Mylie Rexing is a district and chapter FFA officer and soon to be agriculture student at Purdue University.  She has been working her father's butcher shop for several years, throughout high school.  During that time an idea occurred to her to make ready to cook meals for people to purchase from the shop that would simplify meal prep for them at home.  Mylie's Meals To Go was born.

Mylie has come up with a number of iterations of ready to go meals during this time, and that took her all the way to being an Indiana State Finalist in Ag Sales.  During that time Mylie wanted to give back to her community, and she came up with a program of donating milk to families who needed with every sale of a ready to prepare meal.  Mylie stated that her family has always been one that gives back, and she had watched that example while growing up.  So, it felt like a natural fit for her to incorporate giving into her own business as well.

I hope you all had a great holiday weekend and took some time to remember those who have made the ultimately sacrifice so we could do exactly that.  I have a couple of thoughts that I have been wanting to share with you, and today I will finally get to do it:

• Hard Work As a value - teaching non-traditional ag students about the world of work they are entering
• Having a job or business that is not automatable and cannot be replaced by AI

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Olivia Black is a senior in high school, a second year FFA student and the Michigan Star Award Winner in Agribusiness.  In Olivia's school district the FFA Chapter is run by the Ionia County Career Center, and high school students are only eligible to attend there starting in the 11th Grade.  Olivia has grown up showing cattle and pigs and with a significant family history in the Dairy Industry, so she knew that she wanted to be in the FFA.  When she started her junior year, she enrolled in an agricultural course at the career center, making her eligible for the FFA, and she joined.

Two years prior to this is when Olivia's journey as an entrepreneur began however.  Olivia has a rare gift that only a small percentage of entrepreneurs have.  She was dissatisfied with a product that she was using on her show pigs, and rather than keep looking for something that worked better or settling for what she had, she decided to make her own.  Absolute Products was born at that moment, and she has been developing this business ever since then.

Now, at age 17, Olivia has stood out among all the other FFA students in Michigan, even though she has less than two years of records.  She is selling her product all over the Upper Midwest, and she plans on expanding even further.  In addition, she is finding that while her product was developed for use on pigs, it works well on both dairy and beef cattle.

Olivia loves the livestock exhibition world, but she realized that in the not too distant future she was going to age out eligibility to show livestock.  So, she has created a business that will keep her connected to this world and will help exhibitors everywhere solve some of their most frustrating issues.  Olivia is off to college soon to get a degree in Ag Business, and it is all directed at growing this business.

For Information Like Degrees Offered, Annual Costs, Etc., Please Click The Banner Below:

The Agricultural College Episode is designed to profile agricultural trade schools, junior colleges, colleges and universities around the U.S.  This episode is an effort to replicate the conversation that prospective students, parents and ag teachers might have with agricultural schools at trade show like the National FFA Convention.

Angelo State University is located in San Angelo, Texas and sits in the number one goat marketing spot in the number one goat producing state in the entire nation.  Corey Owens, our interview guest today, grew up on a ranch 70 miles west of San Angelo where they raised 1,100 meat goats.  As a goat raiser myself, I could barely get off the topic of Angelo State University being the perfect place for a student who wants to specialize in goat production.  Of course, on Angelo State's 6,000 acre research ranch there is much more to study than just goats.  In today's interview we will learn all about it.  

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Tip Of The Week

Are your local legislators addressing the rising issue of livestock theft by activists?

Rural Crime In The U.S.

https://www.fox61.com/article/news/crime/wallingford-farm-life-size-mm-stolen-display/520-b63b9869-2f4c-4b54-aa82-dc623daa9b45

https://www.globalvillagespace.com/GVS-US/report-60k-tons-of-ammonium-nitrate-lost-in-shipping-as-explosive-chemical/

https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/cleveland/news/fbi-cleveland-seeking-public-information-surrounding-mink-farm-crimes

Across The Pond, Down Under And Up Above

https://www.farminguk.com/news/nine-people-charged-after-spate-of-burglaries-from-north-wales-farms_62638.html

https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/crime/video-thieves-caught-on-cctv-stealing-gps-kit

https://www.offalyexpress.ie/news/home/1175072/gardai-investigating-after-tractor-stolen-and-driven-around-before-being-abandoned-in-tullamore.html

Africa

https://ntvkenya.co.ke/news/cattle-raids-resurface-along-the-kenya-uganda-border-threatening-a-15-year-old-peace-accord/

https://www.pd.co.ke/news/pokot-tugen-communities-bury-the-hatchet-vow-to-end-livestock-theft-181565/

