Benchmarks 2012 Section C by The Greeneville Sun

Section C

Agriculture

Storms Of 2011 Will Be Long Remembered. 2 Dairy Farm Numbers Have Fallen To 50. 6 More Young Farmers Leave Tobacco. 8 Broilers Drop A Notch, But Remain Strong. 10 Cattlemen â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Tickled To Deathâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; With Prices. 4

The Greeneville Sun March 24, 2012

2012 Benchmarks

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 24, 2012

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

After the storms of last spring, Norman Dickerson not only discovered that he had Greene County dairyman Norman Dickerson, of Old Ducktown Road, walks deject- more friends than he could count, but he also found his way to a mountain altar edly amid the ruins of his home after last spring’s storms. But it was still a remark- where he was married. He and his new wife, Michelle, stroll in front of their home, which is on the spot where his former home was located. able year in the life of the well-liked farmer. See photo at right. SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Storms Of 2011 Will Be Long Remembered On The Land BY BOB HURLEY COLUMNIST

The storms that the farmers of Greene County weathered during the 2011 growing season were of historic proportion and will be talked about for generations to come. “To watch the sun come up after that kind of storm is the worst feeling in the world,” said Norman Dickerson, a dairy farmer on Old Ducktown Road who lost “everything” in the tornadoes of late April. Dickerson, one of the hardest-hit farmers in East Tennessee, lost his home, all his barns, most of his farming equipment, and even his pickup truck. Amazingly, his milking herd escaped without loss. “One cow was hurt, but the vet did surgery, and now she’s milking as good as ever,” Dickerson said. Other farmers in Greene County sustained some damage during the tornadoes, including

Chad Tweed, who lost a barn at Camp Creek, but most fared reasonably well compared with Dickerson. “I lost a fence or two, but compared to others, I lost too little to even talk about,” said Butch Shaw, a major grain and livestock farmer along Lick Creek at Mohawk. “As odd as it sounds, the dry weather of summer did more damage to us than any of the unusual weather of 2011,” Shaw said. “Our corn just never got the rain when it needed it the most, and our yields were down.”

they needed to ensure an adequate feed supply for the year ahead. “We’ve just been trying to get by this winter,” Greenlee said of the tight feed supply, “and hope for a better growing season this year.”

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Michelle Dickerson plays with an early spring arrival on the dairy farm operated by her new husband, Norman Dickerson, of Old Ducktown Road.

MIXED BAG OF WEATHER The poor yields were softened by the highest grain prices that Shaw and other local farmers have ever experienced, due primarily to the increased demand for fuel production on the national level. Other farmers reported too much rain, especially in the spring, which hampered planting and slowed production. “It was just that kind

of year,” Dickerson said, shaking a bowed head. “How are you going to forget a year like that?” Rocky Greenlee, a dairyman near Lost Mountain, was one of those who planted most of his corn crop at least twice, and still didn’t get to where he needed to be with production. “We were way, way short on our corn silage,”

he said. “We planted it once, and the flood came and washed most of it away. “We planted it a second time, and the second flood came.” By the time the Greenlee family endured yet a third flood and was finally able to finish spring planting in early summer, it was too late to hope for the kind of crop

NUMBERS WERE GOOD Other dairymen, on the other hand, reported some of the best growing conditions they have ever experienced. Glen Tweed, the father of Chad Tweed, for example, said his family’s corn crop in the Ottway Community was perhaps the best they had ever grown. “Some of the drought years have been really bad for us,” Glen Tweed said, “but our 2011 corn crop was just simply one of the best, if not the very best for us.” By the numbers, Greene County had “plentiful and consistent” precipitation throughout the year, with rainfall exceeding the county’s 30-year average by almost five inches, according to figures maintained by the

University of Tennessee Research and Education Center on East Allens Bridge Road. Even Dickerson reported a favorable growing season once he and an army of volunteers got his field clean enough to plant after the tornadoes. “We got it out late, but it was still a good crop of corn,” Dickerson said. “And I’m still not sure how it all happened, but the hay fields got cleared of debris in time for us to make enough hay to get us through the winter.” There were days when he estimates that more than 75 volunteers were busy on his farm, rebuilding his barns and fences and picking up tons of debris from his fields. “If I had paid them all, there wouldn’t be money for groceries today,” he said. Dickerson and others who observed the volunteer effort were so thrilled and overwhelmed to get the help that they forgot to take PLEASE SEE STORM | 3

On The Cover IT WAS A YEAR TO REMEMBER ON THE GREENE COUNTY LAND

The spring storms of 2011 left a mark on Greene County agriculture like none in recent memory, perhaps in all of history. “The storms changed everything for me,” said Norman Dickerson, who returned to dairying on the Old Ducktown Road shortly after rebuilding from the storms. Dickerson is pictured in the top photo on the cover amid the ruins of one of the five barns he lost to the storms. He also lost his home, most of his farming equipment and his pickup truck. Other Greene County farmers sustained losses from the storms, but Dickerson appeared to have been the hardest hit of them all. Official rainfall totals were above average for the year, but the showers didn’t fall on everyone. Some farmers reported major crop losses from a latespring, early-summer drought, while others reported losses from repeated flooding during the planting of the spring. Sun File Photo by Bob Hurley DAIRY FARMS NOW DOWN TO 50 AFTER MORE FAMILIES DEPART MILK BUSINESS

ers in Greene County is down to around 100, which is just a small fraction of the more than 6,000 growers from the early 1990s. The Center for Tobacco Grower Research at the University of Tennessee also reports that the current number of acres being produced in Greene County is 540, down from more than 10,000 acres in the 1990s. Sun Photo by Bob Hurley BROILER INDUSTRY STILL STRONG IN TENNESSEE FARM CASH RECEIPTS

Lloyd Davis, of Marvin Road in western Greene County, pictured at lower left on the cover, says the broiler business has been good to him and his family, but the “heartaches” never end. “You never get a day off from worrying about something in this business,” says Davis, whose mechanical skill has helped him succeed in the broiler business. As unlikely as it sounds, Davis’ life is mostly structured around the decisions made by executives in Chicago who call the shots for Koch’s Foods, the company that buys broilers produced in Greene County for the company’s Morristown processing plant. The broiler industry has leveled off in Greene County during the past several years, with no new houses being constructed, but the industry remains as one of Tennessee’s top three agricultural players, trailing only cattle and soybeans in terms of farm cash receipts. Sun Photo by Bob Hurley

