Back on the howl - Our CO-OP

September 2012
Back on
the howl
Almost fully recovered from knee
surgery, the University of Tennessee’s
iconic mascot, Smokey, is ready for
Vol football
Also inside
Record no-till acres reported in state as
thousands attend Milan field day - p. 6
Beef producer becomes Warren Farmers
Co-op’s first female director - p. 28
Tennessee Junior Livestock Expo beef,
sheep winners shine in show ring - p. 30
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contents
September 2012
Cover Story
on the howl
22 Back
Football players aren’t the only athletes who must occasionally have surgeries and rehabilitation
to continue in the game. The University of Tennessee’s bluetick coonhound mascot, Smokey, is
also recovering after knee surgery in January and should be back in action just in time for the season opener in late August. Co-op is also gearing up for the UT football season by expanding its
sponsorship on the Vol Network, which airs a play-by-play broadcast of each game.
ON THE COVER: Standing on the field at the University of Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium, the Vols’ highly popular mascot,
Smokey, appears to be howling, “It’s football time in Tennessee!” — Photo by Chris Villines
News and features
6
8 14
26
28
40
No doubt about no-till
More than 2,700 visitors learn about the latest products and practices at Milan No-Till Field Day.
8
A lot to gain
One year into its existence, stocker operation Afton Farms is building toward large-scale success.
Week of wisdom
Co-op’s annual Leadership Advance Tour takes participants on an eye-opening educational journey.
Mining potential
At Redmond Inc., ancient salt-mineral deposits are transformed into Trophy Rock deer supplement.
26
Only natural
Warren Farmers Co-op’s first female director, Pat Hutton, balances nursing with beef production.
A day at the Homestead
Granville’s newest attraction draws history buffs and nostalgics to the tiny Jackson County town.
TenneScene
In every issue
4 As I Was Saying
Beloved “Andy Griffith Show” episode
comes home to roost for Jerry Kirk.
4 Our Country Churches
Swan Cumberland Presbyterian Church
in Hickman County.
18 New at Co-op
Learn about seven new products available
at your hometown store.
19 Neighborly Advice
Wheat seed treatments, advantages of
MaxQ fescue, restoring pastures.
At G&W Hamery in Murfreesboro, participants in the Rutherford County 4-H Country Ham Project make
final preparations before their hams are entered in the Wilson County and the Tennessee State fairs. In
front from left, Hamery owner Bob Woods helps Brooke Maddox insert a hanging pin while Sam Johnson
rubs his ham with oil to bring out the color. Behind them, Brooke’s brother, Caleb, left, watches as sisters
Beylan (glasses) and Hadley Carlton oil their hams with supervision by their father, Joe. Laura Beth
Morgan, far right, waits her turn. Look for this story in a future Cooperator. — Photo by Mark E. Johnson
38 What’s cookin’?
Discover creative uses for common rice.
42 Every Farmer Has A Story
Meet David Martin, who has overcome the
odds to start his own row-crop farm.
September 2012
3
As I Was Saying
Opie episode comes home to roost
T
his month marks the 49th anniversary of what I consider to be one of the
most memorable and meaningful episodes ever shown on American television. In the Air Force in Colorado Springs at the time, I’m sure I was
among the millions of Americans who tuned in on Monday evening, Sept. 30,
1963, for the weekly installment of “The Andy Griffith Show.” My buddies and I
seldom missed watching Andy, Barney, and those other colorful Mayberry folks.
Maybe you remember the epic episode that premiered that evening: Six-yearold Opie Taylor accidentally kills a mother “songbird” with his new slingshot.
Opie’s no-nonsense Pa, Sheriff Andy Taylor, is so upset with the boy that he
Jerry Kirk
opens the window of Opie’s upstairs bedroom that night so the downtrodden
Contributing Editor
youngster can hear three baby birds chirping for their mama.
Opie, of course, is devastated. But early the next morning, he sets about to make things right for
the orphan birds. He names them “Wynken,” “Blynken,” and “Nod;” hand-feeds them “bugs and
worms and things;” raises them to the fledging stage; and then sets them free.
And, as with practically every Andy episode, the final message is poignant. One at a time, Opie
removes the birds from their cage on the front porch, calls each by name, and lets it fly away. “Cage
sure looks awful empty, don’t it, Pa?” Opie says after they’re gone. “Yes, son, it sure does,” Andy replies, “but don’t the trees seem nice and full?” The show ends with a chorus of happy chirps.
The “Opie the Birdman” episode came home to roost for me, in a manner of speaking, in our own
backyard this summer as a pair of bluebirds delighted us with three batches of babies. Five fledged
and flew the coop in the first batch and four in the second.
The third, though, was a different matter. There were four eggs in the nest, and on July 14, when
I opened the top of the bluebird house, I noticed that one had hatched. The little bird’s wide-open
beak beckoned me to feed it. “Your Mama and Daddy will have to handle that,” I said into the box.
In checking the next day, I noticed that none of the three other eggs had hatched and was
stunned to see what I thought was a bee stinging the lone little bird in the nest. First trying to
knock the “bee” away, I found it was attached to the scrawny bird’s neck! I ran to the house,
grabbed a pair of tweezers, and hurried back to see if I could help the freaked-out little “victim.”
This was no bee but some sort of blood-sucking varmint that wasn’t about to let go of its prey.
Working as carefully as I could, I clamped the tweezers over the attacker’s body and tried to pull
it off the bird. It wasn’t budging. In fact, it was hanging on so tightly that I eventually lifted the
bird completely out of its nest. Finally, I was able to separate them. The little bird collapsed ­— exhausted and its neck all limp — on the three eggs remaining in the nest. As for the blood-sucker —
I stomped it in the ground!
Being that none of the three eggs in the nest had hatched, I feared that the parents had abandoned their nest. Convinced the battered little bird couldn’t survive on its own, I dreaded looking
in the birdhouse lid the next day to check on him. But when I did, much to my surprise, he was
breathing! There was hope, and I named the little bird “BB” on the spot. By the next day, BB was
not only alive — he was was pert and alert! And both parents were busy feeding him, obviously content to raise him as an “only child.” I removed the unhatched eggs to give BB more room.
Jane and I saw the parents often after that, and when we returned home on Aug. 4 after a few
days out of town, BB had left the nest.
From research I’ve done on the subject, it was probably a blowfly larva that attacked BB in the
nest. I’m not certain that I saved the little bird’s life, but there seems to be some joyous chirping
coming from the trees in the fencerow of our backyard. A lot like in Mayberry.
Our Country Churches
Swan Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Hickman County
Swan Cumberland Presbyterian
Church in Hickman County was organized in 1826 after large numbers
came to worship at camp meetings
under shade trees at the site on Swan
Creek near Centerville and often
stayed several days. Eventually, the
congregation wanted a building in
which to worship, and the first log
structure was built. The original
church was torn down in 1890 and
the present-day building constructed.
