meat orders with farmers in advance, we did not have the option of finding a whole forequarter in one days time.  So, Kari did an outstanding job changing the session from the front side of the beef to the back side.  Rather than showing how to extract high value items out of the chuck, Kari demonstrated how to extract these items out of the hindquarter for retail and wholesale markets.  Seeing as the hind is also a much larger part of the animal than the forequarter, Kari also had to work fast to break down all the meat in the same amount of time, though the result was surprisingly positive since Kari was able to show additional cuts with the extra demonstration meat.  I was unsure how the audience would respond to the change in subject material, but the evaluation feedback was very positive, so the change was just an adjustment rather than a negative impact on the session outcome.

The Beyond the Farmers Market Session 2 held at the Carolina Meat Conference titled, Women in Meat Graduates Make Waves in the Industry, also yielded some positive unexpected results.  The discussion among the women on the panel and in the audience was so lively, that many members of the audience asked if we grow this event into a regional event since other states in the southeast don't have this type of women-focused programming.  A representative from Applegate Meats, one of our event sponsors, happened to also be in the audience and expressed her interest in Applegate's involvement with more women workshops for female farmers in the industry.  A female manager of a large NC processing plant also connected with the group for the first time and offered her support to spread the word through the processing sector. One women from South Carolina offered to develop a blog and help connect others to this programming.  As a result of this lively discussion and the cumulative outcomes throughout the project, we have applied to SRMEC to expand funding for a wider regional women working in the meat business seminar.  While we were expecting a lively discussion, we did not expect to be met by such an engaged group offering to help make a regional event happen in 2016 (from farmers to interested sponsors) and we found that very encouraging.

July 2, 2015

The budget is not updated in this report because NC State University is still correcting an error they placed on our budget from February 2015.  The error was brought to their attention in March and it is still not visibly corrected in our NCSU accounting system.  I have an internal spreadsheet that reflects all our spending which is in the black in every category once the salary discrepency is backed out and corrected.  To elaborate on the error, NCSU continued to deduct payment to a staff person that was no longer working with this project.  Although our team placed the request and received approval to have the staff person's payment moved off the grant when she transitioned, this did not happen.  I have received assurance that this will be corrected from NCSU HR administration though I appreciate the patience as this process has taken some time.  

As for other project comments, NC Choices wanted to develop it's on video channel so that viewers could scroll from one video to the next without starting a new search.  However in doing so, one of our animal handling videos (poultry processing and animal handling) had to be re-uploaded to the new NC Choices' video channel which restarted with view counts.  In order to get the total view counts, we have kept both videos up and add the total unique video views.

We have used the meat marketing videos to also advertise the Carolina Meat Conference coming up in the fall. Women participants are very excited about the upcoming conference and with women-only scholarships from Blue Ridge Women in Ag secured, we were able to support female farmers, butchers, and meat processors to attend.

January 2, 2015 

The collaboration between Amazing Grazing and NC Choices programming for women has already proved to be a highly effective partnership.  At this stage in the project development, we have experienced one unexpected result (aside from minor logistical changes) which ended up serving as a programmatic benefit.  For the Monday Women Working in the Meat Business seminar, our team worked with our processors in NC to cut a beef chuck according to specifications that would yield higher value retail cuts to the farmer. 

This exercise was intended to be a real life trial and error session to see if our NC processor could execute some of the value-added cuts out of the chuck being taught in the seminar with a cut sheet filled to the instructor's specifications. Our NC Choices team talked to the processor on the phone, visited in person, and provided visuals in advance of the seminar to help ensure a successful execution of a new cut sheet we sent to them.We expected some level of discrepancy between the ideal cuts and what they produced and therefore asked for an untouched chuck to the correct version by comparison.  

However, to our surprise as well as the surprise of our instructor, the cuts were so unrecognizable that morning that we could not tell what cuts they attempted to cut in the first place. Even the untouched chuck was cut wrong and we did not have a chuck to demo for comparison. This forced our instructor and team to think on our feet, but it demonstrated to the class and our instructor where our processor cutting skills are (or are not) in NC and what challenges we're dealing with to get higher value cuts back from our processors.  With both processors and farmers in the room, a productive conversation formed about the challenges facing our processors and how we can work closely with them to improve product services. 

 I would argue the session was tied as the most valuable out of the whole seminar along with the pricing session. Participants worked together to figure out how the cuts went so wrong and how to identify poor cuts versus correct cuts.  The women were quizzed by turning over the incorrectly labeled and packaged meat, and identifying how the processor made the mistake as well as ways to communicate to their processor about correcting the error.