In the photo at right center on the cover, Chad Tweed, a young Greene County dairyman, watches the ruins of one of his barns go up in smoke after the historic storms of last spring. This particular barn was located near Tweed’s home at Camp Creek, one of the areas hardest hit by the storms. He operates a dairy farm in partnership with his father, Glen Tweed, in the Ottway Community of Greene County. Three more local dairy farm families left the milking business during 2011, but two others returned, bringing the total to 50 active dairy farm families remaining in Greene Coun- CATTLEMEN EXPERIENCING BEST PRICES IN HISTORY ty, according to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, which tracks and regulates Clyde Payne, pictured at left center on the cover, could hardly be happier this the state’s dairy industry. Sun File Photo by Bob Hurley spring. The cattle farmer, whose operation is on Fairview Road, just off the Snapps Ferry Road, has never seen beef cattle sell as high as they are currently selling, and he says he is “tickled to death” because of it. Payne and other cattlemen say MORE YOUNG TOBACCO FARMERS OPT OUT FOR LESS LABOR-INTENSIVE VENTURES they keep reminding themselves and each other that the prices are probably too Tobacco remains the most labor-intensive crop available for Greene County farm- good to last. There is a downside to the happy days on the beef cattle farms of ers, and more and more of them say they are no longer willing to grow it for what Greene County, however. Much higher production costs, especially for feed, fuel it returns. Bobby Crum, pictured at lower right on the cover, is not one of them, and fertilizer, have played a major role in lessening the net returns of the farmers, however. Crum, a farmer on the 107 Cutoff, says tobacco will remain a part of his most of whom, such as Payne, are still very passionate about farming. Sun Photo farming operation for at least the time being. Overall, the number of tobacco farm- by Bob Hurley

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Saturday, March 24, 2012

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

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Dairyman Chad Tweed, left, and his children, Aleah, center, and Lane, walk near the spot at Camp Creek where one of their barns was destroyed in the storms of last spring. The barn has since been rebuilt off to the right of this scene, and most of the cleanup from the storms has been completed, Chad Tweed said.

Storms Starts on Page 2 names and keep track of the volunteers, some of whom had traveled for hundreds of miles to help in the rebuilding effort. DISASTER DECLARATION After Greene County was named one of 15 Tennessee counties that were designated a “primary natural disaster area” later in the summer by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Dickerson was able to apply for payments to recover from weeks of lost revenue and the total destruction of his operation. “There was enough of the disaster funding to cover the fences and some of the cleanup,” Dickerson said. “When you find yourself in the shape I was in, you’re just thrilled for any kind of help that comes along.” Even before the storm, while it was becoming more and more challenging to make ends meet in the dairy business, Dickerson says he considered many alternatives to his life on the farm. Quitting, however, has never been one of them. There was a time when his family grew an extensive tobacco crop, but he is not interested in returning to the grueling routine required in producing the workintensive crop. Some farmers in Greene County, on the other hand, have returned to tobacco in the past year or two, only to find that the weather is less cooperative, the work is harder now that they are older, and that the rewards are more elusive than ever. One farmer from southern Greene County, who didn’t want to be identified, said he was finally convinced that tobacco was for the younger crowd who had the patience to suffer through the floods and droughts of a growing season. “I tried it again, and I lost again,” the man said. “I could have made more money picking up walnuts and hickory nuts.” OPTIONS ARE DIFFICULT For the likes of Dickerson, Shaw, the Tweeds and the Greenlees, it is not that easy to leave the land they love. “I’ve been considering the beef business,” Dickerson said, “because there is no money in milking cows. And I’m not sure what the future holds for the small dairy-

men in the South.” For Glen Tweed, the unending release of new rules, regulations and mandates from the federal government is more worrisome than the weather. “We can deal with the weather,” Tweed said, “but the government is making such a mess of the milking business that no one has a clue where it will all end.” For Rocky Greenlee, there is a tradition to continue in spite of the floods and droughts. “My son is the fourth generation of Greenlees to milk cows here,” he said. “We’ve seen feed prices go from less than $200 per ton a few years ago to more than $400 per ton today, and we’ve seen milk prices go up and down long enough to know that some things will never change. “But, in spite of the storms and droughts and the weather that we can only talk about, this land is our home. “Farming is what we know how to do, and we decided a long time ago just to be grateful that things are as well as they are.” For Shaw, who is willing to face the floods of Lick Creek even after they form what he calls “Lake Mohawk,” farming remains a dream-cometrue. “Storms come with other lines of work, too,” he said. “When I told my daddy that I wanted to be a farmer, he told me I was crazy. But it was a dream for me back then. “Now that I am one, my dream comes true every day.” THE SILVER LINING Dickerson has had a dream or two come true, too, since the storms of last spring left him homeless. In addition to the army of volunteers who rushed to his side to help rebuild his farm and his life, a certain young lady named Michelle rushed in and has since become Mrs. Norman Dickerson. She helped nurse him through the recovery process of three major operations during 2010, and after they weathered the terrible storms of the spring of 2011, they decided it was time to team up and face the storms of life together as man and wife. They were married in a mountain setting last July just before Norman had to rush home and begin mowing hay.

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 24, 2012

www.greenevillesun.com

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Clyde Payne, of Fairview Road, checks on part of his cattle on the pasture near his home this spring. A retired industrial worker, Payne is now allowed to enjoy his dream-come-true job of cattle farming all day every day.

Cattlemen ‘Tickled To Death’ With Historically High Prices BY BOB HURLEY COLUMNIST

For Brian Jessie, a young cattle farmer at Camp Creek, the historically high prices that he and his fellow beef farmers are being paid for their cattle can be summed up in three little words. “It’s about time,” smiled the 28-year-old Jessie, who juggles a day job and grain production along with his cattle operation. Clyde Peters, who manages an extensive beef cattle herd along Fairview Road near the Fairview Cumberland Presbyterian Church, is another farmer who can hardly believe the prices now being paid for beef cattle. “Why, we’re tickled to death,” Peters said. “Who would have thought we’d ever see calves going for $2 and more a pound in this part of the country?” he asked. It is not just “this part of the country” that is seeing the highest prices ever paid in the history of the U.S. beef cattle industry. CattleFax, the cattlemen-owned information organizaton based in Englewood, Colo., says the national herd size is at its lowest level in years, demand and exports are both up, and it is a good time to be in the cattle business. “Declining cattle and beef supplies are a certainty in 2012,” according to the CattleFax website, and various analysts for the data-gathering organization predict that the upturn could last well into 2013. But even while cattle prices are at historically high levels and exports are climbing, a respected academic expert says the opportunity for quick profit may prove too tempting for some U.S. cattlemen. “We had record high prices during 2011, and yet we reduced the number of cattle by 40,000 in Tennessee,” said Dr. Emmitt Rawls, of Knox-

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Brian Jessie, a young cattleman and grain farmer at Camp Creek, feeds cattle from his tractor seat in this scene from early March. The mechanization Jessie enjoys in most of his farming ventures never came to tobacco, which is one of the reasons he has left the crop. “Too much work and not enough money,” Jessie says of tobacco. herd reduction to “killing the goose that laid the golden egg.” SALES SLOWER HERE But Greene County cattlemen appear to be selling at more of a normal pace rather than jumping on the bandwagon for a quick profit and selling heavily. “I’ve not sold any cattle since last fall,” Jessie said. “I’ve got some that will soon be ready, and I’m just hoping that prices will go still higher between now and the time I do sell some cattle.” Payne, too, has been slow to take advantage of the historic prices being paid for cattle. “I took some cattle to the auction for a family member, and some of them were sold for $2.10 a pound, a figure which none of us ever dreamed of receiving around here,” Payne said earlier this month. While Payne and Jessie and other local cattlemen smile over the current upswing in beef prices, they have also seen their share of ups and downs SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY in the cattle industry. Clyde Payne, of Fairview Road, feeds some young cattle by hand along the Snapps Ferry Road in this scene “Even the experts have from earlier this month. never seen anything like this before,” Jessie said. ville, professor emeritus Agriculture at the Uni“These are uncharted of agricultural econom- versity of Tennessee. PLEASE SEE BEEF |5 ics with the Institute of Rawls compared the