September 2012
Volume 53, Number 9
Published by Tennessee Farmers
Cooperative in the interest of better
farming through cooperation and improved
technology, and to connect the Co-op
community through shared experiences,
common values, and rural heritage.
Editor: Allison Morgan
[email protected]
Assistant Editor: Mark E. Johnson
[email protected]
Communications Specialist: Chris Villines
[email protected]
Contributing Editor: Jerry Kirk
[email protected]
Senior Graphic Designer: Shane Read
[email protected]
Graphic Designer: Jason Barns
[email protected]
Layout & Production Coordinator:
Travis Merriman
[email protected]
Editorial Assistant: Polly Campbell
[email protected]
Advertising Information: Keith Harrison
615-793-8585, [email protected]
The Tennessee Cooperator is distributed
free to patrons of member Co-ops. Since
each Co-op maintains its own mailing list,
requests for subscriptions must be made
through the local Co-op. When
reporting an address change, please
include the mailing label from a past
issue and send to the following address:
Tennessee Cooperator
Tennessee Farmers Cooperative
P.O. Box 3003
LaVergne, TN 37086
Phone: (615) 793-8339
E-mail: [email protected]
Guest Subscriptions:
Guest subscriptions are available for
$12.95 per year by sending a check
or money order to Tennessee Farmers
Cooperative at the above address.
TFC’s website:
www.ourcoop.com
Find us on Facebook & Twitter:
www.facebook.com/
TennesseeFarmersCooperative
www.twitter.com/TNFarmers
TFC Board of Directors:
Chairman — Wayne Brown, Chuckey, Zone 3
Vice Chairman — Donald Jernigan,
Christiana, Zone 2
Larry Paul Harris, Wildersville, Zone 1
Amos Huey, Kenton, Zone 1
Richard Jameson, Brownsville, Zone 1
Clint Callicott, Only, Zone 2
Kenneth Nixon, Carthage, Zone 2
Johnny Brady, Riceville, Zone 3
George Smartt, McMinnville, Zone 3
Chief Executive Officer —
­­ Bart Krisle
NOTICE: This publication is for
informational purposes only. Tennessee
Farmers Cooperative, its affiliates,
subsidiaries, and member Co-ops are not
responsible for any damages or claims
that may result from a reader’s use of this
information, including but not limited to
actual, punitive, consequential, or economic
damages. Tennessee Farmers Cooperative
makes no warranties or representations, either
express or implied, including warranties of
merchantability or fitness of any product/
material for a particular purpose. Each
article, document, advertisement, or other
information is provided “AS IS” and without
warranty of any kind. Tennessee Farmers
Cooperative reserves the right to alter,
correct, or otherwise change any part or
portion of this publication, including articles
and advertisements, without detriment to
Tennessee Farmers Cooperative, its affiliates,
subsidiaries, or member cooperatives.
210th in a series to show where our rural Co-op friends worship
®
4
September 2012
Farmers have until May for SPCC compliance
New EPA deadline will likely be final chance to prepare plans, implement procedures for handling oil spills
F
armers storing bulk fuel or
other oil products on their
farms will soon be faced
with a final deadline to implement written plans for preventing and handling spills under
federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations.
By May 10, 2013, farmers
who meet certain criteria for onfarm fuel storage must comply
with Spill Prevention, Control,
and Countermeasures (SPCC)
requirements or be at risk for
EPA fines or liability issues if
an incident occurs on their
property. The SPCC rule applies to farms with aboveground
storage capacity of oil totaling
more than 1,320 gallons. “Oil”
is broadly defined to include
diesel, gasoline, motor oil,
hydraulic or transmission fluid,
lubricating greases, kerosene or
heating oil, and even crop oil.
“Even though this deadline
has been extended several
times, I don’t see it being extended again unless there is a
change in EPA administration,”
says Randy Crowell, Tennessee
Farmers Cooperative’s director
of environment health and safety. “It’s important that farmers
understand these requirements
and make plans to comply.”
Only products stored in stationary tanks and containers of
at least 55 gallons are counted
toward the regulated amount,
which is a collective total of all
fuel and oil storage on a single
farm. Farmers are not required
to add up storage on different
parcels of land to see if it meets
the 1,320-gallon minimum,
and they do not have to include
tanks that have been permanently disabled or closed.
Farmers whose operations
fall under this threshold must
prepare a written and certified
plan that describes their measures to safely handle petroleum
and other oil-based products on
their farms. Required information includes how and where
oil products are stored, the
farm’s topography, emergency
contacts, personnel training ef-
forts, security measures, recordkeeping methods, procedures
for inspecting and testing tanks,
and plans for containing and
cleaning up a spill.
To carry out this plan, farmers will likely need to upgrade
storage facilities to include secondary containment measures,
such as concrete dikes or earthen berms, and overflow prevention procedures, which can be
as simple as signage explaining
proper fueling procedures.
While many farmers have
yet to take notice of the SPCC
requirements, they are nothing new. In fact, they’re part
of the 1973 Clean Water Act
and have been amended several
times. The latest deadline
actually only applies to farms
established after 2002. Farms
in existence before then are
already supposed to have SPCC
plans in place, even though
compliance has been largely
unenforced until now.
After May, Crowell says,
producers caught without an
SPCC plan can expect very
little forgiveness from the EPA.
Fines can start at $1,000 for
not having a plan and could be
much more substantial if a spill
occurs.
Farmers who have storage
capacity of more than 10,000
gallons must have a professional engineer certify their SPCC
plan. Farmers whose storage capacity falls below that amount
can self-certify the plan — a
relatively simple process that
involves filling out a template
from the EPA’s website.
To access the EPA template
and more details on SPCC
rules, visit www.epa.gov/oem/
content/spcc. The Asmark
Institute, which works with
the TFC system on regulatory
compliance, also offers an interactive web template at www.
asmark.org/mySPCC to help
farmers develop an SPCC plan,
and the University of Tennessee Extension provides SPCC
resources at http://waste
mgmt.ag.utk.edu/SPCC.
News briefs
UT cotton tour is Sept. 5
The annual Cotton Tour Field Day returns to the University
of Tennessee’s AgResearch and Education Center in Jackson
on Wednesday, Sept. 5.
The tour will offer educational presentations designed to
improve cotton production for the region’s farmers. Topics
include a demonstration on variety performance, an update
on Liberty Link weed management, application timing, insect
management, and an overview of planned cover crop research.
Registration begins at 8 a.m. in the center’s lobby, with field
tours following at 8:30. The event concludes at noon with a
complimentary lunch. Admission is free and open to the public.
More details are available at http://west.tennessee.edu/events.
Get a landscape review Sept. 11
Landscapers, growers, retailers, or gardeners looking for the
latest information on optimal management practices are invited to a special field day on Tuesday, Sept. 11, at the University
of Tennessee’s AgResearch and Education Center in Jackson.
