On today's episode I am catching up with Zac Fralix from Southern Tennessee.  Zac was originally on the show in 2015 when he and his, now wife, were going gangbusters raising around 500 goats, teaching people to fit goats, showing goats and fitting on contract all around the country.  Sometime after that, with an urge to stay closer to home, Zach started a landscaping and lawn care business.  He ran that business for 5 years and sold it to take a job with his county.

Today, Zac is married with three kids, and he has been promoted to the assistant director role of their solid waste department.  He is in a stage of life in which his kids and family are taking priority.  The farming has ramped down, and the fitting and showing is only for friends and family.  However, when the day comes, Zac has already proved that he knows how to run a business and he has overcome the fear of doing so.  So, if he decides that is the life he wants at some time in the future, he will be ready to go!

Spring is coming everyone, and it always makes me think about the spring of 2012.  Back then I had never started a business, but I had identified one that I wanted to start.  The first business I started was gopher extermination, and it was a seasonal business.  All winter and spring I had been getting cold feet and chickening out until one night at about 3am I sat straight up in bed and realized that if I did not get started I would have to wait a whole year more to begin because I would miss the season.

If you have been doing the same thing, the time is now!  Don't wait until May like I did.  Take a step forward and begin.  On today's show I want to go back to an interview about one such business.  If you are thinking about staring a custom fitting service, show season is coming!  Get started, and let this interview I did with Zach Fralix back in 2015 be your inspiration!

Zach Gingras is his FFA Chapter's treasurer, a first year FFA student and the owner of a growing herd of Nigerian Dwarf goats with some outstanding genetics.  

Back in 2020, when Zach was bored to tears staying home during Covid, he was scrolling through the internet and found a video about goats.  This sparked an interest in him, and he decided to pursue it.  First things first though, he had to convince his mom to allow him to raise goats on the 1 acre that they called home.  With some stipulations she said yes, and Zach purchased his first three Nigerian Dwarf goats.

This has led to many things.  Today, Zach is searching the entire country for Nigerian Dwarves with the best genetics and confirmation.  He has a goal of raising a herd that produces a goat that will place in the top ten in the entire United States.  He just purchased a buckling all the way from Michigan in pursuit of this goal.  

During this time he was also recruited into the FFA officer team.  He had signed up for an agriculture class because of his interests, and his advisor convinced him to participate as an officer so he could go and experience the National Convention (only officers from Missisquoi attend).  He followed the advice and went.  Obviously more people than me are seeing Zach's potential in agriculture!

Several years ago I did a series of episodes about the health benefits of entrepreneurship.  I was looking at those today and decided that I would record another episode about this very topic.  I think being an entrepreneur or small business owner is healthier for you than fighting the rat race to get to a career that is the wrong fit for you.  The main reason I believe this is how much stress is piling up on you that you cannot even detect when you are in that rat race situation.  Stick with me in this episode as I contrast the two very different parts of my life.

Adam Keir is his FFA chapter's Chaplain,  a musician,  a junior in high school and he is the winner of Pennsylvania's most improved award for the 1941 Farmall tractor that he restored.

There is something really special about Adam's story.  The farm that he lives on was started by his great grandfather, whom he was never able to meet.  However, the original tractor that was purchased for the farm was still there, waiting to be restored.  At the same time, Adam had enrolled in an agricultural mechanics course at his high school, and his instructor was looking for a student with a tractor that needed to be restored.  

Adam had this interest already, and his tractor was selected for this project.  This is what led Adam to join the FFA and enter in the competition that found his tractor to be the most improved.  Adam already has another tractor that he wants to restore that is on the families farm.  This one is a Ford 5,000.  However, this time he is on his own as the high school is restoring a different piece of equipment this year.  I believe that Adam is up to the challenge!

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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.

