OFI 895: A Big Vision For An Entrepreneurial Ag Business Career | FFA SAE Edition | Rachyl Kitten | Slaton High School FFA

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SHOW NOTES

INTRODUCING RACHYL KITTEN!

You may have noticed when I interview FFA students about their small businesses that I always ask them if they are going to continue the business after they are done with high school and the FFA. I would say that 90% of the time the answer is either they do not know or “no, I am going to become a ________”.

I stop short of pushing my guests at this point as I don’t want to force them into something that is the wrong fit. However, the 10% of the time a student tells me that they want to continue the business they have started and make a career out of it, it is very exciting for me. I know that student is going to lead a life doing something every day that will fulfill them, and that is one less person that I have to worry about getting into a routine that turns into a grind that leads to unhappiness.

Our guest today has got me very excited. Rachyl Kitten is an exceptional young woman with great entrepreneurial instincts. She started participating in her communities FFA chapter when she was 9 years old and officially joined when she was a freshman in high school. That same year she started her supervised agricultural experience.

To start her SAE Rachyl decided to start making her own pig feed. She and her brother had been showing pigs, and the cost of purchasing feed for these animals was high. It was high enough that some years they did not profit, even after selling their pigs at the fair. So, with the help of her family, Rachyl fixed up her grandfathers old corn grinder. She then sourced soybean meal, lysine and other necessary ingredients from a company in Clovis, New Mexico.

Rachyl and her family started growing corn specifically for pig feed and grinding it in the old machinery. Rachel then would mix all the other ingredients with the corn in an old cement mixer. This is the epitome of “boot strapping” a business. Rachyl then bagged her own feed, attached a feed analysis to it and started selling. Kitten Farms Feed was born!

Rachyl initially went to livestock shows and started walking around, talking to people about her feed. She gave out free samples and started generating word of mouth. She then started using social media as a compliment to her efforts. Over the past four years she has significantly increased her customer base, and he is receiving statewide and national attention for her efforts. She has already won the Texas State Proficiency Award for Ag Sales. And now she is a National Proficiency Finalist for the same!

Rachyl is going to college in a year to study agribusiness. She intends to keep the business running while she is in college, and she wants to come back to it full-time after she graduates. Then she plans to grow the business and make her living as an entrepreneur!

Rachyl is going to have struggles and challenges that those who are employed by somebody else will never understand. It is going to be invigorating, and she is going to have a very fulfilled life!

SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Feed Production

HIGH SCHOOL: Slaton High School; Slaton, Texas

MASCOT: Tigers

FFA ADVISOR: Adam Westbrook

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR RACHYL KITTEN:

Click on the picture below to be taken to the Slaton High School Ag. Department’s website:

Rachyl’s FFA Advisor’s Email Address: awestbrook@slatonisd.net

Slaton High School’s Telephone Number: 806-828-6591

FFA LINKS:

National FFA Organization

Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE’s)

Support FFA

Donate to FFA – One way that FFA students are able to start small businesses is through an FFA grant of $1,000. In 2014, 141 FFA students received these grants. With your donations, more students can get this head start – pay it forward.

REASONS TO DONATE TO FFA:

Only 2% of Americans grow and raise most of the food and livestock consumed by the other 98% as well as the rest of the world. FFA is providing the needed education, training and resources to Americans that will carry that torch forward and insure that America continues to have inexpensive, quality food.
Rural Communities will rely on entrepreneurship in the future for population growth and job creation. The FFA is a major catalyst to that entrepreneurial growth.
Farmers, ranchers and those working in agriculture give the rest of America incredible amounts of freedom because the search for food is as simple as going to the grocery store:

“The future of American agriculture depends on the involvement and investment in America’s youth, In order to prepare for the population of tomorrow, we need to encourage America’s youth today, and show that careers in agriculture are profitable, rewarding, and vital.”.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue