Jay Hill

Jay Hill grew up helping his dad on their 10-acre hobby farm while his dad pursued a career in education as a recruiter for a technical school. Once Jay was in his teen years, he began to express serious interest in growing the family farm. Over the next few years they began buying or renting neighboring farms while Jay spent his summers working in an onion shed. After college, Jay began new steps in growing the family farm. In 2013 he partnered on Organ Mountain Produce, a pinto bean cleaning and sales company. OMP cleans and sells roughly 2 million pounds of fresh beans a year. As the farm continued to grow, Jay saw a need to start educating others about America’s food supply. In 2015 Jay was selected as one of the “Faces of Farming” for the U.S Farmers and Ranchers Alliance. He spent the next two years traveling the country talking to consumers about the day-to-day workings on the farm. In 2016 Hill partnered on another endeavor. Wholesome Valley Farms was created to sell farm grown produce directly to restaurants and grocery stores. Wholesome Valley Farms focuses on vegetable seed production, retail and wholesale sales, greenhouse production, and ground water remediation. Jay saw that the valley he grew up in and loved was starting to shrink. In 2017 Jay expanded his operation into West Texas, where he grows alfalfa, chile peppers, wine grapes, along with a new livestock feed company. Jay attributes his growth to his wife Katie, daughter Harvest, father Jim, brother Ross, and a great group of employees! In less than 17 years they have grown from 10 acres to more than 17,000 acres and 85 full time employees.

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