Jason Davis [00:00:00]:
Landscaping or working with nurseries or greenhouses. Kind of find something that you enjoy. I enjoy working with plants. What's interesting is that a lot of our customers are local, but all of our marketing is done through Facebook. It's been a really good way to market directly to the consumer. I believe in the power of youth to make things better, because as older adults, we're kind of set in our ways. But with youth, there's always potential to improve things. Working with people, you don't always see results.
Jason Davis [00:00:27]:
Or if you do, sometimes it could be a while before you see the return on your investment. But when working with plants, a lot of times that investment or that return is a lot quicker.
00:38 - Meet Jason Davis: Farmer, Educator, & Ag Advocate
Jack Jostes [00:00:38]:
All right, so we're outside of the NCNLA Education Summit here in Raleigh, North Carolina, and I met Jason Davis. And Jason is a, you have a farm and you're a professor, too. So tell us just a little bit about yourself.
Jason Davis [00:00:54]:
I began my career as a high school ag teacher. So I was a member of the FFA in high school, and my family farmed, but there wasn't enough there to support me, so I decided that I needed to kind of find gainful employment. And being a high school ag teacher, I had a really good ag teacher in high school, and he kind of encouraged me to become an ag teacher. So I worked as an ag teacher. I worked as the state director for the FFA, and now I'm in higher education, partially in teaching and administration.
Jack Jostes [00:01:23]:
So, Jason, tell us about your. You have kind of a split position both in administration and as a teacher. What all do you do?
Jason Davis [00:01:30]:
I work with outreach with the School of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, the University of Mount Olive. So programming, tours, conferences, engagement with students, our high school academies, a lot of conferences and conventions representing the University of Mount Olive, and then also teach, typically about one class, two classes a semester.
Jack Jostes [00:01:51]:
And what are the classes that you're teaching this year?
Jason Davis [00:01:54]:
Field experiences, and the other ones kind of rotate around. I kind of end up being the person to fill in in a lot of different areas. So I've taught anything from soil science to environmental, natural resources, and everything but animal science.
02:10 - Inside Jason’s Farm: Bees, Mums, and Sweet Corn
Jack Jostes [00:02:10]:
And so you also have your own farm. So tell us about that. How many acres is it? How long have you had it? And what do you grow?
Jason Davis [00:02:17]:
I started farming when I started teaching in 1998, and I started with soybeans and wheat. And as things, my life changed, I decided to change some different avenues. And what I've kind of found is as a small grower, I could do a lot better with smaller projects. So I go where there's high value, high intensity, high levels of knowledge farming. So I have bees. We have 13 hives of bees so far. We have roughly over a thousand mums that we grow that are field mums for the fall. We also do about 2 acres of sweet corn.
Jason Davis [00:02:53]:
And the latest addition has been cut flowers.
Jack Jostes [00:02:55]:
Okay, so you've got bees and cut flowers and mums. And what was the other one?
Jason Davis [00:03:02]:
Sweet corn.
Jack Jostes [00:03:03]:
And sweet corn. Okay, so that's interesting. So are those different customers of each of those, then?
Jason Davis [00:03:08]:
What's interesting is that a lot of our customers are local, but all of our marketing is done through Facebook, and it's been a really good way to market directly to the consumer.
Jack Jostes [00:03:19]:
So is that individual, like homeowners or people who are buying plants for their personal home, or do you do any wholesale?
Jason Davis [00:03:27]:
Primarily personal individuals. We do do a few wholesale contracts, but primarily 70% to 80% of my business is individuals.
03:37 - Mums: Fall Favorites or Perennials in Disguise?
Jack Jostes [00:03:37]:
So I've grown up. I worked at a garden center in Illinois, and we have a pretty harsh winter there, and we bought mums every fall, and we'd put them out. We were kind of joking about this with a bale of hay and…
Jason Davis [00:03:51]:
Some corn stalks.
Jack Jostes [00:03:53]:
Some corn stalks, and a scarecrow and some pumpkins and some gourds. And that was kind of the fall thing. And I always thought that mums were annuals because we would get rid of them after that and we'd buy new ones in the fall. And that was one of the top sellers. But you were sharing that mums are actually perennials, but it really depends on where they're grown and how harsh the winter is.
