PageO Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 20, 2018 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
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214 W. Market Street , Greenwood, MS 38930 662-453-6231 • www.staplcotn.com
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Family business
Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 20, 2018 PageP c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
David and Rebekkah Arant
Delta Blues Rice has given Arants opportunities
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a~îáÇ=~åÇ=oÉÄÉââ~Ü=^ê~åí=~êÉ=ëÜçïå=ïáíÜ=íÜÉáê=íÜêÉÉ=ëçåëW=t~äâÉêI=SX=eìåíÉêI=OX=~åÇ=`~êîÉêI=UK eans, corn and rice — fields seeded with legumes and grain by now are starting to sprout and layer the landscape with green. “It’s always exciting to get back into the fields and working,” said David Arant Jr. But, once fields are planted, he said, “You hope and pray for a good rain to make sure everything comes up.” He and his family — father, David Arant Sr., and uncle, Hugh Arant -— farm nearly 4,000 acres of soybeans, rice and corn northwest of Greenwood in Leflore and Sunflower counties. “Everything revolves around the weather,” David Jr. said. He and other farmers will be looking for timely rainfall throughout the season, but only a few weeks ago, they were dealing with showers occurring when they needed sunny skies in order to work in the fields. One recent weekend was clear up until Sunday. Then came a big rain, and Arant had a chance to talk about it the next day. He had spent the previous days outdoors with various tasks, including driving a tractor and spraying. “Saturday night, I was out until 11 o’clock trying to get this stuff done before the rain came in,” he said. The Arants are putting roughly 3,800 acres into production: 450 acres of corn, 1,000 of rice and the remainder in soybeans. The planting window starts to close in May, so they were scurrying. This year, they’ve cut back a bit on their corn and rice acreage, compared with
2017. Decisions about what to plant year to year involve not only predicted prices but projected expenditures. Profitability also depends on yields, and the weather affects the latter. But it can be snowing, and the Arants will still be working with rice. Four years ago, the family created a new market for itself with Delta Blues Rice, which is grown, milled and packaged on their farm. It’s distributed to restaurants and retailers nationwide, including some Whole Foods and Kroger stores. They’ve increased sales 20 to 30 percent a year since the specialty rice business was launched in 2014, Arant said. Delta Blues Rice is an estate rice, which means it comes from one farm only and isn’t commingled with rice from other places, which is the case with regular supermarket rice. Delta Blues Rice is available as white rice, brown rice and jasmine rice plus rice grits. David Jr.’s wife, Rebekkah, said the product’s simple name and classic brown packaging are designed to represent goodness with simplicity. Rebekkah, along with her husband, have what she describes as a “passion” not only for the farm, but also life there, and she’s pleased to take an active role in Delta Blues Rice. While David Jr. mills and packages the rice, she handles a number of responsibilities, including newsletters, emails and social media. They both conduct direct sales, and together they have made pre-
sentations at trade shows and in Whole Foods stores. Her husband said seven or eight Whole Foods stores carry their rice. Tentative plans before the business was started quickly materialized when a new Whole Foods in Jackson wanted to handle their rice, which the family had been sharing with buddies for years. A friend called to say, “Whole Foods wants your rice.” This launched David Jr. and Rebekkah’s involvement in marketing. It’s a relatively new skill for them. Both are Mississippi State University graduates who lived six years in Jackson after they were married. He was a civil engineer, and she taught high school English, including Advanced Placement courses. They moved to the farm in 2012 and now have three sons: Carver, 8; Walker, 6; and Hunter, almost 3. Rebekkah runs the home and has no official role with rowcrop farming. “But that doesn’t make me feel any less a part,” she said. The couple have been active in leadership roles with the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation, which created opportunities for them. They twice have traveled to Washington to speak with congressional members and their staffs about agricultural issues, and Farm Bureau training taught them how to speak about farm policies with government officials. Last year, they were honored with the bureau’s Young Ranchers & Farmers Achievement Award.