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Brian Jessie, of Camp Creek, checks on the combine he has purchased in preparation for increased grain production in the years to come. Record high prices for A heifer in the mixed herd of Clyde Payne inquires about the handout that might corn and soybeans have driven Jessie and other farmers away from tobacco to the be forthcoming from her owner. mechanized ventures that are not as labor-intensive. SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

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Saturday, March 24, 2012

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

Beef

in Nashville, Hord said the mood was upbeat. “There’s a lot of optimism in the industry right now,” he said. “The outlook remains pretty positive for at least the next couple of years.” But he added a traditional word of caution. “There are still concerns about rising production costs,” he said. For years, Rawls has said that Tennessee and adjoining states are wellpositioned to do well in beef production. He has consistently pointed to how mild winters often allow as many as nine months of grazing in most areas of Tennessee. Some East Tennessee cattlemen provide grazing land all year long through a practice generally known as “stockpiling pasture” during the growing season.

Starts on Page 4 waters for the experts as well as for the average farmer out here who is trying to do the best job he can on the land,” added Jessie, who admits to being in love with farming. An eye-catching sign on the front of his pickup truck declares that Jessie was “Born to Farm.” “But farming today is not my grandpa’s kind of farming,” he said. “You’ve got to manage every little detail in a fashion that our grandparents never dreamed about.” Payne, who is able devote full time to the farming venture he loves since retiring from his day job, also says that the cattle industry of today is far different from that of just a few years ago. “Who knows where it’s all going to end?” Payne asked of the most historic prices cattlemen have ever received, on the one hand, and the highest production costs in history, on the other hand. Payne remembers his younger days on the farm, when the older folks worried over fertilizer prices when they reached $60 per ton. “I paid $643 per ton for this spring’s fertilizer,” he said. “Wonder what the old folks would say about that?” While the older folks used horses and mules to harvest the hay and other feed crops for their cattle, the diesel fuel that Payne uses is going for around $3.65 per gallon if he can catch it during one of the downswings in the current scheme of

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Brian Jessie hurries past an antique corn planter on Red Hill Road on his way to feed cattle in the shadows of the mountains at Camp Creek. up-and-down fuel prices. TRENDS FAVOR FARMERS Rawls and other cattle analysts agree that supply-and-demand trends seem to be working in favor of farmers such as Payne and Jessie. In his March column for the Tennessee Farm Bureau News, Rawls said the beef cow herd in Tennessee is the smallest since 1980.

The latest figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are even more startling. “U.S. cattle and calf stocks totaled 90.8 million at beginning of 2012, representing the lowest nationwide inventory since 1952,” the Associated Press reported earlier this month, quoting reports from the USDA. In Tennessee, cattle and calves are the top

agricultural commodity, accounting for 18 percent of total farm cash receipts, according to “ Tennessee Agriculture 2011,” the annual report and statistical summary from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA). Soybeans are a close second, accounting for 17 percent of total farm cash receipts, and broilers are third, at 15

percent. Tobacco, which once ruled the top spot in Tennessee in terms of revenue, now ranks 10th in total farm cash receipts at just three percent. Charles Hord, of Murfreesboro, executive vice president of the Tennessee Cattlemen’s Association, says one of the reasons that beef production continues to be so appealing is that it can be done part-time. “In fact, the vast majority of Tennessee cattlemen have jobs in town,” Hord said during a February interview. “We have around 43,000 beef farmers in Tennessee, and somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of them are part-time,” Hord said, adding that the average herd size in the state is between 25 and 30 cows. LOTS OF OPTIMISM At the February meeting of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association

FARMERS GROWING OLDER One of the major concerns of both Rawls and Hord is the rising average age of farmers in Tennessee, where the average is now in the upper-50s. “It is really tough to get established in this business,” said young Brian Jessie, one of a handful of 20-something farmers remaining in Greene County. “You need at least one other job to be able to afford to farm,” he smiled. “But, if you love it, you do what you’ve got to do to stay in it, and some of us are willing to pay that kind of price.” Jessie is one of the younger local farmers who says he has “escaped” tobacco production in order to devote more time and energy to his cattle and other ventures— namely, an increase in grain production for the coming year. “The weather of the last two years did me in with tobacco,” he said. “It was awful.” In late February, he was looking over a field near Greystone that he plans to plant in corn this spring. “I believe this will work,” he said. “With prices for beef, corn and soybeans the best they’ve ever been for the farmer, I believe I’m going to enjoy farming more than ever.”

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Clyde Payne’s beef cattle operation on Fairview Road is seemingly overflowing with “fair views,” including this “lone cow on the hill at sunset,” from earlier this month.

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 24, 2012

Dairy Farm Numbers Have Fallen To 50 In Greene County BY BOB HURLEY COLUMNIST

The dairy industry in Greene County took two steps forward and three steps backward during the past year. Prices were good-tovery-good at the farm level, but production costs, especially those for feed, forced the number of Greene County dairy farms to continue to decline. At the beginning of 2011, there were 51 dairy farm families still milking. According to the latest figures from the Food and Dairy Regulatory Services Division of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, that number is now down to 50 after three families departed and two others returned to milking during the past year. One of the remaining 50 families is actually milking in Hamblen County while continuing to live in Greene County, and yet another family currently milking in Greene County is planning a move to Washington County later this year. “It is tough, but we’re trying to turn this thing around in the State of Tennessee,” said Deborah Boyd, of Long Creek Road, in Parrottsville, secretary of the Tennessee Dairy Producers Association. “Prices were good at the farm level during 2011,” she said, “but they have been dropping the past couple of months.” Boyd and her husband, David, along with other family members, are among the most active dairy families in the state in terms of working to keep the dairy industry alive in Tennessee. “Realistically, we need to brace for some lean times this spring and summer,” she said, quoting forecasts from some of the nation’s leading dairy economists. “It is less than a positive outlook,” she said, “especially until around August of this year.” Tony White, a dairyman near Lewisburg in Middle Tennessee who is president of the Tennessee Dairy Producers Association, said the challenges are continuing to drive families away from dairying. “In the short term, we’ve got prices going down and feed prices going up,” White said in a telephone interview during the middle of March. STATE NUMBERS DWINDLE White said that the number of dairy farms in Tennessee is now down to 433, which is down more than 100 from the summer of 2009. But he was fairly optimistic about how the entire year of 2012 will turn out. “Some experts are telling us that 2012 should be a good year for dairying,” White said, “with some hopeful price leveling later this summer.” Like fuel and fertilizer costs, feed prices are up and down for dairymen, with Boyd saying that “feed costs are even down a little right now.” The Tennessee Dairy P roducers A ssociation and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture are currently working to schedule a series of dairy meetings across the state this spring and summer to get input on “turning this thing around,” Boyd said. “Agriculture Commissioner Julius Johnson will be joining us in meetings all across the state as we attempt to gather data and weigh options that might be available to the dairy farm families in Tennessee,” she said. Dairymen in Kentucky, North Carolina and other Southern states have taken a very pro-active role in working to preserve the region’s dairy industry, according to Boyd and White, both of whom are dedicated to keeping the dairy industry viable in Tennessee. Speaking of the Boyds, White said that dairying “is their heart and soul.”

