2013_Benchmarks-Agriculture by The Greeneville Sun

Section C

Agriculture

Tennessee Dairy Farms Continue To Disappear. 2 Dairyman Loses Again To Stormy Weather. 5 Optimism Returns To Burley Tobacco Fields. 8 Biggest Smiles On Farm Belong To Cattlemen. 10 Broiler Business Steady At Best in Greene County. 13

The Greeneville Sun March 23, 2013

2013 Benchmarks

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 23, 2013

Dairy Farms Continue To Disappear In Greene County, Throughout State BY BOB HURLEY COLUMNIST

For the first time since records have been maintained, Greene County has fewer than 50 dairy farms and the State of Tennessee has fewer than 400. “We’re down to 392 dairy farms in the state,” said Deborah Boyd, of Long Creek Road, in Cocke County, who is secretary and treasurer of the Tennessee Dairy Producers Association. In figures released in January, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture’s Regulatory Services Division reported that Greene County had 48 dairy farms remaining in operation, but at least one of those has since ceased operations. Stanley Hall, of the Kingsport Highway, whose family has operated a dairy farm in northern Greene County for more than 60 years, sold his milking herd in January and is now most apt to be found on a golf course. “I needed to get a whole lot better playing golf,” Hall laughed while explaining his departure from the business that had always been a part of his life. “Last year was just another bad year,” he said. “We were extremely dry up in this end of the county for the first part of the growing season. “It just felt like a good time to quit.” NEW ADVENTURES Exiting the dairy business will bring several new adventures to his life, he said. “First, there’s the golf. I haven’t told my wife this yet, but I’ve already got a little golfing trip planned for this spring. “And I’m going to begin adding some beef cattle to the land that has been in the family for generations. “That means I’ll still be in the hay business, but I’m not going to overdo anything.” The sense of humor that helped him leave the only business he had ever known also helped him through many years of ups and downs in the dairy business. “We didn’t get a drop of rain all during the month of June last year,”

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Stanley Hall, of the Kingsport Highway, was in the midst of a busy spring planting season when he paused here in May of last year. He has since sold his milking herd and exited the dairy business, and soon the land that has been home to dairy cattle for several generations will become home to beef cattle. he said. “That’s tough. “I replanted part of my corn crop at the end of June, and that proved to be about all the corn we had. “Replanting crops at the price of seed today tends to make you wonder if there isn’t a better way to spend your time and money.”

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

It was time for the evening milking at the Tunnell dairy farm in Hawkins County when Stephanie Crawford, of Rogersville, and her “girls,” as she calls the cows, allowed a camera in the parlor. The Tunnell dairy is one of two remaining in Hawkins County.

STILL NO REGRETS But Hall, like many hundreds of other dairy farm families that have left the business in recent years, has said he would probably do the same thing over again if given the opportunity. “Milking has been good to me and my family,” Hall said in an interview in the spring of 2012. “I have no regrets. The land here has provided more than just a living. I’m very blessed to call it home.” PLEASE SEE DAIRY | 3

On The Cover DAIRY NUMBERS CONTINUE TO DWINDLE

Earlier this year, Stanley Hall, of the Kingsport Highway, walked away from a life of milking cows, the only way of life he had known up to that point. Now, to put the best face on being squeezed out of the dairy business, Hall says he retired in order to improve on his golf game. Hall will stay on the farm, he says, but from now on, the cows will be part of the beef industry, not the dairy industry. State and local dairy numbers continued to fall during 2012, in keeping with a downward turn that began decades ago. Continued production increases, especially for feed, have been predicted to make for another tough year in dairying during 2013. Things are mostly quiet at the Hall milking parlor this spring. The cows are gone. There will be no need for a big planting of corn silage. In the top photo on the cover, Hall and a long-time friend are discussing the best way to utilize the abundance of free time they now have on their hands and paws. Sun Photo by Bob Hurley WHO SAID LIGHTNING NEVER STRIKES THE SAME PLACE TWICE?

are calling for larger crops to be put in the ground this spring, especially in Tennessee and Kentucky, the nation’s leading burley-producing states. And while there are widespread reports of newcomers jumping into the tobacco picture and established growers increasing their acreage, Malone says he will remain with the same size crop he has grown for the past few years. “I know what I can do,” he said, “and I’ve got a plateful with what I’ve been doing.” Sun File Photo by Bob Hurley BIGGEST SMILES ON LAND BELONG TO CATTLEMEN

Diane Sexton Gibson, of Greeneville, pictured with the Angus heifer at botom left on the cover, began showing cattle with her parents when she was barely big enough to pull and persuade a calf into a show ring. She still loves to show cattle, and she still loves the cattle business, which continues to dominate Tennessee agriculture in terms of farm cash receipts. The Tennessee Department of Agriculture reports that cattle accounted for 17 percent of all farm cash receipts for 2011, the last year for which figures are available. Cattlemen are continuing to receive good prices for their beef because of dwindling supplies brought on by the historic drought in the Corn Belt, high feed costs and other factors. Gibson and other cattle-producers say now is a good time to get in the cattle business, especially in light of a growing amount of pastureland now idled in parts of Greene and other East Tennessee counties. Sun Photo by Bob Hurley

Norman Dickerson, a dairyman on the Old Ducktown Road, says he had always heard that lightning never strikes twice at the same place. “You’d better not believe those old weather tales,” said Dickerson, who is standing at right in the photo at right center on the cover. He is standing amid the debris of a barn that was destroyed in a storm in late January of this year, less than two years after the tornadoes of 2011 virtually wiped him out of the farming business. The barn that is on the ground around Dickerson in the photo was one of those that had been built to replace the ones he lost in 2011. While most farmers were not hit as hard as Dickerson by the weather during the past year, many of them reported a mixed bag of results, from an early spring freeze that wiped out the fruit crop in Greene BROILER BUSINESS REMAINS STRONG IN STATE County to an early-season drought in May and June that caused major problems Chicken remains the meat of choice for Americans, and the broiler business remains in some corn fields. Sun Photo by Bob Hurley strong in Tennessee, but it is steady at best in Greene County. Jack Renner, of Mohawk, pictured in the photo at center left on the cover, describes the broiler business as “tough in the winter and touch-and-go in the summer.” One of the elder statesmen in farming in TOBACCO-GROWERS MORE OPTIMISTIC THIS YEAR Greene County, Renner fears that broiler production is moving away from this part of Tennessee For the first time in a decade or more, a sense of optimism has returned to the and closer to the feed mills and hatcheries of the processing companies. No new broiler houses tobacco fields of Greene County and East Tennessee. Tim Malone, of Orebank, have been built in East Tennessee in several years, poultry officials confirm, and they add that pictured at left in the photo at bottom right on the cover, is among a growing growth in the industry is happening to the south and west of Greene County. The U.S. Departnumber of farmers who see tobacco as a viable source of added income in the ment of Agriculture reports that most of the nation’s leading processors of chicken, including nation’s economic slump. Like many other growers, Malone has a day job off the Pilgrim’s Corp. and Tyson Foods, are increasing their international growing operations in farm, but “tobacco waits for you to get home in the evening,” he said. Experts countries such as Brazil, China and even India. Sun Photo by Bob Hurley

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

Dairy

desperately to arrange a hearing before Congress to tell of the plight facing American dairy families. Various farm publications and Internet sources have labeled the situation in California “a disaster,” citing facts and figures of how many dairy operations in that state are facing foreclosures. California has become the nation’s leading dairy producer in the past couple of decades, but the explosion in feed prices and other production costs has brought a downturn to the state that has been labeled “terminally serious” by some analysts.

