Off-farm Income

 SHOW NOTES KEY IDEAS:  "The #1 reason that farms fail is that they fail to profit".  This statement by Ted Lebow seems simple and obvious, but when you dig deeper it is actually complex and difficult to understand. Ted's company, Kitchen Table Consultants, looks at farming operations, especially those actively involved in marketing their produce, meat, and fruit, and see how business models can be a detriment to the success of the farm. Ted grew up in agriculture in Nampa, Idaho.  He participated in the FFA and later studied agriculture at Cornell University.  He has also started several companies, including Kitchen Table Consultants.  He has seen how failing to properly assess profit can lead to not just the loss of a farm, but the loss of a lifestyle. In this episode, Ted gives several tips to farmers on how to maximize profitability and sustainability.  One interesting point that he made was that farming operations that are involved in marketing should act as two different farming entities.  One entit

SHOW NOTES INTRODUCING WILLIAM PAXTON: About 90% of the time when I interview an FFA student on this show they are junior or senior in high school or are already in high school.  Occasionally I get to speak with a student who is just starting their high school career and their journey in the FFA.  That is the case in today's interview with William Paxton. William is a freshman at Stuart Public School in Stuart, Nebraska.  Even though he is just beginning high school he has already been learning about beekeeping and developing his own bee business, Paxton 5 Beehive, for just over four years.  Starting during his years in 4H, William started raising bees.  He has had multiple hives die over the winter, and he has replaced them multiple times.  He has persisted through all of this, learning more and more about raising bees.  This past summer he had his first successful honey harvest. As an incoming freshman William had already gone through the difficult part of learning his trade.  He had failed many times,

The summer that I turned 19 I did a solo road trip from California to Idaho to Montana and then back home again.  At some point on that trip for some, unknown reason, I found myself in the admissions office of Montana State University.  I got talked into filling out an application to attend college there and paid the $30 fee to apply. By the time I got home to my parent's house my mother was already holding an envelope with the Montana State University emblem where the return address goes.  She had a concerned look on her face, and she asked me what this was all about.  We opened the envelope together, and the letter said something to the effect of, "welcome to Montana State University".  This was back in the days when many of our land grant universities had plenty of space in classrooms and empty dorm rooms when the semesters began.  So, they were eager to accept students.  They must have accepted me and sent that letter the day that I filled it out! My mother and I went completely different directions emo

SHOW NOTES INTRODUCING LANEY JONES: Today's guest, Laney Jones, and I have a few things in common.  First, we are both fans of the Montana State Bobcats!  Second, we enjoy raising cattle.  And third, we direct market our beef to customers who are willing to pay a premium to purchase beef directly from the producer. And, like me and every other beef producer who direct markets, Laney encountered an issue with the quantity, or lack of quantity, that some customers wanted to purchase.  To explain where I am coming from, butchers break beeves down into 1/2's, and they butcher half of the beef at a time.  That means that if a customer purchases either a whole or half beef they can tell the butcher exactly how they want it cut up because the butcher is able to apply their instructions to each half they are buying and make it how they like it. When a customer asks to purchase just a 1/4 of beef, that means that they are purchasing a 1/2 of a 1/2.  When this happens, a producer like myself has to pair up the cust

SHOW NOTES I originally had Jonathan Russo on Episode #334 of the Off-Farm Income Podcast in 2017.  At that time he had just finished high school and was preparing to study agriculture at the University Of Connecticut. So, where is Jonathan now?  And, what has he been up to? In today's episode, we get to catch up with Jonathan and find out all the amazing things he has been doing for the past four years.  I'll give you a hint - he is about to move into graduate school, he is releasing a documentary soon and he is just about to publish a research paper.  Oh, and he is still consulting about aquaponics. In short, Jonathan is on fire!  We will get all the details from him in this bonus episode of the Off-Farm Income Podcast. Below are the show notes from our first interview with Jonathan. INTRODUCING JONATHAN RUSSO! Have you ever wondered how you become a consultant?  How about how long does it take to become one? Our guest today just graduated high school and is getting ready to start college.  Over the l

Normally when I sit down to write out show notes for Off-Farm Income the words just flow out of me.  For this particular episode that is not so easy.  Today we hit a milestone of 1,000 episodes.  I'm not sure that any other agricultural podcaster has done that.  Even if someone has, the number is going to be small. I could never have done this without all of you tuning in, reaching out to me and listening to the show.  I owe you a huge debt of gratitude.  I feel like I am just getting started and the best is yet to come.  I love what I do, and I could never have imagined the response I would get from all of you. Thank you so very much, and I am excited to bring you a thousand more! More Places You Can Listen to Off-Farm Income And Matt Brechwald:  

