PageO Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Eyes in the sky
Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 PageP c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Drones
Unmanned aircraft can deliver wealth of info
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“I’d heard a little about it over the last few years, but it’s really come on strong in the last six to eight months,” Litton said. “A lot of farmers are interested in it, talkhough the term “drone” often coning about it. We’ve flown for a lot of cusjures up images of secretive operatomers. There’s a lot of interest there.” tions on far-flung battlefields, the Litton said his company is currently selltechnology could soon be buzzing above ing a lineup of three drones from a small area fields. Indiana-based called Precision Drones. The small, unmanned aircraft could They retail for between about $9,000 and soon be used to monitor and map crops, $18,000. check soil and plant conditions and scout The benefits to farmers, though, could for problems. be significant, said Steele Robbins, an The data the little aircraft deliver could instructor of precision agriculture at help farmers tailor fertilizer and insectiMississippi Delta Community College. cide use and monitor drainage, cutting Robbins said detailed data and imagery costs and improving yields. For the moment, though, federal regula- of crops is already extremely valuable to farmers, allowing them to assess plant tions — or a lack thereof — have held back the drones, limiting their use in agri- health, monitoring drainage and patrolling the property. At the moment, though, most culture and beyond. The Federal Aviation Adminstration has high-quality imagery comes from manned aircraft or satellites — systems that can be yet to establish guidelines or regulations too expensive for many farmers, Robbins governing the commercial use of drones, said. meaning that it remains largely illegal to “It’s a cheaper platform to be able to get use the unmanned aircraft for commercial imagery,” Robbins said. “To be able to purposes. Wade Litton, general manager at Wade, acquire it through satellites, airplanes or helicopters, it’s almost cost prohibitive Inc., said federal regulations may be because of the number of acres you’d have restricting the use of drones, but it’s certainly not preventing growing interest and to look at at one time.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------enthusiasm for the products from local pÉÉ DRONESI=m~ÖÉ=NV farmers. By BRYN STOLE pí~ÑÑ=têáíÉê
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PageQ Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
The next generation?
Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 PageR c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Farm Families
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Sons look ready to continue Poe family tradition T he phrase “Like father, like son” holds true for the Poe family of Greenwood. Riley and Tricia Poe’s three boys, John Riley and twins Yates and Jacks, all look forward to helping their dad with his work, which is farming. “Either after school or on Saturdays, my wife will bring them to me,” said Riley. “They’ll just do whatever we’re doing.” John Riley, 8, is a second-grader at Pillow Academy. Yates and Jacks, both 4, attend day care at St. John’s United Methodist Church. The boys will ride on tractors, on the combine while corn or beans are being cut, or in the big truck on the way to the grain elevator. “We were in the field the other day, and the little ones came and rode on the tractor with me for several hours after school,” said Riley. The boys like being involved with the planting and harvesting of the crops. Also on the land where Riley farms is a barn that houses 4-H livestock from September until February. “On the weekends, they love coming out here when the pigs and other animals are ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------pÉÉ POESI=m~ÖÉ=NV
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Keeps ’em flying
PageS Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Provine Helicopter Service
Midwest hot spot for ag aviation company
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rovine Helicopter Service, based at the Greenwood-Leflore Airport, has grown and thrived off the Corn Belt of the Midwest. “They put a lot of fungicides on their corn up there in the Midwest,” said Mike McCool, Provine’s president. He said Provine covers about 15 states, including Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and Tennessee. Although the annual “Corn Run” won’t take place until the beginning of July, crews and helicopters are already in those states applying wheat fungicides. For specialized work, whether it is applying herbicides to forests, clearing rights of way for utilities or traditional agriculture, helicopter applicators are in big demand throughout the Midwest, McCool said. “There is so much corn and wheat grown in those areas, there’s not enough applicators to get it done,” he