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“There were a lot of good farmers that were in that competition, so I was honored and humbled by it,” David Jr. said. On the farm, David Jr.’s in charge of soybean and corn production. He does, of course, also work with rice, both in the field and in the Delta Blues Rice business. Rebekkah said she and her husband bring different abilities to Delta Blues Rice. The former civil engineer has the brain for problem-solving, which is an asset for any farmer. His wife said, “He’s so good at analyzing and developing a plan.” And she has a way with words. She sometimes edits what he writes, and she thought of the Delta Blues Rice slogan, “Feed the body. Feel the soul.” Rebekkah’s contributions include posting recipes on ïïïKÇÉäí~ÄäìÉëêáÅÉKÅçã. These help draw people back to the site. The favorite, she said, is Parmesan Rice Grits. “You can have it on the table in 15 minutes, and it is really good,” she said. Delta Blues Rice has won awards from Southern Living and Garden & Gun magazines, and the rice has a following outside the South. “We are in restaurants all the way to Seattle and down to Orlando,” David Jr. said. “We are shipping rice all over the continental United States, for sure.” He paused. Outside, the skies were clearing. He wouldn’t be back in the fields that day — but soon. “Every year brings new promise,” he said. n
PageQ Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 20, 2018 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
With the earth in mind
Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 20, 2018 PageR c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Cotton
Farmers strive to be environmentally conscious F or three generations, Egypt Plantation has been environmentally conscious about the way it plants and harvests cotton. “It isn’t anything new to us,” said Jim Thomas, who runs the Holmes Countybased farm operation. “We have always tried to do that, which is why we are still farming.” Sustainability has become a buzzword in the cotton industry for the last decade, but farmers in the Delta have always had sustainable practices, according to executives with Staplcotn, the Greenwood-headquartered cotton cooperative. Shane Stephens, vice president of Staplcotn’s cotton services and warehousing, said there were concerns around the world from retailers and consumers about how cotton and its products were impacting the environment. He said it was surprising that anyone would wonder whether U.S. and Mississippi growers were being environmentally sensitive. “They raise their kids on these farms. They live on these farms. This is where they go to work every day,” Stephens said. “For someone to think that they weren’t being environmentally good stewards, and doing something that would put anybody at risk, it was a shock to cotton growers,” Stephens said. Hank Reichle, executive vice president of Staplcotn, said cotton farmers have always tried to produce more, control costs to eliminate waste and preserve resources. He said market forces have caused farmers to focus even more attention on sustainability in order to stay economically Reichle viable. “That is driving us to be able to lower our footprint — to do more with less,” he said. “But JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ the need to tell that “I just think as we story is a recent phebecome more nomenon has evolved, people try that come in to do what they can around the last decade.” to protect the Stephens agreed. “If environment. ’’ you waste soil, if you Jim Thomas waste crop JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ protection products, if you waste water, then you are not efficient,” he said. Growing cotton is a lowmargin enterprise, and being wasteful or inefficient can put you out of business, Stephens said. For Thomas, the sustainability buzz in cotton farming has been about protecting vital resources, such as land and water, for the long run. “I just think as we become more evolved, people try to do what they can to protect the environment,” Thomas said. He farms 7,000 acres in all, about 3,100 of which are planted this year in cotton. One of his main focuses has been water conservation. Thomas said in four locations on his farm, water used in irrigation is “relifted.”
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“Water that we have already used to water the field with flows down into a ditch,” Thomas said. “Then we have a pump at the other end of the ditch to pick up the water and irrigate that in the field.” He said the Mississippi State Extension Service has encouraged this practice and others, such as water sensors to accurately measure how much water is needed. Thomas said farmers can view these
sensors on their smartphones through an app. “You can look at them and they will let you know when the soil dries out, and when you need to water them,” he said. Another way Egypt Plantation has stayed environmentally conscious is by employing irrigation polypipes. The long flexible pipes are spread along the fields with holes punched throughout them to let the water run down the rows. Thomas
said the pipes are not reusable but can be recycled through Delta Plastics, a manufacturer of the tubes. Thomas uses other sustainable practices on his farm such as minimum tillage farming to conserve soil. Advances in technology have assisted the sustainability efforts by developing equipment that allows farmers to be more precise in planting, in applying fertilizer, pesticides and water, and in harvesting.
