Delta Ag Journal Vol. 1 No. 4 | October 2018

Page 1

Delta Ag Journal The Farm Lifestyle Magazine of the Mississippi Delta

Women in Agriculture

Cotton Gins HARRIS BARNES PHOTOGRAPER Farm Toy Show

Ag Internships

Volume 1 • Number 4 • OCTOBER 2018

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Women in Agriculture

Cotton Gins

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HARRIS BARNES PHOTOGRAPER

Volume 1 • Number 4 • OCTOBER 2018

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Farm Toy Show

Ag Internships

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Scott Coopwood, PUBLISHER

DeltaAg Journal Publisher: J. Scott Coopwood Editors: Kristy Kitchings, Pam Parker Graphic Designer: Cailee Conrad

My Grandfather’s Gin

WRITERS Charlotte Buchanan, Hank Burdine, Angela Rogalski, Greta Sharp, Patrick R. Shepard, Mark H. Stowers, Erin Williams PHOTOGRAPHY Austin Britt, Rory Doyle, Roy Meeks CIRCULATION Holly Tharp

Growing up in the small town of Shelby, the first indication that fall was on its way was the sound of the large cotton gin motors that were suddenly cranked. Then, a few days later, a haze descended over our town carrying with it a wonderful aroma. My grandfather’s gin was known as the Shelby Gin and he practically lived there from the day those engines were turned on until the last bale of cotton was ginned a couple of months later. In fact, Shelby had several gins, five in all I am told. Our gin was not only a gathering place for the cotton farmers, the town’s businessmen also showed up there in the evenings to socialize and talk about football, the incoming hunting season, the cotton crop of course, and everything else. Every fall, my grandfather sent one of his workers,Welch, to New Orleans to fill up several large aluminum ice chests with oysters and for a couple of nights after his return, the men at the gin ate the raw oysters and consumed more Scotch than the law probably allowed. Back in those days, my sidekick at the gin was a man named, “Pocketknife” who spent much of his time walking around in the back of the cotton trailers maneuvering a large vacuuming tube that sucked the cotton into the gin. At the end of the journey, a large cotton bale would magically be produced. The gins were also a campaign stop for those vying for political office and I have seen photos of Senators Eastland and Stennis visiting ours. Charlie Sullivan too. In recent years as grain crops have become popular, the number of cotton gins in the Delta have been reduced. In fact, some of my friends gin their cotton thirty or forty miles away from their farms. But, for those of us who have lived here in the Delta our entire lives, we’ll always remember the many gins that once dotted the roads and the significant number of the vast cotton fields that stretched to the horizon in every direction. We hope you enjoy this edition of the Delta Ag Journal. We are constantly searching for story ideas and we encourage you to forward us your suggestions.

ACCOUNTING MANAGER Emma Jean Thompson ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Kristy Kitchings, Ann Nestler, Wendy Mize POSTMASTER Send all address changes to: Delta Ag Journal P.O. Box 117, Cleveland, MS 38732 ADVERTISING For advertising information, please call (662) 843-2700 Fax (662) 843-0505 Delta Ag Journal accepts no responsibility for unsolicited materials and in general does not return them to sender. Manuscripts and photographs submitted for publication are welcomed by Delta Ag Journal, but no responsibility can be taken for them while in transit or in the office of publication. All editorial and advertising information is taken from sources considered to be authoritative, but the publication cannot guarantee their accuracy. Neither that information nor any opinion expressed on the pages of Delta Ag Journal in any way constitutes a solicitation for the sale or purchase of securities mentioned. No material in the Delta Ag Journal can be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publisher.

Delta Ag Journal is published by Coopwood Publishing Group, Inc. EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICE ADDRESSES Mailing Address: Post Office Box 117 Cleveland, Mississippi 38732 Shipping Address: 125 South Court Street Cleveland, Mississippi 38732 Phone (662) 843-2700 Fax (662) 843-0505 E-mail: publisher@deltaagjournal.com

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Letters I wanted to take this opportunity to salute the Delta Ag Journal on its first full year in publication. The first issue in January was great, but it kept getting better and better, and I know that the final issue of the year will knock it out of the park. It's harvest season and in the restaurant world, we do all we can to make sure that our farmers and their workers have hot lunches and supper while in the field. You have given us a great new source for advertising to our agricultural industry and we thank you! Keep up the good work and we look forward to another year of Delta Ag Journal in 2019! Tara and David Herron Catfish Cabin Boyle

I would like to congratulate Scott Coopwood and his entire staff on another great publication, the Delta Ag Journal. There are many ag publications in the Delta, but none like what you have in your hands and are reading now, a lifestyle magazine about the roots of Delta farm families and rich history of agriculture over the decades. I have enjoyed being able to bring stories and photography such as Sunflower Plantation and Heathman Plantation to the readers of this publication. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of such a great magazine that is front and center of all things agricultural in this region. Hank Burdine Greenville

SEND COMMENTS AND LETTERS TO

publisher@deltaagjournal.com or Delta Ag Journal P.O Box 117 Cleveland, MS 38732 • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

Letters I am so excited about the new edition to the Coopwood Publishing Family! Delta Ag Journal perfectly fills the need to have a publication devoted to the most precious resource in the Mississippi Delta—the incredibly rich farmland. If this Delta dirt could only talk, the stories it would tell. This new mag is for the farmers, the farmers’ wives, the wanna be farmers, and the whole economy which has risen up from this old swampland to make the Mississippi Delta that most fertile land in the entire world. Thank you for telling the stories of the farmland and the people who tamed the wilderness. I especially loved the article on the Blanchard-Harris Farm and the Sunflower Plantation (July 2018). But the entire magazine was a pure joy to read with all of the beautiful glossy photographs and well written articles. Congratulations and keep up the good work! Nancy Armstrong Cleveland

The Delta Ag Journal is a premier farm magazine that's serves to provide practical information on crops, new technology and general agriculture for farm families in and around the Delta. You can almost feel the rich history and love of agriculture from each family that is featured. The Delta Ag Journal is on the forefront of what makes the Delta thrive. The only thing I wish is that it was a monthly publication instead of a quarterly magazine. I enjoy getting my complimentary copy in the mail and sitting down and reading it from cover to cover. Dallas Bright Air Repair Cleveland

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FARMER Q&A

Zac and Lauren Tollison with son Miller and daughter Piper

.*! ! Ruleville, Mississippi

Best Advice Received

What Do You Like Best About Farming?

Watch the older farmers who have been successful and take advice from them any chance you get and don’t make the same mistake twice.

Early in the morning before the sun gets up, before the world gets moving, the dew is still on the plants and its quiet, you look out across the fields and realize that this really is the work of God. Everything is in His hands and I am so very fortunate to be a farmer of His land.

Best Advice to Give

Keep a sharp pencil for bookkeeping and always try your best to get things done in a timely manner. First Job

My first job was to chop morning glories out of my father’s cotton fields (this was before the days of Roundup Ready crops). Education

I graduated from North Sunflower Academy, then attended MDCC for two years and majored in Field Crop Science. Family

My wife and I have been blessed with two beautiful children and I am a third generation farmer starting with my grandfather in 1964, currently no other family members assist in the day to day operation. How Did You Become Interested in Farming?

Farming is all I’ve ever known. I can remember many nights sleeping beside my father as he drove the combine into the late hours of the night. I’ve always had a love for farming and watching the hard work produce a beautiful crop. Farming is in my blood and is all I have really ever wanted to do and it is very rewarding.

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What Do You Like Least About Farming?

Almost everything you do depends on the weather. You could have the best crop that you have ever grown and it could be taken away by bad weather in an instant. Best Business Decision You Have Ever Made?

Getting back into growing cotton. What Traditions Do You Carry on From What You Learned From Your Father and Grandfather?

Running John Deere tractors. Name Someone Who Made a Difference in Your Life When You Were Growing Up and Why?

Without a doubt, this person would be my father, the late Bubba Tollison. He was not only a successful farmer, but a well known cotton entomologist in the Delta, so not only did I get the opportunity to learn how to farm from him, but I worked for him as well checking other farmers’ crops. I feel like that opportunity gave me an advantage on my own farm because I got to see the good and bad things that could happen on other farming operations.

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LAURA GIACCAGLIA EXTENSION AGENT

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aura Giaccaglia, Extension Coordinator/Agent IV for Bolivar County, may not consider herself a traditional “ag person,� but she has brought a wealth of knowledge and can-do attitude that has enhanced an already stellar program.

Under her leadership the Master Gardener Program was revitalized and the Mid Delta Forest Woodland and Wildlife Association was established. She also expanded Delta Rice Promotions, INC outreach efforts. “These are things that I continue to organize, develop, and implement even though my actual program area is now Family and Consumer Sciences and Community Resource Development,â€? she says. As for her agriculture roots, Giaccaglia grew up in a very small town called Coahoma. “Many think I mean Coahoma County when they ask me and I have to explain 32 • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

that there is actually a town named Coahoma located near Moon Lake. I grew up a farmer’s daughter. My grandfather came over in a covered wagon from Calhoun County to farm,� she says. “My dad grew up knowing no other way of life. As a very young child, I remember making many trips to the farm with my mom. From delivering parts to the field, to riding in the bob truck in the night to get the soybeans to the scales to pulling cotton trailers to the gin, I remember being with my mom getting these things done. Often I would ride with my dad in the cotton picker and he would let me steer. “My job was to keep the spindles clean. Of course my father gave me the job to

feel important and anything I could get into that would make me as dirty as my dad, I wanted to do. He actually paid me to tromp the cotton. I think that is when unknowingly he taught me the lesson that work really could be fun,” Giaccaglia says. “If you enjoy what you do, it doesn’t seem like work. My dad moved to Heber Springs, Ark., in his later years, but would love to talk farming with my husband when we would visit. My husband, Jeff, is a salesman at Planters Equipment Company and has been working for them for nearly thirty years. He and I own farm land that we currently rent.” Giaccaglia, who received a BS in Family and Consumer Sciences education

from Delta State University and an MS from Mississippi State University, did not begin a career in agriculture right off the bat. After a brief stint at Regional One Mental Health as a program developer, where she created, implemented and evaluated the Baby Pathfinders Program and was later promoted to Program Monitor, she found an opening for the 4-H Extension Agent in Coahoma County, after waiting two years for just the right position within the organization. “Three years later there was an opening in Bolivar County for a 4-H Agent. In addition to 4-H, I have served as the Interim County Director and in 2010, I was named 5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal • 3

the County Director. Extension has resumed using the title County Coordinator which is the title I remember when I was initially hired in 1999. There have been times over the years that I was the only agent in the Bolivar County office. During these years we had Area Extension Agents that I was able to call upon to ensure client’s needs were being met in the field,” she says. “However, there were things that I was able to do in order to ensure there was not a vacancy in the Ag program. I produced ag newsletters, taught Private Applicator Trainings and Worker Protection, I submitted weekly crop reports, and provided yield reports. I made home horticulture visits and collected information needed to present to the appropriate Extension Specialist in order to make a recommendation to the homeowner. “I remain a member of the Mississippi Association and the National Association of County Agriculture Agents. I learned a long time ago, to be a good extension agent, you have to know how to do a little bit of just about anything,” she adds. “I’m sure most people would say that has to be a challenge, but I don’t really think of it as challenging, because I really do enjoy what I do.” Giaccaglia says noone knows what the future holds, and everyone has seen many changes over the years in agriculture. “Just from the time in my life where I was tromping daddy’s cotton as a little girl to now seeing cotton pickers that bale the cotton for you. Technology is steadily forcing us into change but one thing will never change,” she says. “We will all need to eat. We will always need to say thank you to a farmer.”

