Young, Beginning and Small Farmers Symposium non-traditional operations panel

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11/17/2021 Added

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Non-traditional operations panel discussion from the Young, Beginning and Small Farmer Symposium on Nov. 8, 2021

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[00:00:04.210]So we're ready to convene our second panel.
[00:00:08.890]The second panel is really focused on young beginning
[00:00:11.780]and small farmers this time in nontraditional "operations",
[00:00:17.350]kind of that aspirations and realities.
[00:00:21.680]And I'd like to just briefly introduce the panelists
[00:00:24.850]and then ask each of them to provide a bit
[00:00:26.910]of color commentary.
[00:00:28.100]So sitting next to Chairman Smith,
[00:00:31.550]Grant Jones from Imperial.
[00:00:33.960]Grant is a sixth generation farmer
[00:00:37.270]out there in Southwest Chase County.
[00:00:39.190]He farms and ranches with his parents where they raise corn,
[00:00:42.480]soybeans, and wheat and run Angus and SimAngus cows.
[00:00:46.500]He graduated from UNL in 2014
[00:00:49.170]and started Champion Shrimp in 2020.
[00:00:53.900]Next to Grant, we have Becky Schwartz from Bertrand.
[00:00:57.800]Becky is an organic farmer from Bertrand.
[00:01:00.350]She farms with her parents and brother in Gosper County
[00:01:03.850]where they primarily grow traditional row crops,
[00:01:06.990]corn and soybeans, as well as alfalfa, oats,
[00:01:10.410]field peas and wheat.
[00:01:12.190]Her family has been farming organically since 1998
[00:01:16.900]and continues to try their hand at new things,
[00:01:19.420]including high tunnel vegetable and herbs, honey,
[00:01:24.340]and industrial hemp production.
[00:01:28.060]Next to Becky, we have Sye Tecker from Tecker Ranch.
[00:01:33.210]Sye is a Dundy County Farm Bureau Member,
[00:01:36.350]and currently serves as their president.
[00:01:38.350]So just a little bit south of Imperial
[00:01:42.020]over in that neck of the woods.
[00:01:44.420]He is actively involved in the farming and ranching industry
[00:01:47.890]as the fifth generation on Tecker Ranch
[00:01:51.100]incorporated in Parks, Nebraska.
[00:01:53.730]Sye also owns and operates...
[00:01:56.140]They get this right, Sye.
[00:01:57.790]Uppa Crik?
[00:01:58.821]Yeah. Uppa Crik Tap Room.
[00:02:02.073]I didn't see that when I visited Benkelman,
[00:02:04.470]so I was definitely in the wrong part of Dundy County,
[00:02:07.460]but I know where to go now.
[00:02:09.975]It's a tap room and hop yard
[00:02:11.740]serving Nebraska-made spirits.
[00:02:14.780]And then sitting here on my left,
[00:02:17.350]Greg Fripp of Whispering Roots.
[00:02:20.220]Greg is the founder and CEO
[00:02:22.140]of Whispering Roots Incorporated.
[00:02:24.520]Whispering Roots is an award-winning
[00:02:27.497]not for profit organization, dedicated to bringing science,
[00:02:31.300]technology, engineering, and math or STEM, as we call it,
[00:02:35.480]STEM education, healthy food, nutrition education,
[00:02:39.530]and economic development to understand communities
[00:02:43.480]both rural and urban using agroponics, aquaculture,
[00:02:48.500]hydroponics, urban agriculture,
[00:02:50.850]and controlled environment agriculture.
[00:02:53.650]So think in that vertical farming included.
[00:02:58.980]Greg proudly served our country in the United States Navy
[00:03:03.990]as both an enlisted person and an officer.
[00:03:09.714]If you're a veteran or have a veteran
[00:03:11.950]or an active duty military person
[00:03:14.290]or a National Guards person, would you just stand
[00:03:17.830]so we could recognize you?
[00:03:19.420]Greg and others, yep, please.
[00:03:21.980]Thank you. (clapping)
[00:03:29.310]They put the two Navy guys on this end of the floor.
[00:03:33.150]I do, before we get started, would like to introduce
[00:03:36.120]and welcome Lieutenant Governor Mike Foley.
[00:03:39.340]Mike, thank you for joining us this morning.
[00:03:41.802](clapping)
[00:03:44.880]And with that, please let's go.
[00:03:47.810]We'll go in reverse order.
[00:03:49.180]Greg, if you wouldn't mind,
[00:03:50.440]just kind of giving us a little more color commentary
[00:03:52.750]about your operation, and then we'll ask some questions
[00:03:56.930]and move along.
[00:03:58.540]Great.
[00:03:59.373]As he said, I am Greg Fripp,
[00:04:00.850]founder and CEO of Whispering Roots.
[00:04:03.670]We say we grow, we feed, and we educate.
[00:04:05.580]We grow healthy food, feed hungry people,
[00:04:07.670]and educate communities, both urban and rural
[00:04:10.880]regarding next generation agriculture technologies,
[00:04:14.120]hands-on experiential learning,
[00:04:16.790]financials that build the economic stability.
[00:04:20.080]We focus not only nationally,
[00:04:21.750]but we work internationally as well.
[00:04:23.180]We have operations in Madagascar
[00:04:25.550]and then we have an operation
[00:04:27.460]that is an aquaculture operation growing tilapia
[00:04:29.580]in the central plateau of Haiti,
[00:04:31.360]where we taught people who have no normal education,
[00:04:36.350]no formal education, how to grow tilapia
[00:04:39.190]and recirculating basically aquaculture
[00:04:41.210]and they have about 70,000 tilapia swimming there.
[00:04:43.770]So I'm excited about this panel.
[00:04:45.910]We have some conversations at the table
[00:04:47.910]about some of the different organizations and grants
[00:04:51.720]and things that are available.
[00:04:53.060]As an organization, we utilize several different types
[00:04:56.960]of grants and funding from some of these different plans
[00:05:01.280]and programs that are available,
[00:05:02.280]so I'll talk a little bit about that.
[00:05:04.540]If you're looking to get in on the entry-level side,
[00:05:07.440]we'll talk about some of the programs that we used
[00:05:09.810]and one of the things that I was looking at
[00:05:11.300]from an organization perspective,
[00:05:12.930]were we going to try and grow
[00:05:14.230]and spend more time growing food,
[00:05:15.530]or try and focus on helping people who are getting started,
[00:05:19.640]understand and navigate some of the really challenging
[00:05:23.670]programs and millions that you have to follow
[00:05:25.920]to actually be successful?
[00:05:27.500]So when we come to the open panel, I'll talk about that,
[00:05:30.860]some of the RDBG, rural development business grants
[00:05:34.180]and things like that.
[00:05:35.013]I'll talk about some of that stuff as well,
[00:05:36.190]but I'm very excited to be here and please do ask questions
[00:05:38.840]if it's aquaponics, hydroponics, vertical growing,
[00:05:42.060]raised bed gardening.
[00:05:43.540]The shrimp piece is even interesting.
[00:05:44.910]At one point we had kiddos growing shrimp
[00:05:47.550]in 55 gallon barrels in school.
[00:05:49.660]So I'll be happy to talk about that.
[00:05:52.420]Great. Sye.
[00:05:54.219]Yeah.
[00:05:55.052]Sye Tecker, fifth generation rancher out in Parks.
[00:05:58.910]My family, we kind of dabble on everything.
[00:06:02.720]Our main enterprise is cattle.
[00:06:04.850]We raise Piedmontese beef for Lone Creek Cattle Company
[00:06:08.540]here out of Lincoln.
[00:06:10.310]Other than that, we have about 150 head of sheep.
[00:06:13.700]We have a, I guess for Nebraska,
[00:06:16.530]it'd be considered a large herd of alpacas
[00:06:19.090]where our family does a lot with a high-end fiber industry.
[00:06:23.650]We also have a all natural free range hog business,
[00:06:26.750]where we sell pork everywhere.
[00:06:29.920]Matter of fact, I had to come up to Omaha last night
[00:06:31.940]to deliver pork to a bunch of families there in Omaha
[00:06:34.430]that had bought from us.
[00:06:36.710]I substitute teach at our school,
[00:06:38.960]I'm heavily involved in Farm Bureau,
[00:06:41.460]and then since I had so much free time on my hands,
[00:06:44.110]I bought a vineyard and I'm now raising hops
[00:06:47.820]and opened a bar where I serve all Nebraska-made beer,
[00:06:51.350]liquor, and wines, so.
[00:06:53.080]A lot of free time on your hands, Sye.
[00:06:55.900]I don't buy that one bit.
[00:06:57.860]So thank you.
[00:06:58.780]Becky.
[00:06:59.720]Hi, my name's Becky Schwartz.
[00:07:01.850]I'm from Bertrand and I farm organically
[00:07:05.200]with my parents, Tom and Linda, and my brother, Alex.
[00:07:09.030]We primarily raise, like you heard, traditional row crops.
[00:07:12.500]We've dabbled also in some other stuff,
[00:07:14.740]we did some high tunnel vegetable production and...
[00:07:18.813]Let's see, what else have we done?
[00:07:20.240]We did a little bit of honey, We have cattle occasionally.
[00:07:23.053](chuckling)
[00:07:24.670]Things like that.
[00:07:25.920]We have a custom hay grinding business as well
[00:07:28.453]that we operate.
[00:07:30.950]But primarily, like I said, what we're doing is row crops,
[00:07:33.900]corn and soybeans.
[00:07:35.210]But in organic operations,
[00:07:37.410]you are required to have a rotation.
[00:07:40.470]So we have lots of other things that we've grown before.
