OFI 1059: Funding A Ranching Dream

This show is all about helping you find a way to achieve the farming or ranching dream that you have.  In today's episode, we are going to illustrate the single most important way to make this happen. Cody Bumgarner is an enterprising young man who is building up a significant bison herd and bison meat business right in my backyard called "Idaho Bison".  Cody is raising his buffalo just about 40 miles away from my farm, near New Plymouth, Idaho.   Getting into the bison business is not easy.  Bison are expensive, and they take a long time for you to start generating revenue from them.  In addition to that, they require special handling facilities because of their size and their wild nature.  Plus, if you are looking for an operating loan you might not be able to get one because bankers don't like bison herds as collateral because they are too difficult to sell.   Cody was exposed to the bison business by one of his friends, and when he saw how valuable the cuts of meat were he decided that he wanted in.  His friend agreed to allow him to build his herd within his already existing herd and on the property that had the vital infrastructure in place already.  All that was left for Cody to do was to start buying buffalo.   Buffalo are expensive, and this expense could have killed the motivation of a lot of people.  However, Cody's motivation is strong and his priority is developing a profitable farm business.  So, he went to Alaska.   That may sound funny, but for two years Cody went and worked underground on a drill rig in a gold mine in Alaska.  This was as a high-paying job that he could get, and he took advantage of the opportunity to send money home and have it invested in his herd of buffalo.   Today, Cody has developed a significant herd, partnered with two other producers, and started marketing bison meat.  They are selling more and more all the time, and he is well on his way to achieving this goal.   Cody is a great example of how to get started farming today.  Networking, partnering with the right people, bringing value to those partnerships, prioritizing farming and hard work is what will get you there.  Cody is what we call "proof of concept".