said. “People come from all over. There were some from Canada we ran into last year.” Still, McCool said, most of Provine Helicopter’s work is forestry-related. When Bob Provine opened the business in 1985, forestry herbicide spraying was its main focus. There’s an important reason why, McCool said: “All of the forestry herbicides can only be applied by helicopter.” Provine got started spraying herbicides on 16th Section lands owned by school districts in the Delta. “He started with one helicopter. A onepiston-powered, bubble topped helicopter — like a ‘M.A.S.H.’ helicopter, a Bell 47,” McCool said. “Now, we run all turbine-powered Bell Jet Rangers. We’ll be running six this year.” At the peak of the spraying season, Provine Helicopter will have as many as 30 employees on the payroll, he said. The company also operates a satellite office in Abilene, Texas, spraying west Texas pasture and range land, McCool said. Provine sold the company three years ago but didn’t fully retire until the beginning of this year. He still drops by three or four days a week to catch up on what’s going on, McCool said. Although McCool is not a pilot, he’s pursuing his fixed-wing license and plans to get his helicopter rating in the near future. McCool graduated with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Mississippi State University in 1994 and was hired by Provine in 1996. He and his wife, Lyn, have two sons, Graydon, 13, and Lawes, 12; and a daughter, Landry, 7. Since his first days with the company, McCool has honed his skills on the ground, in evaluating crops and trees and tailoring the applications for maximum effectiveness. He said most agricultural spraying in the Delta is done with fixed-wing aircraft, mainly because of the size of the fields. The cost of running a helicopter is a little
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more than the cost of running a fixedwing, he said. “In fixed-wings, they can carry more water. They can cover more acres in an hour,” McCool said. McCool said the Delta accounts for only 5 to 10 percent of the company’s total spraying operation. “The areas that we do tend to be more sensitive areas, where an airplane cannot
get to,” he said. “It may be near a subdivision. It may be close to a crop that they don’t want to take the chance of damaging. We’re flying at half the speed of an airplane, so we can be more precise.” The business has helped develop friendships. “You get to meet all kinds of different people. Covering 15 states and a variety of areas, you meet a lot of different kinds of
people. They’re good people to work with,” McCool said. McCool said the company and its employees are gearing up for the spraying season ahead. “They have a busy summer but during the winter, they have the whole winter off and they still receive a salary,” he said. “From June 1 to Nov. 1, we’re busy, busy. We have all that we can do,” he said. n
“The areas that we do tend to be more sensitive areas, where an airplane cannot get to. It may be near a subdivision. It may be close to a crop that they don’t want to take the chance of damaging.” jáâÉ=jÅ`ççä
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Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 PageT c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
PageU Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Family business
Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 PageV c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Carl and Bubba DeLoach
Father, son both got into field at early age
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ubba DeLoach says he knew from a young age that he was interested in farming. He remembers growing up on a farm in Shelby and sitting in the yard watching the tractors run. “I’d stand on the fence when I got out of school and wait for my dad to come by and pick me up,” he said. “And he’d pick me up and take me with him, and I’d get on the tractors and ride tractors with the help from daylight to dark.” In 1986, when he was a student at Delta State University, his father, Carl, got the opportunity to farm some land in Leflore County. Bubba DeLoach had wanted to farm but didn’t want to work for someone else, so his father suggested that they work together. Their operation, DeLoach Farms, also includes Bubba’s sister, Melanie Wilson, who handles the bookkeeping, and his wife, Kim, who works at Farm Bureau. DeLoach Farms now works about 3,000 acres of land, all in Leflore County — part rented from A.D. Buffington of Jackson and part rented from the Whittington family. Farming can be an unpredictable busi-