[00:07:43.180]A lot of specialty things we've done, natto soybeans
[00:07:46.620]that went to Japan, we've done blue corn, white corn,
[00:07:51.540]popcorn, all kinds of things.
[00:07:54.800]I started renting some of my own land about five years ago.
[00:07:58.990]So that's been organic for a couple of years now.
[00:08:02.000]Basically, I do the same rotation as the rest of my family.
[00:08:04.360]I've been really lucky
[00:08:05.860]because my family has been farming organically since 1998.
[00:08:09.860]So I kind of knew the ropes when I got into it already.
[00:08:12.250]It is not necessarily an easy thing
[00:08:14.380]to kind of get your mind around,
[00:08:16.410]especially when you've been raised
[00:08:17.670]in more of a conventional agriculture mindset.
[00:08:20.310]So I was really, really lucky to be able to do that.
[00:08:23.240]And I'm excited to talk to you guys today.
[00:08:25.931]Thanks, Becky.
[00:08:27.110]Grant.
[00:08:27.990]So I'm Grant Jones from Imperial, Nebraska.
[00:08:32.390]I come from a traditional farm and ranch,
[00:08:36.370]like a lot of people, I guess.
[00:08:37.860]But started to go down the nontraditional route
[00:08:40.580]with the shrimp farm, brought that into our operation.
[00:08:44.320]In about 2017, I guess I was starting it,
[00:08:47.980]trying to go down the route of finding lenders,
[00:08:51.920]even looked into some investors.
[00:08:54.130]So it was long process of getting that going.
[00:08:57.990]And then in 2020, I was able to start that
[00:09:01.780]with the help of a vet operation out of Indiana.
[00:09:06.410]So I went out there and toured their place.
[00:09:08.720]They gave me a kind of the lowdown,
[00:09:11.590]answered a lot of my questions and the what ifs
[00:09:14.600]and how tos, I guess.
[00:09:17.530]So for the first six months, they were my main go-to.
[00:09:21.070]They helped me with my PLs, getting them here,
[00:09:25.520]the setup of the whole system
[00:09:27.620]and just the day-to-day operation.
[00:09:31.250]I was in contact with them all the time every day
[00:09:34.880]and helped me get started.
[00:09:36.140]So it was nice to find somebody
[00:09:37.730]that wanted to help a young producer get started
[00:09:41.460]and answered a lot of the questions for me.
[00:09:43.960]And so I've been at it now about 18, 19 months.
[00:09:48.640]Things are going well, looking to expand
[00:09:52.260]and kind of go to a commercial size of operation with it.
[00:09:55.650]So we're in that process of trying to figure out
[00:09:59.030]how that will work logistically and place the market.
[00:10:03.720]We're pretty much always sold out
[00:10:05.310]on just like the small scale that we are,
[00:10:07.060]so ready to make that jump into the commercial
[00:10:09.730]and how that's gonna play out.
[00:10:12.950]Yeah, between you and Sye,
[00:10:14.050]we have surf and turf covered right there,
[00:10:17.060]so I'm getting hungry, yeah, you can tell.
[00:10:19.940]That's right.
[00:10:21.000]Glen, would you like to follow up there?
[00:10:23.600]Yes, certainly.
[00:10:25.529]I've really been looking forward to this,
[00:10:27.610]the nontraditional operations and a part of my personal goal
[00:10:34.570]as FCA chairman, since I'd come on
[00:10:37.950]as a board member four years ago
[00:10:39.540]is to travel the United States
[00:10:41.420]and see the tremendous diversity in agriculture.
[00:10:45.080]I mean, it truly is eyeopening.
[00:10:48.980]I mean, I say I know about corn, soybeans, hogs, and cattle,
[00:10:53.020]but that's not the whole picture.
[00:10:55.880]And I've visited hydroponics operation,
[00:11:01.000]understand your mission is to provide a healthy,
[00:11:05.440]nutritious food to underadvantaged groups
[00:11:10.380]and that very commendable,
[00:11:12.000]but I've also seen for profitable enterprises as well.
[00:11:18.170]I'm hearing the opportunity for young people
[00:11:21.780]to return to the farm by thinking outside the box,
[00:11:27.050]doing something that others aren't doing,
[00:11:29.190]which tends to be a little bit of a common theme
[00:11:32.100]amongst the audience.
[00:11:33.120]There's risk involved and we wanna know about that risk.
[00:11:36.770]We'd like to know your relationship with the lenders,
[00:11:40.630]but certainly, that something I always look forward to.
[00:11:43.660]I mean, I've sat in the hydroponics,
[00:11:46.610]I've sat in a sugar shack in Vermont a maple syrup operation
[00:11:51.047]and to young entrepreneurs.
[00:11:53.520]And the key is the entrepreneurial spirit you see.
[00:11:56.990]And I truly believe agriculture
[00:11:58.700]is the last really true bastion for entrepreneurialism
[00:12:03.771]and all of you would embody that.
[00:12:05.770]And hopefully, our young beginning and small farmers program
[00:12:09.360]embodies that as well up.
[00:12:11.760]Uppa Creek Tap Room, is that right, Sye?
[00:12:14.270]Crik.
[00:12:15.509]Uppa Crik. (laughing)
[00:12:16.650]Well, I'm from Buck Creek Road, but it's also referred to
[00:12:22.050]as Buck Creek and maybe I'll get some ideas
[00:12:25.310]on diversification on our operation back in Iowa.
[00:12:28.740]So thank you, Mike.
[00:12:29.850]We'll look forward to the comments here.
[00:12:32.650]Yeah, I know one question that's on the minds
[00:12:34.980]of a lot of folks, is it's a big, bold step
[00:12:39.820]to move into that nontraditional space,
[00:12:42.300]either working with producers and helping coach them
[00:12:45.250]and navigate that, or actually being a young,
[00:12:48.640]small beginning farmer or rancher
[00:12:50.690]that decides to make that leap.
[00:12:52.550]Wondered if you could each speak to some observations
[00:12:56.290]or some experiences in that space to get us started.
[00:13:01.460]I can start.
[00:13:03.340]For me, I came out of the corporate world,
[00:13:05.590]in the previous panel,
[00:13:06.423]they were talking about having experienced
[00:13:07.510]on the corporate side.
[00:13:08.370]I came out of the corporate world and I walked away
[00:13:11.360]from the corporate world to do something
[00:13:13.590]that I thought would be good for the community
[00:13:15.600]and good for America.
[00:13:17.870]Taking that leap was very challenging
[00:13:20.130]because I started with aquaponics and people don't...
[00:13:22.940]Everybody know what aquaponics is,
[00:13:24.310]using fish water to grow vegetables, things like that.
[00:13:27.520]But when I started doing this,
[00:13:28.650]people didn't even know what that was.
[00:13:30.197]And some of the feedback that I would get,
[00:13:31.620]people wouldn't take my calls
[00:13:33.310]and they would say things like,
[00:13:34.520]that's never going to work.
[00:13:35.620]People aren't gonna be interested in it.
[00:13:37.340]So you have to have that intestinal fortitude,
[00:13:39.850]the belief that you can get it done.
[00:13:41.590]But what worked for me was making connections.
[00:13:44.790]But in the beginning...
[00:13:45.890]You hear a lot about aquaponics now, but in the beginning,
[00:13:47.720]lots of people weren't talking about aquaponics.
[00:13:49.470]They weren't talking about
[00:13:50.303]controlled environment agriculture.
[00:13:52.090]So the entrepreneurial spirit being willing to work hard
[00:13:56.020]and being willing to fail,
[00:13:59.070]making sure that you have some type of support system.
[00:14:01.210]I had put away some money to make that leap,
[00:14:04.430]but having a way to make a living
[00:14:08.190]while you're trying to get your organization
[00:14:10.670]or getting your operation growing is absolutely critical.
[00:14:13.810]And that's where a lot of people struggle.
[00:14:15.300]I mean, I struggled in the beginning.
[00:14:17.400]But being able to keep it going long enough to make it
[00:14:21.850]is the challenge that's in place.
[00:14:23.300]So for me, working on the aquaponics side,
[00:14:25.680]it was people not understanding what we were doing,
[00:14:28.017]not understanding what the power
[00:14:29.340]and the potential of it was,
[00:14:30.970]or just thinking that it wasn't going to be a fit for them.
[00:14:34.390]So you have to make lots of calls,
[00:14:36.970]talk to lots of people and pound the pavement,
[00:14:39.760]and then you have to be willing to demonstrate
[00:14:41.610]that it can work, right, and stick it out
[00:14:43.730]and expect failure.
[00:14:45.130]And it's the wild, wild west out there right now.
[00:14:47.630]It really is, lots of people trying to do different things,
[00:14:49.670]but that's what was the challenge for me getting started
[00:14:52.600]was just people not understanding what the technology was
[00:14:55.420]and how it works and if it could be funded
[00:14:58.220]because it was nontraditional.
[00:14:59.910]That's what we encountered.
[00:15:03.200]Well, for me, definitely, I had a lot of opposition.
[00:15:07.060]Family, friends.
[00:15:10.010]You tell people you want to grow hops
[00:15:11.950]and then you have to explained to them what a hop is.
[00:15:15.130]And then you say wanna open a bar in your pasture,
[00:15:18.750]15 miles from the nearest town,
[00:15:20.780]obviously, you sound completely insane.
[00:15:24.340]But one thing I learned very quickly
[00:15:26.840]at the start of this whole process
[00:15:28.770]before I jumped down this rabbit hole was
[00:15:31.810]you really just gotta check your pride at the door
[00:15:33.970]and ask stupid questions.
[00:15:36.100]I mean, if you're too afraid to ask questions,
[00:15:39.550]seek people out, learn new stuff,
[00:15:42.530]then you're going to be behind before you even start.