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Deborah Boyd, of Long Creek Road, Parrottsville, one of Tennessee’s leading advocates for the family dairy farms of the state, opens gates in preparation for the evening milking. Boyd and other activists are working to reverse the trend of declining dairy farm numbers in Tennessee, but “it is tough,” she says.

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

They are known across the state and much of the nation as the “Boyd-Lee Jerseys,” and they were heading for the evening milking in this scene from earlier this month. The Boyd and Lee families have consistently produced blue-ribbon Jersey winners in state and national competition for decades.

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Feeding time at the Greenlee family dairy farm, at Lost Mountain, is not exactly child’s play, according to young Brayden Greenlee, who says he has mastered this bucket business. The ups and downs of the dairy business are hardly new to the Greene County families who continue to milk, most of whom are carrying on a tradition that stretches back two and three generations. “It has been up and down all my life,” said Darrell Myers, of Gap Creek in western Greene County. “You just try to ride out the down times in hopes that the up times will return,” he said. “I’ve seen some times that are really good, and some that are really bad. But with the price of feed and fuel and fertilizer right now, the lower prices for milk that we are hearing about will put a hurting on us.” Myers says he learned to milk and manage a dairy farm from his father, the late Donald Myers. “My dad was a wonderful teacher,” said Darrell Myers, now in his 50s. “Some folks wanted me to go to college, but my heart was here on the farm, and I’ve always said that my dad was about the best teacher I could have found anywhere.” SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

RULES AND REGULATIONS

“You need some pretty tall boots out there,” Rocky Greenlee says of the dairying New rules and tighter business at Lost Mountain. Repeated flooding during last spring’s planting season regulations from the U.S caused major problems for the Greenlee family, but they will be back in the same Department of Agriculfields, trying again later this spring. ture (USDA) are helping

to put a strain on the remaining dairy farm families, Myers said. “The government wants us to do more and more in the way of creating a better product for the world market, but they are not doing anything to help us pay for it,” he said. The challenges and frustrations that have driven so many Tennessee dairy farm families out of business are also part of the daily routine along Gap Creek, where Myers carries on the milking tradition. “What else am I supposed to do?” he asked. “Changing jobs at my age doesn’t make a lick of sense. “I think I’m a pretty good heavy equipment operator, but I know a lot of heavy equipment operators who have been out of work since the construction business went to nearly nothing around here.” It means, Myers says, “that you ride out the bad times as best you can.” Terry Lawson, who is continuing a family tradition of milking cows near Mohawk in western Greene County, says that he, too, will hang on for the next round of better prices. “I don’t think it’s going to get as bad this year as it has been in the past,” said Lawson, known far and wide for his hard work and down-to-earth optimism. “I think we are in for some cuts,” he said, “but we’ve got to remember that 2011 was one of the better years we’ve had in a while.” Dr. Bob Cropp, professor emeritus of dairy economics at the University of Wisconsin, is generally regarded as one of the nation’s leading dairy analysts in terms of world marketing trends. Cropp and other analysts continue to point out that existing futures markets for milk all have lower prices for this year. “Much of the recent decline in dairy product prices and milk prices may be due to an increase in milk production,” Cropp writes in his latest “Dairying Situation and Outlook” column that is part of the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Extension Service website. DECLINE IN EXPORTS? Exports of milk and dairy products have been a big plus for dairy farmers the past couple of years, but, as Cropp and other analysts point out, the export numbers are expected to fall this year. “USDA is now predicting that exports will be a little lower this year,” Cropp says. Trying to put the best face on a time period that is expected to test both the resolve and resources of remaining dairy farm families, Cropp says that 2012 could turn out better than is now being predicted. “If increases in milk production will slow this spring, if domestic sales are positive and exports are holding up, we could see considerable improvement in milk prices for the second half of the year,” Cropp says. If the positive factors indeed play out in favor of dairy farm families, then Cropp predicts that 2012 milk prices will turn out considerably better than what futures currently show.

www.greenevillesun.com

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Broilers Drop A Notch, But Industry Still Has Right To Crow BY BOB HURLEY COLUMNIST

The broiler industry has not shown any growth in Greene County in the past several years, but that is definitely not the case across the rest of the State of Tennessee. “Oh my, yes, we’ve got several new broiler houses going up right now here around Shelbyville,” said Dale Barnett, executive director of the Shelbyville-based Tennessee Poultry Association. There are several other signs of positive growth around the state, Barnett said, including the recent opening of a world-class poultry research and genetics complex in Morgan County in East Tennessee. “The broiler industry is what I could label as healthy in Tennessee right now,” Barnett said in a telephone interview in mid-March from his office in Shelbyville, “but these feed prices are just killing us.” The historically-high feed prices, he said, have been brought on by the nation’s current rush to convert corn and soybeans into fuel. This time last year, broilers held the No. 2 spot in Tennessee in terms of farm cash receipts, but now they have slipped to third place. Soybeans, the state’s leading commodity a year ago, has slipped to second place behind beef cattle, according to “Tennessee Agriculture 2011,” the annual report and statistical summary published by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA). According to the TDA, cattle accounted for 18 percent of the state’s farm cash receipts for 2010, the last year for which figures are available. Soybeans were close behind in second place at 17 percent, and broilers were a close third, producing 15 percent of the state’s farm cash receipts. Rounding out the top 10 farm cash receipts are greenhouse and nursery stock at 10 percent, “other crops” at 10 percent, corn at nine percent, dairy at eight percent, cotton at five percent, “other livestock” at five percent, and tobacco at three percent. As late as the 1990s, tobacco was among the state leaders in farm cash receipts as well as being the leading crop grown in Greene County. Today, there are only 100 growers and fewer than 500 acres of tobacco being produced in Greene County, according to the Center for Tobacco Grower Research at the University of Tennessee.

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Erik Partin heads to check on the broiler houses he and his parents, Hank and Ellen Partin, operate at Warrensburg.

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Lloyd Davis, of Marvin Road, in western Greene County, backs his pickup truck loaded with broiler chicks into one of his broiler houses in late February.

“In the case of Koch’s Foods there in Morristown, which is the processor for that part of East Tennessee, that company will try to keep the broiler houses as close to its Morristown plant as possible,” he said. There is also a move on by the nation’s processors to keep the broiler houses close to their feed mill operations, Barnett said, because of the ever-rising costs of transporting the feed. “Overall meat consumption is trending down a little,” Barnett said, “and it really does come down to the push for converting American grain into fuel. “But a good point to remember is the fact that population here in the U.S. and around the world will only continue to increase, so the demand for poultry will increase accordingly,” Barnett said. He went on to explain CENTRALIZATION A KEY that any decline in U.S. The move toward a consumption for the time more centralized broiler being will be offset by industry is apt to con- the projected increases in tinue in at least the foreseeable future, Barnett PLEASE SEE BROILERS |10 says.