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PageS Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 20, 2018 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
`çííçå=Ñ~êãÉêë=áå=íÜÉ=aÉäí~=Ü~îÉ=~äï~óë=ÉãéäçóÉÇ=ëìëí~áå~ÄäÉ=éê~ÅíáÅÉëI=ë~ó=ÉñÉÅìíáîÉë=~í=pí~éäÅçíåK For example, Reichle said GPS technology has allowed the harvester to go through the field and monitor how much product it is taking out of the land. A separate system allows farmers to take fertility samples in a grid across their fields. This helps them to pinpoint the amount of fertilizer needed for one area of a field compared to another. Farmers have adopted other sustainable practices such as integrative pest management, cover crops and crop rotation. Although government programs have made the ability to adapt and change to new technology easier, sometimes it can still be difficult for older generations to adopt the changes, said Thomas, 67. “The older farmers have a hard time changing because they have done it the way have done it and they don’t want to change,” he said. “Then the younger generation comes in — the next generation. They are more willing to try the newer stuff. It takes a while for us to get adjusted to it, but we do it.” Reichle said the goal is to continue to improve cotton’s environmental footprint, and he is confident that farmers will meet that objective. Although the industry has already made great strides in sustainability, the challenge is not only to further improve “but also to tell the story of what we have been doing, what we are doing now and what we plan to do in the future,” he said. n
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“The older farmers have a hard time changing because they have done it the way they have done it and they don’t want to change. Then the younger generation comes in — the next generation. They are more willing to try the newer stuff. ’’ Jim Thomas
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PageT c^ojfkd Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 20, 2018 =======================================================================================================================================================================
River Elevators * Country • Elevators
Farmer-owned and operated P.O. P .O. Box Box 1796 1796 • Greenville, Greenville, MS MS 38702 38702 P:: 662.332.0987 P 662.332.0987 | F: F: 662.332.0999 662.332.0999
www.fgtcoop.com w ww.ffgtcoop.com
‘Stressful work’
PageU Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 20, 2018 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Crop Dusters
Pilots have a big job, go through a lot of training
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aìëíáå=jÅdÉÜÉÉI=äÉÑíI=áë=íÜÉ=åÉïÉëí=éáäçí=~í=aáñáÉ=aìëíÉêëI=~=ÅêçéJÇìëíáåÖ=çéÉê~íáçå=åÉ~ê=jáëëáëëáééá=s~ääÉó=pí~íÉ=råáîÉêëáíó=~åÇ=fíí~=_Éå~K=a~îáÇ=e~ÄáÖI=êáÖÜíI=Ü~ë=ÄÉÉå=ÑäóáåÖ ÅêçéJÇìëíáåÖ=éä~åÉë=Ñçê=ëçãÉ=PM=óÉ~êë=~åÇ=ë~óë=áí=í~âÉë=~Äçìí=NM=óÉ~êë=Ñçê=~=åÉï=éáäçí=íç=äÉ~êå=~ää=íÜÉ=áåë=~åÇ=çìíëK nyone who lives in the Delta is likely to have had an encounter with a crop duster plane. Driving down an empty, straight highway flanked on either side by endless cotton fields, the world is quiet when, suddenly, a bright yellow-and-blue aircraft swoops down from the sky, flying at an impossibly low altitude, and for a minute it sends your heart rate soaring. These are the farm machines of the sky, applying herbicides to kill winter weeds, fertilizer to increase soil fertility, insecticides to knock out pests and defoliant to strip leaves across massive fields. “The Mississippi Delta is a crop production factory,” said Mark Kimmel, owner of Dixie Dusters Inc., an agricultural aviation outfit near Itta Bena. “It’s what this area lives on, and airplanes are a vital part of that crop production.” Ag pilots are sometimes perceived as the rodeo cowboys of the sky, making quick and potentially hazardous maneuvers in the air, a skill that brands them as showoffs or renegades, a reputation Kimmel disputes. “This is hard work, and it’s stressful work,” he said. “We have to be profession-
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“This is hard work, and it’s stressful work. We have to be professionals. We have to be good stewards of our business to stick around. ’’ Mark Kimmel
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als. We have to be good stewards of our business to stick around.” Dixie Dusters sits on a flat, dusty piece of acreage with a couple of metal hangars, a paved runway and a low metal office building. Outside, small planes, washed spotless, glint in the harsh sunlight. Inside, the offices looks like somebody’s comfortable and neatly kept living room. Kimmel has been running the business since 1986, when he became partners with his father-in-law, David Branham, who ran it from the early ’60s. They provide agricultural spraying on demand for farms largely within a 20-
mile radius, across much of Leflore County. There’s a lull in flying activity this time of year when the crop is being put in the ground, but by July 4, things will be buzzing around here. “Each farm has its own entomologist, and they inspect the crop to decide which chemical is needed to protect plants,” Kimmel said. “We order it for them, or some farmers order it themselves; then we apply it.” When the season cranks up, Kimmel’s pilots might work 80 hours per week, spending much of that time in the air. “The quality of our work is the number one thing. That and availability of service.” It’s dangerous work, said veteran pilot David Habig. In an ideal swath of a field, the boom — the bottom of the wing from where the spray is released — is just 12 to 15 feet above the ground, and pilots have to be aware of every potential obstacle within their flight zone. “The biggest danger is complacency,” Habig said. “If you’re not putting it all together constantly, seeing what’s there, you can hit a wire while trying to dodge a bird.”
