May 23, 2012
www.gfb.org
Vol. 30 No. 21
FARM TOUR SHOWSCASES GFB’S 7TH DISTRICT Georgia Farm Bureau held its annual farm tour in the organization’s 7th District on May 15 and 16, highlighting the agricultural diversity of the 17-county district in upper Southeast Georgia. The tour made its first stop at Gerrald Farms where Terry Gerrald and Jamie Brannen discussed how they grow and process sweet carrots. GFB members saw a harvest demonstration and visited the farm’s processing plant, where carrots are cleaned, sorted and bagged for distribution. At the second stop, Bulloch County Farm Bureau Young Farmer Committee Chairman David Cromley welcomed the GFB tour to Nellwood Farms, a sixth-generation farm run by Cromley, his father Chap, uncle Hal and cousin Colby. Cromley shared how BCFB is working to get young farmers involved in the organization by holding quarterly meetings with guest speakers. During a lunch stop at Tea Grove Plantation near Hinesville, Liberty County Farm Bureau President Danny Norman discussed his collection of antique farm equipment, trucks and cars in the village he built to recreate the rural communities found across Georgia in the early 1900s. At Armstrong’s Cricket Farm in Glennville, GFB members learned how the Armstrongs have been raising crickets since 1947 to sell for fish bait and to pet stores for reptile food. The crickets are raised in climate-controlled rooms heated to 90 degrees from hatching until their 20th day, at which time the temperature is dropped to 80 degrees until shipment between 35 and 40 days of age. During the stop at ArborGen outside Bellville, participants learned how the tree nursery cultivates pine seedlings, selecting varieties with disease resistance, straightness and rapid growth. Georgia Sen. Jack Hill of Reidsville, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, spoke to GFB members during a dinner in Statesboro, May 15. Hill thanked GFB and its members for their support in getting tax reform and metal theft legislation through the legislature. The second day of the tour highlighted the district’s Vidalia onion and produce crops. Tattnall County Extension Agent Cliff Riner gave the tour an overview of the UGA Vidalia Onion & Vegetable Research Center, where UGA scientists conduct research to improve production for onions and other vegetables and fruit. Timmy Pittman and his family welcomed the tour to their produce market and farm where they grow and sell cabbage, Vidalia onions, peas, corn and squash along with row crops. Toombs County Farm Bureau President R.T. Stanley guided the tour through his farm’s packing facility, where the onions are graded and packaged to be shipped to buyers. Stanley’s son, Vince, welcomed the tour to the farm’s processing company, Vidalia Valley, where the Stanleys make relishes, dressings and salsas using Vidalia onions they grow.