On the Off-Farm Income Podcast we are always trying to solve the riddle of how can you become a farmer in the U.S. if you don’t already have any land or equipment?  This show is about using entrepreneurship to create an agricultural business that will help you in this pursuit.  This is the method that I used to get myself onto my own farm, full-time.  This method is perfect for somebody who is mitigating risk as much as they can.

This is not the only method however.  Other methods include leveraging debt to get started into a certain method of farming with the enterprise budget and business plan that you have laid out.  This is a valid method as well, but it is not for the faint of heart.  There was a story I ran across recently about a very young farmer who had got started in this way.  What stood out to me about this young man was how early he went for it.

At a very early age, Zemua Baptista, knew that he wanted to be a farmer.  Growing up in a small town in Nebraska and seeing tractors and knowing farmers as a young man, Zemua fell in love with this lifestyle.  During high school Zemua worked on the farms of friends and neighbors in his area, and he excelled.  At the same time that he was making a name for himself working on other people’s farms, he was making a name for himself as a college wrestler.

Zemua did so well as a high school wrestler that he gave it his entire focus.  Looking back he wishes that he had been part of the FFA, but with how devoted he was to wrestling he just couldn’t give it the attention it deserved.  So, while he could compete as a high school athlete, he went for it.  This was clearly the correct decision because he wound up wrestling in college in a two Division One programs.  First, he went to Iowa State University as a red-shirt freshman.  However, he changed his mind and transferred to the University Of Nebraska to wrestle as a Cornhusker and to be closer to home.

It was during this time that Lincoln Premium Poultry started up in Nebraska and started recruiting farmers to raise chickens for them on contract.  After speaking with his father, Zemua knew this was his opportunity to get started farming.  However, had the opportunity come too soon?  He was only 19, he was a very busy collegiate athlete and he didn’t have a farm of his own.

Zemua did not let this stop him.  He started pursuing a contract with Lincoln Premium Poultry.  He did not focus on what he did not have.  Rather, he used what he had at his disposal.  With the help of his parents he purchased 80 acres within the radius that Lincoln Premium Poultry required to be a farmer for them.  He also used persistence.  Convincing a company that you are serious about farming when you are 19 years old and in college is no easy task.  But Zemua kept going back and going back and going back…soon, they knew he was serious and granted him a contract.

Zemua received his first shipment of chickens in December of 2019, while still in college.  He has finished all of his college classes now, and he is done as a college athlete.  Now, he can focus exclusively on farming.  At the age of 23, Zemua is farming full-time and intends to do that for the rest of his life.  He is already looking at ways to diversify his income, and on the one year anniversary of him receiving his first chickens he will officially graduate college.

You are really going to enjoy hearing this great story.

HOW TO CONTACT ZEMUA:

Email: LINK

Facebook: LINK

News Story About Zemua: LINK

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Member Of The National Association Of Farm Broadcasters