Jason Davis [00:04:17]:
Yeah. Here in the Southeast, if you put your mums in the ground and plant them after they're finished blooming, they will come back a couple of years. If we have a good, mild winter, if we've got kind of a harsh, snowy, and icy winter, you could lose some of your mums depending on the location you put them at your home and how much mulch you provide with them. So typically, the hard part is that once you sell mums, if customers are smart about it, they could have mums for two or three years.
Jack Jostes [00:04:45]:
Well, so if the customers are smart about it. So I kind of feel like maybe the mums people have been leading us to think that we need to buy new ones every year.
Jason Davis [00:04:53]:
That's a good marketing strategy. But typically, I do talk with my customers and ask them if they're going to plant them or not. And also watering requirements, they tend to like A lot of water, September and October. So if they take care of their mums, they last longer.
Jack Jostes [00:05:07]:
Thanks for the tips. I'm going to see if I can keep some alive through the winter.
Jason Davis [00:05:12]:
Yeah, that will be awesome.
Jack Jostes [00:05:13]:
And see what happens.
Jason Davis [00:05:14]:
Yeah, that's. That's awesome. They're a real good, hardy plant. Most people really enjoy mums just because of the fall color.
Jack Jostes [00:05:21]:
Yeah, we always just had them in planters and didn't keep them. Didn't really think about it.
05:27 - Mums That Sell: Packaging Tips for Maximum Appeal
Jason Davis [00:05:27]:
You know, one of the things I really noticed here in the last couple of years is everyone has gone toward more of a plastic terracotta pot. And people are looking for. Homeowners are looking for something that's display ready, so they buy plants that are already in plastic containers that go directly onto their porch for display. So the plastic containers are lighter, they look good from the road. So that's kind of been a change as compared to the standard black nursery cans that we're kind of, I guess, conditioned to buy mums from.
Jack Jostes [00:05:57]:
Okay, so these are more presentable plastic pots.
Jason Davis [00:06:01]:
Yes, exactly. They're showroom worthy.
Jack Jostes [00:06:04]:
Is that how you're packaging yours?
Jason Davis [00:06:06]:
Some of them. We still do some in the black plastic containers or mum pans, but we do do some that are ready to display.
Jack Jostes [00:06:14]:
Do you find people are willing to pay more for them if they're in the display ready pots?
Jason Davis [00:06:20]:
Yes. There is a distinct markup and increase in your marginal revenue for using the, the decorative pots.
06:28 - Why Farming Fuels Jason’s Passion for Change
Jack Jostes [00:06:28]:
Well, so I'm curious, so you've had this farm for a while and you've arrived at selling these things. What are you most excited about in running your farm these days?
Jason Davis [00:06:36]:
For me, it's a change of pace. You know, you're working outside, you're working with plants, you have those endorphins that are released because working with people, you don't always see results. Or if you do, sometimes it could be a while before you see the return on your investment. But when working with plants, a lot of times that investment or that return is a lot quicker. So it's a good break from things. As long as everything works. You don't want repairs.
Jack Jostes [00:07:02 ]:
So you must be pretty busy. Like how many hours do you work on your farm in a week? And I'm sure this very seasonally. But how much are you working in the farm versus working at the university?
Jason Davis [00:07:12]:
The university is a good 40 hours per week plus depending on travel requirements. Typically I squeeze in my farm stuff either late in the evenings, which is really nice now because our day lengths last until about 9:00 in the evening. So I can squeeze in a couple hours in the evening or Saturdays landscaping or working with nurseries or greenhouses. Kind of find something that you enjoy. I enjoy working with plants. I've enjoyed growing all the mums that I've grown, growing sweet corn. And I feel like that's kind of my purpose. You know, we're called to be stewards, and my job is I look after my bees, I look after those mums.
Jason Davis [00:07:50]:
And maybe in a small sense, I help make the surrounding community better and look better.
Jack Jostes [00:07:56]:
Well, I believe you do through your plants and then also through the people that you're teaching these skills because they're learning from you in that way too.
Jason Davis [00:08:05]:
Education. I always feel like there's an opportunity for us to improve. And whenever we have a project, we evaluate the project or the event afterwards, and I always tell them, this is the learning opportunity, what went well, what we'd like to change. And there's always an educational component to whatever we do.