Starts on Page 2 Boyd and other dairy leaders in Tennessee and across the U.S. fear the exodus from the industry will continue unless some very major changes are enacted in Washington. “The system is broken,” Boyd said, “with the pricing structure of milk bordering on insanity.” The dairy farmers themselves, she says, have done about all they can do to stop the bleeding, and now it is time for Congress to step up. “Many of us remain very hopeful that our industry can be saved,” Boyd said, “but we are at the point now where only some major legislative action can keep it afloat.” SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

GREENE LEADS STATE Dairy farming was once a key player in Tennessee, and for many years, Greene County has been the leading dairy county in the state. Greene County, in fact, still leads the state in the number of dairy cows, but the industry’s overall standing has declined to a fraction of what it was just a few years ago. In its latest “Department Report and Statistical Summary,” the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA)

Kaitlyn Taylor, 17, of Rogersville, visits the heifers that she showed at local and regional fairs last year for the Jimmy and Anthony Tunnell families, who operate one of two remaining dairy farms in Hawkins County. Kaitlyn, a junior at Volunteer High School, says showing the Tunnells’ prized Holsteins is the highlight of the year for her. reported that dairy farming now comprises only five percent of the state’s farm cash receipts. “It has come down to keeping our heads above water,” Boyd said. “Washington can’t agree on anything, and here we are, desperate for a new policy to protect the dairy industry in this country.”

Boyd says the Tennessee Dairy Producers Association, the Ten-

nessee Farm Bureau Federation and other organizations are trying

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Jimmy Tunnell, left, and his son, Anthony Tunnell, say the fight to remain in the dairy business is “never-ending.” Corn grown on the family’s fertile Holston River bottomland fills the silos in the background each fall.

try. The only glimmer of hope, the USDA report says, is that feed prices could possibly decline after the corn and soybean crops are harvested later this year. Lower feed prices could not come soon enough for those still milking in Greene and adjoining counties. “Most of the milk check goes for feed,” said Anthony Tunnell, whose family operates one of the two remaining dairy farms in Hawkins County. The Tunnell dairy could become the “Lone Ranger” in Hawkins County this year as the only other farm still milking is currently advertising to sell its herd and exit the business.

TOUGH YEAR PREDICTED If dairymen in Greene County or California or anywhere in between are looking to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports and projections for a light at the end of the tunnel, they are not apt to find it. In late February, the USDA announced on its Website that another tough year is being forecast for the dairy indus-

DWINDLING CASH FLOW The most negative aspect of the USDA report deals with the projected decline in net cash income for dairy operations for 2013. Jerry Cessna, a senior agricultural economist with the USDA, said that PLEASE SEE DAIRY | 4

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 23, 2013

Dairy Starts on Page 3 net cash income will fall 14.5 percent this year as the result of higher feed prices through the first three quarters of the year. “Feed prices will remain high through the summer, then decline as a new crop of corn and soybeans are harvested,” Cessna said. “There could be some relief for dairy farmers toward the end of 2013.” Jerry Broyles, whose family was once one of the major feed suppliers to dairymen in Greene and adjoining counties, says he continually wonders how the remaining dairy families are coping with the ever-increasing feed prices. “They go up every month,” Broyles said of feed prices, “sometimes, twice a month. It’s hard to keep track. SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY “We’re talking about some of the best people Scott Armstrong plants corn on the family dairy farm at Horse Creek in this scene from the spring of 2012. in the world, and they Scott and his parents, Tim and Nedra Armstrong, sandwich twice-a-day milkings between day jobs and a busy

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Stanley Hall, of the Kingsport Highway, heads back to work during the 2012 spring planting season. are having to deal with a situation that is so far removed from their farms that none of us saw this coming. “It’s tough,” he added, staring out a window. “Really tough.”

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How Much Will Milk Suit Settlement Mean To Dairymen? BY BOB HURLEY COLUMNIST

If there were any real winners in the January settlement of a milk antitrust suit in U.S. District Court in Greeneville, the winnings might be short lived, according to the Tennessee Dairy Producers Association (TDPA). “Where to market our weekend milk is already a negative factor of the settlement,” said Deborah Boyd, of Parrottsville, who is secretary and treasurer of the TDPA, an organization of dairy farm families that describes itself as “a unified, unbiased voice for Tennessee dairymen.” “Because of changes brought by the settlement, the milk produced on weekends on many farms in Tennessee is now being hauled a much longer distance to processing plants than it was previously,” she said. The weekend milk produced on Boyd’s Parrottsville farm, for instance, she said, is being trucked to Nashville or to a cheese processor near Boone, N.C., instead of to a bottling facility in the Sweetwater Valley at Athens. “Trying to find a plant to take our weekend milk is a very big concern for me,” she added. It was on Jan. 22 when the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), the largest dairy cooperative in the U.S., agreed to pay $158.6 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit alleging it conspired to suppress milk prices paid to dairy farmers. The settlement came on the day before the case was to go to trial in Greeneville. SUIT FILED IN 2007 Settlement of the lawsuit, which was filed in 2007, applies to thousands of farmers across the southeastern U.S. who are still milking and to those who were milking in 2001, which was the beginning year covered in the suit. As soon as U.S. District Court Judge J. Ronnie Greer gives his final approval to the settlement, a signoff which could come in early April, payments from DFA are expected to begin to all dairymen in the 14 states affected, Boyd said. Originally, the suit also named as defendants Dean Foods Co., the Dallas-based corporation behind many major dairy brands, including Land O’Lakes, Pet, and Meadow Gold. Dean Foods was named for what the suit charged was working with DFA and other organizations to limit competition across the Southeast for milk, thus depressing prices at the farm level. Dean Foods, however, reached a settlement with the plaintiffs in 2011 for $140 million, and the Dean payments, which will be made in a series of

four, have already started news media from across flowing to Southeastern most of the U.S. dairymen. On the day after the settlement was announced, NUMBERS CRUNCHED The Wall Street Journal Roughly speaking, Boyd reported on how the suit and other dairy activ- had brought more than ists who have been busy dollars to the pockets of crunching the numbers dairymen. say that the one-time “The lead plaintiffs’ payment from DFA to a attorney called the monfamily milking around etary settlement very 50 cows anytime during substantial and said that, the timeframe of 2001 to just as importantly, DFA 2013 should amount to has changed its practices around $11,000. in response to the suit,” “Those milking 100 cows Ian Berry reported in The or more would, of course, Wall Street Journal. get a larger check,” she “The Southeast milk said, “while those milking market has been reformed fewer than 50 can expect to the benefit of dairy to get smaller checks.” farmers,” Berry quoted According to January Robert Abrams, the plainfigures from the Tennes- tiffs’ lead attorney, as saysee Department of Agri- ing. culture (TDA), RegulaHarvest Public Media tory Services, Food and (HPM), an online reportDairy Division, there are ing collaboration that 29 dairy operations in primarily focuses on food Greene County milking and fuel from its Kansas 50 or more cows, while 18 City, Mo., headquarters, are milking fewer than said the Greeneville case 50. was being watched “as an Of the 29 larger opera- indicator of the national tions, six reported milk- industry, which has faced ing 100 or more cows. dramatic changes as it has The decline of the dairy become more industrialindustry in Tennessee ized and family farmers during the past decade is have been squeezed out.” nothing if not dramatic, HPM’s Peggy Lowe, and those remaining say the numbers are a sobering reminder of how their way of life is disappearing. In 2003, the TDA said there were 820 dairy farms operating in Tennessee. By 2008, the number had slipped to 550, and by this year, the number is down to just over 390, Boyd says, “depending on how many of those trying to sell their herds have been able to.”

reporting the day after the settlement, said that the farmers who had brought the suit in the first place were disappointed by the settlement. She did not quote any of the farmers listed as plaintiffs. SOME UNHAPPY Lowe did quote Dr. Sam Galphin, a veterinarian in Raleigh, who was unhappy with the settlement. “Farmers will see very little money and will get no relief from a bad market that makes it impossible to make any money,” Lowe quoted Galphin as saying. Lowe also quoted Peter Carstensen, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin/Madison, who she says has watched the case for years. “While it is nice that the farmers get some modest compensation for the harm they have suffered in the past, they remain at risk, as does the entire milk industry, by the failure to use this case to develop better, more open and nondiscriminatory access to markets for milk,” Lowe quoted Carstensen as saying.