The 2012 Landscape Review will begin at 9 a.m. and continue through mid-afternoon. Admission is $10; attendees will
eat lunch on their own.
Besides updates on current pest, disease, and weed control
methods, the event’s program will include an overview of plant
trials used to evaluate better plants for Tennessee landscapes.
Topics include using turfgrass weeds, insects, and diseases
as indicators and recommended control of ornamental plant
diseases and pests.
Walking tours of the UT Gardens will also be offered.
For more information, visit http://west.tennessee.edu.
September 2012
5
At the front of an assembly line for the
“Farmers vs. Hunger” event at the Milan
No-Till Field Day, Martin 4-H’ers Hayley
Shumake, left, and Kari Beth Woods
scoop macaroni meals to be packaged
for local food banks. Among other
workers on this team are, on the left
side, Kathryn McDonald and Cameron
Rush, and on the right, John Stevens,
Catherine Via, and Tiffany Howard.
Eric Walker, right, University of Tennessee at Martin plant sciences professor, leads a weed control tour during the 2012 Milan
No-Till Field Day on July 26. The tour, one of the best-attended of the day, was among 17 programs designed to help visitors
learn about the latest products and practices that can enhance their farming operations.
I
Story and photos by Allison Morgan
I
n 2012, Tennessee farmers
planted 75 percent of their
corn, cotton, soybeans, and
wheat acres with no-till methods — the highest percentage
since the state began keeping
tillage records in 1982.
l Milan
Without doubt, no-till
wouldn’t have advanced to
this level if it weren’t for the
University of Tennessee’s
AgResearch and Education
Center at Milan and the popu-
lar field day that’s been held
there since 1981 to promote
these important practices.
“We now have a record
amount of no-till acres in
Tennessee, and that’s just one
example of the accomplishments
that have been made here,” said
Blake Brown, director of the Milan center, at this year’s field day
on July 26. “Going back a few
years to 1979 — before our first
field day — we only had 43,000
acres of no-till in the state. This
year, it hit 2.3 million acres.
That’s a tremendous success.”
Even Tennessee Gov. Bill
Haslam, who attended his first
no-till field day as a guber-
Gov. Bill Haslam welcomes invited guests to the Milan No-Till breakfast, commending
the farmers in attendance for taking time to learn how to improve their operations.
6
September 2012
natorial candidate in 2010,
recognized the importance
of this single event not only
to agriculture but also to the
entire state when he spoke at
this year’s welcome breakfast.
Haslam said he was particularly
encouraged to see the number
of farmers attending field day
tours first thing in the morning.
“I was thinking of how
impressed I was when I drove
in at 7:15 and several people
were already sitting under those
tents, listening to talks, trying to
learn how to improve what they
do,” said Haslam. “That’s who I
want us to be in Tennessee — a
leader in figuring out how to do
things better. Milan No-Till is a
great example of that.”
Now scheduled every other
year, Milan No-Till remains
the nation’s largest field day
devoted to improving the production of no-till crops. The
2012 event on July 26 attracted
nearly 2,750 visitors from 65
Tennessee counties, 21 states,
and three foreign countries
— Brazil, Lesotho and Mozambique. Some 75 vendors,
including Tennessee Farmers
Cooperative and Mid-South
Farmers Cooperative, also
exhibited at the popular tradeshow.
The Tennessee farmers who
registered for this year’s event
represented 18.4 percent of
the total acreage of the state’s
four major row crops — corn,
cotton, soybeans, and wheat.
Many of those visitors, like
Hardin County farmer Brownie
Ratliff, look forward to attending the field day to learn
about the latest in agricultural
production practices. In fact,
83-year-old Ratliff has missed
only one Milan No-Till Field
Day since its beginnings 31
years ago.
“I enjoy the visitation with
everyone and seeing the new
products and practices,” said
Ratliff, a member of Hardin
Farmers Cooperative. “I still
learn something every time I
come here — just have to open
that mind up! There have been
a lot of changes in my lifetime.
The difference in what we’ve
got today and what I did on the
farm as a 10-year-old boy will
blow your mind. I walked up
to the 40-foot header on that
combine over there and wondered what my daddy or granddaddy would think about it.”
Despite the number of repeat
visitors like Ratliff, many of
whom have been using notill methods for decades, the
field day organizers decided to
include a “No-Till Basics” tour
at this year’s event. Intended
for no-till novices, the session gave an overview of no-till
planter components and settings, covered weed and insect
control, and demonstrated what
happens when a field is worked
or planted too wet.
“Every year, people come up
and ask, ‘Where is the tour that
can show me how to start notilling?’” said Richard Buntin,
Crockett County UT Extension
director who led the session.
“Well, we haven’t had that tour
in 20 years, but we decided to
give it a shot this year. We’ve
had bigger crowds than I expected! We take it for granted that
everyone is a seasoned farmer
here, but obviously there are
new visitors who haven’t been
around no-till and want to know
exactly what it is.”
Also among the 17 research
tours were sessions on crop protection, nutrient management,
seed treatments, irrigation, and
precision agriculture along with
complementary topics such as
beef cattle production, water
and environmental issues,
forestry and fisheries, and best
practices in grain storage.
One of the most popular
tours was no-till weed control
in soybeans, which is a growing
concern for farmers who use
“Roundup Ready” seed technology. Though six weed species
in Tennessee are now resistant
to Roundup and its generic
form, glyphosate, many farmers
who attended this session were
particularly concerned about
Palmer pigweed, one of the
most difficult to control.
“We have resistant pigweed
in our fields, and it’s just awful,”
said Jimmy Hester of Finley, a
Gibson Farmers Cooperative
member who attended the field
day with sons Reed and Connor. “I’m continuously looking
for ways to fight it. It’s a major
problem, but it’s encouraging to
see these new seed technologies
and chemistries that are finally
coming out to help us.”
During this session, UT
researchers led tours of plots
showing various weed control
tactics in Roundup Ready and
Liberty Link soybeans as well
as soon-to-be-released systems
with “dicamba + glyphosate” and
“2,4-D + glyphosate” tolerance.
don’t have a silver bullet application like Roundup anymore.”
Between tours, many field
day visitors participated in the
“Farmers vs. Hunger” event to
fulfill the goal of providing more
than 14,000 meals for local
food banks. In this hands-on
activity staged inside the West
Tennessee Agricultural Museum, several teams of community
volunteers, 4-H’ers, farmers,
and industry leaders, including
Matt Sanders, right, precision ag specialist for Mid-South Farmers Cooperative,
discusses the Co-op’s Veris machine with Sammy Barker, left, and Robert Johnson.
Veris is a precision-guided implement that measures the soil’s electrical conductivity.
No matter the technology, however, using multiple
modes of action and making
timely herbicide applications
are critical to thwarting resistance issues, stressed Matthew
Wiggins, a UT plant sciences
graduate student.
