James Coffey’s grandpa told him not to return to the Hustonville, Ky., farm, but he didn’t listen. At least not in the end. 

Coffey's grandfather had just lived through the 1980s and its high interest rates and didn’t see a stable future to support another person.  

"That’s when I made my decision: I’m going to go do something where I can make enough money to farm," Coffey said.  

He got a degree in accounting, spent a few years in private firms and then had the opportunity to buy a fishing tackle business that he’s since grown to the largest in its category.  

“I kind of accomplished my goal,” he reflects. “I made enough money to farm, and we’ve grown the Angus operation to where it’s a self-sustainable operation, has been for many years now.” 

That growth has come from a distinct focus on the commercial customer, an eye toward constant improvement and taking advantage of tools and opportunities as they come. 

“We want that bull to sire a better calf crop than that customer had last year,” Coffey said. “That’s the summation of it. If we can do that, we’ve done our job, and that’s what those customers are looking for." 

In the Southeast, smaller producers’ marketing of small drafts of cattle has almost always been marked with discounts. Years ago, Coffey saw a way to change that and started offering a customer buyback program.  

“We want to maximize the value of our customers’ calves,” he says, noting they take the Kentucky weighted average and add a premium to it. The cattle are then commingled at his farm for 45 to 60 days and sent to a Kansas feedyard.  

The program has become both an additional source of both revenue and data for Branch View Angus.   

Coffey jokes that trying to run a business and a farm means he’s working three shifts. Usually, his day starts with the cattle operation, transitions to his tackle business and the evenings find him doing anything from cow records to sales projections.  

It’s just what he always dreamed he wanted.  

“I started following my granddad around when I was 4 or 5. I was little and just the whole experience, I just enjoyed every bit of it,” Coffey says. “It’s all those aspects that so many people in our industry enjoy, the family and the hard work and the rewards of that hard work, that's what it all boils down to.”