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 24, 2012

More Young Farmers Leave Tobacco For Grain And Cattle BY BOB HURLEY COLUMNIST

When Christopher Easterly was a youngster in the late 1980s and early 1990s, trailing behind his grandfather in the dusty tobacco fields of Caney Branch, it was an automatic assumption that the crop would always be a part of the family farm. Christopher Easterly is now 29, and tobacco will not be a part of the farm this year. “I’m through with tobacco until they get the price up there to a point that pays me to grow it,” Easterly said while planning other farming ventures in the middle of March. “I’m not working for nothing, and the way it has been for the past couple of years, I’ve been working for nothing,” he said. Easterly is not alone in leaving the crop of his fathers and grandfathers. Others are also cutting back in production. When Easterly was learning the ways of tobacco farming in the early 1990s, there were more than 6,000 tobacco growers in Greene County. Today, that number is down to around 100, according to Jane Howell Starnes, of Knoxville, manager of the Center for Tobacco Grower Research (CTGR) at the University of Tennessee. As late as the 1990s, there were more than 10,000 acres of tobacco being produced in Greene County, and today that number is down to a mere 540 acres, according to Starnes. “Those numbers are just our best estimates,” she said. “We have no data to back them up because no one collects information on the crop today.” The lack of information pertaining to the crop that was once the leader in farm cash receipts in Greene County as well as the entire state of Tennessee is what prompted the establishment of the Center for Tobacco Grower Research in 2007. PARTICIPATION SOUGHT “The CTGR wants to help tobacco growers better understand the industry and to allow their concerns to be voiced and shared with others within the industry,” Starnes said. For that reason, Starnes says she encourages growers to participate in CTGR activities, because

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Christopher Easterly, of West Allens Bridge Road, was preparing what could be his final tobacco crop for market in this scene from earlier this year. “I’m not doing this much work for this little bit of money,” said Easterly, who is moving on to cattle, grain and other farming ventures. the success of the center depends on the participation of growers. Growers interested in learning more about the center can reach Starnes at 865-974-0414 or online at www.tobaccogrowerresearch.com Based on current production costs and prices paid to growers, there is little hope that the numbers of growers and acres under cultivation will improve in Greene County, especially in the short term. “I haven’t heard a single soul say they are going to get into the tobacco business,” said Mike Gray, a grower from Horse Creek. “And that’s not good because I’ve got tobacco plants for sale this spring,” added Gray, who produces transplants in greenhouses at Afton. Echoing what other growers are saying, Gray says the 2011 tobacco crop was fair at best. “It was certainly nothing to brag about,” he said. “I’ve had worse crops, and I’ve sure had better crops.” Like others, Gray said he made a little money, “enough to survive on,” but the poor growing season put him to thinking of other crops. He says he will slash his tobacco production

by around half, down to 70 acres, and devote more time and energy to corn, soybeans and other crops.

fields in Greene and Washington counties. “There are options now,” said Dr. Will Snell, nationally-known tobacco economist at the UniverOPTIONS ARE THERE sity of Kentucky, “thanks It is part of a trend in part to the increased that stretches far beyond demand for biofuel. Gray’s former tobacco “Grains and livestock

that emerging options are making tobacco less attractive as their main crop. “I’m going with my cows and hay as a cash crop,” said Easterly, who is investing more and more in equipment to meet rising demands for hay from horse-owners in East Tennessee. “The hay market is there,” he said. “I’ve been sold out since December, and I have customers lined up for this year.” While his 2011 tobacco crop was “pretty good,” and while he made some money, the incentive is simply not there to keep him interested in the crop of his fathers. “I’m not saying I will not go back to tobacco at some point down the road,” he said, “but the people who buy our tobacco are going to have to pay more money to keep me doing all the hard work involved in tobacco.” Most of the work involved in the ventures that he and Gray will move toward this year is highly mechanized, including harvesting the small bales of hay preferred by horse-owners. Equipment now utilized by commercial hay producers allows one man to do most of the work from the comfort of a tractor seat.

may seem like better opportunities to some growers,” Snell said in a recent edition of the “Tobacco Farmer News- MARKETING STILL EASY letter,” a trade publicaWhile growers such as tion based in Raleigh, Easterly have not found N.C. Both Gray and EastPLEASE SEE TOBACCO | 9 erly will attest to the fact

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Saturday, March 24, 2012

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

Tobacco Starts on Page 8 the profits they are seeking with tobacco, there has been little difficulty in finding a market for their crops. Philip Morris USA, the largest cigarette manufacturer in the U.S., is no longer buying tobacco in Tennessee, but local growers say they see little change in the way tobacco has been marketed in this part of the state for the past several years. The closing of the Philip Morris USA tobacco receiving station on Pottertown Road earlier this year garnered quite a bit of media attention, but only a handful of local growers even noticed. “I’m not sure what we lost,” said Gary Berry, of Berry’s Greenhouses on Stone Dam Road, one of the area’s largest producers of tobacco transplants. “Only a handful of local folks have been involved with Philip Morris of late,” he said. “Most of the growers from around here left Philip Morris ages ago.” Gray was among the local growers who had utilized the Pottertown Road facility, and instead of hauling future crops to Philip Morris in Kentucky and North Carolina, he says he has already signed a contract to sell this year’s crop to R.J. Reynolds at its receiving station at Surgoinsville in Hawkins County. Bobby Crum, a grower on the 107 Cutoff, says he barely noticed the closing of the Philip Morris USA facility here. “It seemed to me that the growers who sold there with Philip Morris were all from Virginia or somewhere else,” Crum said. “I’d say the loss of Phil-

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Chrtistopher Easterly is at least the fourth generation of his family to grow tobacco at Caney Branch, off the West Allens Bridge Road, but he says no more will be grown on the farm until the profit margin improves.

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

In spite of poor growing seasons and lower-than-expected profit margins for the past few years, Bobby Crum, of the 107 Cutoff, says he will stick with tobacco for the time being, or “until something better comes along.”

boost production a bit this year. That news comes too little and too late for growers who have already shifted their attention in other directions. “The question now centers on how U.S. burleygrowers will react given profitable opportunities in other crops and livestock enterprises, continued concerns over the cost and availability of labor, an uncertain regulatory environment, increasing contract requirements, tightening credit, and reduced marketing options in some areas.” Snell said. It is enough to steer some of Greene County’s youngest and most energetic farmers away from the crop their grandfathers used to buy the farm. “Count me out,” Easterly said. “I’m out of here with tobacco, at least for the time being. I’m a cow and hay man for now.”

ip Morris is pretty minimal around here.” POOR GROWING SEASONS What really concerns Crum is the poor growing seasons of the past few years, especially the 2011 growing season. “The rain here just shut off in May,” he said. “We couldn’t even get a decent dew except in the low places. It was that dry.” In spite of the lack of moisture and greatly reduced yields per acre, Crum said he made a little money. “It helps; it all helps,” he said. “In spite of the work and the worry, it still helps to get a tobacco check in the fall.” And in spite of all the challenges, Crum says he will continue with the crop until something better comes along. On the March morning that Easterly was interviewed for this story, he had stopped to pick up a can of smokeless tobacco. “See this?” he asked. “This little can cost me $4.25. I ought to quit. Everything about tobacco is going up except what the farmer is paid.” Had Easterly bought cigarettes, he was apt to have paid more. TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE In a report issued earlier this year, Dr. Snell says the average price per pack of cigarettes in the U.S. was $5.55 at the end of 2010, with a whopping $2.46 of the price per pack being state and federal excise taxes. Looking at global marketing trends, Snell says there may be some movement on the part of buyers to encourage U.S. burley-growers to

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SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Gary Berry, of Berry’s Greenhouses, on Stone Dam Road, produces transplants for growers in East Tennessee and adjoining states while constantly studying the world tobacco situation. “You’ve got to have a sense of humor in this business, or it could be really bad,” Berry said while conceding that the never-ending parade of changes in the tobacco industry “is pretty maddening.”

