This article originally appeared in the July 2017 print edition of Cannabis Business Times. To subscribe, click here.
The debate between indoor, greenhouse and outdoor cultivation is a hot topic in the cannabis industry today. But there is one thing outdoor cultivators can have that is unavailable or unhelpful to the other types: goats.
“The goats serve a purpose for the grass,” says Andrew Felperin, co-owner, CEO and production manager at Apollo Grown, an outdoor-greenhouse-indoor cultivation and extraction business in Eugene, Ore. “Things grow like mad out here. Oregon trail, you know.”
Felperin lives on the farm and tends to the day-to-day of the cultivation operation while his partner Jared Dellinger, the other co-owner and head of marketing, lives in Hawaii.
The goats and other animals on the farm help with simple operations around the property: Six goats act as natural lawn-care specialists when they aren’t escaping from their pens; four dogs act as a security measure (although Felperin admits they do go after the odd delivery driver who forgets to check in ahead of time); and the pigs—well, they are there to be roasted during company luaus.
“I raise pigs every year so that we can have little barbecues and stuff for our employees,” Felperin explains. “After-work type of fun, you know?”
Now, after retrofitting the property to accommodate a cultivation business—including renovating a horse arena into an extraction lab—Apollo Grown is working to make a splash in an established Oregon market with its launch of branded extracts and flower.
To read the full article in Cannabis Business Times' July edition, click here.
Top photo: Jake Gravbot