Chalk One Up For The Good Guys

https://www.bigcountrynewsconnection.com/idaho/woman-arrested-after-allegedly-stealing-horse-and-then-car-in-asotin-county/article_17dbbee4-f674-11ed-977a-b38b6916bbb3.html

https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/crime/article275579721.html

https://www.thedailynewsonline.com/top_story/ortt-proposes-livestock-theft-law/article_3de7a0a9-d0bf-59d8-bee0-204210a522cc.html

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Colleen Cummings is the owner of 2 Farm Boys Soap, a goat farmer and a mother who was looking for a way to engage her two sons in agriculture on her small farm in Heber City, Utah.  There is a lot of family history on that small farm.  Colleen's husband's family started farming that ground in the early 1900's.  Since then, the land has been split up, and today they raise goats and grow hay on 15 acres of what was once a much larger, family farm.

Like so many people with goats, one thing led to another, and Colleen and her family ended up raising goats on their small acreage.  However, her husband had been raised on a farm, so keeping and feeding livestock just for fun was not an option.  The goats had to have a purpose.  Ultimately, with this in mind, Colleen was exposed to the idea of making goat milk soap and tried it out.  It took a bit to get the recipe correct, but once she figured it out product ideas and designs started coming out.

Today Colleen has a nice system in place.  She only milks goats part of the year, but is able to freeze enough milk to keep her making soap all year round.  Also, she sells at one farmers market only, every other week, for part of the year.  And, the big event is the National Finals Rodeo.  Colleen and the family have haded to Las Vegas two years in a row now, selling soap at one of the largest venues in Las Vegas - Country Christmas - which is held at the Rio.

On tomorrow's Ag Business Episode I am interviewing an entrepreneur with a goat milk soap business.  As you know, the goat milk soap business is one of my favorites to profile.  Well, tomorrow's guest discloses that her family got goats first, and then her pragmatic husband said that these goats need to pull their own weight if they are going to stay.  And that is what led to their goat milk soap business.

This reminded me of the interview I did with Sydney Gordon way back in 2016.  She loved goats and talked her father into getting some for their farm.  However, he said the same thing - "these goats need to pay for themselves".  And that is what led her goat milk soap business.  I thought this tied in perfectly with tomorrow's show, and I am happy to bring it back for you today.

On today's episode I get to do something that I love, and something new that is a lot of fun.  I will be profiling a great, Idaho FFA Student named Zane Nichols, and I will be promoting a summer kickoff festival in Cambridge, Idaho called Hells Canyon Days.  So, this episode will be a bit different than normal.

In the first half of the episode I am speaking with Zane, who will be working in the concession booth on behalf of the Cambridge FFA on Friday night of the festival at an event called "Bulls & Broncs".  I will also be speaking with the president of the Cambridge Commercial Club, Blake Loveland, and we will be talking all about the festival.

After I finish that part of the episode it is back to Zane to talk about beef cattle and working on a grain and hay operation as well as which sport he hopes to play at the next level.  Enjoy the episode!

Our woes on the farm this year continue.  I've known this was coming, but I confirmed it Friday at our veterinarian's office.  All of my cows are open.  We will be having no calves this year as our bull quit producing viable sperm sometime over a year ago, and I did not catch it because I did not have him semen tested, and I did not have our cows preg tested.

This is a hard lesson for me, and it is embarrassing....and I am telling all of you all about it on this episode.

Dori Stuever is a driven FFA student, a regional officer, a business owner and the feature of a newspaper article about her maple syrup business, County Line Kinds Pure Maple Syrup.  Concentrating on marketing through social media, Dori is selling maple syrup throughout the United States, and she is the 6th generation in her family to be in this business.

Dori is also partnered with two neighbors, either tapping their trees or using their sugar shack for refining her maple sap into maple syrup.  Being from the wide open, treeless spaces of Southwest Idaho, it is difficult for me to imagine, but Dori spends a lot of time in the woods of Michigan.  She is either locating trees to tap, tending to her current taps or make sure that her prospective trees are healthy.

Dori is primarily home schooled, but she signed up for agriculture classes when she was in the 7th grade so that she would be able to be a part of the FFA.  The FFA is another family tradition for her, going back to the days when her female relatives were not allowed to participate.  When Dori is not at Capac High School for her agriculture classes, she is at home tending to her taps and frequently doing school work out in the woods because that is where she spends her time.