“These new technologies
show great promise, but if we
aren’t good stewards, we could
end up seeing the same type
of resistance we’ve seen with
glyphosate,” said Wiggins. “We
Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Julius Johnson, formed
assembly lines to package soy
protein and vitamin-enriched
macaroni-and-cheese meals.
According to event organizers, nearly 18 percent of Tennessee’s population is food insecure and can’t afford enough
to meet their basic needs. The
meals packaged at “Farmers vs.
Hunger” were distributed to
food banks and food pantries
throughout the local area.
“We’ve got a pretty good
variety of folks working together
here — some of them are farmrelated, some of them aren’t,”
said UT Extension’s Chuck
Danehower as he helped supervise the food-packing project.
“We wanted to do something to
fight hunger in our area, and
farmers, of course, feed America
and the world. So we tied the
two together.”
More food than ever before
will be needed to feed a rapidly
growing world population over
the next few decades, said Blake
Brown, and no-till can help
meet that need.
“It’s been estimated that we
have to produce as much food
between now and 2050 as we
have produced since the beginning of creation,” said Brown.
“That’s a tremendous challenge,
but that’s the reason I and my
colleagues get up and come to
work every day. We have to be
able to produce more food and
fiber and produce it more safely
and effectively on less land and
with fewer inputs. Here at Milan, we’ve had some of the best
scientists in the world finding
ways to meet that challenge.”
The Milan No-Till Field Day
returns on Thursday, July 24,
2014. Those who weren’t able
to attend this year or want more
details about the research precan download the tour reports
from the Milan Research and
Education Center’s website at
http://milan.tennessee.edu/
MNTFD or call 731-686-7362.
Fielding research for 50 years
Milan No-Till Field Day site has been pioneering
new methods of farming for half a century
W
hen the University of Tennessee opened the “Milan Field Station” 50 years ago, it marked
the beginning of an agricultural research facility that would pioneer a new
method of farming and change the way crops are grown worldwide.
“It may not have been realized at the time, but UT made history when they opened this
facility in 1962,” says Dr. Blake Brown, the site’s current director. “This center was a catalyst
for the no-till farming movement, and over the past 50 years, there have been a lot of
agricultural advancements that have come from the work done at this center.”
The original goal of the Milan Field Station was to study crop production on full-sized
fields with machinery comparable to what area farmers used. However, the late Thomas
McCutchen, the station’s first superintendent, convinced some researchers to orient their
investigations in the direction of a new concept: conservation tillage. McCutchen hoped to
find the most cost-effective way to control the growing problem of erosion and maintain
soil productivity, and by the 1970s, research at Milan concentrated on no-till technology.
“He and his colleagues persevered and worked through the difficulties, and they finally
came up with this system that could be used by most farmers to control soil erosion,” says
Brown. “Has that been successful? Absolutely.”
The first Milan No-Till Field Day in 1981 was McCutchen’s brainchild, designed to spread
the word about these practices that were virtually unknown at the time. Largely as a result
of the field day’s continued popularity, a majority of producers now use no-till methods.
This display at the 2012 No-Till Field Day commemorates the 50th year of the event’s
home, the University of Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center at Milan.
While no-till remains the center’s claim to fame, there’s much more that goes on at the
675-acre station, which in 2005 was renamed the AgResearch and Education Center at Milan.
More than 100 research projects on all aspects of corn, cotton, soybeans, grain sorghum,
wheat, and cover crop production are currently under way in addition to specialty projects
such as growing switchgrass for biofuel and soil conservation studies.
“Our goal is sustainable, profitable agriculture production that also maintains the quality
of our environment,” says Brown. “We believe the work conducted here and at the nine other
research and education centers across the state positively impacts every Tennessean every day.”
September 2012
7
One year into its existence,
stocker operation Afton
Farms is building toward
large-scale success, and
Co-op plays a prominent role
Afton Farms owner Bob Evans, left, and farm manager Chad Sanders, far right, talk with Tennessee Farmers Cooperative field
hardware specialist Gary Satterfield, second from left, and Washington Farmers Cooperative assistant manager Ben Bowman
about the finished construction of two concrete silage pits, shown behind them. The stocker cattle operation was established
last year and has steadily built its numbers to between 700 and 800 head, with a goal of reaching 1,200.
This healthy-looking Charolais calf is one of
several breeds being raised at Afton Farms.
Story and photos by Chris Villines
P
urchase a load of calves.
Spend roughly the next
100 days adding to their
weight and optimizing their
health. Sell the healthy, largerframed and heavier animals as
feeder cattle. Rinse and repeat.
That, in a nutshell, is how a
stocker cattle operation works.
Afton l
And it’s how part-time East
Tennessee resident Bob Evans
is banking on producing longterm dividends. In a day and
age when seemingly more people exit the agriculture industry than enter it, Bob, who has
a history of showing an entrepreneurial spirit through other
types of business endeavors,
8
September 2012
primarily in the tech industry,
and manager Chad Sanders
are enthusiastically and aggressively working to build a
premier stocker cattle business
named Afton Farms after the
local community. The operation is spread out among 560
acres on three different tracts
of formerly scrubby, overgrown
land straddling Washington
and Greene counties. At present, cattle numbers range from
between 700 and 800 head
with a goal of “consistently being in the 1,200-head range,”
according to Bob, who first
began hatching a plan for his
new venture in 2010.
“I originally came to Tennessee to invest in housing
in the Johnson City area,”
explains Bob, who divides
his time between Tennessee
and Maryland. “I’ve been an
entrepreneur my whole life.
When I first started driving
around Washington County,
I kept seeing cattle. I figured
the land here is not as suitable for row crops as it is out
in the Midwest, but there’s
good grass and a good climate
for cattle. I had been studying
the agriculture industry since
the 1980s, but now I really
started looking specifically
into the cattle business. The
make sure the heifers are open.
opportunity presented itself
Nobody wants to have a feedlot
for me to purchase farmland,
full of calving heifers — that’s
meet Chad, and then work on
a big expense. If our cattle’s
a business model that would
health is straightened out, then
help turn a profit. There’s no
our cost of gains will be good.”
way I could have stepped on
A newly built commodity
the accelerator without Chad.” shed and two massive silage
The combination of Bob’s
pits — each 119 feet long, 28
business savvy and Chad’s
feet wide, and 16 feet high
stocker cattle experience — he
with a 3,000-ton capacity —
has a small-scale stocker opera- help ensure that there is always
tion of his own at his farm in
an ample supply of feed on
Telford — makes for what both hand. Inside the spacious,
agree is “a pretty good
team.” The third member of the team is employee Benny Osborne,
who handles the farm’s
daily feeding program, a
mix of grain, corn silage,
gluten, soy hulls, grass
hay, and a custom mineral mix formulated by
Tennessee Farmers Cooperative and purchased
from Washington Farmers Cooperative.