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If the plane hits something, watch out. “Nothing can happen, or you can get killed.” Crop dusting is safer than it used to be, Kimmel said, thanks to better planes and stronger safety regulations. Still, in Leflore County over the past year and a half, three crop duster pilots have died in flying accidents. “Mississippi had no fatalities the year before that. And there were only five or six in the entire country over the last year,” he said. “The fatalities here were accidents. There was no neglect or mechanical failure, just unfortunate accidents.” The National Transportation Safety Board investigates all fatal crashes, including these three, and, according to Kimmel, has made no findings that would suggest anything other than pilot error in those events. Kimmel said ag pilots operate under a code of safety standards established by the National Agricultural Aviation Association, for which he serves as treasurer this year. Adhering to those standards is key to a crop-dusting business’ success, he said. Locally, including in the pages of the
Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 20, 2018 PageV c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
^=ÅçìéäÉ=çÑ=Ü~åÖ~êë=~åÇ=~=êìåï~ó=ã~âÉ=ìé=aáñáÉ=aìëíÉêëÛ=Åêçé=ÇìëíáåÖ=~åÇ=~ÖêáÅìäíìê~ä=ëéê~óáåÖ=çéÉê~íáçåK=qÜÉ=Åçãé~åó=ëéê~óë=ÑáÉäÇë=ä~êÖÉäó=ïáíÜáå=~=OMJãáäÉ=ê~Çáìë=çÑ=áíë=ïÉëíJ Éêå=iÉÑäçêÉ=`çìåíó=äçÅ~íáçåK Commonwealth, crop dusters have occasionally been accused of flying too low and spraying over populated areas. Kimmel said GPS systems on planes monitor every movement they make in the air, and that sophisticated testing can detect errant chemical spray anywhere. “These planes are bright yellow and blue for a reason: So you can see them,” he said. “And they’ve got big numbers marked on them. If you’ve got a complaint, take down that N number and call it in to the Mississippi Bureau of Plant Industry.” Habig said it takes about 10 years for a good ag pilot to learn all there is to know and to develop the instincts required for this kind of flying. Additionally, ag pilots are learning the technicalities of applying chemicals in a safe and efficient manner. That involves calculating the volume of spray per acre, measuring proximity to other crops, preventing drift from one field to another and monitoring wind direction and velocity. “By law, we can’t spray if the wind is over 10 miles per hour,” Kimmel said. Rain and wind direction figure into whether it’s a good flying day. Just as it does for the farmer, the weather, to a large extent, determines the ag flyer’s profitability in any given season. “Our income is off 40 to 50 percent this spring because of the wet weather,” Kimmel said. Dustin McGehee, 21, is the newest pilot at Dixie Dusters. A native of Black Hawk, McGehee represents the new generation of ag pilots Habig and Kimmel agree are needed to carry on future work.