ness, but Bubba DeLoach is happy with the path he chose. “I love it,” he said. “Nothing’s ever the same. Every day it’s something different.” The 49-year-old Winona native recalls that he probably was 6 or 7 when he drove a tractor for the first time. His father, now 73, started early, too, when his family had a small hill farming operation in Carroll County. “I grew up plowing mules, when I was 8, 9, 10, and chopping cotton,” he said. Carl DeLoach’s family first moved to the Delta in 1967, settling in east of Shelby. He married into a Delta family and became a farm manager for Delta & Pine Land in Scott, where he spent about 11 years before he and his son went out on their own to work in Leflore County. They have farmed in the Itta Bena area since 1987. DeLoach Farms is growing corn, soybeans and rice this year and has grown cotton and wheat in the past. The most the DeLoaches have farmed at once was about 7,000 acres, and the number was about 5,000 as recently as 2010. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve kind of gotten settled in. I’m kind of satisfied where we
are,” Bubba DeLoach said. “I wouldn’t mind having some more land, but I don’t care about farming 20,000 acres anymore, like I used to. ... I don’t want to have to drive 50 miles to go farm somewhere.” In addition to the father and son, the business now has three other full-time employees. Also helping from time to time are Bubba DeLoach’s 21-year-old son, Hardin, a student at Mississippi State University; his 17-year-old son, Madison, a student at Pillow Academy; and a nephew, Barrett Johnson, who is 20 and attends Mississippi Delta Community College. Like many other farming operations, DeLoach Farms had a difficult year in 2009, when rain was heavy in the fall and crops rotted in the field. But Bubba DeLoach said they have had three or four good years in a row. They don’t work on Sundays unless they are irrigating and have to get into the fields early. Otherwise, he said, the schedule varies greatly depending on the weather and how much needs to be done. “We may work 40 hours a week; we may work 100 hours a week,” he said. He said they like this area and have
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worked with a lot of good people, including bankers and others. He cited Jimmy Sanders Inc. as an example: “They understand your needs and where you are. In farming, you have good years and bad years, and you want somebody behind you that’s going to stick with you in the bad years, and they always have.” Carl DeLoach still runs the excavator and backhoe and enjoys moving dirt and doing other construction work. He’s seen many advancements over the years, including progress from four-row equipment to 12-row and from two-row pickers to six-row ones as well as larger combines. He said his son “keeps up with more of the modern-day farming” than he does. But he does enjoy some advantages he didn’t always have. “I didn’t think I’d ever see the day when you get on the tractor and push a button and it drives itself down the field,” he said. So how much longer would he like to keep working? “’Til I die, I reckon. ’Til they put me in a grave,” he said with a smile. “No, I enjoy what I’m doing. And what would I do if I wasn’t out here doing this?” n
PageNM Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Future of irrigation
Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 PageNN c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Soil Moisture Sensors
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High-tech systems save water, money
ike almost everything these days, farming has gone high tech. The advances started with guidance systems and real-time yield monitors for tractors and now include soil moisture sensor systems. The most widely used term to describe this complex suite of technologies is precision agriculture, and the uptake is exploding. With the water table in the alluvial aquifer beneath the Mississippi Delta in decline, it’s becoming more important for farmers to take advantage of water management systems. Soil moisture sensors measure are quickly becoming a big part of technology wave in farming. The systems use moisture probes to give farmers a reliable means of measuring soil moisture for irrigation scheduling. Adron Belk, who farms in Leflore and Sunflower counties, experimented with the sensors a little last year and is using them all over his farms this year. “I am putting a set of probes on at least each well, and if each well has more than one soil type with it, I will put in probes for each soil type, one in the sandy ground and one in the gumbo,” Belk said. “With the system I am using, I have to walk out there and hook up a little hand-held computer to it to get my moisture readings. Some are Web-based, and all you have to do is log from the truck with an iPhone or iPad to get the readings. “Before we had this technology, we would water every seven days. Now we are able to water only when it’s needed, meaning we might go 10 days between watering depending on our moisture levels.” The moisture probes can be buried at different depths. By using sensors at two or more depths in the root system, farmers can determine how much water to apply. If the shallow sensor shows a rapidly increasing reading, but the deep sensor shows adequate moisture, you can run a short irrigation cycle as you only need to replenish the shallow root profile. If the deep sensor also shows a dry condition, then a longer irrigation cycle