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Broilers Starts on Page 7 population. And even the news of early March seems to be playing favorably for broiler producers in the U.S. “The recent media coverage regarding the negative effects of red meat could result in some increased poultry consumption,” he said. “Our American broiler growers also stand to benefit as more and more world markets open up and those populations continue to increase.” Some of the emerging economies of the world that have purchased American broilers in the past are now getting into their own poultry production, however, Barnett pointed out, so only “time will tell as to how it all balances out.” FUEL PRICES BLAMED As unlikely as it might have sounded just a few years ago, the U.S. search for lower fuel prices is continuing to drive up the costs of raising corn and soybeans, Barnett pointed out, and the escalating feed costs continue to decrease the profit margin in the broiler business. Much of the corn and soybean crops that made for a more reliable feed supply just a few years ago is now going to fuel production, and there is no immediate relief in sight, Barnett said. Feed costs alone are now 72 percent of the expense required to produce broilers, he said. Veteran growers such as Lloyd and Mary Davis, of Marvin Road in western Greene County, have learned to roll with the flow in the broiler business. “You just have to learn to take it as it comes along,” Lloyd Davis said, “because we learned a long time ago that it just doesn’t pay to get too excited.

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

While Lloyd and Mary Davis, of Marvin Road, were unloading tens of thousands of broiler chicks into their broiler houses in late February, a heavy fog settled over the area, almost obscuring the back of the houses from the front. “The people in the big offices of Koch’s Foods in Chicago are going to call the shots, and we know that. “All that we can do on this end is to work and try to give them the best bird we can possibly grow. That’s all we can do, and then we just turn everything else over to the Lord.” Between the Lord and the people in the big offices who buy the Davis’s broilers, it has been a profitable venture. “Chickens paid for this place and helped us raise our daughters,” Davis said. “It has been good. “And we still love this business, in spite of the frustrations that come with dealing with people that have never heard of Marvin Road in Greene

County, Tennessee.” MECHANICAL SKILLS HELP The frustrations are almost guaranteed to come, seemingly with every growout of birds, he says. “If it isn’t one thing to foul you up, then it will be something else,” he said. “We got a run of bad chicks in late February, and lost a bunch of them. Who knows what will come next?” Davis is well blessed in one sense in that his mechanical skills allow him to fix almost every problem that comes along regarding the maintenance of the family’s four broiler houses. “He can fix everything,” his wife, Mary, said. Hank Partin and his

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Mary Davis, right, makes a point to her husband, Lloyd Davis, while they and a group of neighbors unload tens of thousands of broiler chicks at their farm off Marvin Road.

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Erik Partin keeps his finger on the broiler operation that he and his parents, Hank and Ellen Partin, manage at Warrensburg.

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Broilers Starts on Page 10 their houses love months like that.” OPTIMISM HELPS While both the Davis and Partin families remain optimistic about the broiler industry, they agree they are at the mercy of everything from the weather to a fickle consumer. “But, hey, my glass is half-full, never halfempty,” Hank Partin

Saturday, March 24, 2012

said. “You’d never be in the chicken business if optimism wasn’t in your blood.” As feed and fuel prices change almost daily, Lloyd and Mary Davis work long and diligently as almost silent partners, well hidden off Marvin Road from the corporate offices in Chicago. “We know what we’ve got to do on this end,” Lloyd Davis said, “and that’s what we do. Not a soul has to tell us what to do. “It is up to us and us alone.”

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

“The mild winter we’ve had this year has been great news for the broiler business,” Erik Parkin said while checking propane supplies at his family’s farm at Warrensburg earlier this month.

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 24, 2012

www.greenevillesun.com

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

While most of the official training for horse shows is currently on hold at the Rice Farm along Warrensburg Road, an excited group of 4-H youngsters would argue that training in indeed continuing. Mary Rice conducts regular sessions with the Greene County 4-H Horse Club, leading classes on everything from safety to equine nutrition. Members of the club pictured above are, from left: Jane Van Amsburg, Maggie DeBall, Erin Dairy, Lindsay Rice, Sydney Brown, Wyatt Fitzgerald, Morgan Carter and Rachael Cobble.

Equine Business Continues To Reel From The Recession BY BOB HURLEY

Hills Rescue and Rehabilitation Center of North Carolina are caring for as many neglected and abandoned horses as they are able to do. “I have several rescue horses now,” she said, “which are available for good owners to lease.” Unlike other horse and equine rescue operations in Tennessee and adjoining states, Rice said the horses owned by her rescue organization are not sold, but are instead “leased” to families who can provide a good home for them. “We retain ownership,” she said, adding that the arrangement to put a horse with a new family is called a “care lease.” “If something happens, we can take the horse back,” she said.

COLUMNIST

Of all the agricultural ventures that have been seriously affected by the severe ongoing recession, the horse industry has taken one of the biggest hits of all. A good example came the middle of March when J.C. Kelley, a longtime breeder and trainer of draft animals in the Sunnydale Community of southern Greene County, was hauling hay to a group of horses in an adjoining neighborhood to keep them from starving. “I can’t stand to see them starve,” said Kelley, who explained that the family who owned the horses was apparently struggling to the point where they could not buy feed for the horses. “It is pretty bad out there right now in the horse business, and has been for some time,” said Dale Fincher, of Hartman’s Chapel, a veteran breeder and trainer and long-time horse figure in Greene County. “I don’t know of a single person doing any serious breeding in the horse business right now,” Fincher added. While there is still some training being conducted in Greene County, many of the families who once paid to have their horses professionally trained can no longer afford that luxury. “In many cases, there is simply no money to spend on playthings, and horses are playthings,” said David Messer, of Full Moon Farm, a training facility on South Wesley Chapel Road. “The horse business is slow like everything else,” he said, “because families just don’t have money to spend on horses the way they had before the economy went south.”

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Terri Rice has put her horse training program on hold for the time being, but her love for horses has not diminished with the economic downturn that continues to play a crucial role in the equine business in Greene County and most of the rest of the country.

Farm along the Warrensburg Road, once trained and showed horses for a living, but the economic downturn has forced her to leave her first love and return to a day job. “There had to be the stability of a regular check,” said Rice, who has put her breeding and training programs on hold while working a construction job to buy RESCUE OPERATION feed and keep the other Terri Rice, of Edgewood bills paid.

Rice still has a sizable number of horses, including some that are part of a rescue and rehabilitation program based in western North Carolina. “They are my babies,” she said, petting some of the horses she formerly trained and showed in several states. “The horse business is extremely poor now,” she said, “but it is like that everywhere, not just here in East Tennessee.