“It’s a big investment,” Kimmel said. “Dustin’s probably had $80,000 invested in his training before he even knew he had a job.” McGehee got his private pilot’s license at 18, then went to a flying school in Louisiana to train as an ag pilot. He got his commercial license in November 2016. “You have to put in a certain number of hours to fly an ag plane and to be covered by insurance for specific tasks,” Kimmel said. “Five hundred hours of flying time is required before a pilot can apply herbicides. Everything is in graduated stages.” McGehee said it has been an education. “It’s a learning experience every day,” he said. “You take on a lot of danger, and you never stop learning.” n
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4th Generation Family Owned Business
PageNM Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 20, 2018 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
‘Quite a nuisance’
Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 20, 2018 PageNN c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Feral Hogs
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Animals can do serious damage to farm land
olby Galey’s first encounter with a feral hog came in 1994 on his father’s farm near Minter City. Since then, the explosion of the wild hog population in Leflore County has continued to be a major problem for many area farmers as these animals cut a destructive swath through Mississippi Delta farms. “On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst, I would say I am at 7, but you may go 2 miles to the west of me and another guy might say zero,” said Galey, who now farms for himself near Schlater and Minter City. “These animals are quite a nuisance on my farm.” In 1988, only about 3.5 percent of Mississippi had wild pigs, with little damage reported, according to the Mississippi State Extension Service. By 2009, the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study reported nearly 40 percent of the land area in Mississippi had wild pigs, with damage being reported to some crops and timberland. In 2015, a Mississippi State University JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ landowner s u r v e y showed that “These animals can at least 50 of exploit almost any percent the agricultural proecosystem. They can ducers contacted had live anywhere, seen wild pigs on their from snowy p r o p e r t y. northern regions to The study further india beaches to woods to cated more widesemi-arid climates. spread distribution of There is no place in wild pigs across the Mississippi they state than previously can’t colonize; as reported, with the long as they’re animals within a day’s reach inhabiting about 27.9 illion of water, they can m acres of Mississippi thrive. ’’ land. That’s bad Bronson Strickland news for JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ farmers since feral hogs are “eating machines,” said Bronson Strickland of Mississippi State University. “They’ll eat anything they can get their mouth on, whether it’s soybeans, peanuts, corn, watermelons, rabbits, snakes, stuff in your garbage can, you name it,” said Strickland, associate extension professor of wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture and associate director for extension and outreach at the Center for Resolving HumanWildlife Conflicts. He has been working with Extension agents and landowners to control wild pig populations in Mississippi since 2007. “These animals can exploit almost any ecosystem,” he said. “They can live anywhere, from snowy northern regions to beaches to woods to semi-arid climates. There is no place in Mississippi they can’t colonize; as long as they’re within a day’s reach of water, they can thrive.” Wild pigs, according to reports, cause up to $2.5 billion in damage to the U.S. economy each year, and $1 billion of the total is
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exclusive to agriculture. According to the latest MSU landowner survey, producers in the state reported an average loss between $5.69 and $6.32 an acre, which translates to between $60 million and $67 million of economic loss. Interestingly, most of these costs were associated with ongoing control, such as trapping and shooting, as well as repairing damage caused by the rooting nuisances. Jody Acosta, Delta Wildlife technician for animal damage and invasive species, said it is important for all landowners and farmers to get involved in eradication since between 50 and 70 percent of the established population needs to be removed annually just to hold the numbers stable from one year to the next.
Galey said he spends thousands of dollars on just the feed for his corral-type enclosure fitted with cameras and gates that can be dropped with a cellular connection. He finds this to be the most efficient way to fight wild hogs because he can see how many hogs are in the trap and close the gates at will. This type of trap is one of the newest ways to help control the pests, but Acosta warns it requires patience. “Feral hogs are extremely intelligent animals and are one of the quickest-learning animals on the planet. One perception of danger around a trap can cause a sounder of hogs to avoid the area for several weeks or longer,” he explained. Another method is aerial gunning,
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where trained gunners from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services or private entities that are operating under a permit from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks use a helicopter to chase down and shoot the hogs. “Unfortunately, the window of opportunity for aerial gunning is pretty small, running from the first of February until the foliage on the trees and greening of vegetation make it difficult to see the hogs on the ground,” Acosta said. “One major downside to aerial gunning is the staggering cost associated with maintaining and operating a helicopter.” Hunting wild hogs at night has also become popular, but as with traps, weapon
PageNO Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 20, 2018 c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Financial Solutions for Agriculture
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Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 20, 2018 PageNP c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