is needed to fully re-wet the entire root zone. John Deere’s Field Connect is one of the more advanced Web-based systems. It continuously logs soil moisture data from probes and transmits the data to a website that customers can access remotely. “We offer five different sensors on one one probe, at four inches, eight, 12, 20 and 40,” said Johnny Marshall, integrated systems manager of Wade Inc. “Each probe can be outfitted to measure the outside temperature, wind speed, evaporation rate, leaf wetness and soil temperatures.” Marshall said Wade first offered Field Connect last year, and this type of cuttingedge technology is still new to most Delta farmers. He expects the product to cover about 70,000 acres for area farmers this year and about 200,000 acres next year. Marshall says the benefit is not just widening the profit window through lower water and energy costs but reducing the demand on water resources. Greenwood’s Reese Pillow, who helps run his family’s farming operation in Leflore County, is looking forward testing some moisture sensors this year. He is planning to use them in 10 to 15 different sites where he can compare results against how the family has handled ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- gçÜååó=j~êëÜ~ääI=áåíÉÖê~íÉÇ=ëóëíÉãë=ã~å~ÖÉê=Ñçê=t~ÇÉ=fåÅKI=íáåâÉêë=ïáíÜ=íÜÉ=gçÜå=aÉÉêÉ=cáÉäÇ=`çååÉÅí=ëóëíÉãI=ïÜáÅÜ=éêçîáÇÉë=ëáíÉJ pÉÉ SENSORSI=m~ÖÉ=NP ëéÉÅáÑáÅ=ï~íÉê=ã~å~ÖÉãÉåí=Ç~í~=Ñçê=Ñ~Åáäáí~íáåÖ=íÜÉ=ÇÉÅáëáçåJã~âáåÖ=éêçÅÉëë=ëìêêçìåÇáåÖ=áêêáÖ~íáçå=éê~ÅíáÅÉëK pqlov=_v=_fii=_roorp=n melqlp=_v=_fii=_roorp=^ka=`lroqbpv=lc=t^ab=fk`K
PageNO Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 PageNP c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
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`çåíáåìÉÇ=Ñêçã=m~ÖÉ=NN ---------------------------------------------------------watering in the past. “The studies I have seen are impressive,” Pillow said. “If you can conserve pumping costs by conserving water and getting the same yields, then you’re killing two birds with one stone, conserving our water source and boosting the bottom line.” Belk also uses another high-tech water-saving system with his plastic tubing for furrow irrigation on irregular-shaped fields — Pipe Planner. It is a Webbased application designed to help farmers create the most efficient irrigation system when using polytubing irrigation for row crops. Belk says you enter the flow of the well (discharge rate), elevation of the pipe and row length and spacing, and the system will tell the farmer what type and size pipe to use and how big to punch the hole for each row to avoid water running out the ends of the shorter rows before the longer rows are soaked. “In the past, we would have guessed at it and probably still had our shorter rows run out,” he said. “Pine Planner is a valuable tool for us to maximize the effectiveness of irrigation water.” Another system similar to Pipe Planner is PHAUCET (Pipe Hole and
Universal Crown Evaluation Tool). PHAUCET has been around a number of years, whereas Pipe Planner is a relatively recent innovation. Jason Krutz, an irrigation specialist with the Mississippi State University, reports going through a series of case studies in which MSU specialists used a combination of soil moisture sensors and the PHAUCET program in farmers’ fields and produced the same or better yields than growers harvested at less cost and 40 percent to 50 percent of the amount of water. In one of the studies, the producer irrigated corn four times on either side of a test strip that was irrigated by the Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service’s specialists. On one side, he harvested 233 bushels for a $784 per acre return and, on the other, he cut 248 bushels for an $840 return. The specialists, meanwhile, irrigated twice and harvested 256 bushels for an $881 return. “So in this case, I’m 16 bushels an acre ahead of him, I’m $70 an acre ahead of him, and I did it with half the water he used,” said Krutz. “In these mixed to heavy soil types, we know how sensitive corn is to nitrogen dynamics, and I’m telling you if you’re oversaturating these fields you’re setting up denitrification, and denitrification in corn is not a good thing.” n
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PageNQ Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Growing wealth
Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 PageNR c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Area Economy
Farming revenue supplies region’s lifeblood