SHOW NOTES I love it when ideas spring from actual life experience and people have the courage and tenacity to follow through on making those ideas a reality.  That is absolutely the case on today's episode, featuring the founder and creator of Ag Butler, Kevin Johansen. Kevin and his wife, Jamie, raise cattle in Lebanon, Missouri.  They both grew up ranching cattle in the "Show Me State", and they continue this way of life as a couple.  You may recognize Jamie's name, as she was the featured guest on episode #772 of the show when we profiled her business, Honey Creek Media, almost exactly one year ago today. Kevin has always been involved in entrepreneurial ventures.  One of those was working as a freelancer, clipping cattle for people in preparation for shows and sales.  During his time doing this work, he noticed how antiquated and awkward the process was for finding help.  Kevin's particular skill is just one of the many different skill areas that farmers and ranchers need help with at certain times of

SHOW NOTES KEY IDEAS:  Our guest today is more proof of an emerging trend in production agriculture.  Young farmers are recognizing both the need for off-farm income and that entrepreneurship is the best way for them to produce this.   Mark Hewitt and his wife have their own small farm and are leasing more ground to build their lives in agriculture. However, they are not to the point that they are self-sufficient yet.  So, Mark needs to bring in money from off of the farm.  He has chosen entrepreneurship to do this because it allows him flexibility in his schedule to manage his own farm as effectively as possible.  Also, it offers opportunity for greater earning potential than a job, which could speed up his pathway to full-time farming.  Last, but certainly not least, it allows Mark to arrange his schedule to maximize time with his family. If you want to be a full-time farmer in production agriculture, this is a great episode for you to listen to.  It also is more proof of this emerging trend among young,

Sign Up To Receive Our FFA Stories Newsletter! Email address: SHOW NOTES INTRODUCING Whitney Ten Napel: When I was first starting my agricultural journey in college I was taking animal science classes at the Modesto Junior College in Modesto, California. My last semester there I took a dairy science class, and I can remember the instructor named Hal Carlton talking to us about career options.  He kept talking to the class about the dairy industry, which meant working in the factory side of the dairy business in creameries and the like.  There were a lot of jobs available, and good employees were really needed. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since I took that class, and since I have seen Hal.  Today's interview brought that all back to me.  I am interviewing Whitney Ten Napel on this episode.  She is currently a junior at South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota.  She is majoring in dairy manufacturing, which she explains to me is the same thing as what Hal described as the d

I was home alone this weekend.  Hattie and Autumm were on a long weekend trip to a sunnier and warmer place while I monitored our calving season.  During the weekend we got our only real snow storm of the winter, but it was a good one.  So, for four days I did chores, checked heifers, bedded cows and that was about all I did outside.  This left me with a lot of time to work on projects indoors, and this got me thinking about winter projects. We all have winter projects for those short days and long nights when we are trapped in the house.  But for some of us, winter is going to be the only time that we can get anything done away from our farms.  A certain percentage of people who are farming and need off-farm income will have a difficult time with the concepts that I teach on this show because during the growing season they are just too busy for a side-business. Over the years, I have interviewed quite a few business owners with businesses that could be done almost exclusively during the slower, winter seas

Sign Up To Receive Our FFA Stories Newsletter! Email address: SHOW NOTES INTRODUCING KENZIE BROWN:   Over the past six years, I have interviewed a lot of incredible guests on this show, and I have talked about a lot of different business concepts.  One of the things that I learned when I became an entrepreneur and one of the things I try to convince people of is how you see things differently once you start your first business. There is a real keyword in the final sentence of that first paragraph, and that is "start".  So many people get caught in the loop of dreaming, researching, and then back to dreaming when it comes to their first business.  They have a vision, but they don't know how to make it come true.  They want to work for themselves, but they don't know what type of business to start. Our guest today is a freshman in high school, but she has a lesson for all aspiring entrepreneurs, and that is to start.  Kenzie just started high school in September, but she was lucky enough to have a mom

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SHOW NOTES I don't know if you have noticed, but his show is about non-conformists and people who look at the world a different way.  All of us fit that definition a little bit by the mere fact that we want to farm and only 2% of our population is in that career field.  But what about that person that says "why do I have to do it that way"? Today's guest, Ben Rykerd, is that person.  Ben is now 29 years old.  He describes himself as having a "travel bug" and he has known this since he was a kid.  So, as high school was coming to a close Ben didn't just take the next prescribed step in the journey, he stopped and asked himself what type of life he wanted to have. Ben also didn't look at things through the lens of an "either/or" mentality.  He looked at "and" solutions.  He knew that he wanted to travel, and he knew that he both had to and wanted to work.  But, he never made the statement "I want to travel, but I can't because I have to work".  Ben found a way to say "I want to travel, and I can because of my

Sign Up To Receive Our FFA Stories Newsletter! Email address:   SHOW NOTES: INTRODUCING BAILEY MORRELL! I love it when students in the FFA with their own businesses discover niches and turn them into businesses.  Our guest today, Bailey Morrell, did just that with farming.  She has been raising Hereford cattle for several years now and growing her herd. Recently Bailey had an opportunity to do some dryland farming on some neighboring property.  Because it was going to be dry land, she had to figure out something that could work.  She realized that she could grow oats under those conditions but wanted to figure a way to make that as profitable as possible.  She decided to turn the operation into a certified organic operation to be able to market her oats to a niche market Bailey shares equipment with her parents and really has an eye for agribusiness.  This led her to become the new California State Star Farmer. SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Beef Production HIGH SCHOOL: Willows High School; Wil