systems used for night hunting are expensive. On the high end, a night-vision scope and suitable rifle will cost $10,000 or more. It’s the insatiable appetite of the wild hogs that makes them a very real threat to the state’s agriculture and to nature itself. “Hogs are destroying corn fields, soybean fields and especially peanut crops,” Strickland said. “They love to root, so peanuts are something they love since they have to root for them and dig them up. Pigs can even destroy the levees used for rice farming. They eat the eggs of ground-nesting birds and destroy their nests. They eat snakes and alligator eggs.” Last year, the MSU Extension Service launched Operation HOG (Hold Our Ground), a public education campaign designed to inform Mississippians of the dangers feral hogs pose, as well as ways to trap and kill them. The goals are to: n Convey the magnitude and cost of damage wild hogs do to farms, forestland and deer plots. n Educate the public about the diseases hogs carry and the negative effects they have on wildlife and water quality. n Teach landowners about safe methods for trapping and killing wild hogs. n Promote the precautions landowners and hunters should follow after they kill hogs. Galey would like the state of Mississippi to get more aggressive, maybe something similar to what he has seen in Kansas, a state he visits each year to hunt deer. “When I first started going out there, you would see hogs all over. Now, you can’t find one,” he said. “And from what I can tell, it’s because state officials put up the money for wild hog eradication, paying for trapping, night shooting and aerial gunning from helicopters.” Why is it so important for landowners and state agencies to remain diligent in this fight? According to Strickland, one pregnant sow can multiply to 40 hogs in five years, in 10 years 605, and in 20 years, 122,000. “That’s the concept of compound interest in living, eating, destructive form,” he said. Strides are being made in some areas, but it is very site-specific. “Wild hogs can certainly be controlled and population numbers greatly reduced, but it takes a lot of continual effort. There are locations where landowners have made significant improvements, and in other locations the hog populations continue to increase,” Strickland said. “Based on survey work, the hog population appears to be stable or increasing. And, no, this is not good news.” Acosta said no real progress is being made in the Delta because not all landowners are implementing feral hog control efforts due to various reasons. “Some landowners like hunting hogs and don’t care to remove them in large numbers, and also it costs money,” Acosta said. “Unfortunately, for the small pockets of landowners, producers and property managers who are battling hogs, the local hog population is quickly replenished by neighboring properties that are not active in controlling their hogs.” To truly be effective in the battle, Acosta believes multiple control methods should be used, varying the approach at different times of the year based on food sources and
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“Unfortunately, for the small pockets of landowners and property managers who are battling hogs, the local hog population is quickly replenished by neighboring properties that are not active in controlling their hogs. ’’ Jody Acosta
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availability. “For most ag producers, my suggestion would be use high-tech trapping equipment during the winter months when food sources are scarce,” he said. “Then if possible, aerial gunning to remove hogs that avoided traps, and then finally using night shooting to remove what is left and damaging crops as they are planted in the spring.” n
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An unpredictable life
Greenwood Commonwealth / Sunday, May 20, 2018 PageNR c^ojfkd =======================================================================================================================================================================
Farmers’ Wives
Families must always plan around crops, weather B
eing a farmer is a tough job. It has its many challenges and rewards. That can also be said for the job of being a farmer’s wife. “I knew that it was a different lifestyle, but it has many wonderful qualities,” said Betsy Belk, the wife of Adron Belk, who owns Triple Run Farms near Doddsville. One challenge that many agriculture wives face is learning to easily adapt to change. Julie Dunn said over the past 25 years that she’s been married to her farming husband, William, she’s learned to be more flexible. For someone who used to be a stickler for schedules, that took some time to embrace. “I used to be such a planner, and I loved knowing what I was doing,” said Dunn, who is also the bookkeeper for her husband’s farming operation in Holmes County, William Dunn Farms II. “I learned that was not the lifestyle I was going to have.” Belk said the farming lifestyle can be very unpredictable. “We don’t know one day to the next if we’ll be able to make plans or not, or go to a wedding, or do anything for the weekend,” said Belk. “It all kind of revolves around the farm and my husband’s schedule or the weather, usually.” Amanda Harris, who has been married for 17 years to Mark Harris of Buck Harris Planting Co. in Cruger, said her husband’s favorite saying is, “All plans are subject to change.” “This can apply to weekend plans, suptime JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ per and other things,” “We don’t know one she said. “However, day to the next if we’ll this does work in be able to make both posiand plans or not, or go to tive negative ways. a wedding, or do Such as, it may anything for the rain and weekend. It all kind a sudden trip to of revolves around Memphis is planned. the farm and my Then he husband’s schedule or may need to spray the weather, usually. ’’ one night because there is Betsy Belk no wind, JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ and he won’t be home until 9 p.m.” In fact, farming wives have to adapt to living by the weather forecast. “A lot of our life revolves around the weather,” said Belk, who has two daughters — Janie, 3, and Charlotte, 4 weeks. Belk said she looks at this aspect of her life in a positive way. She said it brings her back to relying on the Lord, “because he is in control of the weather.” “That’s how we stay content if it rains and we don’t want it to or vice versa — it doesn’t rain and we need it to,” Belk said. “It’s in his control and not our control.” Dunn said her family also plans around the weather forecast. “We are dependent on the rain,” she said. “We could even have a total vacation planned, and if we don’t get rain, you have to cancel it.”