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s trains clank along the tracks out of town from Greenwood, carrying beans, corn, rice, wheat and cotton to market, the wheels of the cars are also helping churn the local economy. Perhaps no other industry brings as much revenue into the area as the farmers who till the rich soil. Though advances in technology mean fewer people than ever find work on the land, the thousands of bales and bushels of home-grown crops produced each year remain the lifeblood of the region. “It’s huge. It’d have to be the number one industry,” said John Coleman, president of Express Grain Terminals in Greenwood. “I don’t know of anybody that sells more product.” With the vast majority of agricultural commodities finding their way to markets outside the county, the state and often the country, local farmers bring needed outside revenue into the region, helping support other businesses. “It’s a very critical industry,” said Dr. Larry Falconer, an agricultural economist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. “When you take a look at it, it’s a big chunk of the economy.” Across the Delta, agriculture accounts for more than 24 percent of all sales, Falconer said. “That’s money coming into the area,” he
said. “Generally speaking, if you can build it or grow it in your area and export it, it helps with the money coming in and turning over.” Running the numbers, Coleman said corn alone brought in roughly $88 million in Leflore County last year. The local soybean crop was worth another $68 million, he Falconer said. “All the grain elevators combined together probably move more value through than any other industry,” Coleman said. That influx of cash helps support numerous other businesses — from transportation to warehousing, seed and fertilizer distributers to farm equipment dealers — which also reap the benefits of the agricultural economy. Although manufacturers of combines, tractors and fertilizers may be located elsewhere, it’s by and large a network of local brokers and dealers that sell and service the equipment that farmers need. Chip Morgan, executive vice president of Delta Council, said that much of the income from farming tends to stay in the area, with leading companies — and major employers — in all those areas located in and around Greenwood.
“All the spending and all the income usually stays local,” Morgan said. “You’ve got the same guy who coaches your kid’s Little League team selling you fertilizer. That dollar doesn’t go anywhere.” In Leflore County, about 3,400 people are employed directly in the Morgan agricultural sector, according to data from Mississippi State University. Throw in indirect employment, and that figure rises to about 5,100 — roughly half the total employed workforce in the county. When Morgan first moved to the Delta more than 35 years ago, thousands of families across the Delta lived — and made their living — on the farm. Though that’s changed, the sector’s impact on the regional economy has hardly declined. “Fifty years ago, if you had a thousandacre farm, you would probably have 10 employees,” said Chip Upchurch, cotton services coordinator for Staplcotn. “Nowadays, one to two people could very efficiently farm that thousand acres.” Andy Braswell, a longtime Leflore County farmer who now serves as an extension agent in the county, said the increased efficiency and lower labor costs
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have helped farmers keep earning money in the face of rising costs. “It’s trying to cut down on production costs and keep the profit margin in the region,” Braswell said. “They can cover more acres with fewer employees.” At the same time, though, other industries Braswell have grown or sprung up to service and support farmers. Morgan said those industries have helped replace some of the jobs lost in the fields with much better-paying positions in processing, sales, transportation and other fields. Falconer also points to catfish processing plants dotting the Delta as another large employer and a provider of relatively highquality jobs. The increased efficiency has also allowed farmers, who might have once scratched a living out of the land, to farm larger spreads and earn more themselves. “The movement has actually been good,” Morgan said. “As a result, the people who are on the farm are generally much higher paid than they were. It’s a better economic model for the Delta for everybody’s standard of living.” n
Beans booming
PageNS Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 18, 2014 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Soybeans
Top row crop has come long way since 1961
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oybeans remain Mississippi’s top row crop, and farmers are optimistic about this year’s crop after a wet spring. Farmer Chris Bush said soybeans have been gaining in popularity for two reasons: low input costs and good crop prices, currently as high as $12 per bushel. Price and field conditions figure prominently in planting decisions, said Bush, who operates New Hope Farms, an 11,000-acre operation, with his brothers, John and David, and his father, Wayne. “If corn has good yields, I’d rather plant corn. You can make more money with corn than you can with soybeans,” Bush said. Dr. Greg Bohach, vice president of the Mississippi State University Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine, said 2 million acres of soybeans were planted in the state in 2013. “It’s the second leading commodity. Poultry and eggs are still No. 1. Forestry is No. 3,” he said. The