[00:15:46.850]And I've ran into some incredible people
[00:15:49.280]through Farm Bureau or the Nebraska Lead Program.
[00:15:52.020]I made a lot of awesome connections
[00:15:53.540]who were really supportive of this.
[00:15:56.220]I was very lucky to find a couple of bankers
[00:16:00.090]who didn't think I was completely insane.
[00:16:02.660]And the fact that I told them
[00:16:03.570]I was gonna sell beer might've helped,
[00:16:08.322]but alcohol never hurts in that aspect.
[00:16:10.930]So I was very fortunate there.
[00:16:14.580]So far everything's really coming together nicely.
[00:16:18.570]But yeah.
[00:16:23.749]You really got to go out of your way
[00:16:24.650]to learn the stuff you don't know, and yeah,
[00:16:26.680]just check your pride at the door
[00:16:28.600]because it's going to be a long, long, embarrassing
[00:16:31.640]horror for a while.
[00:16:32.968](chuckling)
[00:16:33.801]Great. Thank you, Sye.
[00:16:35.150]Yeah, I completely agree with the statement,
[00:16:37.007]"Check your pride at the door."
[00:16:39.740]When we started doing organic agriculture,
[00:16:42.630]I was only like 12 years old,
[00:16:44.590]so I don't remember a huge amount about that,
[00:16:47.540]but I do know that my dad, since then has repeatedly talked
[00:16:51.630]about how you can't care what your neighbors are thinking
[00:16:54.860]about you, right?
[00:16:55.830]They're gonna drive by your field
[00:16:56.687]and all they're gonna see is that there's weeds
[00:16:58.980]in that field.
[00:17:00.250]They don't see the value in what you're doing,
[00:17:02.280]they don't see the good that you're doing,
[00:17:04.020]they just see weeds.
[00:17:05.780]And so you have to be able to kind of build your own network
[00:17:09.990]of people that support you.
[00:17:12.100]In organic agriculture,
[00:17:13.420]I would personally suggest you find a farmer from your area
[00:17:16.520]if you have any that are growing organically
[00:17:19.230]and ask them to be your mentor and help you through it
[00:17:21.670]'cause they've been there,
[00:17:22.580]they've had the same problems you have.
[00:17:25.010]Additionally, there are so many resources from,
[00:17:28.370]like Moses Midwest Organic
[00:17:29.950]and Sustainable Education Services.
[00:17:32.470]They have a conference every year
[00:17:34.120]in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and they...
[00:17:37.350]It's the largest group gathering of organic farmers,
[00:17:40.130]I think, in the nation.
[00:17:41.450]It could be the largest in the world, I don't know.
[00:17:43.150]It's huge.
[00:17:44.070]So these are huge number of people who know exactly
[00:17:47.380]what you're facing and what issues you're having.
[00:17:49.880]And they have such good information and resources for you.
[00:17:53.500]And additionally, developing a good relationship
[00:17:56.430]with your certifier.
[00:17:57.870]Some states do the certifying for you,
[00:17:59.700]but Nebraska is not one of them.
[00:18:00.990]You have to find your own certifier.
[00:18:02.950]So if you develop a good relationship with them,
[00:18:04.940]they know what you're doing and trying to do,
[00:18:06.680]and they have all this information to give you.
[00:18:08.890]So don't be afraid to ask dumb questions
[00:18:11.040]because they've heard all of the dumb questions.
[00:18:13.510]People have probably ask dumber questions than you have.
[00:18:16.260]So it's probably not as bad as you think it is,
[00:18:18.850]but you just have to be less concerned about keeping up
[00:18:22.610]with the Joneses next door and kind of be your own Joneses
[00:18:25.850]and be like, I have to figure out what I need
[00:18:27.710]and go for it that way.
[00:18:31.930]So that's kinda all the same things
[00:18:33.490]that I've been thinking of.
[00:18:36.595]Check the pride at the door.
[00:18:38.200]Don't be afraid of getting told no.
[00:18:41.180]I got told no, I don't know, numerous times.
[00:18:45.030]And so I've hosted youth out of 4-H groups,
[00:18:49.690]I've had an FFA chapter out for the tour and whatnot,
[00:18:52.050]and I ended all of them the same way;
[00:18:53.770]don't ever be afraid to step outside the box.
[00:18:56.800]Don't be afraid to be told no.
[00:18:59.900]And especially when you are approaching a lender,
[00:19:03.300]especially for my FFA group, I kind of talked about that
[00:19:05.781]just a little bit with them that they definitely...
[00:19:10.080]I got told no a couple of times.
[00:19:12.040]I even had the lender that was like,
[00:19:14.170]in the beginning, it was like,
[00:19:15.490]this is great way to be outside the box.
[00:19:17.700]And then you start talking collateral
[00:19:20.690]and what are we gonna do with that?
[00:19:22.980]No one else uses that out here.
[00:19:26.010]And so just taking that step back
[00:19:29.110]and having those conversations, I guess, with them
[00:19:32.720]and how do you move forward business-wise
[00:19:36.810]so that it works for both parties if things don't work?
[00:19:40.070]Definitely having the plan B, that was one of them.
[00:19:43.130]Having a cow calf operation, well, if I insulate a building
[00:19:46.550]and I put a bunch of tanks in it and it doesn't work,
[00:19:48.630]we can take them out and build stalls
[00:19:50.360]and I can cut out cows.
[00:19:51.370]And so having that plan B is great.
[00:19:54.270]Great.
[00:19:55.103]Thanks, Grant.
[00:19:55.936]Can you add to that?
[00:19:56.769]Sure.
[00:19:57.830]Yeah, that's one of the things that we saw
[00:19:59.510]when we were first getting started.
[00:20:02.660]Establishing a relationship with a lender,
[00:20:05.050]one of the things that I do is I sit on the board
[00:20:07.050]of directors for Center for Rural Affairs
[00:20:08.660]and I chair a farming community.
[00:20:10.310]And so we talk about these types of things,
[00:20:13.580]ways that you can add additional value
[00:20:15.250]or revenue on the farm.
[00:20:17.000]But if you're going to run one of these operations,
[00:20:19.400]you always want to be able to talk about the numbers, right?
[00:20:21.610]What the expectations are.
[00:20:23.340]If you're going to a traditional lender,
[00:20:24.970]especially there needs to be
[00:20:26.890]what they call like a pro forma,
[00:20:29.190]how are you going to make money?
[00:20:30.800]Right, understanding the business side
[00:20:33.850]of what you're going to do
[00:20:35.200]because we all can say that it's great, we're gonna do this,
[00:20:37.650]it's gonna be wonderful.
[00:20:38.540]But when it comes time to get the money,
[00:20:40.130]they need to see a plan, right?
[00:20:42.370]And if you're going to a traditional lender,
[00:20:43.930]if you don't have traditional means
[00:20:45.470]and traditional packages, like financial packets,
[00:20:48.440]something like that, it can be more challenging.
[00:20:50.570]You can look for smaller lenders (mumbles)
[00:20:54.290]like the Center for Rural Affairs,
[00:20:56.130]they look at small farmers,
[00:20:57.020]they have more nontraditional lending.
[00:20:59.160]That might be something that you wanna take a look at.
[00:21:01.130]When we first got started,
[00:21:02.220]there were different grants out there,
[00:21:03.310]there was a SARE grant.
[00:21:04.630]I mean, I've had, our organization,
[00:21:06.400]we've had several different types of grants.
[00:21:07.770]We had a SARE Grant, a Rural Business Development grant,
[00:21:11.250]we've had an EDA,
[00:21:13.380]Economic Development and Administration grant.
[00:21:15.620]These types of things, but it came from conversations
[00:21:17.940]and doing a lot of research and then being able
[00:21:20.540]to talk about what it was we were trying to do
[00:21:22.720]when you have people on the phone.
[00:21:23.890]So come prepared.
[00:21:25.370]Have a plan or at least have an idea of what you wanna do
[00:21:27.950]and how you're gonna get there.
[00:21:28.783]But figuring out how to use these different programs
[00:21:32.170]to meet your need.
[00:21:33.003]And all of these operations are different, right?
[00:21:36.040]You've got everything from hops and we're doing bees
[00:21:38.670]and honey and organic, and we've got shrimp.
[00:21:42.220]They're all different operations,
[00:21:43.370]but the approach is the same, right?
[00:21:45.150]Come prepared to those meetings.
[00:21:47.070]But these programs that are out there,
[00:21:48.790]they can help you in learning
[00:21:49.870]whether or not you can stack different programs.
[00:21:52.280]somebody at my table was talking about doing something
[00:21:55.370]with tunnels or high tunnels and things like that.
[00:21:58.443]There's an equip program that's out there for that.
[00:22:00.830]There's a high tunnel program that's available.
[00:22:02.970]I think one of the challenges
[00:22:04.820]when you're doing this entrepreneurial work
[00:22:06.330]is you wanna grow something.
[00:22:08.190]You wanna do something that's ag-related,
[00:22:09.730]but you might not understand the marketing and the finance
[00:22:11.870]and the business side.
[00:22:13.000]Reach out and ask these people and make relationships
[00:22:15.300]with folks who can help you through that process.
[00:22:17.850]Because who knew that there was an equip program out there
[00:22:19.700]that can give you a high tunnel to grow your food?
[00:22:22.520]That there's funding out there for that?
[00:22:24.750]Who knew that there are different percentages
[00:22:26.440]depending upon where you're located,
[00:22:28.030]that some of these different grant programs
[00:22:29.520]will pay you different percentages
[00:22:31.090]for whatever program that you're building,
[00:22:32.680]if you have a relationship with the local community, right?
[00:22:35.470]You can do something like,
[00:22:37.530]if you wanna start your organization and operation,
[00:22:39.490]you have relationship with local community.