“We take mismanaged cattle and make
them more valuable,”
says Chad. “We do that
by getting the cattle
and making them better nutritionally and
The Afton Farms cattle barn, constructed of
health-wise. We make
Hemlock wood by local builders John and Lynn
steers out of them or
Ellis, has numerous Co-op Super Heavy Duty Gates.
6,500-square-foot cattle barn,
a scale keeps accurate measure
of cattle weight progression,
which Bob says is critical in
the stocker business.
“The market price for calves
may go up and may go down,
but we feel that if we can drive
the volume on the commodities — our largest operating
expense — and keep that
managed properly, then we can
make $100 or even better per
head at sale time,” says Bob.
“That’s our business model,
and we’re always striving to get
better at it.”
With a year of operation now
in the books, Bob and Chad also
agree that Afton Farms wouldn’t
be possible without Co-op
products and expertise. They’ve
worked closely with Washington
Farmers Co-op assistant manager Ben Bowman and outside
salesman Mike Southerland,
along with TFC field hardware
specialist Gary Satterfield, to
add numerous farm hardware
items to the operation.
“I’m real impressed with
what Bob, Chad, and Benny
are doing,” says Ben. “They’re
going about things the proper
way by not cutting corners and
by getting top-of-the-line products. And Chad does a great
job of buying the right kind of
cattle. They study the futures
market; they know how much
they can pay for the cattle and
still make a profit. There’s no
given to any of it, but at least
they aren’t doing things with
their eyes shut.”
The extensive list of purchases illustrates just how
much time and effort has been
put into the farm’s construction
so far:
• 17 Ritchie waterers
• 4,500 Chicago Heights
T-posts
• Several Co-op Super
Heavy Duty Gates
• More than 450 4.5-inchby-8-foot wooden posts
• 3 Co-op Super Heavy Duty
Hay Savers
• 10 Co-op 10-foot Bunk
Feeders
• 5 Co-op Super Heavy Duty
Mineral Feeders
• 86 rolls of Herdsman HiTensile Barbed Wire
• 47 rolls of Herdsman Premium Class 1 Field Fence
• 39 rolls of Herdsman Premium Class 3 Field Fence
“We’ve put in almost 13 miles
of fencing since we started,” says
Chad. “Every last bit of it has
been Co-op. You can’t beat the
service. I can call them at 8 in
the morning and say I need 200
T-posts and 10 rolls of wire, and
by 9:30 it’s sitting here delivered.
It saves you time and money
because if you have a crew sitting around all day waiting for
product, that’s a waste. They’re
always available to answer any
questions we may have, and I
trust their advice. They’ve been
good as gold to us.”
Bob says Afton Farms’ continued relationship with the
Co-op all boils down to timely,
professional assistance.
“They take care of their
customers,” he stresses. “Any
business that has been around
as long as the Co-op has is successful because it continually
tries to improve. That’s what
we’re determined to do.”
From the Co-op perspective, Bob and Chad are well on
their way to that success. Mike
lauded Bob for investing his
resources in agriculture.
“When Bob came into this,
he had only limited knowledge
about the cattle business,” says
Mike. “He could have chosen
different avenues. That he
chose to pursue agriculture is
great.”
Gary says the fact that the
farm has been built without
shortcuts is another plus.
“I admire the fact that even
with today’s economic challenges, Afton Farms is choosing
to use Co-op’s ‘Best Quality
Products’ like our fencing,” he
says. “You need high-quality
fencing to contain calves that
are being brought in weaned
from their mothers.”
The
stressful
conditions
that stocker
cattle often
experience
underscore
the importance of
proper care
and nutrition, says
TFC nutritionist Dr.
Paul Davis.
“Calves
entering a
stocker operation are
in a transitional phase
to where
they’re not
babies anymore,” Paul
explains.
In setting up their business, Bob says he and Chad wanted to
“It’s a very
“think smart” when it came to land placement for cattle, trying to
stressful time put a lot of cattle in a smaller area for efficiency.
for them. This
stress, along with any health
them grow, and I want to know
issues, requires the proper
which ones are going to gain
nutrients to fight off diseases.
the most. My motto is that if
Meeting these requirements is
you aren’t learning something
important for performance and
today, then there is something
profit. Just as our mothers enwrong.”
couraged us to eat nutritious,
As Bob’s first foray into the
balanced meals, it’s wise for
ag sector, Afton Farms has defistocker operators to provide the nitely required a learning curve.
same for their cattle.”
But he says there was a specific
As the farms’ team makes
reason he chose to take his busiplans to expand the business,
ness in this current direction.
they say this type of sound
“I think agriculture has a
advice from Co-op experts is
really good future over the next
valuable.
20 to 30 years,” he says. “I’ve
“A lot of stocker operators
made a big bet on it for the next
just buy cattle, turn them out,
generation.”
and hope for a check back with
For more information on
a profit without giving much
Co-op hardware and animal nuthought to what they’re doing,”
trition products, visit with your
Chad says. “I can’t do that. I
local Co-op or online at
want to learn, I want to see
www.ourcoop.com.
ABOVE: Chad’s son Jared, 13, fills a Co-op 10-foot Bunk Feeder with feed for a newly
weaned load of calves. A Co-op Super Heavy Duty Hay Saver holds their hay supply.
RIGHT: A group of Holstein calves eat out of one of the farms’ concrete troughs.
September 2012
9
10
September 2012
Robertson Cheatham throws another Hoedown
If history is any indicator,
hundreds of enthusiastic Middle
Tennesseans will gather Sept. 28
for Robertson Cheatham Farmers Cooperative’s “Hometown
Hoedown” at the Ashland City
branch store. Launched in
2006, the free event is a funfilled evening of live music, door
prizes, and catered refreshments.
Last year’s Hoedown attracted
more than 1,800 people.
Although it began as a customer appreciation event, the
Hoedown’s main purpose now is
to support the county’s F.U.E.L.
program, which provides anonymous food donations to area
children whose primary food
source is their school lunch.
(F.U.E.L. stands for “Full of
Emmaeus Love,” referring to
the road to Emmaeus in Luke
24:31.) Donations for the
program will be accepted at the
Co-op event.
“We feel strongly about the
F.U.E.L. program,” says Benny
Batts, branch store manager.
“We hear so much about starving people in other parts of the
world that we tend to forget
about those in our own backyards. Co-op is honored to be
a part of this effort to make a
difference for these children.”
The event begins at 6 p.m.
and will feature a bluegrass music show including the Hester
Family Band, A Step Ahead, and
fiddler/dancer Lindsey Batts.
Also performing will be students
Graze Greener Grass!
“I have been using Marshall for
years now. I graze stocker cattle
all winter on Marshall. I have
overstocked and overgrazed
Marshall and it comes back
each time. Marshall takes the
abuse.