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5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal • 3"

NUTRIEN

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utrien Ag Solutions is the largest retailer of crop inputs and solutions for growers in North America.

Jeff Tarsi is vice president of the North American operations, and offers a brief description of exactly what that means. “We provide anything a grower would use to produce a crop. Crop inputs include seed, crop protection, and fertility products, and we provide them all. We also do custom application, we finance, and we have a digital platform as well to share information with our customers, such as analytical data to help them make the best decisions in producing their crops.� In this context, “custom application,� means Nutrien Ag Solutions employees apply the products such as fertilizers and crop protection for the grower, rather than selling the products for growers to apply themselves. Custom application is more common in other parts of the country, particularly the Midwest, than it is in the South. Nutrien Ag Solutions was previously known as Crop Production Services, but rebranded itself in July 2018. “Our parent company, called Nutrien, came about as the result of a merger of equals between Agrium and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan. On January 1, 2018 we completed the merger of equals to form the largest nutrient company in the world. At that time, we operated our retail business in the States and in Canada as Crop Production Services, but we decided to rebrand ourselves to make it clear that we’re a united wholesale and retail company that’s all about agriculture. We’re very backintegrated with the business and we’re highly committed to agriculture on a very longterm basis. Our retail business is the same company it’s always been, it’s just rebranded.� Tarsi travels extensively, but is based in Memphis, Tenn., where the Mississippi Division of Nutrien Ag Solutions is located.

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Tarsi

Nutrien Ag Solutions uses digital platforms in order to share information and provide analytical data to help farmers make profitable decisions in regards to their crop production.

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“We have roughly 900 retail outlets in the U.S. and around 300 more in Canada, so we have a very large presence in the market. We want to serve our customers with the highest quality products and services to ensure that they’re able to maximize yields on their soils and maximize profits.” Tarsi adds that the company’s customer and purchasing base is vast. “When you think about players like Bayer, which acquired Monsanto earlier this year, and Corteva, which is the agricultural division of DowDuPont, we would be the largest customer for both of those companies. We buy from the basic manufacturers and we sell to our growers, but at the same time we’re back-integrated with our own products as well, both crop protection and seed. Nutrien is the largest producer of potash fertilizer in the world, and we’re a major producer of nitrogen and phosphate as well, and these wholesale businesses supply our retail organization extensively. Nutrien Ag Solutions also has a proprietary line of seed called Dyna-Gro® and we market our proprietary crop protection and adjuvants products under the Loveland Products brand.” Nutrien Ag Solutions operates about twenty-five retail farm centers in Mississippi, and Tarsi says the company is always looking for opportunities to grow. In some cases, they build new facilities from scratch, other times it makes sense to expand existing operations and in other cases, they buy businesses from other companies. “We just built a new, state-of-the-art facility in Guntown to serve the customers of East Mississippi. About 550 people attended the grand opening,” Tarsi says. “We also have an experimental farm in Winterville, where we can show our customers our latest products and technologies and how we use them. We have a Loveland Products crop production formulation plant in Greenville, which employs around one hundred people. It’s one of the largest formulating facilities we have in the country. We’re one of the largest employers in Washington County, and we’re very invested in the entire state of Mississippi and its agriculture industry. The Nutrien Ag Solutions location in Boyle is well equipped to meet area farmers needs for fertilizers, seeds and other crop protection products.

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FARM HEADQUARTERS

JIM PEGRAM

A Young Farmer in Tunica with Old School Headquarters By MARk H. stoweRs Photography by Austin Britt

20 • Delta Ag Journal • OctOber 2018

F

arm shops come in all shapes and sizes with technology that dates back to the invention of electricity moving forward. For Jim Pegram, he’s happy to stay “old school” and keep using what works for him and his help. The Ole Miss graduate grew up watching his grandfather farm while his dad worked at the local John Deere dealership. Needless to say, Pegram Farms “runs like a Deere” and is all green when it comes to machinery. “I’m a young farmer. This will be my sixth harvest,” Pegram says. “My dad, my grandad and my great-granddad all farmed. In the 80s when things were rough, they downsized the farm.” His parents dissuaded him from the turnrow life. “They said, ‘we don’t have enough land.’ I went to Ole Miss and majored in Managerial Finance. Even after college I went to work for Farm Bureau, but my dad always kept the farm and worked for the John Deere dealership in Tunica, Parker Tractor and Implement Company. My grandad ran the farm just to give him something to do.”

OctOber 2018 • Delta Ag Journal • 21

Jim Pegram makes good utilization of his “old school” farm shop. For this young Tunica farmer, his headquarters, which includes all things green, is sufficient for his needs on his over 3,000 acre farm.

Pegram’s plan was to learn the ropes from his grandfather but before the lessons were completed he passed away from cancer. “I helped my grandfather get his last crop out and I feel in love with the process and I knew after that experience I wanted to give farming a try. I started expanding the farm from there. In the past six years we have gone from 600-700 acres to over 3,000 acres,” Pegram says. “We’re growing at a pace we can afford.” The thirty-one year old enjoys tinkering around the shop fixing and maintaining the farm equipment with his seven full-time workers and a few more during the harvest. His wife, Claire, grew up on a farm and understands the needs. Now with three boys, Clyde, Luke and Will, Pegram has his hands full on and off the turnrow. “My older boys love the lifestyle and they call themselves “farming” all day in the back yard. Our house is right next to my parents’ house and our shop is just three hundred feet away. The boys have a great collection of John Deere toy tractors,” he says. “I absolutely love that we built a house so close to my shop that I can see them playing and enjoying the whole farm lifestyle. This year Pegram is farming cotton, rice and soybeans. We got out of the cotton business for a while but we started back last year. However it is rice that has really been a game changer for us from a profit standpoint. Even in his short time farming, Pegram has learned two valuable lessons. “You’ve got to have a good equipment dealership and a friendly banker and I have 22 • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

both,” he says. Both of these relationships come in handy when you want to improve things on your farm. “I love taking land and making it better. A lot of our land had not been developed, but I fell in love with taking a piece of dirt that people don’t think is any good and turn that unproductive farm into a productive one.” The finance side of his education comes into play as he enjoys crunching the numbers and figuring out the selling of his commodities as well. “I honestly love every aspect of the job. I still like to drive equipment, in fact I was on a tractor recently knocking rice levees down,” he says. “As much as I love getting dirty and being out in the fields, nowadays it cost so much to farm and equipment costs so much, you can’t leave anything on the table, so I realize that it is very important that I spend adequate time staying on top of the finances. That is

something that I have a tough time turning over to other people.” Pegram’s “old school shop” has been around more than forty years. “It’s nothing fancy but I feel it is sufficient for our needs here on the farm. It’s just big enough to pull one piece of equipment under it at a time to work on it,” he says. “But we can store a little bit of other stuff. It’s truly an old school working shop it is certainly nothing pretty.” His workers are all old school as well and enjoy the open area to work in according to Pegram. “All of my guys are older and they’ve been with me forever and they know what needs to get done. They like being here and it’s a real laid-back atmosphere,” Pegram says. “They know to take their time and not get too hot. It’s an active shop with always something going on.” Pegram notes that the shop is up to date

as needed. The open air shed/shop does have one room that is enclosed but we really don't pull any equipment into that area. That area was probably utilized years ago but when the shop was initially built equipment was a lot smaller than it is today. The shop includes welding equipment with plenty of his family’s DNA on each piece. “Welding was my grandfather’s passion. He was self-taught, and he would weld

every one of his grandchildren a nice, welded table that you’d put a TV on. “We have a lot of heavy-duty iron tables that he built over the years. Due to the fact that his grandfather loved welding the shop has three different types of welders and several air compressors and scrap metal. One thing is for certain on a farm, you never know when you’ll need some scrap iron to fix something,” says Pegram. Pegram regrets not spending more time

with his welding grandfather, but keeps a piece of his artwork in the shop as a constant reminder of his heritage. “If he had lived another year or so, I probably would have learned more from him,” Pegram says. “We have a table in the shop he started. He would always make a nice metal table each year for the school to raffle off. The wrought iron table he was working on when he died is still there. Maybe one day I’ll decide to finish it, but I like it sitting there in the shop.” Pegram is quick to point out that his farming education comes from neighbors and other farming professionals in the area. “Tunica has some really good farmers. I can’t tell you how many times I pick up the phone and call the farmers around me to get some ideas. They’ve seen a lot of these problems that I’m seeing for the first time. They are all willing to talk me through things and help me out,” he says. “I rely on our county agent as well and he’s really good at keeping us informed about the newest trends/technology especially with our spraying. We have a great NRCS office. In Tunica, we’re fortunate. It’s really an amazing farming community.”