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Dunn and her husband, William, moved to Greenwood from Yuma, Arizona, in 1993. “When we graduated from college, we wanted to venture out and do something wild and crazy, so we loaded up and moved to Mississippi,” Dunn said. Her husband grew up in an agriculture family and had a background in farming cotton. So the couple moved to the area to farm in Itta Bena. They have three children — Alec, 23, Anne Claire, 22, and Jon Floyd, 17. Although farm life is as unpredictable as the weather, Dunn said sometimes that can be exciting. An unexpected summer downpour is often an opportunity for farm families to take a trip or have a mini-vacation. “We had to be real spontaneous,” said Dunn. “We’d load up and take off. That JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ was a lot of fun, too. That’s “I’ve joked with what’s friends that during neat with farming. busier times — plant- Our motto in ing and harvest — our family is, I’m a ‘farming ‘Work hard, play widow’. ’’ hard.’ So when we do get Amanda Harris JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ time off in the summer, we make the best of it.” Harris remembers a summer storm that led to a spontaneous three-night stay in Gulf Shores for her, her husband and their children — Lola, now 12, and Caleb, 7. “It began raining on a Wednesday morning in July,” Harris said. “Mark asked if we wanted to go to the beach. I said, ‘Yes,’ but didn’t think we could get a place to stay. I went on with our day. I was at church when he called to say he did find a place. I left church and went to Wal-Mart to buy necessities. We left at 9 Thursday morning, packed with two children for three nights in Gulf Shores.” Belk said for her, the unpredictable farming lifestyle was easy to fall into when she married her husband 6½ years ago. “My husband is very scheduled, and I’m more of ‘go with the flow.’ That’s my personality,” she said. “So we work really well together. With my children, I am very scheduled. As far as random plans, I like the spontaneity of it.” Belk and her husband went to school together at Pillow Academy. They’ve been a couple since the ninth grade. Farming was a factor when they decided to select a wedding date, Belk said; they chose to get married in November after the harvesting season. “We wanted to be able to spend our anniversaries together, and we love the fall and cool weather,” she said. “We did definitely plan the wedding around the farm.” Farm families usually spend the most time together during the downtime in the winter. “Where most people in Mississippi are beachgoers, we became mountaingoers and snow skiers because we had to,” said Dunn. “We would be at Disney World in January or February, because that was the time we could go.” Belk said her family does take one week off in the summer for a vacation, although most of their trips are planned for the wintertime. “We actually do a vacation in July every year with my husband’s family. It’s a tradition he’s done since he was a little boy,” she said. “Family time is important to us.” During the spring planting season and the fall harvest season, farmers work long hours from before the sun rises often into the late hours of the night. “I’ve joked with friends that during busier times — planting and harvest — I’m a ‘farming widow,’” said Harris. “You just handle everything during those times: kids’ schedules, ball practice, games, church stuff, house stuff.” Dunn, with most of her relatives residing in Arizona, said that the wives of other local farmers and her church family really helped her during the busy seasons.