[00:22:41.200]Maybe it becomes a community project
[00:22:43.480]and then it's a rural business
[00:22:44.690]development grant opportunity, right?
[00:22:47.420]Where you bring in people from your community
[00:22:48.960]and it becomes economic development for your community
[00:22:51.890]while you're building this program.
[00:22:53.610]Those are the types of things that are out there,
[00:22:55.470]but it takes a lot of work and a lot of research
[00:22:57.470]to actually figure out which pieces might fit for you
[00:22:59.520]when you have such diverse organizations
[00:23:01.750]that you're running.
[00:23:02.980]Great, Greg, thanks.
[00:23:05.820]I think that's exactly, Greg, what the lender needs
[00:23:10.050]to be educated in nontraditional means.
[00:23:13.330]And so that importance of that business plan
[00:23:16.490]is just all important.
[00:23:19.490]We've seen institutions, I've seen institutions
[00:23:22.200]that have focused and they have specific loan officers
[00:23:26.700]outreach to young, beginning farmers on a traditional basis.
[00:23:32.310]And they have to be open to these other ideas.
[00:23:35.340]As you say, you can't collateralize your barrels
[00:23:38.870]that you raise your shrimp in.
[00:23:40.500]It's where do you sell them?
[00:23:42.000]Salvage value, right? Yep.
[00:23:44.270]So you have to educate that lender on that business plan
[00:23:48.230]and that's as critical in selling yourself.
[00:23:52.540]So very good point there.
[00:23:55.010]Great.
[00:23:56.080]Well, why don't we take some questions?
[00:24:00.280]We'll shake this up a little bit.
[00:24:02.390]Any questions from this group at this time?
[00:24:07.490]Thinking about what they're sharing.
[00:24:08.960]McKayla has a question up here.
[00:24:10.430]I think that's right.
[00:24:11.263]Did I get your name right?
[00:24:13.280]McKenna. McKenna.
[00:24:14.113]Sorry.
[00:24:19.930]At what point in each of your careers did you
[00:24:23.520]or your families decide it was time to diversify
[00:24:27.170]and find a niche?
[00:24:31.320]I guess I can start.
[00:24:33.170]Right away when I got home from college,
[00:24:35.132](chuckling)
[00:24:37.320]I just wanted to go back to the future.
[00:24:41.240]And I just saw that adding another level to,
[00:24:44.250]a dynamic to our operation was gonna be beneficial longterm.
[00:24:49.440]When I got out, that was when a lot of the chickens
[00:24:51.840]were taking off in Nebraska and I had a lot of buddies
[00:24:55.740]that I graduated with
[00:24:56.910]that were getting into the chicken farming in that.
[00:25:00.190]I was too far west to fit in and so I kinda got shoved
[00:25:04.500]to the side on that option,
[00:25:05.990]but somewhere I ran across the shrimp
[00:25:08.500]and then that just kind of got the ball rolling
[00:25:10.420]and this is something I could do, but right away,
[00:25:13.180]I just wanted to diversify our operation
[00:25:15.100]and just add another level to it and go that way.
[00:25:18.540]Grant, I'm curious on the shrimp piece.
[00:25:21.610]I've only been in Nebraska for five growing seasons,
[00:25:24.460]but there are a couple of other, more on the Eastern side
[00:25:28.690]of the state, shrimp producers.
[00:25:30.800]I know Lieutenant Governor Foley has visited
[00:25:33.410]with some of those folks.
[00:25:34.570]Did you lean in and talk with anybody
[00:25:38.813]in the shrimp business in Nebraska?
[00:25:40.900]Or did you...
[00:25:43.620]So there's the one south of Lincoln here.
[00:25:46.130]He was up and running, I really didn't know much about him,
[00:25:48.583]I guess I didn't know he existed till I got in
[00:25:50.390]and started working with RDM.
[00:25:51.940]Then I made the connection 'cause I also worked with RDM.
[00:25:55.450]All four of us worked with RDM to get started.
[00:25:59.280]So the other two, there's one in McCook and one in Carlton,
[00:26:06.830]they're a little bit more my age.
[00:26:08.980]So I kind of leaned on them a little bit,
[00:26:10.850]talked to them after I kinda got started
[00:26:12.650]and things were rolling.
[00:26:14.110]And the one in McCook, we kind of worked back and forth.
[00:26:17.620]It's kind of nice having someone close.
[00:26:19.380]It's not really competition at this time.
[00:26:21.730]So I've helped him fill orders, he's helped me fill orders.
[00:26:24.710]So having that connection and especially in something new,
[00:26:29.910]just to lean on somebody, yeah, I've done that
[00:26:32.327]and it's been great to have a few others.
[00:26:34.507]And I noticed in the short bio that I shared,
[00:26:37.640]you graduated in 2014
[00:26:39.710]and the shrimp business took off in 2020.
[00:26:43.050]So there was a little period of time, right?
[00:26:45.680]Running those SimAngus and beef cattle-
[00:26:48.520]That was the thing.
[00:26:49.353]I was trying to get to that point.
[00:26:51.470]Like I said, I got told no a bunch, come back, start over,
[00:26:54.430]try again and yeah.
[00:26:57.210]And then actually the operation was, I guess,
[00:27:00.810]paying the bills sometimes took over,
[00:27:03.440]took precedence and had to focus on that
[00:27:05.640]and put the shrimp back on the back burner
[00:27:07.490]and so it was kind of a juggling act there for a while,
[00:27:10.320]getting everything up and moving.
[00:27:11.890]And maybe, Sye and Grant,
[00:27:15.010]you added new dimensions to a more traditional platform.
[00:27:18.527]And then Becky, in your case, it seems like you came back
[00:27:21.960]to a family that was doing organic production
[00:27:26.060]in a diversified way.
[00:27:27.350]So it feels to me a little different,
[00:27:29.370]maybe I'm reading that wrong,
[00:27:30.780]but can you talk a little bit about those dynamics
[00:27:35.040]where you're coming back and growing a family business
[00:27:40.200]versus really pushing the envelope, like, Sye, what?
[00:27:45.360]A bar where? (laughing)
[00:27:48.350]Yeah.
[00:27:49.820]Well, kind of the background of why we became organic,
[00:27:54.840]in the '90s, my dad and my grandpa...
[00:27:58.030]I'm sixth generation for what it's worth.
[00:28:00.990]My dad and my grandpa scaled down the operation
[00:28:04.060]to just what they could handle, they said,
[00:28:05.840]we're just gonna scale it down.
[00:28:07.170]And then in 1997, my grandpa died and my dad has one sister
[00:28:11.950]and she wanted out of the operation.
[00:28:14.030]So basically, our land got cut in half
[00:28:16.450]and then it got cut in half again
[00:28:17.840]in the matter of like five or six years or something.
[00:28:20.650]So my dad had a family he needed to feed.
[00:28:24.610]So he was either gonna have to get out of ag
[00:28:26.410]or he was gonna have to try something new.
[00:28:28.520]So he said, I'm gonna do this, we're gonna go organic.
[00:28:31.140]And we had great relationships with our lenders,
[00:28:33.860]so that worked out pretty well, I think, overall.
[00:28:37.800]But he started in 1998 and he was just like,
[00:28:41.310]we're gonna do it.
[00:28:42.143]It's gonna happen.
[00:28:43.350]And so I kind of grew up in a weird transition space.
[00:28:47.620]So I kinda got used to that, well, we gotta try new things.
[00:28:50.990]You gotta be willing to just figure it out, make it work,
[00:28:53.780]whatever you have to do.
[00:28:54.700]So I kind of grew up in that mindset.
[00:28:56.760]And then when I came back, I went to the university
[00:29:00.650]and got my bachelor's in political science.
[00:29:03.320]And so not related to ag is what I'm getting at.
[00:29:07.280]I had no plans on coming back to the farm,
[00:29:09.720]but I ended up back on the farm and my brother had ended up
[00:29:13.070]back on the farm also kind of accidentally.
[00:29:18.372]And I think it was 2010 was when I graduated
[00:29:20.460]from the university and my dad was like,
[00:29:23.880]well, we're gonna have to find something
[00:29:24.850]for you two to do, basically.
[00:29:26.880]We had enough to do, but he decided we needed more.
[00:29:29.680]So that was when he decided
[00:29:31.920]we're gonna try high tunnels, right?
[00:29:33.650]So we got high tunnels, we built the high tunnels
[00:29:36.100]and started vegetable business.
[00:29:38.840]We marketed our vegetables wholesale to Hy-Vees in Carney,
[00:29:44.030]Grand Island, Lincoln, and Omaha, right?
[00:29:48.670]Eventually, a few years later, my brother decided he wanted
[00:29:51.230]to try something else.
[00:29:52.063]So he left the farm.
[00:29:53.590]And we realized, A, we didn't have enough people
[00:29:56.980]to do what we were doing.
[00:29:58.280]And B, we're located in South Central Southwest Nebraska,
[00:30:05.050]so we're five hours from Denver.
[00:30:08.380]We're two and a half from Lincoln, three-ish from Omaha.
[00:30:12.580]We're not close enough to population centers
[00:30:14.810]that we can be selling wholesale organic vegetables,
[00:30:17.980]the way that we were.
[00:30:18.813]We're just not close enough to the market.
[00:30:20.860]So we kind of pivoted then, and we were like,
[00:30:23.300]we'll just put the vegetable thing aside for a little bit.
[00:30:27.410]And we just focused on farming.
[00:30:29.230]It was a great opportunity for me to kind of take more
[00:30:32.320]of a leadership role on the farm
[00:30:34.030]and more of a management role, which was great.
[00:30:36.120]And I needed that.