A week following the settlement of the suit, a letter written by Ben Shelton, a large dairy operator near Statesville, N.C., was sent to many of his “fellow dairymen” in the Southeast, and it also began appearing on many agricultural Websites on the Internet, including Hoard’s Dairymen, one of the nation’s oldest dairying trade publications. While neither Shelton nor his farm is named as a plaintiff in the suit, he was involved from the first, followed it closely and emerged as one of the spokesmen for the plaintiffs. “My opinion is, the settlement monies coupled with the injunctive relief negotiated in the agreements is probably as good as we could have hoped for,” Shelton wrote in the well-publicized letter dated Feb. 5, 2013. “Going to court and putting it in the hands of a jury had a lot of risks. The saying, ‘a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush,’ holds true in this case,” Shelton wrote.

NOT EVERYONE CONFIDENT But not everyone involved is as confident as Shelton over the results of the settlement. “We are not as secure in finding a place for our milk to go,” Deborah Boyd said, “and that’s one of the negatives I’m most concerned about. “But the suit has opened a lot of questions that need to be discussed, and the biggest one deals with reworking the federal orders that determine the price of our milk.” Dairymen in East Tennessee have long contended that the federal orders that govern how much money they are allowed to make are “mostly Greek” to them, but Boyd says they’ve got to work to translate the Greek to a language they can understand. “We’ve got to educate ourselves,” she said. “We’ve got to get involved. We’ve got to work to save our way of life. “If we as dairymen don’t do it ourselves, it will not get done.”

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SETTLEMENT WILL HELP Greene County had 78 dairy operations in 2003, and of the 47 that were remaining in early January of this year, one has since filed for bankruptcy protection and several others have signaled their intention to quit milking. “The settlement checks will help some,” said Bobby Greenlee, whose family operates a dairy farm at Lost Mountain. “We sold with DFA for years,” Greenlee said, “but we left them when we found we could make a little more money with another company.” Some local dairymen, on the other hand, say they are proud that they have stuck with DFA because of some advantages that come with being a member of a cooperative. “The settlement will help us a lot,” said Tim Armstrong, whose family operates a dairy at Horse Creek. “I’m still happy to be a DFA supporter because it helps us keep track of what we are doing right and reminds us of what we need to be doing better.” SUIT CALLED HISTORIC The suit, called by many “historic” in nature because it pitted farmer (the dairymen) against farmer (DFA is a cooperative made up of farmers), and it was covered by

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

To have weathered some fierce storms during the past couple of years, Norman Dickerson’s dairy herd on the Old Ducktown Road appears to be cool and calm as the spring of 2013 approaches. The herd escaped the tornadoes of two years ago that destroyed most of the buildings on the farm, and the cows escaped again in January when a windstorm destroyed a barn that was built after the 2011 tornadoes.

Dairyman Who ‘Lost It All’ In 2011 Loses New Barn To January Storm BY BOB HURLEY COLUMNIST

Norman Dickerson might not be the most long-suffering dairy farmer in the history of the Old Ducktown Road in eastern Greene County, but friends say he has to be in the top five. Dickerson, who lost basically everything he had in the tornadoes of late April in 2011, lost a brand-new barn and several thousand dollars’ worth of alfalfa hay to a storm in late January of this year. “Friends tell me I need to move away from here,” the modest, soft-spoken farmer said after this winter’s storm. “But where am I supposed to go? This is the only home I’ve ever known.” Dickerson is just one of many farmers to feel the wrath of the weather during the past year. “I picked six knotty little peaches from an orchard with more than 600 trees,” Harry Fortner, a Sunnyside farmer, said in describing the April frost and freeze of last spring. “That’s not good,” smiled the 87-year-old Fortner. “We’re going to do a lot better this year.” SPRING CAME EARLY The freeze of last April, following an unseasonably mild March, wiped out most of the fruit crop in East Tennessee and the surrounding area. “Everything was in bloom from all those mild temperatures in March,” said Phil Ottinger, a fruitgrower near Cedar Creek, “and when that cold snap came along, it was all over but the crying.” Wayne Brown, a wide-

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

In spite of the storms of the past couple of years, it is business as usual for Norman Dickerson at his dairy farm on the Old Ducktown Road in northeastern Greene County. He was feeding silage during the evening milking in this scene from earlier this month. ly-known Chuckey farmer who just completed a year as chairman of the Tennessee Farm-

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 23, 2013

Weather

every day that I’ve been blessed with all these years of good health,” he said. “I still look forward to every morning’s sunrise and for the joy of getting my hands dirty in the land that I love.” Hay production in Greene County, for the most part, appeared to normal or even a little above-normal during the 2012 growing season. Ronnie Nelson, a prolific producer of highquality hay in southern Greene County, said that 2012 was the best he had seen in several years. “You always hope for a good year, and last year was a good one for hay,” he said. Thanks to modern equipment, Nelson and his wife, Sandra, are able to bale close to 2,000 bales of hay per day for customers who come from adjoining states to take advantage of the Nelson quality.

Starts on Page 5 through one of the worst corn-growing years of his long and distinguished agricultural career during 2012. “We got the corn planted in April,” Brown said, “and the drought of May and June just killed us.” Brown, whose impressive corn crops have slowed Chuckey traffic in years past, says the early part of the 2012 growing season was one of the most unusual he has ever experienced. “It is not uncommon for July and August to be dry,” Brown said, “while May and June normally have enough rain to get us through.” But the skies over Chuckey were not kind to Brown last May and June, and he sustained major losses with his corn crop. “But the tobacco average was good,” he said, “and the soybeans turned out fairly good, so I’m not complaining too loudly.” SOME CORN REPLANTED Brown and other grainproducers say the corn that was planted in late April and early May was the hardest hit by the extremely dry weather of June. “The corn that was planted later did fine,” Brown said. The moisture levels improved dramatically after June, in fact, with some farmers reporting that they replanted corn as late as the first week in June and did fine with it. “Replanting corn in June is not the recommended way of doing business,” said Stanley Hall, a former dairyman in northeastern Greene County who sold his herd and quit milking earlier this year. “But a field I replanted in June was the best corn I had,” Hall added. Seed corn prices, farmers say, have gone through the roof in recent years along with all other production costs — one of the factors that led Hall to retire from the dairy business. OPTIMISM PART OF JOB “Is 2013 going to be better? ” Brown said, repeating a question he had been asked. “You know it is going to be better. We all know that. If farmers weren’t eternal optimists, we wouldn’t be farmers. “This year is always going to be better than last year.” Some corn-growers in other sections of Greene County reported normal

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Chuckey grain and tobacco farmer Wayne Brown says the dry spring of 2012 played havoc with his corn crop, but that adequate rains of summer and fall allowed for near-normal soybean and tobacco crops.