5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal • 2

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2! • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

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FARM FAMILIES

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ill Nobile and his father, Jerry Nobile are some of the most respected catfish farmers in the industry. In fact, Jerry was named Catfish Farmer of the Year by The Catfish Institute in 2016. He has been farming catfish for over thirty years. “I grew up on the farm and never wanted to do anything else but farm. When I graduated from high school, I didn’t want to go to college, but my parents insisted. I reminded my dad that he lacked hours in getting his degree from Mississippi State. That didn’t sway my dad one bit, he

2 • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

immediately enrolled in online classes at Mississippi State and he got his degree at the same time I got mine. It’s nice to know I have it to fall back on should I ever need it, but this is my life,� Nobile says. The Nobiles farm about 650 acres in catfish and around 1500 acres in soybeans all located near Moorhead. “We have had a lot of rainfall this year and that has hurt our yield in soybeans some. One good point, we didn’t use our irrigation much at all which cut down on costs. Overall, our crop looks pretty good,� he comments. The Nobiles also operate a catfish hatchery in

Moorhead and sell fingerlings to customers in Mississippi, Alabama and Texas. A traumatic event happened in the young farmer’s life this summer. He was at his farm office when he heard what he described was like a thunder bolt. “I went outside to see what was happening and it wasn’t too long before I realized that there had been a terrible plane crash that involved a USMC KC-130 that claimed the lives of sixteen military people. I, along with a neighboring farmer, Andy Jones, and others tried to get to the wreckage, but it was no way, it was an inferno. All we could do was

Will and Jerry Nobile

to block off the area until the officials like first responders arrived on the scene. It was a very sad day for us and our country,” he says. Will belongs to The Catfish Institute of American, Catfish Farmers of Mississippi and Catfish Farmers of America. Jerry Nobile is a member of the Indianola Rotary Club and serves on the board of directors for Fishbelt Foods. Will says that the farm keeps him busy pretty much year-round but enjoys hunting and riding horses when time allows. While many in the catfish farming industry describe their life as 24/7, Will says that though it is demanding it is a life he loves. “There is nothing I would rather do than be a farmer in the Mississippi Delta,” he concludes.

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FARM FAMILIES

28 • Delta Ag Journal • OctOber 2018

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osh Miller is the proud operator of Onward Plantation in the area where President Teddy Roosevelt had his fabled bear hunt in 1902. Miller’s great-grandfather, Henry Kline came from Europe in the early 1890s and settled there when the area was little more than swamps and tree. “My grandfather, Micky Kline then took over the farming operation and because of them, I am doing what I love today, farming Onward Plantation,� Miller says. The young farmer said that he enjoys all facets of farming, but especially enjoys planting season. “It’s just something about springtime in the Delta, everything is fresh and a new beginning. It took me almost ten years to discover that farming Onward Plantation was what I wanted to do,� he says. “I attended the University of Alabama and went to work in the catfish industry. I had a great mentor, Harry Simmons of Simmons Catfish. He taught me to pay attention to detail, he said that even the smallest details can make or break a business. I learned a lot from him,� Miller says. Onward Plantation consists of approximately 3200 acres in Sharkey, Warren and Madison counties. Miller said it is partially irrigated and over the last ten years about eighty percent of the land has been land formed. Miller is extremely proud of the farm’s wildlife conservation program. “We have about 300 acres of flooded fields and flooded timber for wintering wildlife and we have a multitude of migrating waterfowl each year,� he says.

Onward Plantation produces cotton, soybeans and peanuts. Miller says he became interested in raising peanuts several years ago when he talked to a friend in South Carolina who was raising the crop. “I felt like our land and climate was conducive to growing a good crop of peanuts and would be profitable and so far, it has been.� Miller is a member of Delta Council, serves as a director of the State Farm Bureau organization and is president of Sharkey County Farm Bureau. He was appointed by Governor Haley Barbour to the Peanut Promotion Board and is ViceChairman. The board promotes and develops the peanut crop industry in Mississippi. He and his wife Melanie have two sons Reed, fourteen and Jack, twelve. “It is my hope that even if they don’t grow up to farm they will always love this land as much as they do now and will carry on the tradition of our family with Onward Plantation. My grandfather always said that as long as you own land, your lives will be rich because of tradition.� Miller is proud of his Jewish heritage and is a member of the Hebrew Union Temple in Greenville. The Millers live near Yazoo City where his wife teaches school. Miller says he enjoys being outdoors and the game of golf. “I will have to admit that golf had to be put on the back burner because I am very involved with coaching of sports teams that our boys are involved in. We all enjoy going to Onward Plantation very much, there is nothing so wonderful as farm life.�

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FARM FAMILIES

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arter Farms is a name well-known in the industry in the south Delta. The late Wallace Carter moved from Woodville to the Rolling Fork area in the early 1900s to go to work for a relative. He remained, purchased land and the rest is Carter family farming history. Clark Carter, a member of the Carter Plantation Limited, is proud of the fact that he is a third-generation member of the farm family. “I farm with my dad, Jimmy Dick,

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my uncle Lawrence, his son, Gip, and my brother-in-law, John Abney. Another vital member, Emogene Carter, passed away this past January. My grandfather Wallace died when my dad was just fifteen years old, but that’s when he started farming on his own,� Carter says. The headquarters for the 7,000-acre farm is located in Rolling Fork. “Our land is located in Sharkey and Issaquena Counties.

The Carter farming operation is one of the few in the Delta experimenting with the use of drones in their operation. Drones capture highly accurate images of fields and can cover hundreds of acres in a single flight. “We purchased a drone about three years ago to use while irrigating crops and documenting drainage problems. Another use for this tool was photographing rice fields prior to harvest. This helps us eliminate fields that were difficult to

From left, Gip Carter, Clark Carter, Laurance Carter, Jimmie Dick Carter

harvest. Another use of the drone is to troubleshoot problems with our center pivot irrigation system,” he says. He says that about eighty-five percent of the land they farm has irrigation, either center-pivot or poly-pipe. In addition to family members, the farm employs six fulltime workers and more during peak seasons of planting and harvesting. Clark says he grew up on the farm and has always loved his occupation. “I went to

Mississippi State University and have a degree in Ag Economics. My wife, Emily, works for the Mississippi State Extension Service, and we have two children, Mattie and Reid. Reid hopes to join our farming operation; I guess we all have the Carter love of farming,” he says. Carter admits that he is like most “good ole Delta boys.” “I will have to say that I love hunting and fishing—nothing like it. My wife works for the Extension Service

and I do enjoy volunteering with the 4-H Club, a great organization,” he comments. His jovial personality came forward when he said he was a member of the Rotary Club of Rolling Fork. “You know, I missed a meeting one week and they elected me president; I try not to miss any more meetings,” he laughs.

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reliving memories Cleveland Farm toy show By AngelA RogAlski • Photography by Rory Doyle

34 • Delta Ag Journal • OctOber 2018

Founder and promoter of the Cleveland Farm Toy Show Blake Andrews with his wife Casey and children Mary Austin and Rafe

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hether it’s a social thing or people reliving their childhoods, farm toy shows have been drawing crowds all across the country for decades. From student groups like the FFA (Future Farmers of America), to individuals who enjoy collecting and sharing their finds, these toy shows are usually filled with John Deere green and International Harvester red, and a whole lot of memories for most people.

The Cleveland Farm Toy Show is an annual event that is held in Cleveland at the Bolivar County Expo Center. The event allows people to buy, sell, or trade many of the farm toy collectables that are on display. Blake Andrews is the founder and promoter of the Cleveland Farm Toy Show and has been bringing it to the Expo Center since 2014. “It’s an event where we have vendors coming from all over to sell, trade or show their farm toy collectables,” Andrews says. “And there’s usually a little bit of everything on display, just all kinds of farm toys. From riding toys to memorabilia, the attendees have the opportunity

to buy some of the items, while some vendors are there just to show their handmade models. There are remote-controlled trucks and tractors and construction equipment and the vendors set up and showcase them on the floor during the show. These are toys you won’t usually find in a store anywhere, many are custom-built.” Andrews adds that everything is always farm-related, any toy that would be associated with the farming lifestyle. On January 2526, 2019, the Cleveland Farm Toy Show will be celebrating its sixth year at the Bolivar County Expo. “Farm toy shows are a really big hobby for people in the northern part of the country,” Andrews says. “I’ve been collecting farm toys pretty much my whole life; it’s been a really cool hobby for me too. And in my opinion, here in the Mississippi Delta, life is based a lot around farming, just about everyone has some connection to agriculture. Whether they do it or their parents or grandparents did it, there is usually a family farm in people’s history. So, I think the farm toy shows are a great opportunity for kids to get into collecting these toys that their parents or grandparents broke their backs to actually use. It shows children 5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal • "

other things they can do besides stay in front of the TV all day. Every little kid likes to play in the dirt, and some of us older kids still enjoy it too.” Andrews says that getting the word out to vendors wasn’t that hard, since he’s been traveling for a while around the surrounding areas and farther north helping out other collectors to promote their events. “I travel a lot with it, helping other people put their shows on; I have a lot of friends who do this too. So, I’ve met quite a few people over the years. And when I decided to hold the Cleveland show, I began to let vendors know. Most of these people are traveling five to seven hours to get here. And the first couple of years was a lot of trial and error, but now we’re getting more vendors. We advertise with Facebook, newspapers, radio, and word of mouth. So, it’s growing.”

• Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

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hen newly widowed Sandra Berryhill Alesich found herslef running the family farm, she reached out to the extension service, attending every seminar offered. Her late husband told her, “If you take care of this place, it’s going to take care of you.â€? In November 2007, she attended a three-day Women in Agriculture seminar, which included workshops on risk management, marketing, production and human resources, as well as farm succession. 1 • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

Armed with this knowledge, Alesich became more confident in her decision-making abilities. In Mississippi, an amazing sixty percent of the farms are female-driven operations, or owned by a woman as head of the farm, according to the USDA. But Sunflower County Extension Agent Ann Twiner often hears, “My husband handles that.� As the daughter of a farmer and a former farming wife, she wants to help women understand the complexities of farming in case they ever need or want to take charge. “Traditionally, a woman gets overlooked as part of the operation,� says Extension

Associate Sylvia Clark. But from being an active participant on the property to serving as bookkeeper to providing a support system, all women’s roles are important and Mississippi Women for Agriculture focuses on that. Mississippi Women for Agriculture is a statewide resource for women involved in any aspect of the farming industry, from a large-scale operation to niche programs like agritourism. It welcomes members from a variety of backgrounds, ages and ag specialties from across the state: goats, timber, cattle, sweet potatoes or lavender to name just a few. It is housed with the

Above, MS Women in Agriculture Director and Sunflower County Extension Agent Ann Twiner. Right, MS Women in Agriculture Secretary, Sherilyn Jones farms catfish with her husband Austin in Moorhead.