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

“Horses are indeed a luxury, and they are expensive to keep. The economic downturn has really hurt.”

In order to compensate for some of the “hurt” being experienced by horses, she and other members of the High

STILL SOME TRAINING While there is no “official” training being conducted at the Rice family’s Edgewood Farm, there is indeed some instruction being passed from one generation to another. Mary Rice, the mother of Terri Rice and an accomplished horse trainer in her own right, is a volunteer “trainer” with the Greene County 4-H Horse Program, and her job involves a lot more than just providing the youngsters a safe place to learn to ride a horse. “We try to teach them the basics about horses,” Mary Rice said, “with safety always being the main subject. “We conduct lessons on a wide assortment of subjects relating to owning PLEASE SEE EQUINE | 14

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

“The economy has really put a hurting on the horse business in this part of the Dr. Sharon Duke, of Camp Creek, who was once the largest breeder of giant Shire country,” said David Messer, who trains horses for owners in several states at his draft houses in the South, has since left the business to concentrate on her medifacility near Ottway. cal practice. Only two of the giants remain, and they lend a hand in helping Dr. Duke care for the Miniature Horses that are part of the farm.

www.greenevillesun.com

Saturday, March 24, 2012

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

‘Sgt. Brown’ Promoted To Chairman Of TFC Board Of Directors BY BOB HURLEY

Greene County. “I have really enjoyed serving on this board,” Brown said. “It has been very rewarding.” The trips to Nashville seem to get a little longer each month, he said, “but the perks of working with these people make every trip well worth the effort.” When he completes his year as chairman this fall, he will return to being a full-time farmer at Chuckey, chasing the endless string of chores involved with managing more than 1,000 acres of crops that include tobacco, corn and soybeans.

COLUMNIST

By any standard, it is a long way from the fetid jungle of South Vietnam to the chair at the head of the table of the Tennessee Farmers Cooperative Board of Directors, but that’s how far Chuckey’s own Lowell Wayne Brown has come in just over 40 years. If he walked into the local Greene Farmers Cooperative on West Main Street, he would most likely be greeted as all the other customers at the store are greeted. But those who know the mild-mannered, softspoken farmer with the muddy boots best will tell you that here is no ordinary hay-stacker. He grew up on the family farm at Chuckey where he still lives, but his leadership abilities rose to the top long before he returned home from the Vietnam War to assume the reins on the land he loves. Hardly a year after he was drafted into the U.S. Army, he was a sergeant leading a platoon of infantrymen and tunnel rats against the Viet Cong in some of the darkest days of the war. To the men who served with him, he became, simply, “Sgt. Brown.” That was in 1970. In 2012, he is still “Sgt. Brown” to the platoon members, many of whom will return to his farm again this summer to reunite with and again thank the farmer for helping ensure that they got to come home from the war. The transition from

-% 0

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Wayne Brown, a tobacco and grain farmer at Chuckey who is serving this year as chairman of the board of directors of the Tennessee Farmers Cooperative, was crunching Cooperative numbers on the computer in this scene from early March. leading a platoon of infantrymen in a sniperinfested jungle to leading a board that oversees the operation of 57 farm stores across the state has been one of the real joys of “Sgt. Brown’s” life. ‘BETTER FOR SERVING’ “I have been blessed to meet some of the greatest people in the state of Tennessee,” Brown said, “and

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

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I am a lot better person for it. “Serving on the board of directors of the Tennessee Farmers Cooperative has been one of the greatest personal development courses I have ever taken.” It is not just “the greatest Tennesseans” that Brown has been able to meet, either. “We go to Washington every summer to meet

with members of Congress, and I’ve been blessed to meet other farmers from all across the country,” he said. “It has been one of the major highlights of my life, right up there with becoming a grandfather.” Brown was elected chairman last fall in Nashville. “I’m certainly honored,” he said following his election. “I want to do my best to

serve the farmers of Tennessee and to strengthen TFC’s motto of being the easiest company in the state to do business with.” Only a handful of other East Tennessee farmers have been elected to serve as chairman of the TFC board of directors, and they include Jerry Smith, of Washington County; the late Jim Graham, of Cocke County; and the late Ralph Carter, of

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Wayne Brown manages an extensive tobacco and grain operation on Chuckey land that has been in the Brown family for many generations.

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THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 24, 2012

www.greenevillesun.com

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Mary Rice gets a kiss from one of her favorite horses on the family farm on the Dr. Sharon Duke stretches to put a bridle on one of the giant Shire horses at her Warrensburg Road. farm at Camp Creek.

Equine Starts on Page 12

and riding a horse. “We strive to help these young people understand that owning and riding a horse is a wonderful experience, on the one hand, and a big, grownup responsibility, on the other hand.” Part of her job, she says, is to “hopefully inspire the youngsters to appreciate the beauty and fulfillment of owning and riding a horse.” In the past few years, veteran horse breeders have talked about the declining number of young people in the horse business, but Terri Rice is among a growing number of horse enthusiasts who think that trend might be reversing a little. “I think a growing number of kids are making a strong show with horses, not just with 4H but by showing their horses and participating in trail rides,” she said. RETURN ON INVESTMENT Tony Ricker, president of the Greene County Horse Club, echoed the positive sentiments of Terri Rice by saying that youthful interest in the club is very encouraging. “We’ve got kids from 7 to 70,” he smiled, “and I’m not sure which age group is the most excited about their horses.” The club is gearing up for a busy show season, Ricker said, and he and other officers in the club constantly promote the importance of having young people involved in “the positive world of horses.” “Some of the best kids that I’ve ever known spend a lot of time loving on a horse. “Owning and maintaining a horse is indeed an expensive proposition, but just look what you’re getting for your investment.”

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Paul Hill, of Van Hill Road, pulls a log with his two mules and a cart that he designed and built. Hill is widely known as one of East Tennessee’s best-known mule breeders, but he is out of business for the time being. “It is slow,” he said of the horse and mule business. Dr. Sharon Duke, of Camp Creek, once had one of the largest herds of Shire draft horses east of the Mississippi River, but now that number is down to two. With the demands of her medical practice in Johnson City and other parts of East Tennessee, it became increasingly difficult to manage a breeding program for the breed of giant draft horses. “The really big horse farms in the South seem to be doing fine in this economy, but the little farms are struggling,” she said. “When families are struggling to feed the kids, there is no money left for the horses.”

their barns, or loose in their pasture. “The people who can’t take care of their horses just want rid of them,” said Billy Darnell, a veteran draft horse and mule breeder and trainer in the Piney Grove Community of southern Greene County. “There is still a market for really good draft horses and mules in this part of the country, but there is no market at all for the animals that have been starved and neglected in the past few years,” he said. “If you’re looking for good news in the horse business today, there’s just not much

of it out here,” he added. For many of the horse enthusiasts who have spent 40 years and more pulling horse trailers around East Tennessee, the love affair is apt to continue in spite of the economy. “You just have to work that much harder to keep everything going,” said Paul Hill, of Van Hill Road, who still logs and plows and makes hay with horses and mules in much the same way his father did in the 1940s and 1950s. “Many people have changed a lot, and they no longer have time for

horses,” Hill said. “But some of us still work

hard in order to make time for horses.”