HONEY CROP DOWN One segment of the agricultural picture that doesn’t get much attention when it comes to the weather actually involves one of the sweetest subjects found at the grocery store. “There was a time or two or three last summer when it got too hot for the bees to fly,” said Gary Strange, of Strange Honey Farms, of Del Rio, a key supplier of honey to East Tennessee retail grocers. Bees are famous for being among nature’s most interesting and complex creatures, Strange says, but they are also pretty fickle when it comes to the weather. “They won’t fly much in the rain,” he said. “They don’t like the rain, and they don’t like it when it gets as hot as it did last summer. “They just won’t do as well in those kinds of temperatures, and the PLEASE SEE WEATHER |7

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Harry Fortner, who is among a handful of peach producers still active in East Tennessee, examines his trees after last spring’s devastating freeze wiped out his crop at Sunnyside. “But we’ll try again this year, Lord willing,” said Fortner, who is 87 and still in love with farming. or above-normal yields in their fields, especially those along the Nolichuckey River in western Greene County whose primary fertilizer is chicken litter. “It was indeed a good year for corn in this neck of the woods,” said Jack Renner, a chicken and grain farmer at Mohawk. The storms that have raked the farm that has always been home to Norman Dickerson are unusual, he says, in that

the area has not been known for such storms before. “Other parts of East Tennessee are known to catch a lot of storms,” he said, “but I don’t ever remember hearing my parents or grandparents

talking about or expressing fear of storms in this end of the county. “We always had a little wind in March,” he added, “but now, it seems the wind blows all the time. “Some of our friends

tell us that we need to be like Jed Clampett (of Beverly Hillbillies fame) and move away from here,” he smiled, “but that’s easier said than done.” Dickerson, who is mostly recovered from the devastating losses of the 2011 tornadoes, said he hopes insurance will allow him to recoup most of his losses from this winter’s storm in order to rebuild and move on. STILL THANKFUL As for Fortner, who is one of the most familiar figures at area farmers markets, he believes the best way to deal with bumps in the road brought on by unfavorable weather conditions is to be glad that things are as good as they are. “I just thank the Lord

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Gary Strange, of Strange Honey Farm in Del Rio, checks the 2012 honey crop off the Poor Farm Road. Strange operates an extensive network of what he calls “bee yards” in Greene and adjoining counties in Tennessee as well as in adjoining states.

Guide 101 Pleasure Circle, Tusculum SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Harry Fortner cuts into a tiny peach that was just getting started last spring when it was killed by a late cold snap.

For more information visit our website: SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Phil Ottinger’s berry and fruit crops along Dodd Branch Road near Cedar Creek were mostly wiped out by the spring freeze of 2012, but he’s hopeful of better weather this year. His goal is to have a pick-your-own orchard and berry crops while bringing visitors to his family’s farm.

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www.greenevillesun.com

Saturday, March 23, 2013

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

Weather Starts on Page 6 drought of June didn’t help honey production, either. “The dry conditions there in May and June caused the blooms of late summer and early fall to be a little different. The blooms somehow just didn’t do right, and the bees were the first to notice.”

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Megan Southerland waters tomato plants inside one of her family’s greenhouses at Sunnyside in the spring of 2012. The Southerlands’ greenhouse crops did fine with Megan’s expert watering, but many farmers reported losses when May and June brought below-normal rainfall.

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Ronnie Nelson, a prolific hay producer on Sunnydale Road, ties down a huge load of quality orchard grass hay during last summer’s harvest along the 107 Cutoff.

There’s a queen bee in charge of every hive that produces Gary Strange’s popular Tennessee Mountain Honey, and he is somehow able to pick every one of them out from the thousands of other bees buzzSUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY ing around him. “That’s the The dry conditions of last May and June hampered hay and pasture growth over a wide area of East Tennessee, leading lady right there,” but most hay producers enjoyed relative success with the 2012 growing season. Sandra Nelson, who is in the Strange said while working tractor in this hay-making scene along the 107 Cutoff from late last summer, and her husband, Ronnie, said his bees off the Poor Farm Road. they were happy with the way the year turned out.

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 23, 2013

Optimism Returns As Burley Outlook ‘Improves Considerably,’ Experts Say BY BOB HURLEY COLUMNIST

While tobacco has disappeared as a major player in Tennessee in terms of farm cash receipts, there appears to be more optimism being expressed over the upcoming burleygrowing season than the industry has seen in a decade or more. As late as the 1990s, tobacco was a consistent leader among the top cash crops in Tennessee while being Greene County’s leading source of agricultural revenue for generations. Now, according to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA), tobacco is grouped with “other crops” in terms of ranking the state’s leading farm cash receipts. In its most recent “Department Report and Statistical Summary,” the TDA lists cattle, soybeans and broilers as the state’s three leading cash crops, with “other crops,” which includes tobacco, finishing in sixth place with 10 percent of the state’s farm cash receipts. But the picture seems to be brighter, at least for this year, for the growers who have stuck with the crop through a decade of lower prices on the one hand and dramatically higher production costs on the other hand. SNELL’S FORECAST “The outlook for U.S. burley has, at least in the very near term, improved considerably with a significant tightening of the world supply,” said Dr. Will Snell, of Lexington, Ky., agricultural economist at the University of Kentucky. He said that the demand has been brought on by a combination of factors, especially the large decline in African burley production. Many of the factors that determine the demand and thus the prices paid

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Tim Malone, of Orebank, and his daughter-in-law, Jen Malone, cut tobacco during last fall’s harvest in the Hartman’s Chapel Community of Greene County. The lack of labor presented major challenges to some growers during 2012, but Malone says he never noticed. “My family jumped in and helped me the way they have for years,” he said.

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Allen Woods, of the Old Kentucky Road, backs a load of tobacco into the barn during last fall’s harvest. Woods said his 2012 crop of burley “was the best I’ve had in years.” to growers for tobacco are so complex and so far removed from actual

production of the crop that some analysts and market observers com-

pare the industry to a ship without a rudder. Snell says some of the

issues related to how well tobacco-growers fare include child labor laws around the world, environmental challenges, and the ability to adjust to governmentinduced regulations and consumer concerns. The overhaul of the American health-care system is another factor that some growers and market observers are mulling, with some of them citing dramatically higher health insurance premiums for smokers beginning in the coming months. “The optimism that is out there right now could be short-lived,” said Gary Berry, a veteran grower and producer of tobacco transplants at his greenhouse operation on Stone Dam Road. “Not many folks have read the fine print of the healthcare system that is now the law of the land,” Berry said. LONG-TERM OUTLOOK Other growers who did not want to be quoted on the issue fear that the steeply higher health insurance premiums for smokers under the new healthcare laws are apt to drive down the domestic demand for U.S. burley. “Long-term,” Snell said, “the outlook for U.S. burley hinges on global regulations of f lavorings, a critical ingredient in blended cigarettes.” For the past several years, Snell has warned that flavorings used in the manufacture of cigarettes, which include chocolate and other food

products, are targeted by the World Health Organization in its campaign to reduce or eliminate the consumption of tobacco products. SOME ENCOURAGED Locally, the growers who have labored through the squeeze of the past decade are encouraged by the prospects of a better year in 2013, but many of them say they have not and will not put all their eggs into one basket. “We’ll grow it as long as we turn a nickel or two,” said Dean Landers, of Peters Lane, who grows a crop in partnership with other family members. Landers is a mail carrier by day, and other family members are either in school or are retired, so, as he says, “Tobacco is still a sideline for us.” But improved prices brought on by the increased demand for the crop, Landers says, played well with them in 2013. “We did well,” he said. “Actually, we did excellent. “We will be back at the same old job this spring, trying to turn a nickel and utilize the land and equipment that we have.” Landers was fortunate in that labor was not a problem for him, but it turned out to be one of the major sticking points for the overall 2012 crop. “We rounded up enough family members to get it PLEASE SEE TOBACCO | 9

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Garrett Byrd appears to be in over his head in this scene from last fall’s tobacco harvest on the Allen Woods farm along Old Kentucky Road.

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www.greenevillesun.com

Saturday, March 23, 2013

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Garrett Byrd, 15, drops sticks during last fall’s tobacco harvest at the Allen Woods farm, on Old Kentucky Road. Dropping sticks has long been considered one of the most toilsome tasks of the tobacco harvest, but Byrd said he didn’t mind. “This is just part of it,” he said. “And this is the part that teaches patience.”