“Women hold up half the sky.” – Chinese leader Mao Zedong Extension Associate Sylvia Clark

5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal •

Current president Sandra Berryhill Alesich on her farm in Franklin County.

Mississippi State University Extension Service in Starkville. “If you have an interest in agriculture and are kind of feeling lost, this is the organization for you because we’ve all been through it,” says Sherilyn Jones, who farms catfish with her husband in Moorhead. She served as Mississippi Women for Agriculture’s first president. “We know what your growing pains are. We all have the same problems, it doesn't matter if you’re in cattle, catfish or soybeans. You’re not in it alone.” Jones, who is from Atlanta, wasn’t raised on a farm, and learned through her involvement with Mississippi Women for Agriculture. Annie’s Project, explains Twiner, is the educational component of Mississippi Women for Agriculture. This national program recognizes the importance of a woman’s role on the farm. The program is geared towards aiding wives in the event that something happens to their husband. It helps them make the adjustment and move forward in a productive manner. Clark learned about Annie’s Project at Mississippi State, where she was a nontraditional student. Today she holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in agriculture information science. “Annie’s Project went along with what I was learning and I wanted to share it with as many people as possible,” she explains. !0 • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

Mississippi Women for Agriculture officially started eight years ago. As the current president, Alesich focuses on education, engagement and empowerment. The organization offers educational resources for women in farming, looking to break into farming or working to stay in farming. As the organization’s vicepresident, Clark is responsible for programming and relies on the resources available at Mississippi State and the extension service. Topics range from blogging and social media to insurance, stocks and commodities, as well as an annual conference. Regularly scheduled field trips are very popular. Last year’s event focused on agritourism sites in Pearl River County, including a bison ranch and a mushroom farm. This year the group toured catfish industry-related sites including Heartland Catfish in Itta Bena, and Bear Creek Fisheries and Fishbelt Feeds in Moorhead, followed by lunch at The Crown Restaurant in Indianola and a tour of Indianola Pecan House.

Mississippi Women for Agriculture is especially proud of its scholarship program. The group’s initial scholarship is named in honor of the late Dianne Evans, an ardent supporter of Mississippi Women for Agriculture. There is also a Dianne Evans lecture at the annual conference. Evans’ children attend the conference to present the scholarship. “It’s another connection of what family farming means and the farm mother is the glue that holds it all together,” Clark explained. More scholarships have been added over the years, including the Alma Cherry & Pam Steele Scholarship, and one sponsored by the former Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture, the Cindy Hyde-Smith, Woman in Agriculture Scholarship. In 2017, the organization awarded thirteen scholarships. “These women are most appreciative,” says Jones. “They range from ag economists to the vet school.” Last year, the Mississippi Women for Agriculture

presented its first scholarship to a student at Alcorn State University. Alesich hopes to engage women in the industry on a variety of platforms. She encourages women to serve as advocates for farming in their community, state and nation. Mississippi Women for Agriculture also provides an opportunity to network with other Southeastern farmers on issues they all share. By providing women with ag-related resources, it empowers them in the industry, including daughters who want to take over family enterprises. “You just learn things you didn’t even think you needed to know,” says Clark. “With the advances in technology, a woman can do almost anything a man can do now.” Farming is rarely a one-man, or onewoman, show. “Annie’s Project and other organizations realize the importance of the whole farm family system,” says Clark. It also helps women keep a farm or land that may have been in the family for generations. “People who have been though it are firm believers,” says Twiner. “It walks you though step by step.” Board members volunteer their time to Mississippi Women for Agriculture, fitting it in around their day jobs. Alesich has eight children, and when she remarried she gained three more. She and her husband maintain their 180-acre Franklin County property, which is mainly timber. “We’re all just families, but farmers as well,” says Clark, who in addition to being an MSU Extension Associate, is also a sweet potato farmer in Vardaman. The job of a woman in agriculture is multi-faceted. You cook, you wash the clothes, you aid as needed on the farm. We really have to be able to do it all. Mississippi Women for Agriculture is actively planning for the next generation. It sponsors an essay contest for high school students and Alesich working with others to develop a summer program with an agricultural theme suitable for a summer library program or Vacation Bible School. “There is a great need for what we do and we hope to step up and get the job done,” she says. It also works closely with organizations such as the Farm Bureau and its Ag in the Classroom program, the Department of Agriculture and MSU Extension Service. For more information visit www.mswomenforag.org.

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Left, agriculture photographer, Harris Barnes, captured the beauty of the cotton harvest in West Tennessee. Above, planting as seen through the legs of a farm manager.

ou can’t have too many pictures of cotton,” the late Harris Barnes Jr. once famously said. Even after donating tens of thousands of agricultural photos to the archives at Mississippi State University, Barnes was out in the fields shooting more. A renowned journalist and photographer, Barnes built on his earlier career as a farm manager where he experienced the industry’s change from mule power to high-tech equipment. The result was a career so successful at Delta Farm Press in Clarksdale that the publisher sent him to South Carolina to establish the Southeast Farm Press, followed by twenty years as a freelance writer and photographer. “Writing about what he wanted to write about and going where he wanted to go,” said son Trip Barnes, now a tax attorney in Jackson. Barnes was an unlikely photojournalist. He grew up the son of a Coahoma County Extension Agent. At seventeen, he was hard at work in his father’s cotton fields, supervising the laborers. “He wanted his son to know how to work,” said Dudley Barnes, explaining his father’s actions. “It wasn’t the typical farm boy driving a tractor.” Today, Dudley Barnes is a financial planner in Clarksdale. After graduating with honors from Mississippi State College in Agricultural Administration in 1941, Barnes joined the United States Marine Corps to serve in World War II. Instead of heading to where the action was, the Marines sent Barnes to Parris Island, where he trained the USMC’s first

Barnes

5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal • !"

From left, Barnes took photos of a healthy stand of cotton seedlings, a cracked boll, an open boll.

black troops. When the war ended, Barnes came home and started a family with his wife Jamye. He knew he wanted to be a farm manager. “He had no land in his family or money to buy land,” said Dudley. “So he went to work for the biggest farms in the county. He made millions for them.” It was at one of those farms, Bill Connell’s Baugh Plantation in Sherard, Miss., where Billy Connell sparked Barnes’ interest in photography. Initially, it was simply so Barnes could take photos of his children, but it evolved into a new career path. “You work hard at anything and if you have a natural bent for it, you’ll be good at it,” said Dudley. In the late 1940s and 1950s, Barnes experimented with plantings, chemicals and weed-control methods, and used his camera to document the progress with skip-row planting and irrigation techniques. “He was thirty years ahead of his time,” said Trip. “Daddy just never made a bad crop.” In 1957, Barnes went to work for King and Anderson near Clarksdale, serving as general manager for a 12,000-acre farm. He was president of the American Soybean Association, the Mississippi State University Alumni Association and the Clarksdale Rotary Club, all while continuing his military career with the Marine Corps Reserves. In 1967, Progressive Farmer magazine named him its Man of the Year in Service to Southern Agriculture. During this time, Barnes was “moonlighting” and became known for his photos and articles in the Progressive Farmer ! • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

and the Farm Journal. As the Barnes children grew up, Trip said his father gravitated more to his pictures and journalism as an activity that gave him great pleasure. “That became his hobby and something he loved to do.” Barnes had very few other hobbies. “Daddy had five or six interests in his life,” said Trip. “Mother was number one. He was devoted to her and she to him. Then came Mississippi State, the United States Marine Corps, four children and his family, and his photography.” Church also ranked very high. Trip described the family as tightknit. “It was an abnormal, wonderful childhood,” he remembered. But Barnes made sure to teach his children the value of work. “Money was not important to Daddy,” said Trip, who began working in the fields at age thirteen. The skills he learned, including ‘checking bugs,’ helped pay for college and law school. Today, Trip will often walk into a Deltaarea business and see one of his father’s photos hanging on the wall. When he asks, Trip is often told that a young man sold it to the office years ago. “It was (brother) Jim Barnes’ job one summer,” remembered Trip, “to sell Daddy’s photos in town.” Barnes balanced farm management with his writing and photography work until, after decades of farming, he made the move to Delta Farm Press. Next he spent fifteen years in Columbia, South Carolina, broadening his agricultural experience with crops not typically seen in the Delta: corn, tobacco and rice, and the different farming techniques used in that part of the country,

documenting them in the new Southeast Farm Press. Within three years, the circulation at the fledgling Southeast Farm Press rivaled that of its older sibling, the Delta Farm Press. He moved back to the Delta and spent twenty years as a freelance photojournalist, writing for publications including Farm Quarterly, Farm Press publications, Farm Journal, Cotton Grower and Cotton Farming. “He had quite a reputation for his photographic career,” said Dudley. “Many a person has told me if he was more political, he’d have been the secretary of agriculture. He just loved farmers and farming. He loved talking about it, loved new farming techniques. He didn’t write like an editor; he wrote like a farmer.” Often when driving through the countryside with Jamye, Barnes would have to stop—sometimes more than a few times—turn back around, haul a ladder out of the car and photograph crops in a field. For a broader view, he’d hire a plane or a helicopter, and tipped off by a farmer proud of his crop or the number of pickers in a field, take photos to sell to the farmer, then market them to other interested parties. Barnes’ equipment had to withstand farming life. He started with an secondhand Rolleiflex camera, then moved on to several Hasselblads. “They were like mules,” said Dudley. “He’d throw them around, wrapped in bank money bags, and dragged them around the cotton fields.” Barnes liked photographing people in cotton fields as well, and not just laborers. “Trip brought a girl home from Mississippi

OctOber 2018 • Delta Ag Journal • 47

Above left, hand picking always made for the best grades; above right, transported to the textile mill or ship for export; below, compressed cotton.

!1 • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

In the early years of machine picked cotton, Barnes took a photo of Nita Abraham Ross examining the fluffy white gold.