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David Messer, who operates a training facility near Ottway, grooms a young horse while talking about his love for the horse business.

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www.greenevillesun.com

Saturday, March 24, 2012

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION

Rural Resources Reports Another Busy Year Of Making ‘Connections’ Rural Resources had a busy 2011 connecting farms, food and families, according to Sally Causey, executive director of the non-profit organization headquartered on Holley Creek Road. “ Rural R esources delivered 10,000 pounds of fresh and nutritious locally-grown produce via our Mobile Farmers’ Market,” said Causey. The organization also worked to promote locally-produced food with a series of special events, including covered-dish dinners at the Rural Resources farm in June and September. Other events included an “Incredible Corn Dinner” in July and a music event at Dogwood Park in August, Causey said. “In November, we began a new winter program called Food Movie Nights, and our first one featured a lively crowd, good soup, and a food documentary that sparked an intense discussion about the nature of what we eat,” she said. The organization hosted 85 children during Farm Day Camp last summer, Causey said, with more than 30 percent of them receiving scholarships to attend. “Last year marked the camp’s 15th season of introducing children to farm life, including planting a garden, milking a cow, feeding farm animals and much more,” she said. Two groups of older campers camped out under the stars on the farm. “We are especially proud of our intensive Farm and Food Training Program for Teens,” she said, adding that 41 youngsters participated in 220 hours of training, growing and preparing food. “These amazing young people also operated six farm and food businesses, putting their knowledge into action,” she said. The teens are divided into groups, with each group responsible for a different facet of farm life and business. During 2011, the groups’ projects included planting mushroom logs and planning and implementing a garden. “The teens also catered a dinner for the Pioneer Friends of Davy Crock-

Parham, Birdwell Win Farm Awards Milton Parham, a retired teacher in the Greene County School System, and Ann Birdwell, “the farmer’s wife” known for promoting local agriculture and the family farm, won distinguished service awards during last fall’s Farm-City Banquet. Parham was presented the Robert C. Austin Distinguished Service to Community Award for his many years of service as a teacher, coach, soldier, and church and community leader. Birdwell was presented the J.W. Massengill Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award for her innovative approach to add profitable enterprises to the family farm, including an agri-entertainment venture designed to bring visitors to the farm. The awards, presented annually by the Agribusiness Committee of the Greene County Partnership, are named in memory of the late Robert C. Austin, who was a well-known Greeneville industrialist and civic leader for decades, and for the late J.W. Massengill, a Chuckey dairy farmer who was active in civic and community activities for decades.

ett, where they showcased their very first pastured pork, which was raised on the Rural Resources farm. “During the school year, Rural Resources staff supported teachers in continuing four school gardens, facilitated a local task force of 36 local organizations and agencies searching for ways to strengthen food access and locallygrown food, hosted or co-hosted three grazing events for 125 local producers, and assisted growers with new food safety standards.” To end the year, Causey said Rural Resources staffers won third place in the Greeneville Christmas Parade with a float displaying “fresh food, a cow and a pig made of recycled materiPHOTO SPECIAL TO SUN als, and teens dressed as In a report issued earlier this month, Rural Resources said its staff delivered more than 10,000 pounds of veggies.”

fresh produce such as this via its Mobile Farmers Market last year.

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www.greenevillesun.com

THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 24, 2012

‘City Girl’ Continues To Rack Up Trophies For A Family Farm BY BOB HURLEY COLUMNIST

Eldon Myers is known far and wide as the Pumpkin-Pickin’ Prince of Gap Creek, but he doesn’t have a single trophy to show for the title. His wife, Vera Ann, on the other hand, is a city girl who is winning more farm awards than she can carry, and more trophies than she can display. Vera Ann Myers won two more state-level awards for getting tourists to the Myers farm during 2011, and she was going head-to-head in competition with some of the most familiar entertainment destinations in the country — even the whole world. In winning the 2012 Associate of the Year Award from the Tennessee Motor Coach Association earlier this year, she nosed out representatives from Dollywood, Graceland and the Grand Ole Opry, a feat that was called “a real feather in her cap” by officials in the tourism industry. “It was all a matter of presentation,” she said this spring while looking back at the award presentation. “During the tourist presentations at the motor coach convention, I just out-talked and out-presented the folks from all those other tourist destinations,” she said. “She can talk her way off a sinking ship,” Eldon Myers says of the city girl who became his wife and one of the most active agricultural promoters in all of Tennessee. ‘FARMER’ IS THE KEY “She’s the talker,” he added. “I’m just the farmer.” If it were not for “the farmer,” Vera Ann Myers says there would be no Myers Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze or any of the other attractions that are now drawing visitors to the Myers family farm almost year-round. “He is not only the Pumpkin-Picking Prince of Gap Creek,” Vera Ann says of her husband, “but he is simply the best farmer in the world as far as I’m concerned. “I am not alone when I say all the time that Eldon Myers could grow a crop of corn and pumpkins on a rock. “The corn mazes and pumpkin patches are the bread and butter of this operation, and everyone needs to know that Eldon is the master farmer behind it all. “If I didn’t have something really powerful to sell and promote, there would be no Myers Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze,” she said. During last fall’s Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze season, literally thousands of people from all over East Tennessee and beyond made their way to Gap Creek to see what all the excitement was about, some of them waiting for hours to experience the horrors of the haunted corn maze.

TOURIST DOLLARS TIGHT “Tourist and entertainment dollars are tight right now,” she said, “and you’ve got to be willing to work like crazy to compete for what’s out there. “There’s never a day goes by that we are not reminded that we are competing with Pigeon Forge and Nashville, and even with Elvis at Memphis. “If that won’t get your attention and convince you that the tourism dollar is serious business in Tennessee, then I’m not sure what it would take.” Some of the press releases that have detailed Myers’ awards in the past have said it all boils down to her commitment and enthusiasm for bringing folks to Greeneville and Greene County from a wide area. Privately, she will add one more line. SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY “It is our way of showVera Ann and Eldon Myers, of Gap Creek Road, were preparing for a busy greenhouse flower business in this ing the world that the scene from earlier this month. small family farm is still a vital and heartfelt part of the American story,” she said.

SUN PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

Eldon Myers pulls a wagon loaded with school children from the family’s corn maze last fall off Gap Creek Road. “Getting tourists to the farm is still a tough sell,” Vera Ann said, “but it is absolutely doable. “You’ve just got to be willing to take the risks and be prepared to work incredibly hard for incredibly long hours.” At the Tennessee Motor Coach Association Convention earlier this year, she was also presented

There isn’t a trophy on the place to prove it, but Eldon Myers is known in a half-dozen states as the “Pumpkin-Picking Prince of Gap Creek.”

the “Go-Getter Award,” which goes to the associate who makes the greatest impression on motor coach owners during the convention. In addition to capturing the two major statewide awards, she also won a coveted seat on the Tennessee Motor Coach Association’s Board of Directors.

PRODUCE Guide For more information visit our website:

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at the Greene County Fairgrounds SAT 8-1 • WED 3-6

“Welcome to

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SUN FILE PHOTO BY BOB HURLEY

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