[00:30:36.953]I needed kind of like a normal farming existence
[00:30:41.030]for a little while 'cause it was almost too much innovation
[00:30:44.030]'cause that was around the time we had honeybees and, oh,
[00:30:46.560]that was a lot.
[00:30:47.470]It was just a lot.
[00:30:48.510](laughing) So anyway, from there,
[00:30:53.060]I learned some more...
[00:30:54.250]I got more involved in management
[00:30:56.080]and then my brother came back and was like,
[00:30:58.390]well, I'll just...
[00:30:59.580]We'll do industrial hemp.
[00:31:01.440]And industrial hemp production in the state of Nebraska
[00:31:03.740]is very new.
[00:31:04.640]Well, it's old, but then we took a long, long break
[00:31:07.500]and now it's new again.
[00:31:08.840]So we've been doing that for the last two years
[00:31:11.240]and that's been a whole journey.
[00:31:12.790]He's in charge of that,
[00:31:13.920]but it's kind of just like a constant state
[00:31:17.630]of what are we gonna try next?
[00:31:19.260]We went for a year, we custom fed some cattle,
[00:31:22.610]organic cattle, so that was something I'd never done either.
[00:31:25.450]It's just a constant state of, let's work on diversifying.
[00:31:29.840]Let's try this, if it doesn't work,
[00:31:31.250]we'll figure something out.
[00:31:32.410]So that's kind of the mindset that I grew up in
[00:31:35.570]and that's kind of, I'm sure, the mindset
[00:31:37.470]that we'll continue to be in forever and hopefully,
[00:31:40.710]we'll try some new stuff again, I guess.
[00:31:44.932](laughing)
[00:31:47.880]Upon returning home from college back in 2012,
[00:31:51.300]I kind of immediately wanted to do something on my own.
[00:31:55.530]Our family ranch is set up as a corporation
[00:31:58.180]and while I wanna continue working with the family
[00:32:00.480]and be a big part of that, I felt like I needed something
[00:32:04.273]that just was my own outside of the corporation
[00:32:07.300]of the family, just a little more security for myself,
[00:32:10.020]I guess, if you wanna call what I did secure.
[00:32:14.190]But I just want some of my own name on it, just in case...
[00:32:19.490]Just in the event that Tecker Ranch went down in flames
[00:32:21.830]and I was out on my own,
[00:32:22.733]I would have something to fall back on.
[00:32:25.670]So I really just,
[00:32:27.070]I was having a hard time struggling finding something to do.
[00:32:30.900]And then my sister came back
[00:32:32.110]from college a couple years after that
[00:32:35.100]and she wanted to come back to the ranch
[00:32:37.570]and be a big part of that.
[00:32:38.710]So we were just struggling with the idea
[00:32:41.710]of whether our operation was capable
[00:32:43.765]of supporting three or four different families at once.
[00:32:46.770]So then it was really important to me
[00:32:48.940]that I did find something outside there
[00:32:50.640]that way my sister could become a part of the ranch.
[00:32:54.490]And then if anyone in our family was capable
[00:32:57.160]of going outside of the ranch, it was me.
[00:33:00.010]I come from a family of kind of home bodies.
[00:33:02.348](laughing) So I knew that responsibility
[00:33:05.950]was kind of on me.
[00:33:07.150]About 25 years ago, we had a couple in Dundy County
[00:33:10.530]come up to us and ask if they can buy a chunk of land
[00:33:13.650]from us to build a winery and a vineyard,
[00:33:16.550]which was back then insane and I still, to this day,
[00:33:20.030]don't know what they told my grandpa
[00:33:21.500]to get him to sell them land
[00:33:22.910]'cause he was not one to sell land,
[00:33:24.950]but they talked him into it and they built the vineyard,
[00:33:28.760]built the winery.
[00:33:29.720]And they did it for 25 years
[00:33:31.580]and made a really good go of it.
[00:33:32.900]I mean, we're close friends with them,
[00:33:35.130]I helped them out a lot they're pretty inspirational.
[00:33:38.220]Then they retired and wanted to be closer to the kids
[00:33:40.610]and moved to Omaha.
[00:33:42.760]So it came up for sale
[00:33:44.740]and I thought it was a great opportunity,
[00:33:46.740]but I'd also been helping them for the last 10 or 15 years
[00:33:49.570]and knew I didn't wanna have anything
[00:33:50.880]to do with the vineyard.
[00:33:54.350]But I was at a conference,
[00:33:56.440]I heard a farmer from here in Nebraska
[00:34:00.900]who's part of the Nebraska Hop Growers Association.
[00:34:03.280]He spoke about hops.
[00:34:04.860]And at that point in time, the only thing I knew about hops
[00:34:07.400]was it was on my Budweiser label in the ingredients.
[00:34:11.036](laughing) But he made a few good points
[00:34:13.700]and it had me intrigued.
[00:34:14.910]And it's just one of those things
[00:34:15.743]that kind of sticks in your head.
[00:34:16.780]I started doing a lot more research.
[00:34:19.340]I discovered that UNL, at that point,
[00:34:21.690]had just started a hops program or research
[00:34:25.240]and stuff like that.
[00:34:26.210]So I went to a few educational seminars here
[00:34:28.470]and it really got me intrigued.
[00:34:30.190]And at that point, it was just...
[00:34:33.420]I couldn't stop. (chuckling)
[00:34:34.880]So I put together a business plan,
[00:34:37.760]started talking to lenders and yeah, it's worked out better
[00:34:42.280]than me and my bankers ever thought it would.
[00:34:45.020]And it takes me away from the ranch quite a bit.
[00:34:48.790]But thankfully my sister is back now,
[00:34:50.540]she's working full time.
[00:34:51.440]So she picks up a lot of that slack for me, but it's...
[00:34:56.050]Yeah, just a, I guess, necessity, I guess,
[00:34:58.870]more than anything, so.
[00:35:00.460]Great.
[00:35:01.500]My approach was a little bit different.
[00:35:03.950]Someone earlier was asking me
[00:35:05.200]about being a nontraditional farmer,
[00:35:08.383]a truly nontraditional. (chuckling)
[00:35:10.910]My background, I was on the corporate side
[00:35:12.740]and when I was sitting in corporate meetings,
[00:35:14.930]instead of thinking about our strategy for the next quarter,
[00:35:17.340]I'm thinking about how many fish can I really get
[00:35:19.150]in that fish tank? (laughing)
[00:35:21.720]I'm thinking, it was probably time
[00:35:23.210]to do something different.
[00:35:25.600]But to some of the points made earlier,
[00:35:28.270]what I started doing then was my research, right?
[00:35:30.960]I went and visited different organizations,
[00:35:32.640]operations that I was interested in.
[00:35:34.070]I went to see ones that were successful.
[00:35:36.620]I went down to Arizona
[00:35:38.310]and did their controlled environment ag class.
[00:35:40.380]I went through that.
[00:35:41.360]I went out to Cornell and did recirculating an aquaculture,
[00:35:44.680]looked at like RDM and shrimp.
[00:35:47.010]We tried some small programs.
[00:35:49.180]I got a SARE grant and tried a small aquaponics grant
[00:35:53.250]or small aquaponics operation, tried that.
[00:35:56.160]Tried different things to see what was a fit.
[00:35:58.470]But one thing that I know is sitting on
[00:36:01.160]the Center for Rural Affairs and dealing
[00:36:02.220]with farming community is that there are also farmers
[00:36:05.790]out there who are just trying to find out,
[00:36:07.340]could they do something else to make enough money
[00:36:10.470]to keep the farm, right?
[00:36:11.920]Could they diversify what they were growing?
[00:36:14.140]What could they do that's not going to break the farm,
[00:36:16.820]but allow them to generate revenue
[00:36:18.470]in order to keep the farm?
[00:36:20.260]And so that's where I wanted to spend a lot of my time.
[00:36:22.600]Could we find something that would help farmers
[00:36:24.250]and small farmers keep those farms, generate some income?
[00:36:28.050]And so that's what we spend our time doing now.
[00:36:29.610]But yeah, when I was looking in the tank thinking,
[00:36:32.610]how many more fish can I get in that tank?
[00:36:34.217]Was time to go. (laughing)
[00:36:38.650]Glen, do you have any follow up
[00:36:40.040]or we can go to the audience for another question?
[00:36:44.692]Just to say that each and one of you are on the cusp
[00:36:49.730]of consumer preferences right now,
[00:36:53.380]healthy and nutritious food, raised hydroponics,
[00:36:58.440]in a lot of cases, urban environments, very much a part.
[00:37:02.410]I see that, in particular, on the East Coast.
[00:37:06.007]A lot of interest in that.
[00:37:09.070]Grant, I read about your shrimp that had had a taste
[00:37:13.080]that was unique and good and organics people feel good
[00:37:18.510]about eating it, about the nutrition.
[00:37:21.070]That's right, we're on the cusp
[00:37:23.130]of consumer preferences there.
[00:37:26.183]And, of course, we all know about all the breweries
[00:37:28.570]that sprung up, Sye, around the country.
[00:37:33.990]Now, I am curious about the free range hogs.
[00:37:37.620]Back in the '70s, when I raised hogs,
[00:37:39.640]that was when you left the gate open
[00:37:41.210]and they're running the neighborhood,
[00:37:42.420]but yours are a little more organized than that,
[00:37:44.980]I would guess.
[00:37:45.910]Yeah, for about 20 years, we were the largest hog producer
[00:37:49.840]in Southwest Nebraska. Okay.
[00:37:51.880]And back then, most hog operations were on dirt outside.
[00:37:54.080]It was kind of before the age of confinements.
[00:37:56.564]Yep.
[00:37:57.570]So when I was in high school, I needed an FFA project.