Sign Up To Receive Our FFA Stories Newsletter! Email address: SHOW NOTES INTRODUCING COLE TAYLOR: You can't get more remote in the lower 48 states than the far, northeast corner of Montana or the northwest corner of North Dakota.  The towns are small, the winters are extreme and the people are fantastic! Our guest today, Cole Taylor, comes from one of those such towns - Opheim, Montana.  He is the president of this FFA Chapter, and he is taking full advantage of state and national SAE grants to start and grow his bee and honey business, Cole's Honeybees and Blue Sky Honey.  Opheim High School and Junior High School are combined and together they have a total of 15 students.  That is small! Cole was not born in raised in Opheim.  His father is originally from that area but spent a career in the military.  It was only after his father retired, and when Cole was in the 6th grade, that Cole and his family moved to Opheim.  Even though Cole was not coming from a large city or particularly a large high scho

On last week's Tuesday episode, episode #984, I told you a story about trying to catch a train in my hometown of Valley Home, California.  That story got me thinking about that train, and that got me thinking about intuition.  Why you ask?  I'm going to tell you in today's episode. I talk about intuition or gut instincts quite a bit on this show.   Paying attention to your intuition is pretty important to me, and I try to do so whenever mine crops up.  This probably has something to do with my law enforcement career when I got introduced to the book The Gift of Fear: And Other Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence by Gavin De Becker and started really paying attention to this aspect of human survival. The simplest definition of intuition I have ever heard comes from that book, and it is "knowing without knowing why".  Have you ever experienced this?  I think we all have, but a lot of times we don't realize we are experiencing it.  Worse yet, a lot of times we don't believe what our intuition is tel

Sign Up To Receive Our FFA Stories Newsletter! Email address: SHOW NOTES INTRODUCING CONNIE ROGERS I am an agricultural advocate, and most of the students that I interview on this show are as well.  And, what are we doing as advocates but providing information to people about our industry so that they can make a well-informed buying decision?  Considering the amounts of misinformation about agriculture that exist, I think it is all of our responsibility to participate as advocates in one way or another. Our guest today, Connie Rogers, takes this to a whole new level.  Connie and her father raise and farrow about 200 sows in Southern Georgia.  Connie is intimately familiar with this business and has been showing pigs since she was in the 2nd grade.  When it came time to choose a supervised agricultural experience for the FFA, raising and showing pigs was a natural fit. However, Connie recognized that there was more going on than just feeding, showing, and marketing pigs.  She realized that there were p

Every week on our rural crime episode I report on stories of stock theft in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, etc.  For so many years it has just seemed at best to be a nuisance that came with raising livestock and at worst, a devastating incident that could drive you out of business. Technology has actually helped stock thieves.  For all of our efforts to brand livestock, keep electronic records and surveil the most likely location to sell the stolen stock it still goes on.  And today with big pickups and bigger livestock trailers in addition to portable working pens, it is easier than ever for thieves to take off with your livestock without leaving a trace.  At least in the 1800s, they could only move as fast as the cattle, and they left tracks to follow.  Today, on a paved road, there is no such luck. It is about time that technology jumps ahead of the stock thieves, and I think that it has happened.  A couple weeks ago I read an article about a livestock tag that communi

SHOW NOTES About two months ago I looked down at my phone and saw that there was a voice mail from my father in law on there.  I listened to the message, and to his attempt to live in my world of technology, even though that was so foreign to him.  He told me that he had just read an article about a guy from Florida that was "making a website" like me and that I should listen.  He said that the show was about cattle ranching in Florida and that he had never realized that the first cattle in America were brought to Florida in 1521.  He said that the show was named "Between The Beaches".  I've got a small, Bluetooth speaker made by JBL called the JBL Clip that I use twice per day.  In the mornings and evenings when I am doing chores I listen to podcasts on it.  I clip it onto the gear shift of my Polaris Ranger, and while I am driving around the farm feeding cows and goats I can learn something.  So, the night that I received this voice mail I decided to give "Between The Beaches" a try. I have been hooked o

SHOW NOTES The Current Stage Of My Life And Business Well, here we are, just a week away from Thanksgiving with 2019 bearing down on us soon.  What are your goals for the upcoming year?  What stage of business development or production will you be in during 2019? Perhaps you are just starting your plan to become an entrepreneur.  Or maybe you have started your business and are growing it while you continue to work at your full-time, "day job".  Maybe you have even made the transition to full-time entrepreneurship and are looking for other revenue streams or are developing your farming operation. I have been through all of these stages.  I want to share the stage I find myself in now.  This is probably the most difficult stage to share with you.  It is not because something bad has happened or because I am ashamed of where I am at.  I think it has to do with my raising. Talking about this stage feels a bit like bragging.  And certainly, nobody in my family has ever done anything like what I now do for a li