Tobacco Starts on Page 8 done,” Landers said. LABOR WOES CITED But across the states where burley is still grown, it was not that easy. The labor shortage became such a problem in some Kentucky counties that there were published stories of how growers were bidding against each other for crews to harvest their crops. “Labor crew? You’re looking at us,” Tim Malone, a grower from Orebank, said late last summer while he and family members labored in one of his fields. “If you’re looking to hire workers to do this,” Malone said, “you’re just in trouble.” The labor shortage could become even worse with this year’s crop, which is expected to be larger than the one grown in 2012. “The problems producers had in getting labor may put the brakes on expansion,” said Dr. Paul Denton, of Knoxville, a tobacco specialist for the University of Kentucky and the University of Tennessee. NEWCOMERS TO GROW Still, Denton, who is a native of Briar Thickett

in Cocke County, predicts the stronger prices paid to growers in 2012 will encourage them to stick with the crop, and perhaps be joined by some newcomers. “Yessirree, we’ve got some new folks, and we’ve got some coming back to tobacco,” said Mike Hensley, of the 107 Cutoff, whose family produces transplants for growers in Greene and adjoining counties. “The demand for plants is the best we’ve seen in years,” he said, “and a lot of folks seem to be thinking that the tobacco picture is the best we’ve seen in a decade or more.” All the figures for the crop were up during 2012, according to Jane Starnes, of Knoxville, director of the Center for Tobacco Grower Research at the University of Tennessee. Prices were the best in eight years, she said, and the average yield per acre was the best since 2006. “The question is,” Starnes said, “all about the better prices, and how long will they last. “All our survey work at the center shows that price is by far the No. 1 determining factor in a grower’s decision to grow or not to grow.” Denton and other tobacco researchers have long contended that if tobacco fails to return at

least $1,000 an acre to a grower’s pocket, then he or she won’t grow it. “It’s a whole lot easier to sit on a combine and drive a corn planter than it is to harvest those acres of tobacco,” Rod Keugel, a grower from Daviess County, Ky., told the Associated Press for a story last fall. POLITICALLY ACCEPTABLE? The current round of optimism has even boiled over into political circles, with some publications wondering if tobacco

is becoming politically acceptable as an economic force again. Chris Bickers, of Raleigh, editor of Tobacco Farmer Newsletter, an online trade publication, reported in early March that the current governor of North Carolina addressed the state’s tobacco growers’ association for the first time in more than a decade. “The new North Carolina governor, Pat McCrory, said agriculture will be the segment of the economy that helps get

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North Carolina out of the current recession,” Bickers said. “The tobacco-growers are going to lead the way for us,” Bickers quoted McCrory as telling North Carolina farmers, many of whom depend on tobacco production for a living. “When I go on international trips, one of the first things I’m going to mention is tobacco exports,” the governor said. When Allen Woods and his neighbors were toiling to harvest his crop along

Old Kentucky Road late last summer, the subject of exports came up during a break. “I’m hearing more and more about how the world loves cigarettes made from our burley,” said young Garrett Byrd, one of the neighbors helping Woods. “Isn’t it something to think that the tobacco we’re cutting right here might end up in China or Russia?” he asked. “Wow, that’s a long ways from the Old Kentucky Road.”

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SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Not every grandfather in the land is still up to climbing up in a barn and hanging tobacco all day, but this grandfather is. His name is Dean Landers, of Peters Road, and he was helping his grandsons, Kurt Johnson and Nick Landers, in the harvest of the 2012 crop in this scene from late last summer.

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Dean Landers, right, of Peters Lane, and his grandsons, Kurt Johnson, left, and Nick Landers, were hoeing in their tobacco crop in this scene from last summer. The crop turned out “really good, just excellent,” Dean Landers said.

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 23, 2013

www.greenevillesun.com

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Randy Winter, of Long Creek Road, in Cocke County, unrolls hay for his beef cattle during feeding time earlier this month. Winter’s implementation of a rotational grazing program has caught the attention of farmers from a wide area. His farm has been used to showcase the advantages of the grazing program that keeps cattle in fresh pasture for most of the year.

Cattlemen Still Wearing Biggest Smiles On Farms Of Greene County BY BOB HURLEY

have allowed them to be grown on pasture rather than on high-priced corn.”

COLUMNIST

If there were any happy smiles on the faces of Greene County farmers during 2012, chances are good that the smiles belonged to beef cattle operators. “Beef cattle are the best things going for farmers in this part of the country,” said Billy Anders, a resident of neighboring Madison County, N.C., who has joined many of his mountain neighbors in beginning major farming operations in Greene County. Anders and his family, who live at Mars Hill, N.C., recently purchased land on Jim Kirk Road at McDonald Road and have since converted it into one of the most modern beef cattle operations in Greene County. “We’re out of flat land over home,” Anders smiled, referring to the mountainous terrain of Madison County that largely prevents the production of hay and other forage crops for cattle. “Besides that,” he added, “we just love beef cattle. We really enjoy it.” Anders and his family are not alone when it comes to preferring a beef cattle operation over other types of farming in Tennessee. BEEF STILL AT TOP Beef cattle continue to be the leader in terms of farm cash receipts on Tennessee farms, according to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA). In its annual “Department Report and Statistical Summary,” the TDA said that beef cattle accounted for 17 percent of the state’s farm cash receipts for 2011, the most recent year for which figures are available. Cattle were well ahead of the other commodities in the top five: soybeans, broilers, corn and cotton. Dairy farming continued to decline, the TDA report says, making up just five percent of the total cash receipts, and tobacco, which was among the state’s leading commodities from the 1940s to the 1990s, is no longer listed in the top ten in terms of cash receipts. Factors far removed from the rolling hills of Greene County continue to play a leading role in bringing smiles to the faces of local cattle farmers. Droughts and other factors have reduced the nation’s beef herd and driven prices to record highs in the past couple of years.

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Jason Gibson, of the Newport Highway, grooms one of the prized Angus heifers that he and his family will show during the upcoming season of local and regional fairs and cattle shows.

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Randy Winter, left, and Mike McElroy, of the Greeneville office of the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, chat during feeding time at the Winter farm on Long Creek Road, in Cocke County. Winter’s implementation of conservation programs, such as rotational grazing, is often used as an example by McElroy and other farm leaders to encourage better utilization of on-farm resources in the production of cattle, the state’s leading commodity in farm cash receipts. INVENTORY DOWN In a report issued in the middle of February, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS), referred to “the incredible shrinking cow inventory” in announcing that U.S. cattle numbers are

the lowest they’ve been since the early 1950s. In its analysis of the current beef cattle situation, the ERS cited the devastating three-year drought in the American heartland that forced cattlemen to sell or dramatically thin their

herds, actions which eventually resulted in a much smaller calf crop. “Inventories of all cattle and calves of 89.3 million head on Jan. 1, 2013, reached their lowest level since 1952,” the ERS report says. “As the drought contin-

ues into 2013, liquidation of cows has remained relatively high,” the report says. “Feeder calves may continue to be placed in feedlots earlier and at lighter weights than would be the case if pasture conditions would

FORAGES CUT COSTS While almost every farming venture in East Tennessee has felt the sting of dramatically higher feed prices in the past few years, especially the past two years, it has been less painful for the beef cattle operators who have managed to produce an abundance of hay and pasture. Randy Winter, for instance, who lives on Long Creek Road in Cocke County, is becoming widely known in East Tennessee farming circles for his move to a rotational grazing program that allows his large herd to graze most of the year. Winter, who was feeding more than 160 head of cattle through the rain and snow and wind of February, says the move to rotational grazing has made his pastures virtually mud-free during the worst of winter weather. “Look around, no mud,” said Mike McElroy, of the Greeneville office of the Natural Resources and Conservation Service, during a visit to the Winter farm in February. “The move to rotational grazing, with its accompanying watering system, is the highlight of my farming career,” said Winter, a retired teacher who is still involved in an adult education program in Cocke County several days each month. “There is still a lot of work involved in this operation, but it sure is nice to look out and see green grass instead of mud here in the dead of winter,” Winter smiled. The grazing program instituted by Winter and his family is so impressive, in fact, that McElroy and other agricultural leaders have persuaded Winter to open his farm for field days and other training programs that deal with producing the most cattle for the least amount of money. ROOM FOR EXPANSION While most cattlemen in East Tennessee are reluctant to discuss plans to expand their herds, one purebred producer says there is clearly an opportunity to take advantage of the dwindling supplies and increased demand. Diane Sexton Gibson and her family, whose purebred Angus operation is on the Newport Highway, says the empty fields of southern Greene County are signs “that somebody needs to be PLEASE SEE BEEF |11