[00:38:00.090]We'd been out of hogs for about 10 or 15 years,
[00:38:02.280]but we had hogs stuff everywhere.
[00:38:04.560]Right.
[00:38:05.393]So I kinda got back into it,
[00:38:07.570]just started buying show pigs that weren't good enough
[00:38:11.560]to sell a show pigs and I'd feed them and sell them.
[00:38:14.640]Then when I graduated,
[00:38:15.810]my little sister took over the project
[00:38:17.470]and she got into Red Wattle, which is a heritage breed,
[00:38:21.020]some good old fashion fat hog.
[00:38:24.813]And people really want to have
[00:38:28.420]that farm-raised stuff, especially nowadays.
[00:38:30.290]I mean, that farm to freezer,
[00:38:34.110]we can't raise them fast enough.
[00:38:35.930]And it's been tremendous little side project of ours.
[00:38:39.934](laughing) Sounds like it.
[00:38:41.871]Very interesting, again, right on the cusp
[00:38:44.530]of consumer preferences and the potential there
[00:38:46.900]is just very exciting. Yeah, absolutely, Glen.
[00:38:49.780]Another question? Yeah, Jessica.
[00:38:53.550]Oh, sorry.
[00:38:55.220]Hi, my name is Mike Gunther, I'm a dairyman
[00:38:57.350]in Cuming County, and my question, I guess, is basically,
[00:38:59.850]I'm just curious on how you guys have established
[00:39:02.770]your markets with your unique products and also just maybe
[00:39:05.550]how much time that takes to focus on that marketing aspect.
[00:39:09.940]Good one.
[00:39:10.773]That's a great question.
[00:39:11.606]Great question, thank you, Mike.
[00:39:14.530]Who wants to tackle that one first, marketing?
[00:39:18.214]Sye, you talked about farm to the freezer.
[00:39:21.200]Yeah. Well, and I can just put my hop plants
[00:39:25.150]in the ground this spring.
[00:39:26.060]I won't get a harvestable crop worth selling for another two
[00:39:29.210]or three years probably.
[00:39:30.870]But the brewery industry in Nebraska has exploded.
[00:39:35.950]I mean, it's insane.
[00:39:38.240]Four or five years ago,
[00:39:39.370]there were like 15, 20 breweries in Nebraska
[00:39:42.147]and I think we're bordering on 200 right now.
[00:39:44.760]I mean, it's absolutely insane.
[00:39:46.680]And craft brewers everywhere, one thing they really like
[00:39:49.360]to do is use locally made products
[00:39:51.940]and there just aren't any in Nebraska.
[00:39:55.170]There's only a handful of hop farmers.
[00:39:57.900]The average hop farm size is approximately a quarter
[00:40:00.620]to half an acre, which is pretty small.
[00:40:02.920]Your larger ones are going 15 or 20,
[00:40:04.830]but there's only one or two of those in Nebraska.
[00:40:08.600]I mean, you've got the larger university plots
[00:40:10.640]around the state, but...
[00:40:12.690]So that was a big part of this, was I really thought
[00:40:15.840]I could make it work was I'm not gonna have any problem
[00:40:18.190]getting rid of these hops.
[00:40:19.920]Once a month or so, I take a little tour around the state,
[00:40:23.150]visit breweries, try to build a relationship
[00:40:25.810]with brewmasters, so that when I do have a harvestable crop,
[00:40:29.660]I can immediately just call them up
[00:40:31.060]and they'll take them from me.
[00:40:32.150]And they're very excited about it, I mean,
[00:40:34.320]'cause they're having to ship in all their hops
[00:40:36.520]from the Northeast or Northwest and all over the country,
[00:40:39.310]but they really just want Nebraska growing hops.
[00:40:42.610]So yeah, there's a huge market there that I found
[00:40:45.630]and I'm really hoping it works out, so.
[00:40:50.380]But marketing wise, in order...
[00:40:56.630]'Cause obviously, when I went to the bank, I said,
[00:40:58.660]I wanna create a hop yard and I won't have a harvest
[00:41:00.840]for three or four years, so I go,
[00:41:02.230]what are you gonna do to pay the bills in the meantime?
[00:41:04.480]So I was like, well, there is a building there
[00:41:06.670]where they made wine and had a little tasting room.
[00:41:08.780]I can convert that into a tap room.
[00:41:12.280]So then I was like, how am I gonna get people out here?
[00:41:15.280]We're a long ways out there, and not only that,
[00:41:17.920]the nearest town is about 15 miles away.
[00:41:20.940]And it's in a pasture.
[00:41:22.910]I mean, it's insane to even think about really.
[00:41:27.359](chuckling)
[00:41:29.290]So marketing was gonna be a huge deal on that.
[00:41:31.330]So I really went after the Nebraska tourist industry.
[00:41:36.040]I have a little apartment at the bar I have on Airbnb
[00:41:39.150]and I've had people from about 38 different states there,
[00:41:42.410]about eight different countries.
[00:41:44.040]It's insane the people who show up to drink beer
[00:41:46.210]in a pasture in Southwest Nebraska.
[00:41:47.681](laughing)
[00:41:49.380]But the local communities have been a big part of it.
[00:41:52.600]I have an aunt who's a professional graphic designer
[00:41:56.290]and has a lot of good connections with different marketing.
[00:41:58.770]And she has been an angel.
[00:42:00.550]I mean, just,
[00:42:03.660]I can't believe how much money she saved me.
[00:42:06.720]It's insane.
[00:42:07.560]I don't know if without that particular connection,
[00:42:10.820]I don't know if I would even be here today,
[00:42:16.630]because yeah, when you're out there,
[00:42:17.570]you really have to put all your effort into marketing
[00:42:20.290]and getting your name out there
[00:42:22.870]and it's really paid off so far, so.
[00:42:27.209]One of the challenges that you see,
[00:42:29.170]a lot of farmers wanna farm, they wanna grow, right?
[00:42:31.950]You see, in another businesses,
[00:42:33.410]you have people who do the farming,
[00:42:35.590]people who do the marketing,
[00:42:36.560]people who do the corporate communications
[00:42:38.150]to do all the advertising.
[00:42:39.600]But as a farmer, especially as a small farmer,
[00:42:41.520]you have to wear all the hats.
[00:42:43.130]One of the things that we were doing was,
[00:42:45.280]I started making calls to see,
[00:42:47.130]one, where was the gap in the market?
[00:42:49.510]What were people looking for?
[00:42:51.290]Years ago, there was a project here out of UNL
[00:42:54.870]that was in Mead where they were growing freshwater prawn
[00:42:57.630]in old hog barns.
[00:42:58.820]So I volunteered on that and we would see people
[00:43:00.980]who would show up to buy freshwater prawn tank site.
[00:43:04.850]There was that demand.
[00:43:06.140]What we were looking at from purely aquaculture
[00:43:09.240]or seafood perspective was
[00:43:11.090]where's the gap in the United States?
[00:43:12.600]Which is the majority of our seafood
[00:43:14.220]is not inspected when it comes in, right?
[00:43:16.650]So if we can give them a product where they know
[00:43:19.460]how it was grown, where it came from, what it was fed,
[00:43:22.650]is there a reason...
[00:43:23.483]And it's grown locally,
[00:43:26.320]that in itself generates a premium,
[00:43:28.970]but you have to establish those relationships.
[00:43:30.690]I think one of the real problems that we have
[00:43:32.700]is beginning new farmers, traditional, nontraditional,
[00:43:36.790]having the time to do all of those things, right?
[00:43:40.900]In addition to taking care of those shrimp
[00:43:42.960]that require seven days a week some type of care
[00:43:47.020]or hogs or whatever you're growing.
[00:43:48.920]How do you find the time to do that?
[00:43:50.630]So making connections, networking,
[00:43:54.410]and if you are new in traditional space,
[00:43:56.400]there aren't gonna be a whole lot of people
[00:43:57.500]who are doing what you do in that network.
[00:44:00.270]So it's very, very difficult, but spend the time
[00:44:03.400]to try and find those connections,
[00:44:04.740]at least find a buyer somewhere that would be interested
[00:44:07.230]in sitting down and telling you
[00:44:08.560]what they are interested in buying.
[00:44:10.490]And we've had some folks that we sat down with
[00:44:11.940]who were telling us what they're interested in
[00:44:13.410]from an aquaculture perspective, from a seafood perspective.
[00:44:15.760]If we could do this, they would be interested
[00:44:18.410]in buying that product.
[00:44:19.920]That's what I spent a lot of time doing.
[00:44:21.220]We're hoping to start sharing that knowledge with everybody,
[00:44:23.730]but it was a lot of phone calls and getting someone
[00:44:25.570]to return the call, email, text messages,
[00:44:28.260]being very persistent and just getting the opportunity
[00:44:30.940]to have the conversation.
[00:44:32.850]And from my approach, it was, at the beginning,
[00:44:34.600]I wasn't telling them I was gonna buy anything.
[00:44:36.410]We were saying, we wanna talk to you about
[00:44:37.820]what you were looking for.
[00:44:39.150]How can we make your buying experience easier?
[00:44:42.220]What can we provide that you're missing?
[00:44:44.400]And then that's how we started targeting the work
[00:44:45.850]that we were doing.
[00:44:47.441]Thanks, Greg.
[00:44:48.357]Becky? Grant?
[00:44:49.770]Well, one of the challenges in marketing organic grain
[00:44:52.960]is that it's a lot more complicated
[00:44:56.070]than marketing conventional grain, right?
[00:44:57.470]If I wanna sell grain and I'm a conventional farmer,
[00:45:00.770]I just go to the co-op if I really need to.
[00:45:03.150]It's not hard at all.