State and she’d end up on a billboard,” remembered Dudley. “He thought he was an average writer at best, but photography captivated him.” The author of three books, even Barnes’ inspiration for this project came from an unlikely source. When Jamye Barnes turned seventy-five, daughter Jamye Barnes Lane enlisted her siblings and all the grandchildren to write love letters about sitting a Jamye Barnes’ table, and they also included recipes and presented it in book form. Barnes decided he wanted his own book and he would write on the history of cotton. In ten months, Barnes had a publisher, a printer and an editor from his Progressive Farmer days. He published Cotton: A 50-Year Pictorial History in 2002. “It was a roaring success,” said Dudley. The book won two major honors: the Award of Merit from the Mississippi Historical Society in 2004 and the Mississippi Author Award from the Mississippi Library Association in 2006. When he wrote The Beauty of Southern Agriculture in 2004, Barnes struck upon a unique and inspired marketing plan. Knowing the gin show in Memphis attracted everyone involved in the cotton industry, he enlisted three pretty granddaughters as sales associates. “He took them and got a booth, put up his photos, the books and the girls, and sits back and watches. Those books would fly out of there,” Dudley laughed. In the hospital just days before his death in 2006, Barnes was finalizing the manuscript for The Good Ol’ Days on the Cotton Farm. When satisfied, he instructed Trip to mail it to the printer. “Daddy lived to work and that was his hobby,” said Trip. “He probably never thought writing articles and taking pictures was work. The things Daddy was passionate about, he was very passionate about. Things he wasn’t interested in, he didn’t talk about. He loved to look at crops. That was his passion.” Barnes is especially known for a photo showing the cycle of cotton. Trip remembers helping his father set up for the photo, searching through the fields for examples of the different stages. Then Barnes placed them around a sundial. “That was Daddy; he was artsy even as a man’s man,” Trip said. Crosbyton, Texas, cotton consultant and educator Robert L. Carter called Barnes “an ambassador of photography in his acute awareness and unmatched ability to portray a way of life endeared to us all.” In the preface of The Good Ol’ Days on the Cotton Farm, Carter shared, “Harris Barnes not only understands the underlying motivation, he possesses the passion for cotton production that inhabits the soul of generation after generation of the great American farmer.”

Rob Lewis, Coahoma County Mississippi Extension Agent with Leon Bramlett, grower.

Four and five bale an acre cotton on Gila River Farms, Sacaton, Arizona.

Arkansas cotton grower, Larry McClendon, was able to do a better job securing the covers on his modules by laying twine across the center as the module was being made.

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Preliminary information on the Mississippi Delta harvest outlook is good for pretty much all the region’s major crops: cotton, corn, soybeans and rice. The cotton, corn and beans look better at this point than they did last year, and rice is looking pretty good. That’s according to Mississippi State University (MSU) Extension economist Dr. Larry Falconer. “We earlier were a little bit behind last year’s pace on corn harvest, which was exceptionally fast,” Falconer says. “However, according to the September 10 USDA report, we are now pretty even on corn harvest with the five-year average. Rain from the remnants of tropical storm Gordon slowed us down a little bit, but we caught back up.” The harvest outlook for the Delta’s other three major crops also looks good. “As far as rice, we are ahead of last year’s pace on harvest, and ahead of the five-year average,” Falconer says. “On soybeans, we are not yet up to last year’s pace, which was pretty fast, but that could change quickly with the drier weather. On cotton, although a few early planted fields had been picked by midSeptember, most of the crop was being defoliated at that time.” In the field, Falconer’s harvest observations reflect what consultant Tucker Miller sees in his area of Drew, Mississippi. “Prior to mid-September, we had a harvest delay for 10 days due to rainy weather,” Miller says. “Corn harvest is pretty much done, and the yields were good. Our irrigated corn averaged 200+ bushels per acre.” Dryland soybean harvest was underway in Miller’s area before the early September rains set in, but by mid-September soybean harvest had cranked back up. “I’ve heard some irrigated averages of low 70s,” he says. “Another grower cut beans prior to the early September rains, and his dryland and irrigated beans combined averaged about 55 bushels per acre.” Cotton harvest had not even started by mid-September; Miller’s growers were mainly defoliating at that time. However, a good bit of rice had been cut by midSeptember. “Some of the area’s hybrid rice averaged 215 to 220 bushels,” Miller says.

Trends for 2019 As Delta growers get their crops out of the field this year, they are already planning what they are going to plant in 2019. "! • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

Falconer says, “Going forward, if you consider the current cash price ratio of soybeans relative to corn, we’re at 2.2:1, levels that we haven’t seen since 2011 when we saw large drop in soybean plantings. Today, if you’re looking out to 2019 as far as trends go, we have the same sort of relationship. Corn futures out in December next year range around the $4 level. Soybeans are around $8.90. At that ratio,

you would think that corn would be preferable to soybeans. Neither price is great, but if you get a little rally in the 2019 corn, and if you had a decent yield, you could come out ahead.” The MSU economist says the cotton

forecast for the region looks especially good for 2019. The 2019 December futures are around 78 cents, and it potentially could climb up to 80 to 81 cents, with the outside chance it could get to 85 cents. “Ever since we had the big drop in cotton acres in 2006, about 630,000 acres is as high as we’ve reached since then,” he adds. “With the outlook now for what you can sell cotton relative to corn and beans, you would think cotton acreage would increase over that 630,000 level next year. “However, Mississippi Delta growers probably would have to increase their picking capacity if they plan to expand cotton acreage above 630,000 acres. We’ve bumped up against that number two or three times and got the crop out without problem. But if you were going to go above that level of acres, you probably would need more equipment and/or make arrangements for custom pickers from Texas. “We’re right there at that 630,000 acres where we’ve been since cotton acres shifted to grains and oilseeds in 2006; that’s when cotton acres dropped from over 1 million to about 600,000. But again, the 630,000 acre level is where we’ve bumped into the last several years. So if the acreage increase will go much above that level, investments will have to be made in harvest equipment. It’s like a glass ceiling that we keep bumping up against, and if we’re going to break it, we will have to make some equipment investments.” Falconer expects the Delta’s rice acreage will remain about the same in 2019, around 134,000 acres. “Everything being equal, I would expect rice acreage about steady next year, soybean acreage to be down in the Delta, and corn and cotton acreage higher,” Falconer says. “Unless something radically changes, we might see 200,000 to 300,000 less soybean acres in 2019, and corn and cotton being planted on those acres. Mississippi State University projected per acre returns to land and management above total specified expenses per acre run: corn, $164.04; soybeans, $31.51; cotton, $259.65; and rice, $29.01. Consultant Miller notes that cotton acreage expansion in 2019 is no longer just coffee shop talk. For example, one of his growers plans to add 3,000 to 4,000 acres of cotton next year, and another plans to add 2,000 acres. “I think cotton acreage will be up next year, but the amount of

increase depends on whether a grower has a picker, a place to gin it, and the soil type to support it,” he says. “I’ve also heard that corn and bean acreage Falconer will be down. One grower who grows cotton, corn and beans on some pretty tough land told me that all he’s planting next year is cotton and rice. So rice acreage might go up a little.” Miller adds Miller that growers who have good cotton ground probably will cut back on corn, using it for rotation, and plant more cotton. “The existing infrastructure will not allow as much cotton acreage as we once had, around 1 1/2 million acres, but it could go as high 800,000 acres in 2019.”

Delta Crop Flexibility Unlike other regions, such as the Midwest, which is locked into corn and beans, Mississippi Delta growers can take advantage of upticks in commodity prices and switch acreage to four major crops— cotton, soybeans, rice and corn—as well as several smaller ones, such as peanuts and grain sorghum. Falconer says, “The Delta’s crop flexibility is a big advantage. “Here in the Delta, we have food grains with rice and wheat, and feed grains like corn, and we can grow fiber crops like cotton, and another big one is an oil seed, soybeans. The Mississippi Delta has assets like low cost irrigation and excellent fertile soil relative to other areas in the U.S. We’re close to the river and its export grain elevators, and even though the basis is bad now, it’s a lot worse for just about everybody else. We’re also helped by our proximity to the poultry industry for food grain crops. We the capability to sell our crops for both export and domestic consumption as competitively as any region in the nation.” 5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal • ""

COTTON GINS Cowart Gin

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hroughout history, the Mississippi Delta has always been synonymous with one word: cotton. With snow-white cotton fields stretching as far as the eye could see, there was no doubt about it, cotton was king. In 1975, it wasn’t uncommon to see a cotton gin every four or five miles; now, that same area might only find a gin every sixty miles. For numerous decades, the bulk of cotton in Mississippi was grown in the Delta areas along the Mississippi River due to the advantages of having shallow wells available for irrigation. A shift slowly took place when- due to low price per pound, high overhead costs, and fluctuating imports to other countries- cotton production saw a decline. Now some might wonder if cotton has been dethroned. " • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

Tunica Gin

However, if you asked local gins around the area, they’d beg to differ. “If you just looked at the few gins now compared to fifty years ago, you’d have a more grim outlook on cotton than what is really accurate,� says Haywood Wilson, general manager of Cowart Gin. “While there are less farmers growing cotton than fifty years ago, it’s not dead- not by a longshot. At that time there were more gins that did smaller yearly amounts. Now, it’s consolidated some as operators realized that more volume is needed to pay the bills so gins had to spread out.� Although cotton production has ebbed and flowed throughout the years wheeling through cycles of high and low prices, some young people choosing not to return to the family farm to continue the operation, and advancements in technology and crop management,

growers are currently bullish on cotton and believe the future of the crop is stable. “Up until last year, we saw cotton acreage shrinking up as corn prices increased; now that has changed and cotton prices are up,” says Murry McClintok, president of Tunica Gin. “Even though we’ve always had a base of farmers grow cotton since the gin began over forty years ago, we’ve seen those farmers increase their acreage and that’s encouraging.” Because of this belief and some farmers choosing to convert other existing commodity acreage to cotton and increase their growing yields, main cotton gainers around the area are gearing up for a good 2018 ginning season. Aaron Litwiller, manager of the state-of-the-art Bogue Chitto Gin