crop’s value in 2013 came in at $1.17 billion, a slight drop from the high of $1.27 billion in 2012. By comparison, in 2006, soybeans had a value of $276 million. In 1961, farmers in the state harvested 1 million acres of soybeans for the first time with a value of $60 million. Soybeans are the state’s leading export crop, with soybean exports totaling $700 million and soy mill exports $140 million last year, Bohach said. In 2012, Bohach said, 3,300 farms, mostly in the Delta, produced soybeans, according to the 2012 Ag Census. “We think it is going to be another good year for soybeans. The frequent rains would likely increase soybean acreage,” he said. Andy Braswell Sr., an agent with the Leflore County Extension Service, said more soybeans probably would be planted. “Soybeans are up a little bit right now pricewise. They are holding their own,” he said. Braswell said wet weather likely prevented a lot of farmers from getting all of their corn planted this year. The shift from corn to soybeans would be a natural choice for those who weren’t able to get into the fields earlier. Bob Givens, county executive of the Leflore County Farm Service Agency, said some farmers are going back to cotton, meaning that total soybean acreage might drop some this year. In 2013, he said, 110,368 acres of soybeans were planted in the county. Farmers have until June 15 to get their soybeans planted this year. Bud Tate, general manager of Farmers Grain Terminal, said the trend toward grains and away from cotton has been happening over the past decade. “Used to, we did about 13 million bales of cotton; most of it was domestic consumption. Now it is under 4 million bales,” he said. In years past, cotton was 85 to 95 percent of what was grown in the Delta, said Tate, a third-generation cotton farmer. “We were king of cotton,” he said. “But that’s been taken over by the grains.” He said it boils down to simple economics. “It takes about twice as much labor to handle cotton compared to grains,” he
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said. “If you try to go back, you don’t have enough labor. “That’s what has kept most people out of it. Once you’ve missed a few years, you’re out of the loop.” Add to that the input costs for cotton, which are far higher than those of corn or soybeans, and good soybean prices,
and soybeans become a very attractive choice. Bush said his family still has about 900 acres of soybeans yet to plant. Half will be Group IV early-maturing varieties, and the other half will be Group V. With luck, harvesting of the Group IVs will take place in late August.
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Farmer Stephen Pillow said field conditions have varied greatly with his family’s soybeans this year. “It’s kind of strange. Today, we’ve got some rain on some, while others didn’t get a drop,” he said. “With farming, you get both ends of the spectrum,” he said. n
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`çåíáåìÉÇ=Ñêçã=m~ÖÉ=P -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Armed with better data, farmers can better target their use of chemicals such as fertilizers, defoliants and pesticides. “It’s a way you can have a positive impact on economics and the environment simultaneously,” Robbins said. The technology is already there, and a number of companies and universities have received permission from the FAA to conduct testing on new models and applications. Congress has given the FAA until 2015 to come up with a set of rules to allow the safe use of drones in American airspace, but the rapid development of the technology — made famous by the U.S. military and the CIA abroad — has raised privacy concerns and worries about drones colliding with manned aircraft back home. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, made a splash in December when he unveiled his vision of using drones to deliver products from the online retail
giant. Other companies and entrepreneurs have pitched the use of small unmanned aircraft for everything from filming movies to delivering pizzas. Johnny Jennings, a Greenwood city councilman and a professional photographer, said he’s been using a drone for the last couple of months in his free time to add a new dimension to his photography. He said he’s also heard from cellular telephone and radio companies that would like to use the devices to inspect towers. Although the use of drones in crowded cities or for surveillance raises eyebrows, Robbins said that when it comes to agricultural uses of the aircraft, privacy and safety concerns are largely unfounded. “Nobody is interested in acquiring any imagery of anything other than their crops,” Robbins said. As for collisions with manned commercial aircraft, Robbins said the statistical odds are remote in rural Mississippi. Although crop duster pilots have raised concerns, Robbins said simple safety precautions — such as keeping the aircraft in sight at all times — should make them safe to use. Still, Robbins said a reasonable restriction on the products would be just fine.