Marshall also gives me 4 – 6 weeks extra
production over my wheat. I can get my cattle off
of hay a month earlier, which saves me money.
In the past years, I have tried other improved
ryegrasses that claim to be ‘just as good as
Marshall’, but in the end they aren’t. They
don’t produce and my cattle don’t gain as well.
These are the reasons why I stay with Marshall
ryegrass.”
“I have been using Marshall ryegrass
for seventeen plus years for grazing
and haylage. It consistently gives me
extra production.
I have used other improved
ryegrasses, but they didn’t perform.
My cattle didn’t gain like they do on
Marshall. Marshall is also the best medicine for my calves.
Whey I buy new stockers, I put them immediately on
Marshall and they are much healthier than without Marshall.
Marshall gives them that needed ‘jump start’.
Marshall is my ryegrass, it is consistent, takes the
cold and abuse and comes back. My cattle really gain
well on Marshall ryegrass.”
Eddie Summitt
Summitt Hills Farms
Philadelphia, Tennessee
Jerry Lay
Coldstream Farms
Madisonville, Tennessee
Marshall
...
Marshall...
America’s #1 Ryegrass!
*
Tennessee Farmers Cooperative
®
The Wax Company 888 CALL WAX
Since 1898
*For grazing. According to university grazing studies - AL AR LA MS ©2012 The Wax Company, LLC
from The Main Stage Music
and Dance Studio in Springfield. A silent auction will help
fund an area fiddle camp designed to introduce children to
traditional American music.
Batts stresses that sponsorships are still available and asks
that attendees bring their own
seating. For more information,
call the Co-op at 615-792-5611.
The store is located at 114
Cumberland Street in Ashland
City.
Woods, wildlife
day is Sept. 22
in Oak Ridge
The University of Tennessee
Institute of Agriculture will host
a Woods and Wildlife Field Day
on Saturday, Sept. 22, on the
grounds of the Forest Resources
AgResearch and Education
Center and UT Arboretum near
Oak Ridge.
Officials say the field day is
designed to help landowners
who have 10 or more acres of
forestland make management
decisions that will balance their
goals related to fiscal management of their property as well
as wildlife and forest sustainability. The program runs from
8 a.m. through lunch.
UT experts as well as professionals with the Tennessee
Division of Forestry and the
Tennessee Wildlife Resources
Agency are featured on the
program, and scheduled tours
will focus on a variety of forest
management topics, including
wildlife, timber, and practices
for production and harvesting.
This field day program is
geared toward small woodlot
management practices for family forest landowners interested
in timber production, forest
health, or wildlife management,
says Dr. Kevin Hoyt, host for
the event.
Admission to the field day
and lunch is free. Attendees
must, however, pre-register by
Saturday, Sept. 8.
To register or for more information, visit the center’s website at http://forestry.tennessee.
edu/, call 865-483-3571, or
email [email protected].
September 2012
11
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September 2012
13
The 49 outstanding farmers, University of Tennessee Extension agents, and Tennessee Farm Bureau and Co-op representatives selected to attend the 2012 Leadership Advance
Tour are, kneeling from left, John Hutcheson, representing Dickson Farmers Cooperative; Stephen Ahlheit, Dickson; Jeremy Light and Zach Jolley, White County; Mark Harrison,
Valley; Anthony Shelton, Washington County Extension agent; Brandon Strasser, Valley; Jimmy Farless, Franklin; Ernie Herrod, Rutherford; Devon Jones, Tennessee Farmers
Cooperative; Ryan King, Tennessee Farm Bureau; Payton Elliott, Gibson; Zach Burrows, TFC trainee; Ryan Sims, Gibson; and Jonah Horner, Gibson. Second row: Justin Turner
and Bart Griffin, Rutherford; Jonathan King, Robertson Cheatham; Justin Parrish, Gibson; Clint Crisp, TFC trainee; Aaron Lee, Foothills; Cory Anderson, TFC trainee; Jonathan
Jackson and Rodney Moore, Carroll; Greg Anderson and Doug Robertson, Sevier; Jeremy Barnes and Matthew Gray, Obion; Mary Grace Gregory and Isabell Hall, Wilson; Bob
Martin, Maury; and Keith Harrison, TFC. Third row: Jason Galloway and Adam Wilson, Sevier; Nic Combs, Sevier; Matthew Herndon, Rutherford; Matt Blount, TFC trainee; Robert
Jones and Anthony Johnson, Washington; Don Beasley and Dereck Layne, Rutherford; Randy Lowe, Anderson; David Hunter, White; Chris Hicks, Van Buren County Extension
agent; Jerry Hicks, Smith; Jackie Byrd and Don Pollock, Perry; Matt Fennell, Tennessee Farm Bureau; and Tex Hopkins, Maury. — Photo by Chris Villines
and think about ways they can
change their own production
s many of their chiland marketing practices to
dren and grandchildren improve their operations. That’s
prepared to head back
why it’s so important for our
to school, a group of 49 farmCo-op system to sponsor activiers, University of Tennessee
ties of this nature.”
Extension agents, Tennessee
The tour, now in its 25th
Farm Bureau representatives,
year, is designed to provide
and Co-op personnel gathered
participants a chance to witat Tennessee Farmers Coopera- ness the cooperative system in
tive headquarters in LaVergne
action and gain a new appreon Monday, Aug. 6, to embark
ciation for Co-op’s value to its
on a weeklong educational
farmer owners. As in past tours,
journey of their own — the
the group spent the week visit2012 Leadership Advance Tour. ing farms, agricultural research
“This tour gives farmers and
sites, and interregional coopthose involved with agriculture
eratives in Kentucky, Indiana,
the opportunity to view the coIllinois, and Missouri.
operative system from another
After being welcomed by
perspective,” said tour orgasenior staff and key personnel
nizer Keith Harrison, TFC’s
at TFC headquarters Monday
marketing, advertising, and
morning, the tour group boarded
promotions coordinator. “Para chartered bus and headed to
ticipants get the chance to visit Bowling Green, Ky., to tour the
with each other during the five- 40,000-square-foot Universal
day period, share experiences,
Cooperative animal health warehouse,
which
stocks
more than
4,000
types of
animal
health
products
that can be
shipped to
most member Co-ops
At FFR Cooperative in Lafayette, Ind., tour attendees listen as Sam
within
Stratton, FFR’s forage plant-breeder, explains the research being
24 hours
administered for different crop varieties. — Photo by Keith Harrison
By Chris Villines
A
14
September 2012
of order placement. Universal
is one of the Co-op system’s
longtime interregional affiliates.
After that, they headed to the
Bowling Green location of TFC
subsidiary Stockdale’s to browse
the 35,000-square-foot showroom and garden center. Several
of the attendees took advantage
of the shopping time to make
purchases.
“I was very impressed with
Stockdale’s,” said Isabel Hall of
the Bellwood community, a Wilson Farmers Co-op director and
cow/calf operator. “It’s in a great
location to pull in customers
who want to experience farming
and the rural lifestyle. I saw lots
of really nice things.”
