After restaurant sales disappeared, Jim Czack and his wife are rebuilding Loudonshire Farm's retail business on Local Line. Today they ship 47 heritage beef, lamb, hogget, and mutton products by weight from their 70-acre New Hampshire farm, and save more than 20 hours every week.
Key takeaways
- Loudonshire Farm is a 70-acre heritage livestock farm in Loudon, New Hampshire, run by Jim Czack and his wife for 18 years
- Local Line saves the two-person team more than 20 hours per week on back-office work like inventory, sales, and shipping
- After restaurant sales dried up, the farm switched its online sales from Square to Local Line to rebuild its retail business
- Ships 47 cuts of heritage beef, lamb, hogget, and mutton, each priced by the pound with an average package weight
- Square Sync updates online inventory automatically after each in-person sale, saving Jim hours of manual updates
Meet Loudonshire Farm
Loudonshire Farm is a 70-acre heritage livestock farm in Loudon, New Hampshire. Jim Czack and his wife run the entire operation themselves, from raising animals to packing and shipping orders.
They have been farming for 18 years. The farm raises heritage breeds selected for slow growth and flavor: Irish Dexter cattle, Black Welsh Mountain sheep, Chocolate turkeys, Dark Cornish and Leghorn chickens, Embden geese, and Rouen ducks. The cattle and sheep are 100% grass-fed on pasture.
That breed mix makes for a detailed product list. Their storefront alone carries 47 products across beef, lamb, hogget, and mutton.
Rebuilding retail after losing restaurant sales
For years, much of Loudonshire's business went to restaurants. That changed during the COVID lockdowns.
"Our farm has not recovered from the Covid lockdowns when almost all our clients shuttered their restaurants," Jim explains. "We are looking to restart again on the retail side after a couple years off, with Local Line being the backbone of us moving ahead."
Restarting retail meant selling directly to households, many of them outside driving distance. That meant shipping, and shipping meat comes with its own set of problems to solve.
Why Loudonshire moved from Square to Local Line
Before Local Line, Loudonshire ran their online sales through Square. As the farm shifted toward shipping retail orders, Jim needed two things: an easier way to manage the work behind each order, and a system built for shipping meat sold by weight.
"I needed an easier way to manage everything behind each order, from inventory to shipping, and a system designed for shipping meat by weight," he says.
Selling by weight is one of the trickiest parts of selling meat online. No two roasts or packs of chops weigh exactly the same. On Local Line, each product shows the customer an average package weight and a price per pound, so a bottom round roast lists at about 2.5 lb at $14.99/lb. The farm can then bill for the actual weight once the order is packed.
Jim chose Local Line for three reasons: "Features, pricing, customer support."
How Loudonshire Runs Their Week on Local Line
Jim uses Local Line for inventory management and sales. He and his wife handle everything, so the back office has to keep up without extra hands.
Two storefronts for two ways to buy
Loudonshire uses price lists, which lets them show different products and pricing to different groups of customers. Customers choose between a Shipping storefront for home delivery and a Local Pickup storefront for orders collected at the farm. Products that can't be shipped stay on the pickup side only, so customers never order something the farm can't send.
Inventory that stays accurate
With 47 shippable products and limited stock on many cuts, accurate counts matter. Local Line's inventory management tracks how many of each item are left and mark products sold out automatically, so a customer can't order the last ribeye twice.
Square Sync for in-person sales
Jim's favorite part of Local Line is the back office, and Square Sync has made the biggest recent difference. Square Sync connects a farm's Square point-of-sale system to Local Line, so sales made in person update the same inventory customers see online.
"The back office is my favorite, and the new Square sync has saved me hours, and much frustration," Jim says.
A website built in the same place
In addition to hosting their online store, their website was built using Local Line's website builder, keeping all their assets in one place.
The website tells their farm's story and when a visitor is ready to buy, the Shop button takes them straight to the Local Line storefront, with no second login or separate system to manage. Product updates, inventory, and orders all live in one back office.
More than 20 hours back every week
On a two-person farm, every hour counts. Jim estimates Local Line saves him more than 20 hours a week.
"Local Line has solved most of the back-office and shipping work I was struggling to manage on my own," he says. "It's saved me countless hours and taken a lot of stress out of running a 70-acre livestock operation."
Those hours now go to the animals, the pasture, and rebuilding the farm's retail sales.
Customer Support That Knows Farming
Moving a detailed meat catalog from Square meant setting up dozens of cuts, each with its own average weight and per-pound price. Jim found the process easy from the start.
"The onboarding was superior, and I know they’re always just an email or call away," he says. "I cannot say enough good things about the Local Line staff."
Since their launch, Jim has rarely needed to reach out and when he does he knows there’s always someone on the other side of the phone. Local Line's support team is available 9am to 9pm EST, seven days a week, and migration from another platform is free.
Jim's Advice to Other Farmers
For Loudonshire, Local Line is the foundation for the next chapter of the farm's retail business.
"For us, working with Local Line is not an investment in our business, it is a necessity," Jim says. "Once you move to Local Line and work with their team, you will wonder the same thing I did, why did I not do this earlier."
Ready to spend less time in the back office?
If you're selling meat by the pound, shipping orders, or juggling in-person and online sales, Local Line can help you manage it all in one place. Book a demo to see how it works for your farm.
Frequently Asked Questions about Shipping Meat
How do farms sell meat online by the pound?
Most farms list each cut with an average package weight and a price per pound, so customers see an estimated total at checkout. After packing, the farm bills for the actual weight. Local Line supports this workflow, so farms don't have to calculate final prices by hand.
Can a farm ship some products and offer others for pickup only?
Yes. With Local Line price lists, a farm can run separate storefronts for shipping and local pickup, each with its own product selection. Items that can't be shipped appear only in the pickup storefront.
How can I keep farmers market and online inventory in sync?
If you use Square at in-person sales, Local Line's Square Sync connects your Square point of sale to your online store. Each in-person sale updates the inventory customers see online, so you don't need to enter sales by hand after every market.
What should a small meat farm look for in an online sales platform?
Look for sell-by-weight pricing, inventory tracking by cut, support for both shipping and pickup, and a way to connect in-person sales. Fixed monthly pricing with no per-transaction fees also makes costs easier to plan. Local Line offers all of these, with support available seven days a week.
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