Armed to Farm: Small farm, Big goals

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November 7, 2014 By admin Filed Under: Armed to Farm

A Missouri veteran is seeking out more funding for his small farming operation in southwest Missouri. Brian Andrews spent 10 years in the Army, both active duty and National Guard duty. But, he’s back home near Springfield, Missouri, and attended a recent Armed to Farm program at the Small Farm Show near Mexico, Missouri. He’s looking for more resources for his 10-acre operation where he and his fiancé raise sheep, cows, turkeys and ducks and grows vegetables. He tells Brownfield Ag News, “We’re in the market for our own farm. We’re looking to no longer lease that land – be owner and operators of our farm. And, so, we’re here to learn what Farm Service Agency has to offer, other USDA programs have to fund that funding.” Right now, he is a full time student, part-time worker and part-time farmer.

Andrews grew up working on his extended families’ farms thinking he’d never want to go back into farming. He and his fiancé Rachel Goldberg haven’t made a profit yet but they are optimistic. Andrews tells Brownfield, “We’re not profitable. But, depending on how these turkeys go in the next month or so we should be very profitable then. That was my goal this year, just to be profitable. Initially, I started out to be ‘break-even’ but I thought, you know, we can push past that.”

Andrews says his time in the military has prepared him for farming.

“It’s always a difficult task to be in the military and so you’re set to deal with the stress, the setbacks, anything that you would have. If it’s a long grueling day, 18 hours, hey – it’s no big deal. Because I’ve done that off and on for the last 10 years.”

Andrews was also interested to learn about the Missouri AgrAbility program which assists people with any type of disability get into farming. For returning vets who’ve seen combat, like Andrews, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be an issue.

“Coming back a lot of those from the military are kind of a closed group and you’re not really open to having people up in your business and I think the longer that I’m back it’s something that I realize that it’s something that I need to investigate further. And, it’s good to know that those programs are there. This is the first time I’ve heard of AgrAbility.” The National AgrAbility project is in 21 states.

Andrews did a year-long combat tour in Iraq and was part of a rescue and recovery group that responded to Hurricane Katrina and other disaster events.

AUDIO: Interview with Brian Andrews (9:30 min. mp3)