08:24 - Empowering Youth: Building the Next Ag Leaders
Jason Davis [00:08:24]:
And I believe in the power of youth to make things better. You know, we have a proven track record in this country of, you know, when they started with societal change, with seat belts and to stop smoking and other campaigns, they started with youth. Because as older adults, we're kind of set in our ways. But with youth, there's always potential to improve things.
Jack Jostes [00:08:45]:
So what are some of the ways that either NCNLA or the university. How are you reaching the youth? How are you connecting with people early in their life? Because you grew up around it, from your family. For people who, maybe it's not in their family, but they would be interested. How do you reach young people?
Jason Davis [00:09:02]:
With any organization, whether it be a church or fire department, your local grange or rotary, people go where they find value. So if you can provide value to people in extension, they used to refer to it as voting with your feet. People show up to activities in which they gain from it. And the NCNLA does that through their educational opportunities, through their conferences, through their events, by providing professional development credits for providing opportunities to interact with your peers.
09:30 - Get Involved: Volunteer Opportunities with NCNLA
Jack Jostes [00:09:30]:
One of the things that we just did before we did this podcast was we made a little video to help get more volunteers. So for folks listening, tell us about what are the volunteer opportunities with NCNLA?
Jason Davis [00:09:43]:
Typically, at our conferences and different events, there's opportunities for you to come and be engaged either to help out. Probably the best thing is just to contact the staff and see kind of where you can put your strengths to work at.
Jack Jostes [00:09:55]:
Well, so one of the Things that we talked about was some of the volunteers have even been connected with potential employers. So for folks listening, and maybe we expand this outside of NCLA, because I have people all over the country who watch and listen to this. How can you get involved with your state association and how can that maybe help you connect with potential hires?
Jason Davis [00:10:17]:
If I was an employer and I was looking for a talent pipeline, I would get connected with your universities, community colleges or junior colleges in your state and also your high school ag program. Within those schools, there's young people that are excited about the content of the green industry, whether it's working in greenhouses or nursery or landscaping components, or just working with plants in general. If you can kind of capture some of that interest and then hone it into what you the talent and strength that you need for your business, that's where I would kind of go and begin to cultivate that talent.
Jack Jostes [00:10:51]:
I really like that. And I'm thinking of a client of mine in Texas that has a nursery and landscape company and they have a horticulture apprenticeship for high school students. And I got to interview this woman, Abigail, who went through that and it was in conjunction with the high school and then eventually got a part time job and then is now a full time employee at that nursery.
Jason Davis [00:11:14]:
At the University of Mount Olive. What's unique about our program is all of our students are required to complete a 10 week internship. So typically during the summer, the students pick an internship that's aligned with their major and they spend that summer working through at least four objectives and the supervision of a university supervisor to get that work based experience. And kind of what we've learned is that a lot of times when employers really like an intern or student intern, they don't want to let them go. They typically work to keep that talent in house.
Jack Jostes [00:11:47]:
Yeah, I like that. So for folks listening, get involved with your local colleges and state association.
11:53 - Connect with Jason Davis: Your New Ag Resource
Jack Jostes [00:11:53]:
And Jason, for people who are listening and we want to check out your farm or we want to network with you, how can we get in touch?
Jason Davis [00:12:00]:
I will say reach me either at our web address at www.umo.edu or rdavis@umo.edu.
Jack Jostes [00:12:09]:
All right, well, I'll put links to that in the show notes so people can connect with you there. And thanks for coming on The Landscaper's Guide.
Jack Jostes [00:12:16]:
Hey, it's Jack Jostes. And thanks for listening to The Landscaper's Guide Podcast. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Jason Davis. I'm here in North Carolina, just finished presenting at the North Carolina Nursery Landscape Association Education Summit. And hey, if you enjoyed this conversation, make sure that you come and meet us in person. We're going to be coming to a bunch of shows in person and I want to interview you, so check out landscapersguide.com/events we've got a whole list of all the events we're going to have a booth at, we're going to be exhibiting at some things, and we've got some exciting upcoming virtual events as well.
Jack Jostes [00:12:54]:
So check it out landscapersguide.com/events my name is Jack Jostes and I look forward to talking with you next week on The Landscaper’s Guide.
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode + see the transcript at: landscapersguide.com/podcast
Tell us where to send your beef jerky: landscapersguide.com/toolbox
🌱 University of Mount Olive: www.umo.edu
📲 Connect with Jason Here: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=622183542
📧 Email Jason Directly: rdavis@umo.edu