Wilson

McClintok

Litwiller

5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal • "

in East Mississippi, echoed this sentiment. “Cotton is very sustainable and very consumer-friendly and I think it will continue to have its fair market share for years to come,” says Litwiller. “More and more people are finding out about synthetics and petroleum being found in the ground water from people washing synthetic fibers over time. The more information gets out, the better cotton will continue to do. There’s a reason cotton has remained a top commodity in the South and we continue to remain bullish on that.” With prime cotton season upon us, gins are preparing to work at full speed from October until January. While the nuts and bolts of cotton gins today are the same as they were when operating some fiftyplus years ago, technology and automated machinery has changed the amount of hand-labor needed. Current technology has allowed for sharp increases year after year in total output of cotton baled per season. Now, according to many area gins, they will have a farmer that’s been growing cotton for thirty to forty years bring a module in and walk out amazed at the amount of cotton they will get back versus years ago. “So much has changed from decades ago,” says Litwiller. “Now, we don’t really touch the cotton from the time it comes to the gin until it comes out of the other end. It’s very minimal compared to how it used to be. I believe technology will continue to change and get better year after year in increasing the amount of cotton we are able to get back for our farmers.” Although automation of gin equipment has increased efficiency, sometimes those upgrades can be unaffordable for gin operators. For example, the costs associated with upgrading and doing major renovations to the infrastructure of existing gins can be just as expensive as building a new gin. Automation aside, hand labor is still key to running a gin and, for many area gins, finding the right amount of labor needed is a big challenge. “Cotton is primarily a two-and-a-half to three-month season for us at the gin,” said Wilson, who’s been involved with the cotton industry and ginning since 1975. “It’s twelve-hour days, six or seven days of the week; only for a couple of months out of the year. It’s hard to find skilled laborers that are free or willing to work those long, hard "1 • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

days for just a season. Finding labor is one of the biggest challenges for gins year after year. I don’t know any that would say otherwise.” Like other area gins, Cowart Gin saw a record year last year with double the bales of cotton produced than the year before. This is in part to the price of grain falling and the price of cotton increasing, as well as cotton appearing less risky than the current trading uncertainty of soybeans. “In about 2007 we were doing pretty good and in the 20,000 bales per year range but then the market fell out because cotton couldn’t compete with the returns from other commodities like grain and corn,” says Wilson. “However, a couple of years ago, we started to see the prices of cotton rise and other commodities fall so now there are more farmers back to producing cotton. When farmer’s numbers go up and they make more money, we make more money. It’s a domino effect.” Litwiller echoes this when he says that ten to fifteen percent of the bales produced by the Bogue Chitto Gin in the last couple of years have been from new producers or those who used to raise cotton, got out of it for a little while, and now are back. This year alone, they are expecting to bale around 125,000 bales. “We’ve seen a lot of producers around the state up their cotton acreage and that’s encouraging for any gin,” says Litwiller. “However, your highest highs are always fielded by your lowest lows.” Just like for farmers, sometimes the amount of cotton baled at gins is totally out of operator’s control. In farming, even with current good cotton commodity prices, unpredictability is always a part of the game. “It’s always something, whether that’s too much rain one year and too little rain the next year or a new pest to worry about,” says Wilson. “But cotton farmers are resilient. To be able to grow cotton is an art and, just like these gins, it’s a part our heritage here. Cotton isn’t just an industry, it’s a community.” Contributing to that community, cotton generates an economic impact that isn’t easily replaced by other commodities. “Cotton provides a lot of jobs and resources for the local economy,” says McClintok. “Corn is typically loaded up and shipped

Cowart Gin

Bogue Chitto Gin

Tunica Gin

off somewhere else but cotton benefits the farmers who grow it, the warehouses where it is houses, and the gins. It creates local jobs and that’s a big asset.” While the remaining cotton gins may look and operate a little differently today than the days when they were so prevalent in the Delta, the goal of these gins to produce a good, quality product that brings cotton farmers top dollar has remained the same year after year. If these gainers have anything to say about, that’s one thing that will always stay the same. 5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal • "

Instructor Barry Corley, along with some of the Field Crops Technology students, inspecting their bumper soybean crop.

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!1 4$ (# 1*0 4 1 ,*3 3"24-* 4+1 -( 1 / .1-"14 3 (*"4034 )24 /+ 4 4& $+&4 4%,303".-#,24 24/ '0(*4).(00 Mississippi Delta Community College has been a fertile training ground for farmers for several generations from its humble beginnings in 1927 as Sunflower Junior College to MDJC and now MDCC. Ag students learned the basics of farming and either went back to their family or local farm or onto a four-year university for more education and a degree. With farming becoming more technical and diverse with AutoTrac hands-free guidance, GPS and much, much more, the MDCC Ag 0 • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

Programs, Field Crops Technology and Precision Ag Technology are being revitalized with much needed equipment, technology and funding. In order to better prepare students, the Ag Department will soon have a brand-new John Deere tractor as well as simulator technology. MDCC President Dr. Larry Nabors, Field Crops Technology instructor Barry Corley, Precision Agriculture Technology instructor Steele Robbins and Jonny Spivey, a MDCC Ag alum and

Sanders employee, are excited about the invigorated direction of the program. In his final year as President, Nabors, along with his staff and alumni, has worked hard to continue finding resources for the ag program. “Obviously, agriculture is a big part of the Delta and we want to do whatever we can to support local industry,� Dr. Nabors says. “We certainly want to support our local farming community in their efforts to improve their workforce.�

Steele Robbins (MDCC Precision Agriculture Instructor), Barry Corley (MDCC Field Crops Technology Instructor), Jonny Spivey (Area Sales Lead , Sanders Indianola and chairman of the MDCC Field Crops Tech. Advisory Committee)

Bree Rhoads (Precision Agriculture, Yazoo City), Rhoads Caruthers (Precision Agriculture, Vicksburg), Bryce Chenault (Field Crops Technology, Beulah), Barry Corley (MDCC Field Crops Technology Instructor), Steele Robbins (MDCC Precision Agriculture Instructor), Reginald Addison (Field Crops Technology, Leland), Jonathan Knight (Field Crops Technology, Leland), Elijah Allen (Field Crops Technology, Greenville), Sheldon Utz (Field Crops Technology, Greenwood), Cole Burns (Field Crops Technology, Scott)

5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal • 3

Instructor Steele Robbins discussing drone technology with some of the Precision Agriculture students.

The community college has land and equipment that it uses to train students, but a large section of the land was not being used due to it still being set up for catfish ponds. “That was wasted land. It wasn’t land formed and it wouldn’t drain very well. The main thing we’re doing is we’re totally redoing the catfish ponds and putting them back in row crop. We’re also revamping some of our existing land,” Corley says. “We’ll be able to use the latest technology of soil moisture sensors and flow sensors on the wells. We’ll have it where I can pull up the sensors on my cell phone and be able to cut the wells on and off.” The revamping will be compried of three steps with the land forming being step one followed by step two with soil preparation and underground irrigation pipes. The last phase will include an outdoor classroom replete with information for anyone to drive up and read exactly what is going on at the Macon Lake Road Campus. “We’re going to build an outdoor pavilion with bricks in the foundation honoring those who have helped as a thank you. And we want to have classes, field days and things of that nature,” Corley says. 2 • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

The program currently has thirty acres of soybeans planted and has two acres of sorghum that they make into molasses during harvest. With the additional land coming back into crop usage, there will be acreage blocks of differing crops. “We’re trying to get different parts of the industry involved. We’ll be doing outreach to different businesses to see if they want to come over and do research. We want to have a central location for private industry to partner with education to be able to do projects here,” Corley says. The catfish program ended a decade or so ago, according to Nabors. But with help from local farmers, current students and instructors, the land is getting prepped and revamped for usage and training. The heavy lifting land forming of the catfish ponds has been done by the Fitts family with MDCC paying for the diesel to do so according to Spivey. Part of helping train the students is getting the latest technology in their hands – including a John Deer 6195R tractor. “We always have needs to keep our equipment updated. We are also in the process of trying to get some simulators to train the students with,” Dr. Nabors says.

“I know that John Deere has simulator modules that they use. It’s basically like you’re inside the cab of a tractor. Not just for our students, but we could also have employees from farms come here and get training on those simulators. It’s good for the region and that’s what we’re working toward in providing training for the industries in our area.” Corley notes the new tractor purchased by the school “will have all the bells and whistles on it. We’ve been working on this since June of this year.” Spivey was originally tasked with finding donations in funding or equipment for the program. The 2017 MDCC Alumnus of the Year was happy to get more folks involved in the program that has trained so many Delta area farmers. “This is Barry Corley’s program that he’s run for years,” Spivey says. “I went out and raised some money to put the catfish ponds back into row crops. I’m doing this for the love of the school. We’re growing about thirty-eight acres of soybeans and we’re trying to update the program.” IHL budget cuts have not left much of a budget to work with so Spivey has been working with industry partners and farmers

to donate money and equipment. Spivey is initially looking to raise $100,000 to infuse the program and then help maintain. “We’re spending the bulk of it right now land forming, putting in drainage pipes and underground water lines,” Spivey says. “I’m probably half-way there. If anyone wants to donate they go through the MDCC Foundation for a tax write off. We’ve had some real nice equipment donated. You’d be surprised how generous some people have been on this project.” MDCC Associate Vice President Advancement & Public Relations, Reed Abraham, notes the program has been blessed by alumni participation spurred by Spivey. “Barry came to me with this idea four years ago. This has been needed and wanted for some time but wasn’t possible with the decreases we’ve seen in the IHL budget the last decade,” says Abraham. “But two years ago, we partnered with our alumni and particularly Johnny Spivey in the fundraising efforts to get this done. Johnny deserves way more credit than he’ll be pleased with accepting. It wouldn’t have happened without him.”

Abraham explains, “that’s why the foundation exists – to partner with our supporters and donors and allow them to make contributions in other areas.” Corley has been at the community college for nearly three decades teaching present and future farmers. “We’re not changing any of the course work but trying to revamp and get the latest technology. Every so often you have to revamp so you don’t get stale,” Corley says. “We have a very active alumni ag chapter and Johnny Spivey is heading this up. We’re getting them involved.” Robbins has been teaching at MDCC for the past fifteen years. He stays quite busy in the precision ag classes including using a $10,000 drone. “We use that to try and see variation in the crop and scout for beaver dams when we have drainage issues,” Robbins says. The farm work is done by students but involves different segments of the technical college. “I’ll take my Remote Sensing students out there and we’ll fly the drone and find where the dams are located. Then I take my Site Specific Pest Management Class and we

go put out traps and catch the beavers. The Construction Equipment Operator Class comes out and uses their track hoe to pull out the beaver dams. We show how you can use technology to your advantage in the Delta,” Robbins says. “It’s also useful to see where the damage is from feral hogs and you can locate the hogs.” Robbins noted that the Precision Ag industry is seen as one of the industry most needing employees. “It’s been targeted as one that needs more training. One of the good problems we generally have between both of our programs is that we have more people that are looking for employees than we have students to provide.” Any and all alumni are invited to visit classes and help students “understand how using GPS or variable rate spray technology or yield mapping is helping in their operation,” Robbins says. To learn more about donating to the program in any way, contact the MDCC Foundation at (844) MS-DELTA (6733582) or visit www.supportmdcc.com.

