One of the biggest mistakes that any farm enterprise can make is specialization. There are too many farmers in the US that only do one thing. Honestly, specialization in only one or two markets has only been a common practice for the last 50 or 60 years. Prior to that, a single farm would have […]

Dreams die with unrealistic expectations With any business, and farming is a business, it takes time to actually start making money. I’m not talking about income or revenue, I’m talking about a profit, after all the bills are paid. In this post, I’ll go over some hard truths for beginning farmers. Overnight success isn’t realistic […]

In 1973 US Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz told American farmers to, “get big or get out.” Over the next couple decades the US saw vertical integration of multiple markets including poultry, beef, and pork. Today the 4 largest meat packers are responsible for 85% of the beef purchases and 67% of hog purchases in the […]