OFI 1698: Selling An Agricultural Commodity On Amazon | FFA SAE Edition | Matthew Ruff | Westfall High School FFA

Matthew Ruff is a farmer from Ohio, a first year student at The Ohio State University and part of a family of agriculturists and innovators.  Matthew's parents both grew up on farms and decided that they wanted to farm as well.  So, after their marriage in 1997, they started pursuing enterprises that could lead to having their own farm.  Ultimately, they purchased their own property and kept building it up.  Today, Matt farms over 4,000 acres along side his parents, brother and sister.  What initially drew my attention to Matt was an article I read indicating that he had an "ear corn" enterprise.  However, the article did not describe the specifics of the operation.  During the interview I found out that he has taken over responsibility for growing 25-40 acres of ear corn with the intention of picking it, shucking it, bagging it and selling it on Amazon!   During the interview Matthew explains that there is strong demand for ear corn, still on the husk, by people who want to feed it to wildlife like squirrels and deer.  He said that they have shipped bags of corn grown on their farm to every state in the lower 48!  What an amazing niche....