 

 

HOW WOULD YOU IMPROVE THE PROJECT IF YOU WERE TO DO IT AGAIN?

Overall Program Feedback

Moving forward, we would like to expand the Women in Meat two-day seminar into a regional program to expand the professional network of women in the livestock and meat business.  We are currently exploring additional ways to increase visibility even more, including developing an online social media platform for Women in Livestock and Meat so that we can continue to build regular contact and exchange information.  This year, we did not create a separate FB group but rather just housed the activities on NC Choices social media, though we believe we can foster better ongoing dialogue if we gave our women-programming their own group.   We would still share events from that group through our organization and partner networks to recruit new attendees.  We also plan to develop a partner strategy so that we can collaborate with other women-led groups across the country.  Our team had the privilege of meeting many of these outstanding women programs at the 2015 ERME conference.

Women Working in the Meat Business Specific Seminar Feedback

We would try not to hold the conference in the fall. This is a very busy time for meat processors with the Thanksgiving holiday plus deer season, so it's difficult for them to get away from their plants.  While we did have female processors in attendance, we also lost a few who had signed up and had to cancel due to the hectic demands of the season.

For both the female leadership in cattle handling and the women working in the meat business, we packed a lot of curriculum into just a few days.  If we were to do it again, we would have given a few more breaks to allow even more networking time to take place in the evenings.

Our team put together a "roses and thorns" list which spelled out some logistical pluses and minuses but all in all, we were very pleased with the planning and execution of both events.

WHAT WERE THE KEYS TO SUCCESS FOR YOUR PARTICIPANTS?

Overall Program Keys to Success:

The success of our programming relies on our depth of partnerships, both through our organizational partners (University programs most notably Amazing Grazing , Cooperative Extension, community partners, advocates, etc.) as well as sponsor partners who help us take our programming to the next level through leverage financial support and visibility.  

Our partners bring the following aspects to our programming to help ensure its success:  1. Relevant topics and trainers to ensure we are matching the right resources with the need, which means continuing to hold planning groups made up of key industry players to determine our curriculum 2.  Reaching a wide audience of women farmers, which means continuing to work with many of the partners who have contacts with women we may not know and that starts with sharing program announcements and information with many listservs, newsletters, webinars, social media, etc. to expand reach to women. 3. Continue to make the programming visible to the general public in order to reach new audiences.  People want to be a part of and support successful programming and that starts with making the work visible.  Continuing to target local and national media, share success stories, photos, and impact is a key piece to bringing more attention and support to the programming.

Women Working in the Meat Business Specific Seminar Feedback

Our team put together an internal "roses and thorns" after the event to walk through logistical and programmatic strengths and areas for improvement.  We were all quite pleased with how both events were conducted and many commented they were the best workshops held to date.  A big key to success was developing detail oriented logistical planning (vans, sleeping arrangements, meal prep, our "meat team", etc) and a team to execute many moving parts.  By building a team we were able to develop a  smooth program that allowed for participants to engage in more networking since they knew what to expect and it was executed according to plan.

We also survey our participants in advance of their pre-survey to enlist their particular topical interest and make sure our programming covered need areas.  While our programming was already drafted, we had more beef producers sign up then pork producers and as such, we shifted our schedule to make sure we covered more beef-related topics.

We also responded to survey feedback from 2013 to provide some focused training on pricing.  Our excel classroom session was very successful since we used real life scenarios and provided participants with a take-home tool to insert their own information pertinent to their business.

By coordinating both the female cattle handling and the women working in the meat business, we increased workshop interest for both events and we received feedback that the farmers appreciated grouping the workshops in a collaborative structure.

INDIVIDUAL STORIES / EXAMPLES OF SUCCESS / QUOTES

Stories

[Quotes from the 6 Month Interviews to Assess Sustained Learning/Impact]

When I went to the [Women in Meat] workshop I just opened, the timing was exactly right, all the info and networking and my relationship with Kari [featured speaker, nationally recognized for butchery, led participants in hands-on cutting] and cutting animals with her and Karen [assistant to Kari], they are heroes in my world….. (Ann)

“The business planning was my favorite, Tina’s (workshop trainer) worksheet tool on the profitability of each cut and how to track their breakeven point on a whole-hog scale….I love this [my meat business] and I want to do it forever, but I can’t keep it up if I am not profitable.” (Hillary)

