Meet the 2022 Southeastern farmers of the year

<p>Mark Byrd of Byrd Farms in Danville, Ala., bought a used tractor and hay baler when he was only fourteen years old. Inspired by a FFA vocational ag class in high school, after graduation he planted 15 acres of rented land with soybeans while working a full-time job.<br />
Mark and Sandy Byrd farm alongside their two sons, Perry, age 34 and Rodney, age 29. Today, Byrd Farms operates 1347 rented acres and 165 owned acres. Crop yields are as follows: 341 acres of winter wheat yielding 82 bushels/acre; 377 acres of corn yielding 175 bushels/acre; 790 acres of soybeans yielding 70 bushels/acre; 80 acres of hay yielding 8 tons/acre. The farm also owns 7 poultry houses yielding 1,225,000 birds per year and 22 brood cows and 1 Red Angus bull.</p>

<p>Chris Sweat is a fourth-generation farmer who grew up on a full-time poultry and cow/calf operation. Chris went on to attend Southern Arkansas University where he received a BS degree in Agriculture Education in 1997 and a Master’s degree in Agriculture in 2009. He met his wife, Denise, who also grew up on a farm, at a 4-H livestock event.</p>

<p>In 2003, they bought their first 80 acres in Hempstead County and harvested some timber to start working on the foundation piece to their farm where their home, built in 2007, is now located.</p>

<p>In his first year of farming Chris Sweat owned 27 acres. He and his family have built that up to a total of 1110 acres currently operated, with 780 acres rented and 330 acres owned. He also has 35 acres of natural mixed timber and grows mixed grass hay yielding 1200 rolls/yr. On the livestock side, he owns 120 head of commercial cows/calves; 60 head of registered seed stock (Simmental/Simbrah); 20 to 30 head of recipient cows for embryo transfer; and runs 50 to 100 head of hair sheep seasonally.</p>

<p>Jerry Dakin’s family dairy farm was started by his dad, Romanus (Pete) Dakin, in Livermore, Maine in 1948. From a modest sixteen cows, the operation grew over the post-World War II years. When Pete Dakin returned from a trip down south in October 1963, he informed his wife Jeannette that she and their four boys were moving to Florida.</p>

<p>In 1990, Jerry Dakin and his brother bought out their Dad’s operation and in 1997, split into two farms. Dakin Dairy Farms in Myakka City, Florida currently operates 1700 acres with 600 acres rented and 1100 acres owned. Farm yields are as follows: 700 acres of forage grasses yielding 50 tons/acre and 600 acres of sorghum yielding 18 tons/acre. Dakin owns 2700 milking head of dairy cows; 2000 head of dairy heifers; a beef cattle herd composed of 60 Brangus mama cows and 2 Wagyu bulls. The farms produce 52,000,000 lbs/per year of retail and wholesale milk through the efforts of 75 full-time employees.</p>

<p>Scotty Raines didn’t grow up on a farm, but his father kept a large garden at home. In 1991, he married Melanie, a girl he’d grown up with, and two years later began farming full-time in partnership with his father-in-law.</p>

<p>In the spring of 1996, his father-in-law suffered some major health problems, so Raines finished the crop that year. He began farming on his own a year later with 1,000 acres that grew over time to 2,300 acres, with 1,199 acres owned and 1,101 acres rented.</p>

<p>Crop yields are as follows: 760 acres of cotton yielding 940 (conservatively) lbs/acre; 385 acres of irrigated peanuts yielding 5880 lbs/acre; 800 acres of cotton yielding 860 lbs/acre; 200 acres of non-irrigated peanuts yielding 4760 lbs/acre; 120 acres of corn yielding 219 bushels/acre; and 35 acres of watermelon yielding 100,000 lbs/acre. Raines also owns 27 beef cattle.</p>

<p>Wesley Parker was raised on a 150–acre dairy farm in Christian County, Kentucky, where his family grew silage and hay for their cows and a small crop of tobacco. In the late 1970s, they transitioned out of the milk business into raising hogs.</p>

<p>Parker is married to Marsha. Marsha had a full-time job as a University of Kentucky Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences, so she and Wesley were able to financially survive those difficult years in the 1980s when a lot of farms in the area went under due to drought conditions, crop failures, and market difficulties. They also raised two daughters, Angie and Erin.</p>

<p>Parker Farms began with 200 acres of rented land. Today, Parker operates 1,650 acres, with 1,250 rented and 418 acres owned. His yields are as follows: 633 acres of yellow corn yielding 225 bushes/acre; 167 acres of white corn yielding 240 bushes/acre; 843 acres of soybeans yielding 59 bushels/acre; 802 acres of wheat yielding 90 bushels/acre and 7 acres of Burley tobacco yielding 2600 lbs/acre. He also raises five beef cows and has one bull; five feeders of 600 lbs/average are sold annually.</p>