[00:45:05.330]Whereas in organic agriculture, you've got,
[00:45:07.230]like you were saying, you've got to build relationships,
[00:45:09.470]you've got to seek out grain merchandisers.
[00:45:11.610]You've got to find your own end user, essentially,
[00:45:15.640]in a lot of cases.
[00:45:16.800]And that's a serious challenge.
[00:45:19.130]But the one advantage,
[00:45:21.040]kind of like what you were talking about, Sye,
[00:45:22.520]is that when you bought a growing market
[00:45:24.940]where there's a lot of demand, like in organic...
[00:45:28.680]Okay, when you become certified organic,
[00:45:30.810]your name goes on a list, right?
[00:45:32.270]You can find my name on this list.
[00:45:34.110]You can see exactly what crops I grow.
[00:45:36.180]It's very transparent.
[00:45:38.020]That's a big part of organic, is transparency.
[00:45:40.640]So you can find that information, but if you can find it,
[00:45:42.997]then open a grain merchandiser.
[00:45:45.240]So every week my dad and I both get phone calls
[00:45:47.820]from random grain merchandisers looking for yellow corn,
[00:45:50.880]or soybeans or white corn or blue...
[00:45:52.520]Just all these random things.
[00:45:54.470]So that's one...
[00:45:56.100]Oh gosh, it's going crazy, sorry.
[00:45:58.432](laughing) Let me set that there.
[00:46:00.990]So that's one advantage to that is that a lot of times
[00:46:04.550]they will come to you 'cause like I said,
[00:46:06.140]that market's growing, but for what it's worth,
[00:46:09.370]industrial hemp production in Nebraska,
[00:46:11.700]that market will not be coming to you.
[00:46:13.950]So if you're looking into industrial hemp,
[00:46:16.350]we've got a lot of work we need to do in that.
[00:46:18.300]But part of that is we who want to grow industrial hemp
[00:46:22.870]need to go out and we need to bring in people
[00:46:26.250]who are gonna be doing processing and develop relationships
[00:46:29.040]and develop relationships with other farmers, say,
[00:46:31.940]okay, if we all in this area decide to grow this,
[00:46:35.150]we can bring in someone who's going to be able
[00:46:37.630]to process it and then we can kind of create
[00:46:39.890]a symbiotic relationship.
[00:46:41.530]Whereas right now, no one wants to grow it
[00:46:43.550]'cause there's no processors and no one wants to come in
[00:46:45.730]and be a processor 'cause there's not enough growers.
[00:46:48.080]So you're kind of in this weird little tangled situation.
[00:46:50.730]And that's one of the challenges that we face
[00:46:53.130]in an industry like that, so.
[00:46:55.880]I don't have a whole lot to add, but on my side,
[00:46:59.500]I got connected with local grocery store.
[00:47:01.620]She was an owner of three,
[00:47:03.980]she also has one here in the hay market.
[00:47:05.570]So that was kinda my plan A.
[00:47:07.730]Plan B was just local market and plan B actually won out.
[00:47:12.100]I don't even have enough to go to the store,
[00:47:13.620]so pretty much went on the plan B,
[00:47:15.590]I sell almost all my stuff just out the front door.
[00:47:18.020]And honestly, I haven't worked very hard
[00:47:20.210]at my marketing plan.
[00:47:21.043]It's just kind of been overwhelming at this point.
[00:47:24.800]So that's why I'm looking to expand.
[00:47:26.690]And then that's probably when I kind of need to have
[00:47:28.510]a marketing a little bit better in place
[00:47:30.360]and how it's gonna go, but I was fortunate enough,
[00:47:33.500]it just happened. (laughing)
[00:47:35.400]Great.
[00:47:36.233]Thanks for your question, Mike.
[00:47:37.590]Jessica, you have the mic.
[00:47:39.980]Yeah.
[00:47:40.813]So first of all, Sye, you shouldn't be surprised
[00:47:43.350]that people like to drink beer in a pasture,
[00:47:45.481](laughing) just throwing that out there.
[00:47:48.480]But my question is, you guys are talking about the crops
[00:47:51.610]or the products that have been successful,
[00:47:53.180]but have you experienced, or have you had a product
[00:47:55.850]that has absolutely failed?
[00:47:57.830]And what product was that and why do you think it failed?
[00:48:03.430]There's always failure. (laughing)
[00:48:07.930]From our standpoint, when we look at like leafy greens
[00:48:12.800]and things like that, the type of leafy greens
[00:48:15.560]that you're buying, let's say you're going to do hydroponics
[00:48:19.360]and you're gonna do it
[00:48:20.193]in a controlled environment agriculture way.
[00:48:23.140]The type of lettuce or salad greens that people wanna buy
[00:48:26.070]and then the price point that they're willing to pay,
[00:48:28.000]depending upon how you're going to grow,
[00:48:29.830]I'd say be realistic about what you're going to do.
[00:48:32.880]Find out what people wanna eat
[00:48:34.340]and then how much are they willing to pay for that?
[00:48:36.600]'Cause it can be...
[00:48:38.120]You can be really excited about, let's say if it's bok choy,
[00:48:41.930]and well, how much are you going to sell
[00:48:44.210]at what price points?
[00:48:45.230]Some people might say, it's great, you can grow bok choy.
[00:48:47.750]And then some people are like, what is bok choy?
[00:48:49.720]But you grew it and it fails, that type of thing.
[00:48:52.530]We try several different products that we've grown.
[00:48:55.070]There's micro greens out there, different types of fish
[00:48:58.410]that you could grow.
[00:48:59.347]We had some folks who were doing perch.
[00:49:03.592]There're no longer around
[00:49:04.650]because they were in the wrong market.
[00:49:06.440]So you have to really make sure
[00:49:09.070]that what you're growing fits your market.
[00:49:11.910]What might sell well in New York might not so well in Omaha
[00:49:15.820]or might not so well in Grand Island, right?
[00:49:18.460]So it could be a big success may be an Omaha,
[00:49:20.360]but then in Grand Island, maybe the market's different.
[00:49:23.160]So you have to really make sure that the product
[00:49:25.810]that you're after that you're gonna grow fits your market.
[00:49:29.210]We've tried several different things, some of the stuff,
[00:49:31.010]it just didn't make sense to grow in this area.
[00:49:34.500]Several of them, but that's why we test, right?
[00:49:38.350]And I agree on that.
[00:49:39.410]Mainly the biggest failures
[00:49:41.010]I can remember were all vegetables.
[00:49:43.140]So like we grew hakurei turnips, which are really great.
[00:49:46.060]Like they don't taste like turnips.
[00:49:47.750]They're beautiful, they're just a great product in general.
[00:49:50.900]But you can't like...
[00:49:52.560]When you tell someone I'm from Grand Island,
[00:49:55.163]you got hakurei turnips, they're gonna be like, "A what?"
[00:49:57.250]They're not gonna know most of them.
[00:49:59.089]Shishito peppers, we were really excited
[00:50:01.320]about the possibility for shishito peppers.
[00:50:03.750]No one, I mean, some people want shishito peppers,
[00:50:06.660]but I'm sure there's a lot of people in this room
[00:50:07.940]that are like, uh, what?
[00:50:09.570]So, we also one of the biggest products we had
[00:50:12.640]when we did high tunnel operations
[00:50:14.640]was we grew sugar pea greens,
[00:50:16.740]and it was literally just sugar peas that you would grow
[00:50:19.080]to about that high and then you would cut them, wash them,
[00:50:22.210]package them in clamshells, right?
[00:50:23.610]There was actually a huge demand for it
[00:50:25.410]once people ate them, they were like, "These were amazing.
[00:50:27.900]I need more of them."
[00:50:29.260]But we just couldn't grow them fast enough.
[00:50:31.640]And we didn't have enough people and it wasn't just
[00:50:34.320]that there was no market, it was that it didn't make sense
[00:50:37.260]for us to grow them based on how much...
[00:50:40.220]We were gonna have to charge too much essentially
[00:50:42.740]to grow them, we were gonna have to add people
[00:50:44.220]to the operation.
[00:50:45.053]We're probably gonna have to grow lights
[00:50:46.180]'cause they do not grow in the winter.
[00:50:47.870]So it just became a little more complicated.
[00:50:50.500]And in order to surpass that,
[00:50:52.360]you have to jump over a few hurdles first
[00:50:54.920]and we just didn't.
[00:50:57.650]I probably have met like on the marketing side,
[00:51:01.610]my failure probably is that I haven't been able
[00:51:03.940]to increase production quite like I have wanted.
[00:51:06.750]And so I've done some more research,
[00:51:08.790]went back to the drawing board kind of thing.
[00:51:11.350]I've been down to Florida now for...
[00:51:14.760]I spent a couple of days down in Florida
[00:51:16.330]with a commercial-sized operation down there,
[00:51:19.400]trying to kind of, how can I use your knowledge
[00:51:23.310]and your way of doing it and get it back to Nebraska.
[00:51:25.900]So hopefully, those are the kind of the changes
[00:51:28.320]I'm wanting to make and that was probably just trying
[00:51:32.240]to meet demand is probably I'm failing at doing that
[00:51:35.010]right now and got to come up with that plan
[00:51:38.320]of how to meet the demand.
[00:51:42.110]Yeah, I'm curious, Jessie,
[00:51:44.040]just the logistical bit I'm watching,
[00:51:46.290]they're bringing the bok choy
[00:51:47.610]and the shishito peppers or whatnot.
[00:51:49.974](laughing)
[00:51:50.807]Lots of leafy greens.
[00:51:51.750]We're not quite ready for lunch yet, is that right?
[00:51:55.900]Okay.
[00:51:56.760]We have a little bit of time there.
[00:52:00.120]Two questions in my mind.
