Our FFA visit and interview

We’ve had some unexpected interactions with the Future Farmers of America (FFA) over the past few months - all positive!

The local FFA instructor asked Chad if he could come out and take a look at the farm. Basically, he wanted to know why we had more grass than everyone else. The answer is simple: we rotate the cows every day onto a new patch of land. It’s winter and even we have to feed hay now, but rotating the cows keeps them in grass about a month longer and gets them back in grass about a month sooner than most. I’m glad he visited in December instead of January…

Next, we had an interview request for a new FFA blog project. We were asked lots of thought-provoking questions. Here they are:

1. Please tell me a little bit about the farm and where you're located. 

The farm is located outside of Toccoa, Georgia, near Currahee mountain.  It’s a little over 40 acres of pasture at this point

2.     How did the farm get started? 

 The farm was started as a small dairy with Jersey cows at the turn of the last century (we’re well over 100 years at this point).  The dairy shut down in 1990 and the farm was slowly converted to a beef cow-calf operation.  In 2021, my cousins inherited it and we started the grass-fed beef business.

3.     To you, what is the importance of agriculture, and how do you see it progressing in the future? 

Out of everything humans do, agriculture is the one of the most essential secular endeavors.  A person can live without shelter (I did in the Army), but they can’t live without food.  Beyond just having the next meal, we concentrate on providing high-quality food that enhances health and longevity.  I feel good about being a part of that.

 It seems that much of the last century was focused on converting agriculture into a business and then consolidating that into even bigger business enterprises.  It’s hard to see how much further that can go other than incremental changes.  For example, all of the meat industries are completely vertically integrated except beef at this point. 

4.     How have you seen agriculture change through your years in the industry? 

The competition for land is much greater as housing developments expand away from urban areas.  Now, even areas pretty far in the country have new housing developments with people being able to work remotely.  It’s hard, maybe nearly impossible, to have an agricultural operation that can be profitable if paying current land prices (or realistically weighing the opportunity cost of holding land). 

The other major change I see is the potential for environmental regulation to more significantly impact how farmers conduct their operations.  That’s a sensitive topic because well-meaning people are divided into two different camps based on their views and life experience.  Most of the population has only driven by farms on their way somewhere else, probably to another urban area.  They are heavily influenced by articles, documentaries, and social media posts, some of which don’t put agriculture in a positive light and some portion of that is deserved.  Those are the voters and potential customers though, so we should probably try to highlight our positive impacts to them while trying to improve the way we operate.  

5.     Could you please share one common misconception that people tend to have in your field of the agricultural industry and what your take on it is? 

Agriculture doesn’t have to be a commodity business.  We don’t have to be price-takers.  We can have differentiated, niche products and direct market them to our own customers at our own price. 

Think about something like the wine business.  In one respect, they are all just crushing and fermenting grapes.  From the grower and customer’s perspective though, each vineyard is different because of the soil and topography and each year is different because of the weather.  Each vineyard has a different story to tell and that story changes a bit each year.  I don’t even drink wine, but I like to think along similar lines about our beef.  Maybe one day there will be beef tours on buses!

6.     What fields in agriculture do you see growing in the future, and what are their job outlooks? 

That’s a really good question.  There are probably some opportunities everywhere you look.  Like every business, having skilled technical or scientific expertise is always in demand.  That includes areas like incorporating more robotics. 

On the beef side, there is some catching up to do relative to dairy when it comes to data, economics, and genetics.  I can look at a dairy bull proof sheet and have an enormous amount of information, but I can’t really do that with a beef bull.  I will also have a much harder time finding sexed beef semen to carefully manage the operation. 

 7.      Is there an area of agriculture that needs to be tackled and revived by the younger generations?

 If the next generation can find ways to be profitable and independent on smaller acreage farms, they will do very well.  That’s a large challenge, but it needs to happen and I believe it’s going to be left to them to tackle it.   

 8.     If you could give one piece of advice to younger generations that are interested in pursuing agriculture, what would it be?

 I think the last time I checked, the average age of a farmer in the US was around 65 years old.  Those farmers are not going to continue their businesses in another 10-15 years.  It would be very worthwhile to find someone that was willing to pass along their knowledge.  It would be even more worthwhile if you could find one that was willing to work with you as part of their succession plan. 

The one thing we right when we started the grass-fed business was to find experienced, successful people, listen to them carefully and do exactly what they recommended.  It put us years ahead and now gives us the ability to experiment and tweak to suit our individual farm needs.    

9.     To wrap things up, I'd like to hear your thoughts on how to keep the agriculture industry thriving for years to come. How do we Keep Ag Alive?

I think thriving over the next decade is going to revolve around improving public perception about what we do, why we do it, and how it helps them.  I don’t know anybody that farms to hurt people, animals, or land - just the opposite, but we do need to look in the mirror and see where we can improve.  Agriculture doesn’t need to turn into another wedge issue with people digging further into their own positions.  That means we need to have honest, relatable conversations with the public and smarter interactions with our law makers.