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“I think when you’re young, you have to build up a network of women who are in the same boat as you,” she said. “One of the best things when we moved to Mississippi — and this was my lifesaver because we really didn’t have a lot of family here — is we got involved in church. So I had a built-in support group.” Harris and her husband grew up on same road in Cruger and both attended Cruger-Tchula Academy. “We’ve come full circle and now are back at his family home — on the same dirt road outside of Cruger,” she said. Harris said one of the best things about farming is “seeing my kids get to learn and do things that many other kids never
have the opportunity to do.” Dunn’s children spent time on the farm with their dad, and her boys would work on the farm in the summer. “My kids could go to work with their dad and ride in a tractor for hours, and they got that hands-on experience,” she said. “Even though he was working a lot, at any time they were able to go out to the farm, and my kids just learned so much from their dad.” The children got to be involved with the process of planting seeds, nurturing them, watching them grow into vast fields of cotton, soybeans, corn or other Delta-grown plants, and seeing the finished product harvested.
“Farming is a neat thing because you get to see an end result at the end of every season, and that’s exciting,” Dunn said. For Belk, her oldest daughter, Janie, has just now gotten to the age where she can go out to the farm. “She loves it. She loves to go with her dad,” Belk said. “I think it’s important for our children to see how hard that their daddy works for them and the sacrifices that he makes.” Belk said she knows farming is a different kind of lifestyle, but it’s one that she enjoys. “It’s so much more good than challenges. It’s just our life. We don’t know any different.” n
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Carrying on tradition
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Riley Poe and Poe Planting
Farmer says he never considered another career R iley Poe says his father, Bobby, didn’t push him into farming — but he didn’t have to. Riley grew up on the family farm, so it wasn’t long before he was doing the real thing himself. “My daddy would bring me some seed and stuff home, and I’d plant it in my mama’s front yard,” he said. He and his father now are partners in Poe Planting, which farms about 3,500 acres of land. His brother, Wayne, also works with them. In November, Riley Poe was named 2017 Young Farmer of the Year at Greenwood-Leflore County AgFest. He said the career choice was a natural progression. He started working on the farm in the summers when he was 12 or 13, and he was going into the fields with his father even
_çÄÄó=mçÉI=äÉÑíI=~åÇ=Üáë=ëçå=oáäÉó=mçÉ=Ü~îÉ=ÄÉÉå=é~êíåÉêë áå=mçÉ=mä~åíáåÖ=ëáåÅÉ=OMNNK before that. His grandfather and great-grandfather also farmed. “I never really thought about anything else,” he said. Poe, 41, grew up in
Schlater. In addition to his brother, he has a sister, Michelle Lafever, who lives in Arkansas. After graduating from Cruger-Tchula Academy, Poe earned a degree in
agricultural business from Mississippi Delta Community College. He started farming 80 acres in 1996 when he was 19, with help from his father, and then got more land to work on his own over the years, renting a bigger chunk in 2001. In 2011, he and his father entered into a 50-50 partnership in Poe Planting. The move made sense, since they worked together a lot anyway, Riley said. Wayne Poe, who went out into the fields with them when he was young, later became a firefighter. Since retiring from that job, he has worked at Poe Planting and also farms some land on his own, using their equipment. The operation also includes Riley’s 21-year-old nephew, Caleb, and three other employees. Most of Poe Planting’s acreage is in Leflore County, with about 400
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acres in Carroll County. It includes about 1,700 acres of soybeans, 1,200 of corn and 600 of cotton. Poe said he doesn’t expect that balance to change much, although it does depend on prices. “We were going to plant more (corn) this time, but it was so wet,” he said. Poe said he and his father still work together well. “We get along pretty good; we don’t argue much,” he said. Also, his mother, Linda, handles the books for the operation, which keeps things simple. They have been able to upgrade their equipment over the years. They transitioned from two small combines to one larger one, which can handle 12 rows of crops at a time instead of eight. Having GPS devices speeds up the work, too. Bobby Poe, 73, who has
farmed since 1974 and was a manager before that, said his son was a natural for the job and learned a lot on his own. “It was just in his blood, I think,” he said. Bobby Poe said he plans to keep working “as long as I can — as long as he’ll fool with me.” Then again, he added, “I let him do most of it now anyway. I just drive the tractor, mostly.” Riley Poe and his wife, Tricia, have three sons: 11year-old John Riley and 8year-old twins Jacks and Yates. He said he learned long ago about the long hours required for the job, which can make things difficult for the family sometimes. But he still likes going to work. “Sometimes it gets kind of aggravating when the weather doesn’t cooperate, but I still do, I guess,” he said. n
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