Hometown: CaneHill, Ark.
County: Washington
Family members: Brandi and Donnie Wilhite, Joshua Wilkes
What is your off-the-farm job/career? “I work at Jim’s Razorback Pizza in Prairie Grove as one of the managers. This job consists of cooking, customer service, and assisting the owner with whatever she needs me to.”
What type of farming operation? “I run a small farm to consumer operation. My farm name is A Gal N Her Goats. On the farm I have a herd of dairy goats and a bee apiary. The operation is run on 15 acres. The product I offer to consumers is a variety of goat milk soap and beeswax lotion bars. I market my product in three different ways. One is through social media, I use facebook and instagram as a free marketing tool. The second is through craft fairs. I attend as many local craft fairs as I can each year to gain customers and create a follower base on my social media platforms. The third way is through word of mouth. I have always preferred this way of marketing because consumers love to find business through other consumers. So I work hard to keep a good reputation by always offering a good quality product to my valued customers.
“My main goals for this operation is to teach my community about the importance of agriculture and all it has to offer while also offering them high end products. My other goal is that my operation can keep growing so I can offer more high quality agriculture products and offer it to more people. If my operation continues to grow from the great support of my loyal customers I will be able to show more people about the importance of agriculture.”
What do you enjoy most about being a farmer/rancher? “What I enjoy the most about being a farmer is getting to see my hard work paid off. Farming is a lot of hard long days but to me the benefits of seeing your animals thriving, making a product that people love is all worth the hard days. I also take pride in being raised on a farm. Growing up on a farm has taught me to work for what I want, and has given me true grit and determination to achieve my goals. I would love to teach the things I have learned growing on the farm to my future kids or anyone who would want to learn about farm life.”
