According to the 2017 USDA Census, black-operated farms accounted for 4.7 million acres of farmland, just 0.5 percent of the U.S. total. 85 percent of these minority farms had fewer than 180 acres. The average size of black-operated farms was 132 acres. The relatively small acreage of these position them to be conducive to the production and marketing of non-traditional crops. My work as an Area Agriculture Agent with one such small farmer began many years ago, long before I was employed through Cooperative Extension at Kentucky State University. Travis Cleaver was a freshman in my Agriscience class at LaRue County High School in the 1990’s. 

Having a keen interest in all things Agriculture related, it was a pleasure to assist him filling out and securing his first USDA loan. This fine young man was an asset to every class in which he enrolled and was an accomplished dairy cattle showman and FFA member. I watched his entrepreneurial farming enterprises grow from a distance over the years as I my professional career shifted. It was a pleasure to reconnect with him in 2016 when I joined the KYSU team. Even though assigned to Nutrition at the time, I was granted permission to work with Travis in agriculture enterprises since he was based out of my home county. As friends and peers now, he and I share production and marketing strategies for pastured poultry, weekly vegetable boxes and most recently his expansion into Fall products such mums and pumpkins. As an experience professional in the industry, I helped him select cultivars and educated on the control of weeds and fungi.

Operating Cleav’s Family Market with pick-up locations in Hodgenville, Louisville and Lexington, Travis and his family are providers of premier, locally grown meats and produce. A lucrative consignment arrangement was made with Black Soil of Kentucky to sell the recently added pumpkin crop. Cleaver also sold some of the orange fruit and many winter squash as additions to his weekly CSA baskets. In September 2021, one of our regular discussions led to the topic of chrysanthemums, specifically the potential viability of them adding to his bottom line while supplementing end of season revenue. I provided Cleaver the contact information for a reputable wholesale mum grower in adjacent Green County. This gentleman was in the practice of making wholesale deliveries, a service that was necessary for the already short on time Cleaver who has an off farm career with CSX Railroad. Over a brief three-week period, Cleaver sold nearly 450 of these potted flowering Fall staples and added $4500 in gross sales with $1800 net profit to his September earnings.

This revenue was, for all practical purposes, bonus money as the sales occurred in conjunction with his normal stand operating hours and out of town deliveries. The assistance through the 1890 Land Grant Cooperative Extension system also helped fill a large void of minority farmers providing specialty Fall crops to consumers. While at present, Cleaver is not raising the plants from cuttings, he has the potential to do so should the wholesale supply fail to meet his and consumers needs. While the cash sales from mums comprised a relatively small percentage of his revenue for the season, they did contribute to his overall success including being named the 2021 Small, Limited Resource Minority Farmer’s Conference Farmer of the Year.