Even though first-generation farmer Matt Adams didn’t grow up on a farm, a passion for agriculture was in his blood. His dad was raised on a dairy, but due to the bleak farming economy, he left after college and moved his family central Kentucky, near Upton, to begin a career in ag lending. It was a neighbor his parents went to church with who took Adams under his wing and gave him opportunities to become involved in the industry.
“We lived in a rural subdivision, but not on a farm,” Adams says. “I didn’t have any family close by, so I grew up with him basically being a second grandfather to me. I helped him on his farm. He raised purebred Charolais. When I was old enough to be involved in 4-H and FFA, I would keep my show cattle at his place.”
When Adams left for college, his neighbor was slowing down, so they partnered together on cattle, and Adams started buying a few of his own.
“We ran them cooperatively, while I was in college,” Adams says. “He passed away a few months before I graduated, and I was able to purchase the cattle and farm from his family. That’s our home farm now and where we live.”
It would still be about a decade before Adams could call himself a full-time farmer.
“When I got out of college I worked as a county ag extension agent in our home county for a little over 12 years. Then I was able to leave that career to farm full time,” he says. “I built our farming operation while I was working there.”
Adams says as long as he can remember all he wanted to do was farm.
“Of course, every kid who says they want to farm thinks they’re just going to be able to jump right out and do it,” he says. “When reality set in, I realized I was going to have to have some kind of a career off the farm for a little while until I got things built up. If I couldn’t farm for myself, the next best thing was to help other people be successful. That was a good experience for me to work in extension and be able to help other farmers. I made a lot of connections that way too.”
Through the years, Adams began transitioning to Simmental and Angus genetics and continued to grow his commercial cowherd to around 90 pairs.
“You’ll still see a few smokies in there from the original Charolais herd, but the last several years we focused pretty heavy on Simmental and SimAngus trying to use that in combination with Angus to maximize hybrid vigor,” he says.
This young farmer hasn’t been afraid to explore different marketing options when it comes to his cattle. He has a freezer beef business selling direct to consumer, as well as using traditional marketing channels.
“One of my mentors early on said one of the best ways to make money in the cattle business wasn’t really what you did with your most valuable animals; it was how you managed your least valuable animals and maximized the value on them,” Adams says. “That is where you make your money so that’s what we’ve tried to focus on there.”
For him, this means feeding out animals that may not make the best replacements or bring as high a price through the local auction market.
“Basically, what we feed out is some of the least valuable stuff,” he says. “Anything that is marked up a little different color, late born calves or open yearling heifers., for example. We feed them out ourselves on the farm instead of selling them on the open market and receiving a lower price for them.”
Using technology has also brought value to Adams’ cattle, who uses artificial insemination extensively.
“Every female on our farm will get one round of AI during the year, then we turn a clean-up bull in,” he says. “We’ve really been able to build and improve our genetics that way and just recently within the last year we’ve started genomic testing our heifers to do determine which ones to keep as replacements.
We’re selecting our replacements based off those genomic results and the EPDs we get on them.”
The feeder calves are weaned, preconditioned and backgrounded at home before being sold as yearlings. Adams used to retain ownership through the Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity through Iowa State, which he says helped him make genetic progress.
“We shipped those calves to Iowa with a group of other local cattlemen,” he says. “We improved our genetics and our markets here in Kentucky have gotten a lot better for quality feeder cattle in the last six or eight years. It’s become more profitable for us sell those calves here.”
It’s that willingness to change, along with a good dose of faith things will work out that keeps Adams going. He advises other producers starting out to not get discouraged.
“A lot of it is to just keep the faith,” he explains. “If the Lord puts something on your heart that you want to do, then you put the work in and keep faith that it’s going to happen.
In addition, Adams recommends diversification on the farm.
“We’re a very diverse operation,” he says. “Not only do we have the cattle operation, but we also raise corn, soybeans and winter wheat. We put up hay for our own cattle and then we put up some high-end small square bales and market that to the equine market in Kentucky and surrounding states.
Having multiple channels of revenue helps.
“Right now, the grain markets aren’t the best, but the cattle markets are the probably the best that I’ve ever seen,” he says. “The cattle side is kind of propping everything else up right now. Even on the cattle side being diversified in our marketing and being able to market some of these animals direct to consumer and some of them in traditional avenues as well has really helped to stabilize our income.”
One of the biggest challenges Adams has faced has been land availability.
“This area of Kentucky is projected to be the fastest growing in the state over the next 10 years,” Adams says. “We have a lot of a lot of competition from development and urban sprawl starting come in.”
In addition, there is still a very strong farming population in the community.
“As farmland dwindles we still have the same number of people competing for the same acres,” he adds. “Being first generation, you don’t have that name recognition out there.”
He says sometimes being able to pick up and keep ground as a young beginning farmer is a challenge as he can’t own everything that he farms right away. Adams relies heavily on rented ground.
“Establishing a reputation in a community where your family name hasn’t necessarily been associated with farming can be pretty tough,” he says.
That’s why Adams remains cognizant of being involved in his community and how he’s taking care of his animals and farm ground.
“As first generation, you’ve got in the back of your mind that you have to prove yourself because there is no one ahead of you that laid the groundwork in farming,” he says. “It’s constantly building your operation and your family’s name.”
Finding labor has been a continual challenge as well. Adams runs his farm with his wife, Molly, who also works as a registered respiratory therapist at the local hospital. The couple also has two young daughters they are raising on the farm.
“It’s basically us. And my dad helps in the evenings and weekends. I keep joking that if I’m ever able to talk him into retiring we can take on the world,” he says laughing. “We’ve learned what we can handle ourselves on our own and just manage it that way so we’re not relying on having to hire outside labor.”
Regarding the future, Adams thinks about the genetic technology and genomics available for the cow herd. He’s open to growing his operation but will make those decisions if additional ground becomes available.
“We’ve come a long way from where we started with putting together cows off of local farms and a few from the sale barn here and there,” he says. “I want to continue improving those genetics and getting them where we need them to be and be more efficient with what we have.”
When he retained ownership he got back carcass data, which is something they lost when they stopped sending them to the test.
“The numbers we get back from the genomic testing can give us a good idea where we are as far as carcass merit, but also maternal traits,” he says. “That’s really exciting going forward; to be able to utilize that and really improve upon what we’re doing now.”
Adams encourages other producers to never stop learning and looking for advice from others.
“I’ve had several mentors throughout the years through extension and college professors,” he says.
“You can learn a lot from others who have seen it all and have watched changes in the industry. You have to be open to change, looking for new ideas and improving what you’re doing.”