I work in a very isolated male-dominated world so it was great to talk to people across the entire supply chain…..The conversations are more in-depth [at a multi-day workshop] and the connections are more meaningful and having the women thing on top of that was even better. (Jessica)

[Hands-on, in-depth training] really helped me to talk about how to display product and educate the customer on different cuts. [Since the workshop] we started offering a lower cost cut [that we learned about there] to our customers. Having the lower price helps sales.” (Cindy)

I was looking for an understanding of what to ask my processor for, what different cuts. I got a ton out of [the workshop], it was eye opening for me….to see “this is your chuck, this is what you get out of it, this is why you can’t get a porterhouse chuck, this is how much you get out of this cut of meat. (Samantha)

Kari did a whole breakdown of the beef, it was really good for me as a beginning meat cutter. Now I want to take the Women in Meat course. (Lauren)

[Beyond the Farmers Market Session 1: Market Sizing and Tracking Revenue on a Whole Animal Basis: A Tutorial Plus Take-Home Tool Workshop Led by Womenin-Meat Graduates]

Great! I love numbers. They are important is not always fun and sexy!

[Beyond the Farmers Market Session 2: Women Make Waves in the Industry Quotes]

I want to learn how to get involved with women in meat

Loved it! Inspiring!

Fantastic as a women to hear the struggles and successes of women in the meat business

[Beyond the Farmers Market Session 3: Fore the Love of Chuck: Extracting Higher-Value Items of the Fore Quarter]

I'm always so impressed to watch Kari. she is so knowledgeable and her cuts always look beautiful! Taste testing was also very nice to get a better feel of what she is talking about with tenderness and flavor.

[Meat for Market and Pasture Management for Women Quotes]

I loved the dynamic by all women and the presenters were very knowledgeable & fun.

Very interesting - fascinating, actually.

Very informative, the whole beef cut-up was very informative and nice to know to sell different cuts to customers???

[General Topic Feedback]

The Meat Biz tool that First Hand Foods shared with us in the Women in Meat retreat has been
very helpful. Anything that helps on the business side of the operation education,
tools, support/consulting is much needed since most of us are farmers first and then business women.

[The difference between last year and this year's women seminar]

enjoyed whole carcass cut up last year. So informative.

finally enjoyed driving in deeper and just doing the chuck portion-I feel I really know that section now and will add new cuts to any list.

Love the money portion this year! Thank you!

I changed the type of cuts I offered. I added recipes to my fourth that I sold.

Because more comfortable talking of fellow women in the meat business in my state (S.C.) become more "comradery" oriented than competitor driven.

Started 2 groups 1- women in farming 2-grazers (grassfed group)

Improvement for me personally from last year's initial conference: 1) got meat handlers license 2) met Jennifer to start marketing beef through First Hand Foods. 

My shop opened between the first and second workshop. Both here great!

 

Quotes

 WOMEN WORKING IN THE MEAT BUSINESS QUOTES

Very pleased w/ business track. It has empowered me to power on!

*** 

I plan to implement all of what I learned into my business - especially the financial class. Extremely helpful for my farm and business. 

*** 

Yes [I would recommend Women Working the in the Meat Business seminar to a friend].  As a farmer I found it very helpful overall because not only do you hear the perspectives of other women in your same situation and learn from them, but it is very important to get the perspective of other business owners, processors, restaurants, butchers, etc., because we are all needing to work together to be successful!

*** 

I would absolutely recommend [Women Working the in the Meat Business seminar] to a friend, especially in my position just starting out to get prepared. I love the mix of experience here. So much learning and teaching among attendees. 

***

This information has been invaluable especially for first generation producers. Super fun, invaluable opportunity to connect with women farmers, butchers, processors, and distributors, plus are opportunity to get hands on working experience with market butchers is hard to find. 

***

I plan to refine my [business] even more by using thumb drive provided by First Hand Foods. 

***

[Because of the WWMB seminar] I plan to implement inventory spreadsheets, more detailed information to work on w/ key accountant. Also additional information for the retail meat shop and soon to be butcher shop-2015!

***  

I now have a better understanding of how to save poorly cut meat from the processor. 

FEMALE LEADERSHIP IN CATTLE HANDLING QUOTES

[What did you like most?]

It was all women! I really liked the different workshops & the hands on aspects.  Also the small groups.

***

Very practical knowledge. Loved the hands on experience. I love that it's all women!

***

The hands-on aspect of all of the activities, and the small groups. I thought the demonstrations were very helpful too.

***

Not only the knowledge, the fellowship with other lady farmers