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Billy Anders, of Mars Hill, N.C., works to spread wood shavings in his beef cattle barns along Jim Kirk Road in western Greene County. Anders is among a growing list of North Carolina mountain farmers who have expanded their operations to adjoining states in the past few years.

www.greenevillesun.com

Saturday, March 23, 2013

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

“The land is flatter here,” Billy Anders, of Mars Hill, N.C., answered when asked about driving from his home in the mountains to his farm on Jim Kirk Road in western Greene County. “You’ve got to go where the land is,” he said.

Beef Starts on Page 11 growing some beef cattle.” Gibson, along with her husband, Jason, have returned to the show circuit of East Tennessee with their prized angus line, which adds to the excitement of the beef industry. “We look around in our part of the county,” Diane said, “and there are no cattle to speak of, especially the way it was a few years ago.” Gibson, who says raising and showing angus

cattle “got in my blood as a little girl,” credits her parents, Joe Bob and Brenda Sexton, with instilling a love for farming in her life that remains a very rewarding experience. “You just meet the most wonderful people in the world in this business,” she said. “There’s a ton of work involved with every animal that you raise to show, but the rewards outweigh the work.” She adds that the rewards are not always

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

Restaurant Guide Stop by all these local restaurants for good eats!

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PLEASE SEE BEEF |12

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SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Randy Winter pushes a roll of hay down the hill during feeding time at his farm on Long Creek Road.

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www.greenevillesun.com

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 23, 2013

PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN

Dawson Gibson, 10, and his Angus heifer walk to the center of the ring to pick up their ribbon during a show at the Greene County Fair last summer. The Gibson family will return to the show ring this summer and fall, according to Diane Gibson, who adds that showing cattle has always been one of the thrills of her life.

Beef Starts on Page 11 SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Randy Winter, left, a cattleman along Long Creek Road, and Mike McElroy, district conservationist with the Greene County office of the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, walk among the Winter herd during a chilly day earlier this month. “Look, no mud,” McElroy said of the conservation practices that have all but eliminated muddy conditions on the Winter farm.

measured in dollars and cents, but rather in skills learned and friendships established. COW-CALF SECTOR STRONG Cattlefax, the Internet-era organization that serves all segments of the

cattle industry from its headquarters in Englewood, Colo., projects that this year will be marked by a continued decline in the supply of beef along with rising prices for the types of operations that are especially popular here in East Tennessee. “The cow-calf sector will remain in the driver’s seat during 2013, especially if they have

feed,” Cattlefax said in an Internet report from late February. The overwhelming majority of beef operations in Greene County and indeed most of East Tennessee are in the “cow-calf sector.” “Just a few years ago, who would have thought we’d be seeing prices close to $2 a pound for a 300-pound calf?” asked

Clarence Bailey, a retired railroader from Erwin who has found happiness on a cattle farm along the Nolichucky River in Greene County. “Now, those kinds of prices are something to sing about, too,” said Bailey, who sings professionally with two Southern Gospel quartets in Tennessee and adjoining states.

Interest Continues To Grow In Bringing Tourists To The Farm COLUMNIST

opening the gates in an innovative fashion that was unheard-of just a few years ago. In addition, dozens of other farmers are opening wide the gates to sell flowering and vegetable plants and a wide

array of fresh-from-thegarden produce to eager visitors who are falling increasingly in love with the trend of purchasing directly from the farmer who grew what they’re buying. “The people who are

going to hang on in farming are the ones who are willing to do whatever it takes to diversify,” said Vera Ann Myers, generally known as the “mother” of agritourism in Greene County and the driving force behind

50 8/& ( 3&&/& 7*--&

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what is now the Tennessee Agribusiness Association. FARM A SCARY PLACE Hartman, who is still PLEASE SEE AGRITOURISM | 15

Tusculum Boulevard

Guide

Bruce Hartman, of Mosheim, remembers the first time he ever heard the word, “agritourism.” “I didn’t know what they were talking about,” said Hartman, who is now among a growing number of Greene County and East Tennessee

farm-owners who are in the business of bringing tourists to their farms. “Hey, it works,” he smiled. “Visitors want to come to the farm, so let’s open the gate and call it agritourism.” Hartman’s Corn Maze, the Myers Pumpkin Patch, on Gap Creek Road, and Still Hollow Farm, on West Allens Bridge Road, are all

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Bruce Hartman, of Mosheim, is busy most of the year with a day job in Morristown, but he somehow finds time to plant and care for a corn maze that is proving to be as much fun for him as it is for the visitors who stop by each fall.

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Saturday, March 23, 2013

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

Greene County Broiler Business Remains Steady At Best During Past Year BY BOB HURLEY COLUMNIST

The broiler industry in Greene County remained steady at best during 2012, with no new growers added amid rising concerns about historic droughts, global marketing trends, and competition from other meats. “You bet, it’s tough,” said Jack Renner, of Mohawk, one of the area’s elder statesmen in the broiler business. “We haven’t had an increase in what we’re paid for our birds in many years,” he said, “while everything that we have to purchase has gone higher and higher and still heading up.” Jamie Barkley Fellers, a grower in northern Greene County near Lost Mountain, echoed Renner’s sentiments about lower returns and higher production costs. “I haven’t heard talk of new broiler houses going up in ages,” Fellers said. “From what I gather, the new houses that are going up are more to our south and west.” CONCERNS FOR GROWTH Both Renner and Fellers expressed concerns over the prospects of increased production in this part of East Tennessee, both short term and long term. “It would just take an absolute fortune to get in this business today,” Fellers said. “I don’t know many people who are willing to make that kind of investment for any agricultural venture today.” Renner fears the hay day of the broiler business might have come and gone for this part of Tennessee. “The banks aren’t loaning money for this kind of farming now,” he said, “because of the risk factors. “Besides, if a family had to borrow money to get in the broiler business in this economy, I can’t imagine how long it

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Jamie Barkley Fellers walks past her family’s broiler houses near Lost Mountain in northern Greene County. Fellers is continuing the broiler operation that was begun by her father, the late Jimmy Barkley, and her grandfather, the late James Barkley. “Like most other farming ventures, the broiler business never ceases to be a challenge,” Fellers said of the 2013 climate of growing chickens for the world market.

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Farm-City Awards Go To Metcalfe And Love Distinguished service awards went to Horse Creek dairyman Lanny Love and Greeneville radio executive Ronnie Metcalfe at last fall’s Farm-City Banquet. The banquet is sponsored each November by the Agribusiness Committee of the Greene County Partnership. Love was presented the J.W. Massengill Award for Distinguished Service to Agriculture, and Metcalfe was presented the Robert C. Austin Award for Distinguished Service to Community. The awards are named in memory of J.W. Massengill, who was a Chuckey dairyman and community leader, and for Robertl C. Austin, Greeneville industrialist and civic leader. Metcalfe was cited for his long service to his family’s businesses, Radio Greeneville, Inc., and to the Greeneville Emergency and Rescue Squad. Metcalfe served on the squad for 25 years, including 13 years as captain. He also served 25 years on the Greene County Fair Board of Directors, including six terms as president and two terms as treasurer. Love was cited for his success as one of Tennessee’s leading producers of alfalfa hay. He and his father, the late Charles Love, became widely known in livestock circles for their quality alfalfa, known as “the queen of forages.” Lanny Love was named the state’s top hay producer for three years before the competition ended several years ago.