The biggest thing holding back the technology at the moment is the uncertain future. “It’d be very difficult to invest the money now and then in six months the FAA comes out and says, ‘We’re not going to allow them’ or ‘We’re going to put some ridiculous restriction on them where it’s commercially unfeasible to use them,’” Robbins said. Until then, Robbins said some farmers have gone ahead and started using drones anyway. “People are starting to use them outside the law because there is no law,” Robbins said. Itta Bena farmer Mike Sturdivant Jr. said he’s been hearing about drones but didn’t yet see how they might fit in with his operation. For now, he said, the technology made sense for smaller-scale farmers monitoring several fields or for checking out problem spots that may have required heading out on a four wheeler in the past. As the technology develops and the price of the aircraft declines, though, Sturdivant said it was very likely there would be widespread use of the technology.
Mike Jones, a sales representative at Thompson Machinery, said his company hadn’t started carrying any drones yet, but he’d been in plenty of discussions about the technology and was looking into it. “Not a lot of it going around in the area yet,” Jones said. “It’s something that’s really new.” During the recent spate of tornadoes, Jones heard about search-and-rescue teams and insurance companies using drones to check damage. With their potential, Jones said he wouldn’t be surprised if farmers started using them soon. Before drones are widely adopted, national regulations will have to catch up. In the meantime, Robbins said he worries the United States is falling behind other countries that have embraced the technology. For his part, Litton said he didn’t know how or when the FAA might act. Either way, he said he saw a clear benefit for farmers using the aircraft. “A drone just gives you more information to make better decisions,” he said. “It’s one of the things that is going to be part of the future of agriculture.” n
`çåíáåìÉÇ=Ñêçã=m~ÖÉ=R -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------here,” said Riley. John Riley was more involved with farming when he was younger but still enjoys riding on the combine or playing with the animasl, his father said. Yates and Jacks both like coming to help their dad after school or on the weekend. But out of all three boys, Jacks is the most interested in farming. “Jacks will come with me everyday that he is not in school and on the weekends,” said Riley. “Jacks really pays attention to everything we do.”
In fact, he enjoys farming so much that his parents use it as an incentive. At night, he is prone to slip out of his own bed and bunk with his parents. “If you don’t sleep in your bed, what can you not do?” Riley asked his son. “Go to work,” Jacks replied, with a big grin on his face because, at the time, he was at work with his dad and brothers. Farming is a longstanding tradition in Riley’s family, from his great-grandfather to his dad. Farming is also on his mother’s side of the family. And his wife, Tricia, also was a child of a farmer. In 1984, The Greenwood Commonwealth published a feature about Riley and the passion he had for farming at the ripe age of 7. “I had planted stuff in our front yard, like rice,” he said. “That’s what I did all the time.
It sounds kind of weird, but that’s what I played with as a child.” Like his sons, he enjoyed helping his father, Bobby, farm. “When I was little, I spent a lot of time out in the yard,” Riley said. “My dad would bring seeds home for me, and I would plant them.” Riley began working with his father driving a tractor when he was about 13 years old. Now, Bobby and Riley farm corn, cotton, soybeans and milo together. As the boys have fun helping their father and grandfather farm, they are also picking up valuable information about agriculture. “They keep up with everything,” said Riley. “They know if we’re planting or cutting or irrigating. They all probably know the names of most the equipment used to
farm.” And when they are not riding in a tractor or playing with livestock, the boys will play with some of the farm toys that their father played with when he was a boy, including a tiny barn, little silos and miniature farm animals. Riley said he thinks the boys like harvest season the most because it is the most hands-on season. “They spend a lot more time out here during harvesting season,” he said. And during this busy time, Riley is glad his boys are there. “I get to spend time with them,” he said. “If they didn’t come out here, I would probably would not get to see them much when we are really working. I like having them with me.” n
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