Harvest 2015 Newsletter

“Growing a legacy one crop at a time”
Harvest 2015
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GMF Scholarship

Harvest 2015

Farm Day at Hartfield

GMF Christmas Party

Family Farms Winter Conference
2015
Garry Makamson Farms 2015 Scholarship Winner
2015 was the first year for the farm to give away the Garry Makamson Farms Scholarship.
Knowing how important education is to have a successful career in the field of agriculture, Garry
Makamson Farms decided to focus a bit more on the opportunity to further education for local students. The scholarship winner is chosen by application and essay. The application can be filled out
online through makamsonfarms.com. This year Justin Perkins was the winner. Justin graduated from
Pillow Academy in May 2015. He started
school at Mississippi State University in August 2015. Justin is studying Agronomy with
emphasis in Integrated Pest Management.
He plans to be an Agriculture Consultant
after he finishes his degree at MSU.
If you know someone who might would like
to apply for the 2016 Garry Makamson
Farms scholarship, they can apply online at
makamsonfarms.com: follow the about us
link, what we offer, and scholarship application.
Harvest 2015
Harvest seems to come earlier and earlier each year. This year was no exception. Harvest began the 2nd week of August and continued through the last week of October. This year was really
dry which meant the guys never got a break between planting and harvest, because they were continuously watering through the summer. They were very happy to get started with the 2015 harvest
so they could get a much needed break!
They planted the traditional cotton, corn, soybeans, and rice. This
was the third year to try out a few acres of sesame seed. Sesame seed is a
pretty low maintenance crop. It’s not common around our area to grow
but they have enjoyed the experiment of growing it. Just think next time
you eat a hamburger, you could be eating a sesame seed from Garry
Makamson Farms.
We had a few additional employees to help with Harvest at
Missiana this year. Jim Kline (partner to Missiana), his daughter Kayla, and
Nate were a few that came down to the Mississippi Delta to help harvest
corn at Missiana. Kayla came down to help run the grain cart. Yes! You
read that correctly! Missiana had its first female tractor driver. She held
her own and even taught the boys a thing or two!
Nate helped out by loading and unloading grain to and from the
Kayla Kline
field. When Nate was asked what he thought about the delta…. He replied,
“Hot and Dusty”. He was right... that about sums
up the delta in the summer, hot and dusty. Even
though it was hot
and dusty he enjoyed his time
and experience
down in the
south.
The employees
love having them
come visit and of
course welcome
their hard
Curt Jolly
Jim Kline
Ricky Williams
work .
Nate Brown
Farm Day at Hartfield Academy
This was our first year to have “Farm Day” at one of our local schools. Garry Makamson Farms
was invited to speak at Hartfield Academy. The Mako’s (Steven Makamson and Family) are very involved with Hartfield. Steven coaches, Heidi teaches and their 3 children attend school there. Karen
presented a power point to the 3 and 4 year olds as well as the 3rd and 4th grades. She gave a general background of how farming works, where the kids’ food comes from and examples of everyday
items used in unexpected crops. For instance, did you know batteries were made from fragments of
corn starch? Baby diapers are filled with cornstarch to help
with absorption? Soy from soybeans is used in crayons? The
children found it very interesting to hear of all the ways crops
were used in everyday items besides just eating.
The 3K and 4K were so excited about farm day, they
came dressed as farmers.
The children had many interesting questions. The questions ranged from how many gallons of water do you
use in a summer to irrigate to how do you not get lost
in those fields ;)?
Jensen did a great job sharing the family history of Garry Makamson Farms .
The highlight of the day was Owen’s demonstration how we use the drone to take pictures of
the crops.
The kids received a plastic cup
derived from corn filled with
candy corn as a thank you for
coming to hear the Farms’
presentation.
Christmas Party 2015!!
Everyone celebrated the end of harvest and Christmas this year with a fun night out at Webster’s Grill. The food was great and the service was wonderful. But the gifts were the highlight of the
night. This year Connie bought several everyday household gifts and wrapped them each in paper.
Connie led the Garry Makamson Farm version of Dirty Santa. Each employee drew a number from a
hat and then had the choice to either choose a gift from the pile or steal from the previous person.
The gifts were so awful no one wanted to steal from the previous person. They all thought there had
to be something better in the pile than the previous gift. The first employee unknowingly chose a
roll of aluminum foil. He was a good sport and kept saying, “Hey this is Reynolds heavy duty.. it’s the
good kind”. The second employee chose a 12 pack of toilet paper. The third employee chose a box of
ramen noodles. The gifts continued to be terrible through the entire game. It wasn't until about half
way through they figured out each gag gift had cash hidden somewhere in them. This made the
game much more exciting and that “aluminum” didn't look so bad after all...especially since it held
the jackpot! Everyone went home with a gift that they really “needed” and a little cash as well.
Family Farms Winter Conference 2016
Staying in tune for Success!
The annual Family Farms Group winter conference was held in Nashville, Tn. this year. A few
of the farm’s employees made the trip this year. Everyone had a great time in the
Music City. We learned some good tips to take into the 2016 season. The education was great but the entertainment was even better! As a team building activity we were broken into small groups and asked to write a song about farming
with professional song writers as our teachers. Will Jolly’s team took home the
winning certificate! The next
day while the guys were at a
safety training meeting the
girls enjoyed a farm to table luncheon on a farm
outside the city.
The highlight of the trip was playing the escape
game at Escape Nashville. The “young farmers”
enjoyed playing the Escape Nashville as another
team building activity. The last night was the
award ceremony where everyone enjoyed a
good meal and some line dancing!
Connie’s Corner
Garry is often offering words of wisdom,
but only if you listen closely will you
catch the value of them. Most of the
time they are short, but they carry a lot
of thought and meaning. We have started keeping track of these quotes and
plan to share some here in our section
“A Quote from Cotton.”
Betty Lou’s Sausage
Ingredients:
1 package of Hillshire farm smoked sausage (sliced into 1 inch slices)
1 1/2 Cups of ketchup
1 1/2 Cups of COLD SWEET Tea
Heat the sausage in a skillet over mediumhigh heat. Pour ketchup/tea mixture over
sausage. Let sausage simmer over low
heat until desired consistency. Serve over cooked rice.
Garry Makamson Farms
A Quote from Cotton
“Cotton” is Garry’s special granddad
name!
One thing is certain in life. If you go
looking for trouble, trouble will find you.
13621 County Road 535 Morgan City, MS 38946
Ph: 662.254.7319