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 23, 2013

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Jack Renner, of Mohawk, drives past two of his family’s broiler houses in western Greene County during clean-up chores this winter. One of the county’s elder statesmen in farming, Renner fears that expansion in the broiler business is moving away from this part of Tennessee, to locations closer to feed mills and hatchery operations.

Broiler

this year,” Graber quotes Aho as saying, “because of how 2012 went as a result of the drought and high feed prices. “However, once processors start making more money and production goes up, the growth should really take off.”

Starts on Page 13 would take to start making a little money after years of trying to climb out of debt.” Fellers is a third-generation broiler-grower, following in the footsteps of her late father, Jimmy Barkley, and her late grandfather, James Barkley. “It has been close to 20 years now since my family went into the broiler business,” she said, “and while there have been some good years, the frustrations never end in this business. “There is an unending movement in the industry to upgrade our houses, and with the price of everything today, that gets really expensive in a hurry. “The rate of return on our investment has not increased in years while production costs go up every year.” HIGHER OPERATING COSTS Renner says that, while he is still happy that he ventured into the broiler business in the early 1990s, ever-increasing operating costs pose a major concern for him. “The costs are just so tremendous,” he said, shaking his head. “Even our location here between Lick Creek and the river adds to our costs. “We catch a lot of heavy fogs that the folks in other locations never see, which means it takes more electricity to clear the fog from our houses and keep them at the right temperature for the birds.” STRONG IN STATE The overall broiler industry remains strong in the state, according to the latest figures from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA). During 2011, which is the last year for which figures are available, the TDA reports that broilers were third in farm cash receipts, trailing only cattle and soybeans. The overall percentage of cash receipts for broilers, however, slipped from 15 percent in 2010 to 13 percent in 2011, the TDA report says. Other farm commodities to make the 2011 top ten list include corn, cotton, “other crops,” greenhouse and nursery stock, dairy, “other livestock,” and wheat. As a lone crop apart from “other crops,” tobacco failed to make the top ten list in 2011 after finishing 10th in 2010. As late as the 1980s, tobacco consistently ranked among the state’s top crops in terms of cash receipts. Dale Barnett, of Shelbyville, executive director of the Tennessee Poultry Association, says poultry remains a very big business in the state. “The poultry industry is a major contributor to Tennessee’s economy,” Barnett said, citing an overall economic impact of $4.8 billion annually. The Tennessee Poultry Association is a statewide trade organization dedicated to enhancing the image and visibility of the poultry industry. Barnett said the asso-

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

“A little mud never hurt anyone,” Jamie Barkley Fellers said as she climbed down and out of a muddy tractor this winter on the family farm at Lost Mountain in northern Greene County. Fellers, who is continuing her family’s broiler and beef cattle operations, said she grew up on a tractor, and that “dirty hands are not an issue for me.” ciation works in partnership with growers, companies, educators, researchers, the University of Tennessee, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and the overall agri-business industry to promote the commercial poultry industry in the state. CHICKEN REMAINS AT TOP While chicken remains the meat of choice for Americans, there is rising concern over competition from other meats, including turkey. As late as last summer, the Progressive Farmer magazine, one of the nation’s leading farm publications, cited figures to show that Americans still prefer chicken over beef, which is the nation’s second favorite meat, and pork, which is third. But the magazine says that competition is increasing. Citing figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the magazine reported that percapita consumption of broiler meat was projected to decline during 2012. The primary cause for the decline was listed as higher prices for broiler meat, brought on by a drop in U.S. production. The magazine also stated that the broiler industry is feeling increased pressure from the turkey industry, which has shown significant production increases of late. OUTLOOK GOOD FOR 2013 Some analysts, however, are already projecting that broilers will regain some of the momentum lost in recent years. Wattagnet, an online content company that serves the U.S. agribusiness industry from its headquarters in Rockford, Ill., reported in late January that the outlook for broilers is good for 2013 and beyond. In a story written by Roy Graber, Wattagnet business editor, figures from the USDA were cited to show how the broiler industry is now mostly breaking even. Quoting research conducted by Dr. Paul Aho,

Wattagnet’s poultry perspective economist

and consultant, Graber writes that the industry

is poised for growth. “Growth will be modest

MORE CORN PREDICTED There are also the prospects of a much better U.S. corn crop during 2013, Aho says, because more rain is already in the forecast for the Corn Belt. In fact, Aho is so optimistic over increased corn production around the world that he is quoted as saying that 2013 could be the last year when grain prices are a hindrance to poultry productions. “If we’re looking at 2014 to 2018, we won’t even be talking about grain prices. Those days will be over. We will have moved on to other topics,” Aho is quoted as saying. In the meantime, the broiler producers in Greene County and in other parts of the rural South would love to see their first pay raise in years.

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Saturday, March 23, 2013

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

A load of visiting school students disembark from the wagon that transports visitors at the Myers Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze, on Gap Creek Road, in western Greene County. The Myers family works most of the year in order to stage a two-month show each September and October.

Agritourism Starts on Page 12 relatively new in the agritourism business, says he thinks he has found a way to utilize some of his electronic skills while having more fun than the visitors to his farm are having. “People love to be scared,” he said, “and I love to scare them in our haunted maze. We’re even adding a haunted outhouse for this coming year.” Hartman’s day job includes working with electronics and technical equipment at a Morristown industry, and he says he is having a blast by using those skills to create “gadgets and gizmos” that add to the screams of horror in his haunted corn maze. Last year, Hartman came up with a little thrill he calls “the earthquake,” which gave visitors the feeling of walking on ground that is about to swallow them up. “It was a hoot,” Hartman said. “The scarier you can make it, the better they like it.” WEDDING BELLS HERE The visitors to Still Hollow Farm, on the other hand, will not be scared at all, unless weddings, reunions, parties and the like hold some kind of fear for them. Jay and Ann Birdwell have turned their 150year-old family farm into a local and regional headquarters for weddings, reunions, field trips and a variety of other social events in the name of opening the gate to attract tourist dollars. “A farmer has to do what a farmer has to do to stay on the farm,” said Ann Birdwell, leaning on Jay, the man she calls “Mr. Fixit” when it comes to making the farm visitorfriendly. “We’ve got weddings scheduled every weekend this summer,” Ann Birdwell said, “and we try hard to work every reunion and field trip in around the weddings.” “What began as a way to bridge the gap from historic roots in the 18th century to our most recent endeavors in agritourism has now grown to allow us to meet your event needs from April through October,” Ann writes on the farm’s Website. Another feature of the farm is the Farmers Wife Gift Shop, which is located in the granary that was once at the heart of

the farming operation. The shop features handcrafted works by artisans who specialize in turning old farm implements into works of art. COMING BACK HOME Agritourism, as it is defined most broadly by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, involves any agriculturally-based operation or activity that brings visitors to a farm or ranch. For Ann Birdwell, that means a quaint setting for a summer wedding on the banks of the Nolichuckey River. For Bruce Hartman and his wife, Ann, it means coming up with new and creative ways to bring on screams of horror in their haunted corn maze. For Vera Ann Myers and her husband, Eldon, widely known across Tennessee as the “PumpkinPicking Prince of Gap Creek,” it means allowing visitors to “come back home to the farm” if only for an afternoon or evening. The Myers farm, by the way, has been known to hear its share of screams each fall as visitors make their way through a haunted maze that features some of the spookiest characters in the history of Gap Creek. “Before his death, my daddy was pretty convinced that we had gone crazy when we told him we were making a little money by scaring folks out of their wits in a dark cornfield,” said Eldon Myers. SEASON VERY BUSY As Bruce Hartman pointed out, one of the main drawbacks of agritourism in East Tennessee pumpkin patches and corn mazes is the very season in which it falls. “We’ve got high school football to compete with on Friday nights,” he said, “and we’ve got college football games to compete with on Saturdays.” There are also festivals of all kinds and other autumn events to compete with, but none of them will hinder the farmers from opening the gates to their farms. “When people choose to come to the farm in the poor economic conditions we’ve experienced the past several years, you get the idea that these folks really want to come to the farm,” said Vera Ann Myers. “We’re thrilled that they want to come, and we hope they will want to return for many years to come.”