5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal •

AG

INTERNSHIPS Above, Tyler Kitchings; right, Taylor Boggs

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or a student, internships can shape their career. It gives them an opportunity to work in a professional environment where they can receive hands-on experience in their chosen field, and it gives potential employers an opportunity as well to see what the student can do in that professional atmosphere. Many companies offer paid internships and summer programs that provide a student a very productive way to spend their summer, and the Ag companies are no exception. In fact, many in the agricultural industry count on these programs as much as students do to recruit and flesh out great new employees. ! • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

OctOber 2018 • Delta Ag Journal • 65

Jeff Tarsi is vice president of retail operations, North America, for Nutrien Ag Solutions. Tarsi says Nutrien Ag Solutions is pro internships in a big way. “We have a massive intern program across North America,” Tarsi says. “We hire in excess of 200 summer interns a year within our business, and specifically in Mississippi we hire four to six interns per growing season. Those interns predominantly come from Mississippi State, because of the agricultural department there, but we identify these interns through the Mississippi State University Job Fair that they hold twice a year, early fall and late winter.” And while Mississippi State is where Nutrien Ag Solutions gets the majority of its interns, they do select from other sources as well. “We have our interns from other universities too; we might not find them through that university, we might hire them on a recommendation as well. And these summer interns primarily help us to maintain our research plots and demonstration plots that we put out. They also do a lot of plant tissue sampling to help us determine the optimal nutrition for a plant in season.” Tarsi adds that these are paid internships that often lead to employment. “You might call these internships a three-month job interview for us as we look to permanently add new employees to our organization. So, it’s a great opportunity for us to look at a young person at the college level, their work habits, how they relate to our customer base, and generally speaking, when we bring on new employees we try to bring them out of our intern programs, that pool of college interns. And we have extensive in-house training once an intern is hired. We have all levels of training programs that we offer, from management to agronomy.” Tyler Kitchings is an intern from Cleveland, who spent his summer with Nutrien Ag Solutions. Kitchings says he absolutely loved the time he had at Nutrien Ag and would recommend any student who is looking to get hands-on experience and knowledge in their chosen field to do an internship. “I started the first week in May and it was great. It was a paid internship and I learned so much. I did another internship last year and I felt like I learned so much about the agricultural business. Being from the Delta, agriculture is a big part of it, so I decided that • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

I wanted to be a part of the agricultural industry when I had career choices before me. And I was offered the internship with Nutrien Ag Solutions in March and I started in May. And I Patton have learned more through that internship this past summer than I think I have learned my whole life actually being around it. I would advise anybody who is looking to further Tierney their knowledge and experience to do an internship.” Kitchings goes to Delta State University and is majoring in General Environmental Science. He graduates in December and plans to go to Mississippi State and get his master’s. He says internships also provide a network, a way for students to get their presence known to potential employers. “Getting my foot in the door is also important to me and internships give students that opportunity. I want to get my name out there so if a spot does open up somewhere, hopefully my name will pop up. And if I prove myself to be reliable and get a reputation for hard work and dependability, that’s really my goal. I think an internship is essential, especially going into a field that requires a lot of hands-on work.” Over at Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville, summer programs are something that has been very beneficial for both the Center and the student worker. Kenner Patton is communications coordinator at the facility, which is a component of the Mississippi State University’s Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine. “Every summer we hire between thirty and forty summer workers. They’re basically trained to assist our twenty-three Ph.D.’s and their technical staff in the field. Some of that is row crop research and some of it is aquaculture. Every now and then there will be some lab work, but predominantly it’s outside field work. Typically these are student workers and they do have to be at least eighteen years old to work here in the summer program. We’ve had some students who have worked here in the summer and

then go to Mississippi State and continue to work here, and after graduation they continue to work on advanced degrees. It’s a great program.” Ryan Tierney is the district sales manager trainee and intern lead at Bayer Crop Science (formerly Monsanto) based in St. Louis. Interns serve an important role at Bayer. “For student opportunities we’re a very diverse business,” Tierney says. “So, we have lots of student opportunities. A lot of our business segments seek interns for what they can contribute to our organization. For us, we look at those interns to fill future roles in our company. Across the entire business we utilize interns. The group that I work with is in sales. We recruit interns from across the U.S. and the Delta area is a very important part of that for us. We have a cotton business that’s very important to us in the Delta, so we go down there to recruit individuals. And these are paid internships. Our number one feeder pool of talent in my particular area, which is sales, for our trainees and that’s our full time positions is our sales intern program.” Taylor Boggs is a sales rep and works for Sanders Seed in Cleveland. Boggs got his start in an internship program when he was in college. He says the program really helped him make up his mind in what direction he wanted his career to go. “I was a little uncertain of what I wanted to do after college. I knew I was there for a reason, I just needed to find it. I met a man, Butch Alpe, who was over the Sanders Seed intern program and he got me set up through the program while I was still at Mississippi State. I went to work for them during the summer and did a variety of jobs. I learned the operation side of the business. The following year they offered me an internship again and that summer I did more hands-on out in the field, and I rode with sales reps, scouted cotton, corn and soybean fields, just an amazing summer where I learned so much. And this internship led to a job offer, so when I graduated I went to work for them straight out of college in 2013. Internships are very important.”

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48)4982345..&9519 8()8809 30(7%9 /23168*/729 3..71*37 #8,(/69+8,29625-6198+9.54094716.7099528,409 403549 5&8,9)71698+9 4

03548.596865.34(95#8,69 " 95-27198+9-866849540963'#729349 % 540927-820191/8)96/569349 "9 3..71*37918.09/319*.546563849689 % % 756/'54954096/7945'79)519-/54(709689 756/'549 .54656384% J.M. Heathman farmed the land for nearly fifteen years, but died in 1885 and several years later, his widow Lillie married James A. Crawford, a DeKalb, Mississippi native. Mr. Crawford was an able businessman who took over management of Heathman Plantation, turning it into a bustling community. The late Vernon Beard, son of longtime farm manager J.C. Beard remembered being told that at one time 4,000 people lived in and around the area. Mr. Crawford was not only responsible for numerous fellow Kemper County citizens relocating to the area as store and gin managers, clerks and plantation riders, but was also instrumental in bringing a large number of Italian families to farm as tenants on Heathman and a satellite farm closer to Shaw called Heathman’s Deadening. Many of the successful Italian farming families living now around Shaw and Cleveland came originally to Heathman Plantation as tenant farmers. There is an abandoned cemetery at the old Heathman’s Deadening site where many of these Italian immigrants were buried.

5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal •

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Cemetery.Crawford-eathman family photo, circa 1905, taken on the steps of “the big house” on Heathman Planation.

Grand statuary on the headstone of J.M. Heathman in the Indianola Cemetery.

Heathman, no longer a town, was once a regular railrad stop. The name Heathman is barely visible in this rare photograph of the depot. Photos courtesy of Jim Heathman.

A regular stop on the Georgia Pacific Railroad, Heathman acquired a post office on August 13, 1888, and J. Holmes Baker, who had a law office in the depot, was named postmaster. The post office would remain in operation until 1956 when the mail was changed to a rural route of nearby Indianola, the county seat. Mr. Crawford built a store in 1889 along the road across from the railroad tracks. Because of the store’s central location to so many people, Heathman was made a voting precinct in 1895 and continued as such until 1974. In order that his tenants would have their medical needs met, Crawford brought in Dr. B.H. Campbell, also from Kemper County, and provided the plantation doctor with an office. His drugs arrived on the train in gallon jugs. Crawford paid his salary and gave him a 2 • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

car so he could tend to the needs of tenants that were unable to come to his office, located upstairs in the huge new brick commissary built in 1911. The store carried everything needed to live on the plantation. Boots, saddles, bridles, hoes, cloth, foodstuffs and staples were all sold on credit to the tenants until harvest time when accounts were settled. The road to Indianola was dirt, as not many living in the Heathman area had transportation. Over time, Dr. Campbell meant so much to the community that thirty-four residents in the surrounding area presented Dr. Campbell with a new car in August of 1928 with a letter of gratitude expressing: “That may we do our small part in making your miles shorter, the bumpy roads smoother, the dark night brighter, we present this Ford with the hope that you and Mrs. Campbell will drive by our doors for many, many more and happy years.”

An image of forty tractors lined up on Billups Panation attests to the size of the operation in the mid-1950s.

PLANTATION PARTIES: Delta-style Soirees in the Society Pages

I

n 1894, Mr. Crawford built a big white plantation house described in the local newspaper, The Sunflower Tocsin, as “palatial.” Upon opening their beautiful new home, the Crawfords gave a party the newspaper described as “one of the grandest entertainments ever given in Sunflower County.” The Crawfords chartered a special train from Greenville, and about “thirty-five couples of young, careless, pleasure seeking people got off and made their way to the scene of the festivities.” According to the society editor of The Greenville Times, “young friends from Washington and Sunflower Counties, and more distant places, arrived. Beauregard’s Band furnished the music and the affair was probably the most elaborate and elegant ever given in Sunflower County. Dancing was the chief pleasure of the evening, and a most sumptuous supper was served at midnight.” The Sunflower Tocsin added, “Ample justice was done in the gorgeous dining hall.” On September 6, 1919, the Crawfords sold Heathman Plantation to Herman Paepcke of Chicago and F. N. Robertshaw of Greenville for $1,100,000 with twenty-one notes at six percent interest.(The entire note was subsequently paid off four years later.) The place contained 6,775 acres of cotton, cattle and timber. Herman Paepcke was a German immigrant who had started a small lumber planing and box manufacturing business in Chicago, which grew into a huge industrial conglomerate. His holdings included the Chicago Mill and

Lumber Company in Greenville with a sawmill and 25,000 acres of timberland. By 1909, the company owned over 125,000 acres of land. Remembering growing up on Heathman in the ‘20s and ‘30s, the late Vernon Beard recalled memories of one of the first tennis courts to be built in Sunflower County, adjacent to the big house on the plantation. He said he spent many hours on Sundays sweeping the courts for the owners families and friends. As Vernon later became a SEC tennis champion on the Mississippi State team, he obviously found playing time for himself on the court too! Herman Paepcke died in 1933. His son, Walter Paepcke, took over and grew the corporation, moving the headquarters from Chicago to Greenville in 1965. The Chicago Mill and Lumber Company operated three sawmills and two box factories and by 1980 owned over 200,000 acres of timberland in Mississippi and Louisiana. Meanwhile, Walter Paepcke and his wife had become well known in other circles, having gone to Aspen, Colorado, after World War II and formed the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Skiing Company. Their love of the arts and music and their involvement in civic affairs was instrumental in turning Aspen into an “American Salzburg,” a reference to the city of culture and music in the Austrian Alps. After Walter Paepcke’s death in 1960, his widow Elizabeth made Aspen her home and was known as the Grand Dame of Aspen until she died in 1994. 5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal •

The commissary on Billups Plantation, now called Heathman has long been considered a Delta landmark. Photo by Mark H. Stowers.