Hawkeye Community College is located right in the heart of production agriculture as well as being in the same city as John Deere's Manufacturing Plant.  Agribusiness is obviously relevant every direction you look at this 2 Year college.  However, in addition to large scale, agribusiness Hawkeye teaches entrepreneurship with real world examples of smaller, direct to consumer ag businesses so that an ag student can tailor their education to fit their vision.

More Places You Can Listen to Off-Farm Income And Matt Brechwald:

Tip Of The Week

Livestock hoarding is a mental illness, that livestock producers need to be on the lookout for.

Rural Crime In The U.S.

https://myvalleynews.com/blog/2024/02/01/sheriffs-rural-crime-team-assists-in-anza/

https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/crime-courts/record-low-crime-black-hawk-county-2023/article_2a920050-c05b-11ee-bfb7-5300a0cf9ae5.html

https://www.exploreclarion.com/2024/02/01/local-man-accused-of-ordering-timber-company-to-cut-down-over-70-trees-on-neighbors-property/

Across The Pond, Down Under And Up Above

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2024/01/31/thieves-target-farm-in-rural-south-shropshire-stealing-quad-bike-say-police-as-they-launch-appeal/

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/gardai-investigating-theft-of-cattle-in-co-monaghan/

Africa

https://www.rnews.co.za/photos-owner-of-these-cattle-wanted/

https://thewhistler.ng/police-recover-cows-donkey-from-cattle-rustlers-in-sokoto/

https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2024-01-31-night-milking-suspect-arrested/

Chalk One Up For The Good Guys

https://www.ncnewsonline.com/news/local_news/farmers-found-guilty-in-bird-poisoning-incident/article_c9af9ecc-becb-11ee-9e17-97ec2cacaf7d.html

https://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/crime/woman-charged-with-more-than-150-counts-of-animal-cruelty/article_9153326a-c09b-11ee-8c5a-af15fa48ed1b.html

Reagan Long is the Chapter President of the Shield's Valley FFA Chapter and owns his own lawn care company, and yes, his first employee was his own father.  Way back in the 7th Grade one of Reagan's neighbors asked him if he would be willing to mow their lawn for money.  Neither of them knew it at the time, but this was the launch of a great lawn care business.

Reagan took that job and things started to grow.  By the 9th grade, Reagan had a client list of 6 lawns to mow, and he was ready to start branching out and taking jobs that were beyond walking distance from his house.  So, he did what anyone would naturally do, he asked his dad for a ride.  However, in either Reagan or his father's wisdom, his dad was brought on as an employee so Reagan could learn the realities of a business decision like this.  It worked out, and things have only advanced from there.

Today Reagan has three full-time employees during the summers, his own truck and a myriad of equipment he uses in the business.  All of this has come from reinvesting profits.  He will graduate from high school this summer and his going away to college in the fall.  However, he plans to continue running the business during college and mowing lawns during the summers.

If you listened to my Tuesday episode this week, then you know that one of the most important mentors I have in this entrepreneurial journey, Dan Miller, died in January after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December of 2023.  Dan is a great man who has inspired countless people to change their lives and life styles, including me.  In continuing tribute I wanted to replay this interview I did with Dan back in 2016 to give you another chance to be inspired by his words and outlook on life.

Mercedes Jones is her chapter's historian and her district's sentinel, and she is only in her sophomore year of high school!  She is also the recipient of a $1,000 SAE grant for a flower business that she has been launch with her family on their farm in South Dakota.

Mercedes is in a unique position with both of her parents being full-time farmers.  This is the life that she has known since she was four years old and her family moved to the multi-generational farm and both of her parents left their city jobs to devote all of their time here.  Mercedes is learning that maintaining this lifestyle with revenue that is produced exclusively from the farm is a challenge, and it takes innovation and hard work to meet that challenge.  As a result, she and her family are in the development process of adding flowers as a crop on their farm, and developing their "direct to consumer" business model.  She has already become an expert in varieties of flowers as well as planting and preservation methods, and there is no doubt why she was awarded the grant.