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

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SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Before Still Hollow Farm became popular for weddings and reunions, there was sweet corn to draw visitors to it. Jay Birdwell now sells most of the farm’s sweet corn at roadside stands around Greeneville. On a cold and snowy day in February, a hungry customer stopped by to inquire when the 2013 crop might be ready. “Sometime after the last snow,” Birdwell answered.

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 23, 2013

Youth Credited With Holding Equine Industry’s ‘Silver Lining’ In Place BY BOB HURLEY

‘SIGNIFICANT INDUSTRY’ The American Horse Council (AHC), a trade organization in Washington, D.C., that lobbies before Congress and other federal agencies and serves as a unified voice for the horse industry, says equine play an important role in the nation’s economy. “The horse industry is a highly-diverse, national, serious and economically significant industry that deserves the attention of the general public, the media and federal, state and local officials,” concludes a study that was commissioned by the AHC and is available on the AHC Internet Website. “The industry has a $102 billion annual impact on the U.S. economy when the multiplier effect of spending by industry suppliers and employees is taken into account,” the report says.

COLUMNIST

Is there a silver lining to the cloud that has hung over the equine industry in Tennessee and the rest of the U.S. for the past several years? “Yes, there is indeed a silver lining,” said David Stills, of southern Greene County, “and our kids are holding it in place up there.” Stills, whose farm is on the White Sands Road in the shadows of the mountains, is one of a handful of horse-owners in East Tennessee who have retained a stallion for breeding purposes during the equine downturn of the past few years. “It is amazing how many of our young people still love horses just as much as kids ever loved horses,” Stills said. “It is just that horses are more expensive to keep than they’ve ever been in my lifetime.” In an “Equine Business Resources” report issued last fall by the University of Tennessee and other member institutions of the Cooperative Extension System, the “silver lining” that Stills and other equine enthusiasts see is mostly obscured by sheer economic numbers. The study determined that “the depressed economy, market saturation and cost of production are expected to have a negative impact on the industry for next few years.” ‘KIDS LOVE REAL STUFF’ Still, the equine breeders and trainers that remain in Greene County say that young people hold the keys to the future of the industry in the U.S. “Kids love real stuff,” said Jim Kennedy, who has been training and breeding horses and mules off the 107 Cutoff for many years. “And horses are real stuff,” he smiled. “Kids want to put their hands to the plow, so to speak. All we’ve got to do is show them how, and they will become much more than mere spectators.” In his quest to help young people become interested and active in riding and working with horses, Kennedy has for years opened his farm to youngsters who have shown an eagerness and willingness to work and learn. “They learn something new and different with horses every day,” he said, “which is so rewarding for them.” Watching young people grow and mature, he says, is also one of the rewarding aspects of the equine industry. “It gives you a warm feeling to watch a young person bond with a horse,” he said. “There’s nothing quite like it.” HOLDING ITS OWN HERE Another part of the “silver lining” has to do with the fact that the industry seems to be holding its own in this part of the U.S., according to Terri Rice, of the Warrensburg Road, who

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

David Stills, of White Sands Road, talks his prized stallion, Chance, into posing for a camera on a cold and windy day in February. Breeding horses in East Tennessee is mostly on hold today, Stills says, because of the ongoing downturn in the horse business. once trained and showed horses for a living. “The industry appears to be about the same as it was two or three years ago,” Rice said. “Feed prices have gone up and up while prices for horses have not,” she added. “We’ve sold a couple of horses to good owners of late, and we’ve leased some rescued horses with families that will take good care of them.” Rice is a member of the High Hills Rescue and Rehabilitation Center of North Carolina, an organization that cares for as many neglected and abandoned horses as they are able to do. The study completed by the University of Tennessee and other institutions found that market saturation from overproduction of equine to be one of the leading factors of the downturn in the past decade. “Most horse shelters and rescues are full,” says the study, which has been widely disseminated on the Internet. “University donations of horses are an all-time high, and most horses are being turned away. Reports of abandoned horses continue to increase along with the cost of production.” Not all facets of the industry were on the negative side in the report, however. “Top horses are still bringing good prices, while average and belowaverage horse prices continue to decline,” the study says. The study pointed out that the cost of producing horses has continued to increase as the price of feed, veterinarian care, supplies and labor has risen sharply in the past few years. FEWER SHOWS NOW The downturn has also played a role in changing the competitive face of

the industry. “While horse shows in general have declined, specialty areas such as calf-roping and barrelracing have attracted a large number of competitors,” the study says. University researchers at the participating institutions concluded that trail-riding and recreational activities continue to provide a huge opportunity, and that more trails are needed. “Developing trails in national forests and on state-owned lands, with more campsites, housing and dining facilities, provide a huge opportunity for economic growth,” the study said. While estimates of local equine numbers are not available, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA), in its latest “Report and Statistical Summary,” says the most recent figures available show that the state has more than 142,000 total horses and ponies and more than 18,300 total mules and burros. In its “Tennessee Agriculture 2012” report issued in January, the TDA says Tennessee ranks sixth in the nation in the number of horses and ponies, and second in the nation in the number of mules, donkeys and burros. The TDA report says that equine are found on more than 41,000 farms in the state, with the vast majority of those farms (67 percent) having less than five head. “Collectively, these operations are caretakers for 3.2 million acres in Tennessee. “The state’s top breed of horses are Tennessee Walking Horses, followed by Quarter Horses, with the two combining for more than half the state’s total equine,” the report says. The Hunter-Jumper category of horses has

the highest value per animal, followed by Thoroughbred, Tennessee Walking Horses and American Saddlebred, says the TDA. The top five counties in the state in terms of equine inventory are Rutherford, Wilson, Williamson, Bedford and Marshall. MULES REMAIN POPULAR It is interesting to note that Maury County, where Columbia is the county seat, is not included in the top five counties in the state for total equine numbers. But it is in Columbia, which is known as the “Mule Capital of the World,” where tens of thousands of mule-lov-

ers gather each spring to continue a 170-year tradition known as Mule Day. Dozens of Greene County families are known to make the annual trek to Columbia to join fellow mule enthusiasts from across the U.S. for a week of camping, concerts, parades and lots and lots of food. “Why, it is our duty to go to Mule Day,” said Dolphus Cutshaw, of Greystone. “Mule Day is a marvelous opportunity to gather with other people who love mules, and we’re talking about some of the best and most downto-earth people in the world,” he said.

‘MORE THAN SPECTATORS’ While breeding operations have slowed to a crawl in most East Tennessee horse circles, the teaching and training of young people continue at what most observers call a healthy clip. “There are close to a dozen kids right here in my neighborhood who would rather ride horses than talk on their cell phones,” David Stills said. “What does that tell you?” Jim Kennedy says he has five young people actively involved in riding and bonding with horses. “Our young people want to be more than spectators,” Kennedy said. Terri Rice says her mother, Mary Rice, continues to teach a group of youngsters how to ride and care for a horse. “Mom is so devoted to kids and horses,” Terri Rice said. “It is a thrill to watch.”

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SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

The field and the view belong to Billy Darnell, Jim Kennedy’s sidekick in the horse and mule business, but Kennedy says the nostalgia he enjoys behind a four-hitch of mules on freshly plowed ground in the spring is his and his alone.

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