From Bowling Green, the
bus headed for Lafayette, Ind.,
where the group capped off
its first day with a dinner at
FFR Cooperative. On Tuesday
morning, the touring contingent returned to FFR to see the
research trials being conducted
at the interregional plantbreeding cooperative, which
focuses on forage development
and research and helps test
other crop varieties like those
marketed under the Croplan
brand. FFR also has a Tennessee forage research and testing
plot in Franklin.
“I enjoyed seeing all of the
crop research that FFR is conducting,” said Sparta beef cattle
and poultry producer David
Hunter, one of three White
County Farmers Co-op members
on the trip. “It taught me a lot,
like the fact that I’ve been planting the wrong kind of beans! I
also learned just by talking to
fellow farmers. Anytime you can
get together with fellow farmers, you educate each other. And
there was always a laugh or two
on the bus.”
From FFR, the group traveled some 50 miles north to Fair
Oaks Dairy, one of America’s
largest dairies with more than
30,000 cows on 17,000 acres.
Some 80 to 100 calves are
born every day at the dairy, and
cows are milked three times
daily on a 72-station carousel.
Fair Oaks also features a visitor
center where milk production
is described to consumers in a
simple, easy-to-understand way
and a gift shop/cafe that offers
ice cream, butter, and cheese
made on the farm.
Following lunch at the dairy,
attendees listened to a presentation by Devon Jones of TFC’s
Animal Nutrition Division on
how Co-op utilizes Cooperative
Research Farms studies in making feed recommendations.
Next, it was off to Chicago for
a two-night stay in the Windy
City. On Tuesday evening, the
group enjoyed dinner and a
cruise on Lake Michigan, where
they captured full views of the
nighttime Chicago skyline. TFC
regional manager Paul Binkley
gave a presentation on “Our
Cooperative System” during the
cruise and followed up at the hotel on Wednesday morning with
a breakfast program on “Cooperative Membership Benefits.”
After breakfast, the group
visited the nation’s largest skyscraper, the iconic Willis Tower
(formerly the Sears Tower), for
an overview of the city from the
1,451-foot building’s top floor
“Chicago Skydeck.” They then
witnessed an exciting opening
session at the Chicago Board of
Trade, where global commodities futures are bought and sold,
followed by a tour of Chicago
Heights Steel, where Co-op’s
red steel T-posts are made from
recycled railroad steel.
“I never put much thought
into going to the Co-op and
buying a fencepost,” Pollock
said. “But after touring Chicago
Heights Steel and seeing what
goes in to making one, I found
out that it’s a pretty big deal. I’ll
never look at it the same again.
They walked us right through
where they were making them;
we were right there when the hot
fencepost was coming out.”
That night, tour participants
watched as the Chicago White
Sox took on the Kansas City
Royals at Comiskey Park (the
Royals won the low-scoring
game 2-1), and the next morning
the tour left Chicago and headed
southward. Along the route,
the group stopped for a tour of
Four-Beck Dairy in Bartelso, Ill.,
which includes a 550-cow dairy
along with an 1,800-acre row
crop operation.
“I probably enjoyed Four-Beck
Dairy more than any stop on
the tour from the standpoint of
seeing some practical applications of things that we can use
back home,” said Greg Anderson, a Sevier Farmers Co-op
member who is the agriculture
and natural resources agent for
McDowell County, N.C., and a
patron of the Co-op’s Waynesville, N.C., branch. “The whole
week was thoroughly enjoyable
— I gained a better understanding of how the overall structure
works and how we’re a part of
that structure, and I made some
good friends who I’ll keep in
touch with.”
On Friday morning, the last
stop before heading back to
Tennessee was the Monsanto
Research Center just outside St.
Rick Mitchell, in yellow shirt, manager of Universal Cooperative’s animal health
warehouse in Bowling Green, Ky., leads the group on a tour of the 40,000-squarefoot facility, where more than 4,000 different products are stored and shipped.
Louis in Chesterfield, Mo. Here,
the Co-op group got a behindthe-scenes tour of the facility
where the latest achievements
in biotech research and product
development were on display.
“The technology that Monsanto has at their fingertips
is just mind-boggling,” David
Hunter said. “They had one
machine where they could do
DNA testing in about an hour.
The research they’re doing with
drought- and insect-resistant varieties of seed just amazed me.”
Arriving in LaVergne on late
Friday afternoon, the road-tested
tour group was welcomed back
to TFC with pizza for the ride
back to their respective homes.
But many stuck around and ate
their food together while sharing memories from the eventful
week. Gibson Farmers Co-op
customer Justin Parrish of
Medina said he felt the trip was
“well worth the time invested.”
“The tours that you go on,
the people that you meet, and
the fun that you have make it a
special week,” he added. “It’s
an experience I’ll never forget.”
If you’re interested in attending future Leadership
Advance Tours, contact your
local Co-op manager.
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rebate programs can be combined. All prices stated in
USD. Normal freight terms and conditions apply.
September 2012
15
16
September 2012
NRCS offers drought assistance for select programs
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS)
has targeted nearly $16 million
in financial and technical assistance to help eligible crop and
livestock producers in 19 states
cope with adverse impacts of
this summer’s historic drought.
In Tennessee, that assistance
means an additional $771,000
for NRCS’s Environmental
Quality Incentives Program
(EQIP), and $250,000 in Wild-
life Habitat Incentive Program
(WHIP) funding is now available to assist drought-stricken
producers and landowners.
State officials are encouraging those who need assistance
to apply by early September
because funds are limited.
Producers in areas designated
as either drought levels of D3
(Extreme) or D4 (Exceptional)
on the July 2012 U.S. Drought
Monitor maps for Tennessee
are eligible to apply for selected
conservation practices. These
areas encompass Benton, Carroll, Crockett, Dyer, Fayette,
Gibson, Haywood, Henry, Houston, Humphreys, Lake, Lauderdale, Montgomery, Obion,
Shelby, Stewart, Tipton and
Weakley counties.
“Tennessee is currently holding a special drought signup
for producers interested in
applying conservation practices
that will alleviate the drought’s
impacts, and improve soil health
and productivity,” said NRCS
State Conservationist Kevin
Brown. “EQIP and WHIP are
continuous signups, but for
this drought effort applications
in the D3 and D4 areas will
be evaluated until the drought
funds are expended.”
Applicants should ensure
that all aspects of their eligibility are up-to-date with the Farm
Service Agency to expedite the
process.
Eligible conservation practices include prescribed grazing,
livestock watering facilities and
water conservation practices.
A list of all eligible practices is
available from NRCS. Producers are also eligible for financial
assistance to reapply failed
EQIP or WHIP conservation
practices due to drought.
