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Kacie Hershey grew up at Ar-Joy Farms in Chester County, Pennsylvania, but it wasn’t until a year ago that she returned to the farm in a full-time capacity. As the third generation, Kacie farms alongside her parents, Duane and Marilyn Hershey. Her main responsibilities include day-to-day, farm-level work and assisting with calves, employee management and office work. Soon after she returned to her family’s farm last June, Kacie was surprised to find that both generations had the same pipe dream of one day making ice cream.
“As my parents and I had discussions about working on the farm full time, I knew that was going to be my next step. But I very much have a creative side, and I love connecting with people. I wanted something that could tap into that as well. I asked my parents, ‘Have you guys ever thought about making ice cream? Nobody’s doing that in our immediate area. I feel like it could do really well for us,’” Kacie shared. “They looked at each other and said, ‘When we first got married, we talked about doing ice cream.’’ But it was one of those dreams they let go of because they had enough to manage on the farm. I was surprised because I never knew that was one of their dreams as well. We all decided to give it a try.”
Determining how to execute their shared dream was the next step. Kacie and her family received a Transformation Team Grant from the Center for Dairy Excellence to gather different professionals around the table to help them consider different business models.
“The grant helped us put a team of people together to talk about our options. We had a local businessman who’s a family friend and was really smart with a unique outlook. We had our banker in the meetings, so he brought the numbers perspective,” Kacie explained. “We also had another dairy producer who makes ice cream in the meetings who was a wealth of knowledge. We had a Business Development Extension Educator with Penn State Extension helping to run the meetings. We all had the same goal in mind but brought different perspectives to the table. It made me think of things in a different way and consider things I hadn’t before – instead of me just diving into this with only a dream and ambition.”
Through several team meetings, Kacie and her family decided to start by making their own ice cream and selling it through wholesale markets and bulk orders. Kacie says the wholesale business model gives her the flexibility to continue her passion of working at the farm level while still connecting with the community.
“We considered the pros and cons of all options. Lolly Lesher of Way-Har Farms has been a huge mentor to me in this whole process, and I greatly appreciate her. There have been many times I have called her to walk through something or to vent, and every time she responds with something like: ‘We’re going to get you there. You’ve got this.’ Knowing she is just a phone call away has been a huge support for me,” Kacie shared. “I really want to be on the farm, and she helped explain that an ice cream store is going to be a lot of your time. That’s not out of the picture in the future, but the wholesale plan works best for us right now. This plan allows me to have one foot in each world – directly on the farm and also serving the community.”
To help connect consumers to their farm, Kacie and her sons have had fun choosing cow-themed names for the ice cream flavors such as udderly chocolate, udderly vanilla, minty moo, cookie butter, salty heifer, and purple cow. To build on some of their creative ideas and consider how to attract customers, Kacie took advantage of a Marketing and Branding Consulting Services Grant. This allowed her to work one-on-one with marketing professionals who have direct experience with other food businesses.
“We now have a marketing guide and a marketing plan. I was really excited about this grant because these consultants do this every day. They came up with things that I had never even considered. Right now, I’m in the process of taking the vision my consultants helped me build and using some of the grant funding to create some of this marketing material,” Kacie shared.
Some of that material includes social media content, flyers, rack cards, and business cards to get her brand off and running. Her consultants also challenged Kacie to think outside the box and recommended specific strategies on branding and marketing.
“They helped me think about how to draw the customer in and how to keep them coming back. They also had a lot of tips and tricks for social media as well and really zoned in on what I should be posting about,” she added.
While developing their brand and business model has been exciting for the Hershey family, Kacie offered perspective on the different regulations and steps they’ve had to navigate to get a business like this off the ground.
“We are gearing up to start production in May, but it wasn’t exactly a fast process in all avenues to get here. We’re already approved, inspected, and we have our Department of Agriculture certificate. I had to learn that sometimes things are out of your hands, and it’s just a matter of waiting for one thing to happen before something else can happen.”
Their plan is to start making ice cream in May of 2025. Their hope is to have a personal presence in their community while educating and promoting the Pennsylvania dairy industry.
“What really excites me about doing this is that we can directly impact our community and promote agriculture in a positive way. We look forward to the possibility of community events in the future,” Kacie said.
Kacie says finding wholesale clients is a different piece of the puzzle and marks the next step in their journey.
“The nice part is, I’m not doing this alone. My parents are business-minded so they have really helped me grow in that area. We have about six local businesses that have verbally expressed interest in selling our ice cream and we’ve started to secure those officially,” Kacie shared. “We’re only 45 minutes from Philadelphia, so we’d be open to [that market] as well. But in terms of our consistent buyers, it will probably be local to start. Our business model could change, but with me doing all the making, marketing, and selling, this is where we’re starting.”
For other farms that might be considering a value-added ice cream business, Kacie shared the biggest lesson she has learned so far: Stay open-minded and be willing to learn from others.
“Go into everything with an open mind. Through this process, I’ve stayed true to my vision, but I’ve tweaked that based on what makes sense in the business world to apply it. Flexibility has been a big learning curve for me, because I usually have a plan – this is what I’m going to do and I’m going to do it well. There have been some moments where I’ve been humbled,” Kacie added. “I’ve taken a lot of time talking to people who are on the ground actually doing this. People making ice cream are the nicest people, and everyone just wants to help. When you talk to people who are already doing it, you get the inside scoop and learn things you won’t find in a textbook.”
Just like there are so many different flavors of ice cream, there are a variety of ways to develop this type of value-added business. Kacie has learned this firsthand.
“This has been a whole learning process for me. It has had its high moments and low moments. I took Penn State’s ice cream course a couple months ago. It was really helpful from a knowledge and networking perspective. I spoke to people who are either further along than me, further behind me, or at the same place as me,” Kacie shared. “There are so many different ways you can make ice cream. Wholesale, retail, shipping it, scooping it, doing containers, on-farm stands, off-farm sales, and brick and mortar. There are so many different ways to be successful in doing this. You just need to figure out what works best for you then go with it.”
Using a team approach can provide greater insight into your business’s decision-making process. If you’re considering making a major business transformation or working on the transition process with the next generation, click here to learn more about our Transformation and Transition Team Grants or email Melissa Anderson.