<p>Located in the rich, highly organic, blue gumbo clay soil or ‘terroir’ of the Mississippi Delta is Two Brooks Farm, owned by Michael L. Wagner. His family can count an unbroken line of ten generations of farmers back to 1742. Their prodigious, consistent labor has produced a whopping 281 consecutive harvests of rice and other crops.&nbsp;<br />
Two Brooks Farm has seven full-time and three part-time employees. It has grown from 400 acres from its inception to 3,100 acres currently operated, with 1,700 acres of rice yielding 140 bushels/acre and 100 acres of soybeans yielding 60 bushels/acre. Part of the rice is marketed through normal channels such as Farmer’s Grain marketing pool and direct sales. The Rice Company buys a large amount as well. Through Two Brooks Rice, Wagner markets his on-farm milled rice directly to consumers, to food services, and through second party channels for national distributions. The farm reserves about 80,000 pounds of milled rice for food banks annually. The finely textured, predominately clay soil of the Delta is rich in nutrients that lend themselves to the flavor of Two Brooks Farm rice.</p>

<p>Kevin and Cindy Matthews own and operate Matthews Family Farms of North Carolina, Inc., Precision Nutrient Management, Inc., and Deep Creek Grain, Inc. in East Bend and Yadkinville, North Carolina. Matthews is the fourth generation on his family’s farm. He said, “With the economic crisis of the 1980s, however, my dad and his brother decided to leave farming and start a full-time grading business. But, happily for us, they kept some of the farmland.”</p>

<p>Thirty years ago, Matthews began farming on 30 acres of rented land. He currently operates 6,000 acres, with 4,000 acres rented and 1300 owned. Crop yields are as follows: 2,700 acres of dryland corn yielding 180 bushels/acre; 300 acres of irrigated corn yielding 310 bushels/acre; 1960 acres of dryland soybeans yielding 70 bushels/acre; 70 acres of irrigated soybeans yielding 105 bushels/acre; 500 acres of wheat yielding 81 bushels/acre; and 100 acres of barley yielding 80 bushels/acre. Matthews employees twelve full-time and four part-time workers, including four seasonal H2A workers from South Africa.</p>

<p>Betty Allen Farms in Latta, South Carolina, has been in Keith Allen’s family for nearly 200 years. The farm has experienced everything from near loss at auction in 1917 to two recent 1,000-year floods and drought.</p>

<p>After Keith’s father graduated from Clemson University in 1950, he served his country in Korea only to return home to the driest year on record, with no rainfall until Hurricane Hazel hit in September of 1954. The resulting crippling debt forced him to seek other work as a teacher and then as a full-time Farm Bureau insurance agent just to keep crops in the ground.</p>

<p>Today, the farm consists of 3,800 acres currently operated, with 2,980 rented and 820 owned. The cotton crop of 950 acres yielding 1,200lbs/acre; 1900 acres of soybeans yielding 48 bushels/acre; 600 acres of corn yielding 148 bushels/acre; 250 acres of peanuts yielding 4,000 lbs/acre; and 500 acres of winter wheat yielding 75 bushels/acre.</p>

<p>Philadelphia, Tenn., the home of Sweetwater Valley Farm, was settled as part of a Revolutionary War land grant in the early 1800s. At the turn of the twentieth century, it became a dairy farm, with the original barn built in 1917. Seventy years later, John and Celia Harrison purchased interest in the farm and became the sole owners of Sweetwater Valley Farm in 1992.</p>

<p>A native of nearby Loudon, Harrison grew up on a dairy farm and went on to graduate from the University of Tennessee in 1981 with a BS degree in Agriculture Economics and Business. In 1984, Harrison undertook his first dairy operation, renting a 350-acre farm with equipment and buying 80 cows. His father, Charles Harrison, gave him 25 heifers to help with the startup. It was the same year he met Celia, his future wife, on a blind date arranged by a mutual friend.</p>

<p>In 1998, Harrison made the decision to produce cheese at the dairy by using milk from his cows, known as farmstead cheese. Throughout the early 2000s, both the herd of dairy cows and the cheese operation have expanded. It continues to be a diversified farming operation with both dairy and beef cows, as well as a source of crop production. There’s a total of 4,490 acres under operation, with 1,200 rented and 3,290 owned.</p>

<p>In a reflective mood Robert Saunders, of Saunders Brothers, Inc. in Piney River, Virginia, quoted Mark Twain’s famous advice, “Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.”</p>

<p>Forty years later, Robert, was an avid engineering student at Virginia Tech, graduating in 1986 with a BS in Agricultural Engineering. He married his college sweetheart, Pat.</p>

<p>When Saunders returned to the farm, it only had about 35 greenhouses, 30 employees, 100 head of cattle, and fruit was the lead crop. The nursery was beginning to grow.</p>

<p>Today, the total acreage operated is 3,192 with 91 acres rented and 3,168 owned. Crop yields are as follows: woody ornamentals (container grown): 23 acres yielding 16,000 plants/acre; 7 acres of annuals/perennials yielding 167,000 plants/acre; 180 acres of field ornamentals yielding 430 plants/acre; 6 acres of grafted trees yielding 5200 plants/acre; 66 acres of peaches and nectarines yielding 530 bushels/acre; and 95 acres of apples and Asian pears yielding 695 bushels/acre.</p>