Losing 40 Acres of Ag Land Per Hour

Posted on March 22, 2018March 22, 2018 by sbhill

I read a statistic today that has me totally on fire with more determination than ever to get the word out, and to help small farmers succeed. That statistic was from American Farmland Trust. The statistic they posted on their website was that over 40 acres of U. S. farm and ranch land are lost every hour. This loss is due to urban spreading, and development. I know this to be true, I watched Denver, Phoenix, and Las Vegas the last few years take more and more land and put houses, shopping ce...

Hacking and Your Operation

Posted on December 2, 2017 by sbhill

So this website was hacked again last week. I spent a lot of time working to get it fixed, and finally went to Fivver and hired an expert to fix it for me as I was incredibly busy doing some other things. Here is what I learned from this experience; I need to have better security on my website I spent several hours working on fixing it, so I wouldn't lose all the previous content again which was a huge waste of time. I am not an expert in this area I shou...

Different But The Same

Posted on October 3, 2017 by sbhill

First of all let me apologize for my long absence. I have spent much of the summer fighting fire, mostly in the North West. I signed on last year to be a wild land fire fighter, after a fire near our property made me feel helpless because I just had to watch and not help. When I was a kid, many, many years ago.... everyone in the area would go fight fire, bringing whatever tools and resources they could. We would pack shovels, picks, gunny sacks, water and take off. The ladies in the ar...

The Big Grocery Lie

Posted on July 1, 2017July 1, 2017 by sbhill

This week I have been working crazily doing lots of research. I want to tackle something very wrong with our whole grocery marketing system. Prices continue to go up and never come back down. I am calling it the big grocery lie! All producers understand that there are many different times when there are shortages of a farm commodity. We as small producers are extremely susceptible to these problems in our operations. We know that a hail can come through, or grasshoppers, or even limited amoun...

Value Added Marketing On Steroids !!!

Posted on June 27, 2017 by sbhill

So we have been talking about value added marketing for the last few months. There are many great, tried and true ideas to market your products, however..... they all take time away from your operation, your mind off of your production, and a hefty chunk out of your bottom line. I want to introduce you today to a process that is so awesome I am recommending it to many of my clients, and heck I am totally on board myself. If I can sell my lambs, cattle and everything I make at home for more ...

Ag Women Are Strong

Posted on April 26, 2017June 24, 2017 by sbhill

This year on "Woman's Day"...women all over the country took a day off and marched in the streets. They were protesting that President Trump does not listen to women. Strange because I think his brilliant wife who is very accomplished in her own right, and his daughter have his ear probably more than any other advisors. They say it is about gender inequality but is it really? I was raised with the knowledge, and I am a firm believer that women are special. We are not only strong in our dai...

Value Added Cattle

Posted on April 12, 2017April 12, 2017 by sbhill

I hope that you are enjoying the Value Added series as much as I am enjoying writing it. Today we are going to look into value adding cattle. I was born and raised on a cattle ranch. This is a subject that I have spent years trying to figure out how to make a bit more money doing. We in the cattle industry have always had to depend on the market. We don't get a choice on what we get for our livestock sales after spending a whole year dumping money into our livestock operation. It has bee...

Value Added Gardening

Posted on March 18, 2017 by sbhill

It is that time of year when the weather is warming up enough that you get the itch to be outside and growing things. I think it is a part of us to want to grow our food. This year I want you to think about what value added gardening can do for your bottom line. Many of us start our own seeds and grow them to a seedling and plant in our gardens. What if you planted twice or three times what you need, and sell the rest at either a stand or online? This would right away make you start out in t...

Value Added Sheep Part 3 -Wool

Posted on March 15, 2017April 26, 2017 by sbhill

Value Added Marketing Sheep 3 This is the last in our Value Added Marketing sheep series. We are going to talk about value added marketing wool products. This is one of my favorite topics, and I tend to ramble about wool. I am an accomplished hand spinner, and wool hoarder, as my husband often tells me. I love wool. I love that there are so many different natural colors, textures, grades and so much you can do with it. As I said before I am a spinner so I have been value adding wool fo...

Value Added Sheep Part 2 Meat

Posted on February 14, 2017April 26, 2017 by sbhill

I am very excited to be starting this second in a series of 3 value added sheep articles, especially this time of year. Value Added Sheep Part 1 can be found here. Many producers are getting ready to start their lambing, and in fact a friend of mine has several lambs on the ground. I want to focus on value adding to the meat breeds and my own experience, and ideas for you to be able to market your small farm sheep in the way that will make you the most money for your operation. First of al...

My Small Farm Expert

Author: sbhill