I think sometimes the bureaucracy of organizations takes hold and it takes longer to get things accomplished — and I didn’t feel that. I feel like they really made it happen for me.
Jamie Hamilton
Jamie Hamilton believes his young age is a benefit as a business owner.
Having turned 26 in September, he has done what many have tried — he’s his own boss, managing a successful and growing operation. After college, Hamilton worked for other farms for a bit, including a large organic beef operation, before he said the opportunity to buy out another company sort of fell into his lap.
This was in 2020, as COVID was stretching across the country and so much of everyday life was marred by question marks. But is there ever a good time to take the leap? For Hamilton, it was as good a time as any.
He now farms about 800 acres in Florence and raises about 270 cows — including 90 cow/calf pairs — at his medium-sized operation. He does 95 percent of the work with some hired people to help out.
He sells wholesale beef in and out of state and in state, direct–to–consumer, to local restaurants and stores, plus a little bit of hay on the side. He’s working on getting into custom farming, but hasn’t made that jump yet, aside from small custom mowing jobs.
Hamilton didn’t grow up on a farm. He got into the field helping out on a neighbor’s dairy as a summer job early in his teens, when he fell in love with the work. He considered becoming a veterinarian and pursued animal science at the University of Vermont before making the jump to Vermont Technical College, where he studied dairy management and diversified agriculture.
The rest is history.
After working for another farmer in the beef world, he always sort of assumed he’d return to dairy farming, but, as he put it, starting from scratch just wasn’t feasible.
When the to-buy opportunity presented itself, he started by working with the outgoing farmer, managing the herd and building up some equity. This turned to an owner-financed relationship, but eventually Hamilton knew he wanted to expand.
“Working with him allowed me to get into a position where I could go to VEDA and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this collateral’,” he said. “It gave me — and provided VEDA — a track record to show, ‘This guy has been in business for a couple of years, he’s generating X amount of income,’ it wasn’t like I had nothing to show.”
For VEDA, he said, providing financing this way was relatively low-risk, since he’d put in the time to forge his path. He wasn’t overwhelmed with debt, there was an existing partnership in place with the selling party; it all made sense.
Plus, it enabled Hamilton to feel comfortable going it alone, with VEDA having his back.
“I’ve always had a dream of owning my own business, and then I realized it was going to be a farming business; I realized how much I like farming — it all lined up,” he said.
His connection with VEDA, he said, followed his serendipitous path, too. Hamilton’s loan officer was really responsive, especially considering the time sensitivity involved in the sale. Farming, of course, is seasonally dependent, too — the cows couldn’t wait to have their calves until the paperwork was signed. Any snags in the process could have put the process back significantly.
And, at his still-young age, he has set himself up for a life of learning and growing. If he had started out at age 40 instead of 25, he said, he likely wouldn’t have felt at ease taking the leap he did.
“If it doesn’t work out by the time I’m 30 or 35, I could move on and go to something else,” he said. “And down the road I’ll benefit from having those extra 10 or 15 years over a lot of people because of the sacrifices I’m making now.”