BECOMING BILLUPS: A Model of Mechanization and Gentleman Farming

H

erman Paepcke had married Elizabeth Robertshaw Meade in 1912 and with her brother Frank N. Robertshaw operated Heathman as a model plantation using farm managers to oversee the operations. During this time the entire place was farmed with mules until farm mechanization began to take hold and the early tractors replaced the mules. During the time of transition from mule power to tractor power, farm manager J.C. Beard was dismissed and told to find another job. Beard moved to Greenwood and became a farm manager around Money. The Billups brothers, who were involved in the gas and oil business and had land holdings around Carrollton, became close friends with Beard. The Billups had an interest in acquiring Heathman Plantation so, taking advantage of Beard’s connection, they took him with them to Chicago to meet with Paepcke, who had three-fifths ownership of the plantation. Together, they were able to strike a deal for the Billups family to buy Heathman in December of 1946. It was a classic walk out proposition, everything sold. Land, mules, implements and all equipment, including a few early model tractors, buildings, houses and cattle, all for ninety-two dollars an acre. Returning to Heathman, Beard was asked what he was doing on the place. Mr. Beard produced the signed contract of sale, and according to Tom Robertson replied, “Boys, I was fired as a farm manager of Heathman, but I am back now as general manager, and all of you are fired. So now you go find yourselves another job!” The name of the farm was changed to Billups Plantation and the mules were soon replaced by modern and more efficient tractors. The beautiful white plantation house was used as a clubhouse for the Billups family until it was torn down in 1974. The big social event each year was a fall dove hunt replete with a sumptuous barbecue ! • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

afterwards. In Fevers, Floods and Faith, a history of Sunflower County by Marie Hemphill, it states that, “On September 28, 1957, the Billups family were hosts for an old-fashioned barbecue for about 250 executives from the food distribution business from New York to California, who were attending the grand opening of the Lewis Grocer Company in Indianola. After the beautiful meal, the visitors were given a tour in air-conditioned buses of the farm operation, which is a model of mechanization.” Soon, Billups Plantation started growing certified seed under the Delta and Pine Land Company brand. While working at the Stoneville Experiment Station, J.C. Calhoun had developed a smooth leaf cotton plant making cotton easier to pick. He was hired in 1959 to move to Billups Plantation to manage the farm and work in the seed program. A graduate entomologist from LSU, Calhoun did not have a PhD but was called Dr. Calhoun anyway. A staunch advocate of “clean farming practices,” he kept all ditches and fields as clean as possible and replaced the wooden tenant houses with modern brick homes. According to his daughter Suzanne Boone, “Daddy’s rule was six days of work but never any work on Sundays. He never drove a truck, but instead rode up and down the dusty turnrows in his Chevrolet sedan dressed always in khaki pants, shirt and his gentleman’s hat.” Calhoun died in January of 1965 due to an untimely heart attack. J.W. Waldrup was moved to general farm manager upon Calhoun’s death. Waldrup had been hired by Mr. Beard as store manager in 1952. “I had a wife and an automobile and I owed for both of them. I ran the store for a year before going out on the farm. I was just a boy that grew up in the cotton patch, but once on the farm, I got my college education from Dr. Calhoun!” When cattleman Joe Clements died, Waldrup told the Billups brothers, “You have 1,700 acres of

Inside Heathman Store circa 1940. From left, Thomas Nash, Harold Nash; A.G. Nash, bookkeeper, Elford Nash; (John) Oakley, Bobshaw Seed Co.; Charles Sumrall, store manager; Jo Odenwald, plantation employee. Photo courtesy of Tom Nash.

lush grass and 900 head of cattle on the north end. You either need to get into the cattle business in a big way or get out.” Soon, the cows were sold, the fences torn down, the pastures disced and soybeans planted. Waldrup remained general manager until 1998. “Billups Plantation was the finest plantation in the Delta, no question about that,” says Waldrup. “It was all in one block with everything right there. In all the years I was manager, we never had a season when we lost money—and that is saying something.” The W.T. Robertson and J.C. Robertson families of nearby Holly Ridge, who owned the adjoining Saint Rest Plantation, began leasing and farming the place in 1998, and in 2007 bought Billups Plantation containing 5,500 acres. The commissary still stands, yet with a new black and white bold painted facade on the red brick building, as its new owners have rechristened it “Heathman Plantation.” Corn and rice now adorn the fields north of Highway 82 where the cattle operation had always been. The railroad depot had been torn down and the pit used to store coal for the steam locomotives had been filled with dirt in the 1970s. The cotton gin and loading dock that stood next to the railroad tracks had been demolished. A seed breeding facility where experimental seed research was done under the Bobshaw name is still standing. Inside the old commissary is a big walk-in safe with two vault doors that contained boxes of records and deeds. Inside the two locked doors was another safe. One title opinion takes the ownership of the deeded land back to the original land grants from the U.S. Government to the State of Mississippi and forward.

5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal •

"

Recipes GRILLED BACON-WRAPPED DOVES WITH BOURBON GLAZE

Season trimmed and cleaned doves or quail with salt and pepper. Wrap each one with a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Grill on medium-high about 10 minutes and bacon is beginning to cook. At this point, baste doves with glaze and continue to turn and baste until done; another 10 to 15 minutes. BOURBON GLAZE

BOURBON MULE Traditionally served in a copper mug and made with vodka, our twist on the classic Moscow Mule blends the richness of bourbon with the spiciness of giner beer. We kept the copper mug, though, which keeps drinks especially frosty!

So delicious on dove, quail or chicken. 1 ? 1 2 ? 1 ? 1

? 1 ? 1

cup bourbon whiskey cup brown sugar cup ketchup teaspoons Worcestershire sauce cup white vinegar tablespoon lemon juice teaspoon minced garlic pinch dry mustard

ounces bourbon tablespoon fresh lime juice cup light ginger beer fresh mint sprig

In a copper mug, combine bourbon and lime juice. Fill cup with ice. Add ginger beer; stir gently to combine. Garnish with mint sprig and lime slice.

In a medium bowl, combine bourbon, brown sugar, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic and mustard. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Use tp baste meat while cooking.

AUTUMN RICE 1 1 ? 3 ? 1

cup jasmine rice, cooked 2? cups chicken stock 3 tablespoons unsalted ? butter ? large onion, diced 1 cup mushrooms, diced ?

loosely packed cups spinach or baby kale cup sunflower seeds cup dried cranberries teaspoon cinnamon teaspoon garlic powder

Prepare rice according to the directions on package, substituting chicken stock for water. Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. When the butter begins to sizzle add the onions and cook for 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue to cook until the onions are nearly translucent. Season with salt and pepper. Add spinach. Stir often to cook, reduction that if rice is not done yet. Add cinnamon, garlic powder, sunflower seeds and dried cranberries. Stir well. Fold in cooked rice. Take care to stir well, but not to over-stir so rice doesn’t become mushy. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.

• Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

PUMPKIN PIE 1 ? 1 ?

cups canned pumkin cups sweetened condensed milk large eggs, beaten

2 cup firmly packed light ? brown sugar 2 tablespoons sugar 1 ? ? Combine pumpkin and remaining ingredients in a large bowl; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes. Pour?into prepared piecrust. Bake at 425°for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°; bake 50 additional minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

TORTELLINI SOUP BACON-WRAPPED CRACKERS 1 sleeve country club? ? style crackers 1 cup grated Parmesan

4 1 2 4 ?

tablespoons olive oil 8 teaspoon salt 2 cups low dodium chicken cup onion, diced ? broth cups chopped leeks, 3 cups frozen corn white parts only teaspoons garlic, minced teaspoon black pepper Heat olive oil in a large stockpot over medium-low heat. Once hot, add the onion, garlic, leeks and salt. Let sweat for 6 to 8 minutes until the leeks begin to soften. Add the stock, frozen corn and black pepper and increase the heat to high. Let simmer for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium, add the tortellini and cook an additional 10-12 minutes until tortellini are soft but not soggy. Serve warm, garnished with fresh parsley.

DUCK POPPERS 2?3 whole duck breasts Place duck strips in bowl and allow to sliced in thin ? inch marinate in Hoover Sauce about 1 hour. When ready, assemble by laying pieces 1? strips 6 cups Hoover Sauce of bacon on a platter, add a dollop of cream cheese on each pepper slice, top fresh jalape o 8 peppers, halved andwith a slice of duck and wrap with bacon, securing with a toothpick. Grill 6 seeded about 10 minutes, turning every few ounces cream minutes until bacon crisps and duck is cheese cooked through. 5/-5.+,

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Lay the crackers face up on a large rack over a baking sheet (or broiler pan). Scoop about 1 teaspoon of the grated Parmesan onto each cracker. Cut the package of bacon in half (or cut pieces individually) and carefully, so the cheese doesn't fall off, wrap each cheese covered cracker with one half piece of bacon, completely covering the cracker. It should fit snugly around the cracker, but not be pulled too taut. Place the bacon-wrapped crackers onto the rack. Place the baking sheet in the oven for about 2 hours. Serve immediately or at room temperature!

1 • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

AROUND THE FARM

Chanley and Ashley Ladner enjoying time together during harvest season.

Zac Tollison at Burrell Bayou, LLC works late into the night trying to get his crop out before the rain.

Anthony and Madison Simpson on Mcleod Farms with daughter Charlotte and son Coleman

Park Andrews has been waiting all season to ride the combine with his dad Luke during harvest.

Bryce Chenault takes a few photos of harvest 2018 to share with his friends and family.

B & L Bowen Farms harvest in Sunflower, MS.

5/-5.+,42031 • Delta Ag Journal •

10 • Delta Ag Journal • 5/-5.+,42031

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