You’d think that running an operation the size of Seven Springs Farms would keep Joe Nichols busy enough, but he always has one eye open for new ways to diversify the business. Located near Cadiz, Kentucky, Seven Springs Farms produces 25,000 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, rye and triticale while also backgrounding 15,000 head of cattle.
However, Nichols has a few side hustles augmenting his operation. In January 2021, he started manufacturing erosion control blankets using straw grown on the farm. More recently, when construction on nearby interstate 24 provided plenty of broken concrete, he began crushing and selling the rock. “It’s just looking at opportunities that a lot of people overlook,” he explains on the latest episode of Farm Journal’s Grow Getters podcast.
While Nichols is technically an eighth-generation farmer, he built his operation from scratch. In the early 1980s, when the agriculture industry suffered through catastrophic economic conditions, the Nichols family lost their bankrupt farm and moved to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, getting into the hospitality business. Recently graduated from high school, young Joe decided to stay behind. It took nearly 10 years for him to begin farming again, though he admits that fate had more to do with his return to ag than a clear mission.
“I never knew what I was working towards, I was just surviving,” he says. “I never had a plan.” Survival required a range of jobs, from working for a pork operation to working as a mechanic for a John Deere dealership. “From that mechanic’s toolbox this whole operation has been built,” he says. In the fall of 1993, while managing an ag equipment store, he planted his first wheat crop. By 2000, he was ready to farm full time.
“Every day when I wake up it goes back to what happened in 1983,” he tells host Davis Michaelsen on the podcast. “I think about what I can do to keep from repeating those steps. That’s my worst nightmare.” To keep sleeping soundly, he has remained on the lookout for additional revenue streams.
He credits his managers and employees for freeing his time to think about and recognize opportunities. “If you’re covered up every day and you’re doing everything, you don’t have the excess capacity to wonder,” he says, “or to think outside the box.”
Watch the full Grow Getters interview
Read more Joe Nichols on AgWeb: Seven Springs Farms: Enterprises Come And Go As Market Demands Dictate
Visit the Seven Springs Farms website: https://sevenspringsfarms.com/