[00:52:02.030]One, was there a particular, a young beginning small farmer
[00:52:06.460]producer program that you would say
[00:52:10.480]as you're getting into the
[00:52:12.230]or exploring nontraditional paths?
[00:52:14.940]We heard Greg talked a little bit about that.
[00:52:16.427]And the second question really comes back
[00:52:18.310]to this farm to the freezer, just thinking about society
[00:52:22.190]and science literacy.
[00:52:23.580]So the organic versus natural versus ripe non-GMO,
[00:52:30.080]there's a lot of confusion in the consumer space.
[00:52:34.130]So feels like that,
[00:52:36.780]as Mike mentioned in your marketing platform,
[00:52:39.210]you're doing a lot of ag literacy, food literacy,
[00:52:44.200]science literacy rolled in there.
[00:52:46.090]So I'd just be curious, two questions, either a program,
[00:52:50.300]a YBS program that you said was just like you ought to look
[00:52:53.750]at for non traditional and then in the ag food literacy
[00:52:57.900]space, any thoughts that you have to share with the group?
[00:53:02.790]So I ended up using the development fund from Farm Credit
[00:53:07.080]and that's kind of the program that fit me
[00:53:09.180]in getting started.
[00:53:10.980]It definitely helped to get the ball rolling,
[00:53:13.310]get off the ground, see what works, what doesn't work.
[00:53:16.730]It allows a lot of flexibility.
[00:53:20.310]It's kind of an interest only loan for a while.
[00:53:22.980]So it really gives you the flexibility
[00:53:24.460]to kind of just actually get some experience under your belt
[00:53:27.660]so that you could go back and maybe apply
[00:53:29.740]for more traditional loan.
[00:53:31.640]Okay, I kind of know what I am doing,
[00:53:34.840]what not to do and go that way.
[00:53:38.010]I guess, from an ag literacy,
[00:53:39.970]I love having youth groups out.
[00:53:41.830]I've had them out a handful of times now.
[00:53:44.490]I love getting them out there, showing them what I'm doing
[00:53:48.570]teach them why and how.
[00:53:51.630]One thing is we turned, it's golden water.
[00:53:55.480]Everyone was looking at it and it's dark.
[00:53:58.204]They think, bad, I guess.
[00:54:00.860]So it's a golden brown water.
[00:54:03.150]That's all good things and you have to explain
[00:54:05.500]why that's good.
[00:54:06.340]So adjusting to that and that it's not clear water,
[00:54:10.890]it's not perfect water, but you explain why it's healthy
[00:54:14.670]and it's good and everything about it, so yeah.
[00:54:19.230]There's a lot of programs out there or grants
[00:54:22.150]or bridge loans, things like that out there
[00:54:24.290]for beginning organic farmers.
[00:54:27.170]I personally used...
[00:54:30.130]Okay, let me think about it.
[00:54:30.963]It was through the FSA, there is a cost share for the...
[00:54:35.880]It literally only covers the cost of your certification.
[00:54:38.980]So it doesn't cover anything else.
[00:54:40.500]It's literally just what you pay to your certifier.
[00:54:43.360]I can't remember all of the details.
[00:54:45.050]I think it's like up to $500 or 50% of the cost
[00:54:49.820]or something like that.
[00:54:50.690]So that was the one that I use,
[00:54:52.210]but I know there's a lot of them out there.
[00:54:54.100]Literally, you just have to Google
[00:54:55.530]and you can find a lot of things,
[00:54:56.750]especially if you're a disadvantaged farmer in some way,
[00:55:00.700]there's a lot of stuff available for that.
[00:55:03.180]But I don't remember off the top of my head most of them.
[00:55:06.880]But in terms of literacy,
[00:55:08.660]the best thing that I found about being an organic farmer
[00:55:11.940]is that I can be like on a plane
[00:55:13.800]or I can be in some random place
[00:55:15.780]and someone asks me what I do.
[00:55:17.270]I say, I'm an organic farmer.
[00:55:18.720]And they're like, "Oh my gosh, tell me more."
[00:55:20.300]They wanna know exactly what you do.
[00:55:22.120]They wanna know how you do it.
[00:55:23.310]So you have a lot of opportunities to explain to them
[00:55:27.190]what it means and...
[00:55:28.470]I mean, most people don't actually ask.
[00:55:30.010]It's kind of interesting.
[00:55:31.290]They think they know is what I'm getting at.
[00:55:33.640]They think they know what organic farming is.
[00:55:35.830]So I think there are some missed opportunities
[00:55:38.220]in terms of what an average consumer values
[00:55:41.350]about organic farming.
[00:55:42.800]A lot of them focus on that it's non-GMO, right?
[00:55:45.810]And that's not something that I...
[00:55:47.800]I'm sorry, there's something ringing.
[00:55:50.960]That's not my favorite part of it.
[00:55:53.410]So that's kind of an opportunity for me to talk about like,
[00:55:57.110]how good it is for the soil, right?
[00:55:58.660]And how I like the fact that we're working with nature
[00:56:01.720]and that we have to rotate, right?
[00:56:03.210]So we're not monocropping and things like that.
[00:56:05.130]There's a lot of things that are really good about organic,
[00:56:07.120]but people, an average consumer isn't gonna know them.
[00:56:09.760]So I like that I have the opportunity to talk to people
[00:56:12.890]about that and just they love to know.
[00:56:15.950]Consumers are desperate
[00:56:17.640]to connect with the people that grow their food.
[00:56:19.810]So we have a lot of opportunities.
[00:56:21.130]Even if you're not organic, people still wanna know.
[00:56:23.510]They still wanna meet the farmer who grew their food.
[00:56:25.980]So that's kind of an exciting time to live in.
[00:56:28.400]In the middle of a field in Parks.
[00:56:30.627](laughing)
[00:56:32.097]Yes.
[00:56:32.930]Sye, anything to add on this front?
[00:56:36.230]Well, from an educational standpoint,
[00:56:38.716]I've hosted some groups that came out
[00:56:41.190]to check out the hops and stuff like that.
[00:56:42.920]And it's kind of funny that anyone considers me an expert
[00:56:46.910]on the subject because I'm literally just starting.
[00:56:49.980]So everyone who's kind of with me on this little adventure
[00:56:53.350]is kind of learning at the same rate I am.
[00:56:56.410]Obviously, I've done an incredible amount of research
[00:56:59.900]on the subject, but it's...
[00:57:03.380]Yeah, I'm still waiting to find out what's gonna happen next
[00:57:08.100]'cause I really don't know.
[00:57:10.210]And getting finance for the whole operation was a little bit
[00:57:14.160]on the tricky side because I had a beginner farmers loan
[00:57:18.230]for my herd of cattle, my own herd of cattle.
[00:57:20.270]And so I went to them thinking,
[00:57:21.760]'cause they had some specialty crop loans you can get
[00:57:23.980]for beginner farmers and...
[00:57:25.870]Hops somehow just fell through the cracks.
[00:57:30.462]I work with the larger bank personally,
[00:57:32.320]they wouldn't have anything to do with it.
[00:57:33.530]It was too small, it was too out there.
[00:57:36.040]But luckily I went to one of the local small banks
[00:57:39.090]and I had a PowerPoint presentation.
[00:57:41.870]I had pages and pages of numbers to give them
[00:57:44.770]on how this was gonna work.
[00:57:46.430]And the big banks listened to it, they watched it,
[00:57:49.850]but they wouldn't have anything to do with it.
[00:57:52.030]I didn't even get a chance...
[00:57:53.430]He didn't even open up the envelope
[00:57:54.720]when I went to that small bank.
[00:57:55.770]I just told him what the idea was and then he goes,
[00:57:57.647]"Sounds good, let's do it."
[00:57:59.220]And it blew my mind.
[00:58:00.270]I couldn't believe it.
[00:58:02.350]I had spent all that work and stress
[00:58:04.250]and he didn't even open up the folder.
[00:58:07.433](laughing)
[00:58:09.560]I don't know, I heard a lot of phrases,
[00:58:12.470]the last panel, lazy lending, not an excuse.
[00:58:15.860]So I don't know what this was. (laughing)
[00:58:18.669]That or he's a microbrew person, I don't know, so.
[00:58:21.690]He pumped from the instant I started talking.
[00:58:24.140]Good.
[00:58:24.973]Greg, last word, and then we're gonna wrap it up
[00:58:28.600]and grab lunch.
[00:58:29.950]I wrote these down so I can rattle off just in case.
[00:58:32.190]These are programs that we've used.
[00:58:33.940]SARE grant, RBDG, Rural Business Development Grant,
[00:58:38.970]USEDA, Economic Development grant.
[00:58:41.437]And we work with Farm Credit Services of America
[00:58:43.620]on some grants for development,
[00:58:46.180]NRCS, the high tunnel program.
[00:58:47.780]Those are the ones to take a look at.
[00:58:49.020]And then from an education perspective,
[00:58:51.770]we are out in the schools, we're out in the rural areas.
[00:58:55.150]We have operations, we worked with the little ones,
[00:58:57.190]we talked about growing the next generation of farmers.
[00:58:59.660]So we're out in Auburn, Grand Island, (mumbles),
[00:59:05.530]or else (mumbles) South Dakota, all types of places,
[00:59:09.400]but we're trying to develop that next generation
[00:59:12.260]and nurturing them early,
[00:59:13.920]using some of this next generation technology.
[00:59:16.160]We call them next generation agriculturalists,
[00:59:18.680]driverless tractors, drones, right?
[00:59:20.910]All this fits into next generation agriculture.
[00:59:23.490]Great.
[00:59:24.420]Let's express our appreciation for this panel.
[00:59:26.950]Thank you.
[00:59:27.947](clapping)

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Young, Beginning and Small Farmers Symposium non-traditional operations panel

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