USDA has also announced
the following modifications to
these programs:
• Allowing producers to
modify current EQIP contracts
to allow for grazing, livestock
watering, and other conservation activities to address drought
conditions.
• Authorizing haying and
grazing of Wetlands Reserve
Program (WRP) easement
areas in drought-affected areas
where haying and grazing are
consistent with conservation of
wildlife habitat and wetlands.
For more information, visit
online at www.nrcs.usda.gov or
your local NRCS office.
Covington plans
Heritage Day
event Sept. 22
Activities for the entire family are planned for the annual
Heritage Day celebration set
for Saturday, Sept. 22, on Covington’s historic square.
With the theme, “Reminicsing the Past,” festivities begin
at 9 a.m. and end at 4 p.m.,
with music and fun-filled events
throughout the day. Food of all
kinds, a Civil War encampment,
folk art demonstrations, and a
kids’ parade are on tap for visitors. A rodeo at Cobb Parr Park
will also be held on the evenings
of Sept. 21 and 22.
For more information, contact the Covington Chamber of
Commerce at 901-476-9727.
September 2012
17
New at Co-op
®
Co-op
Peck Block
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consumption of grains and
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and artificial colors. It’s available in either
a 5-pound (#1055213) or 25-pound
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®
18
September 2012
™
Co-op now offers chicken coops and animal shelters from Mountain Barn Builders LLC, a company committed to manufacturing
quality-constructed buildings at prices that everyone can afford. In
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and all products meet or exceed the highest standards of quality in
the industry because they use only the best materials.
3-x-6-foot
Chicken Coop
The DURATEMP siding of this
3-x-6-foot chicken coop can be
stained, painted, or left unfinished
for a weathered look. The coop
features a metal roof, screened
windows, two additional 4-inch
vents, skylight, three outsideaccessible nesting boxes, a small
ramp door for bird entry, and a
large door for feeding and maintenance. To facilitate moving, 4-x-4-inch
skids are included, and fencing can be
easily attached. It holds 10 hens.
#37810
6-x-8-foot
Chicken
Coop
This 6-x-8-foot coop has
the same features as the
smaller version but provides seven outsideaccessible nesting boxes and
can hold 25 hens.
#37800
4-x-6-foot
Animal Shelter
This 4-x-6-foot animal
shelter has a metal roof,
a 2½-foot-tall-by-1½-footwide doorway, and complete
flooring. It has DURATEMP
siding that can be stained,
painted, or left unfinished for
a weathered look. Shelter
is suitable for dogs, sheep,
goats, pigs, and more. It’s designed for easy assembly.
#37820
Neighborly Advice
Wheat
Seed treatments give wheat the right start
C
orn
harvest
is under
way, and
that means
wheat-planting is around
Darrin Holder
the corner.
With high
WinField Agronomist
commodity prices for wheat, producers
want to obtain the highest yield
possible. Growers have adopted
many different practices —
from aggressive fertilization to
managing diseases with multiple
fungicide applications — to
increase wheat yield. However,
one of the most important aspects is how you start.
A uniform, quality stand is
a must for optimal yields of all
crops, especially wheat. Uniform stands give each plant
equal access to crop inputs,
sunlight, and moisture. One of
the best ways to ensure uniform
crop emergence is to use seed
treatments. Seed treatments
range from a standard fungicide
all the way to combinations of
fungicides, insecticides, and
micronutrients. Many growers
don’t see the need for seed treatments, but they are one of the
least-expensive crop inputs and
can deliver the greatest return.
They are the only way to clean
up seed-borne pathogens that
you might not even know you
have and the best way to manage soil-borne pathogens such
as fungi and secondary insects.
To help fight early-season
wheat pests, WinField Solutions
LLC is introducing the Warden®
Cereals brand of seed treatments. The Warden name has
stood for high-quality, industryleading, proprietary seed treatment technology since 2004.
The foundation of this product
line is Warden Cereals, a broadspectrum fungicide seed treatment with two active ingredients,
Ipconazole and Metalaxyl, for
superior disease protection.
Ipconazole is a seed-friendly
triazole with both contact and
systemic activity. Metalaxyl is a
seed fungicide with a long track
record of consistent control.
Together, these create a broadspectrum fungicide with superior protection against many
diseases, including fusarium,
pythium, rhizoctonia, and loose
smuts. This combination also
controls penicillium dry rot, a
weakness in many other wheat
seed treatments. Multiple years
of research have shown Warden
Cereals increases emergence by
as much as 11 percent and yield
by as much as 23 bushels versus
untreated seed (see graph).
For the Southern U.S.,
WinField Solutions will also be
offering a fungicide/insecticide
combination, Warden Cereals HR, for protection against
aphids (greenbugs), white grubs,
Hessian fly and wireworms.
With the same fungicide base as
Warden Cereals, the HR product also contains Imidacloprid
at a rate that’s 62 percent higher
than other products, resulting
in better insect protection and
potential for higher-yielding
wheat. The higher rate also
decreases aphid infestations
shortly after emergence, which
can help reduce the risk of barley yellow dwarf virus infections.
Overall, wheat seed treatments are a very economical
way to protect each wheat seed
that goes into the ground and
help give growers the best opportunity to maximize yield.
September 2012
19
Neighborly Advice
Forages
Don’t allow toxic fescue to rob genetic potential
I
n choosing breeding bulls
and replacement seedstock, top
cattle producers want
Wayne Tankersly to find the
best genetBeef producer and
ics available.
Pennington Seed
forage consultant
This usually
means devoting a great amount of time to
studying, searching, traveling,
and most likely spending extra
money to obtain cattle that will
enhance the productivity of the
operation.
All too often, the same
producer who devotes so much
time, energy, and money to top
genetics will then place these
superior cattle on poor-quality
pastures where their genetic
potential cannot be captured.
Nowhere is this more evident
than with cattle being maintained on toxic fescue pastures.
The performance of cows
and calves
maintained on
nontoxic and
toxic endophyte-infected
fescue pastures
was compared
in a study at
the Northwest
Georgia Branch Experiment
Station in Calhoun, Ga. Cow/
calf pairs were split into two
evenly numbered groups, and in
early April one group was placed
on a toxic fescue pasture and
the second group on a nontoxic
Jesup MaxQ® fescue pasture.
Both groups remained on their
respective pastures through calfweaning time in late August.
Over a three-year period,
cows maintained on nontoxic
MaxQ pastures weaned steer
calves that averaged 62 pounds
per head per year more and
heifer calves that averaged 44
pounds per head per year more
than calves from cows grazing toxic fescue pastures. The
genetics of the two groups were
essentially the same. The only
difference was forage quality!
20
September 2012
While improving animal
genetics is important, this
study strongly emphasizes that
pasture improvement is equally
or more important. If a certain
bull could deliver an extra 40
pounds on every calf weaned,
a producer would no doubt be
willing to invest thousands of
dollars to obtain his genetics.
It makes little sense to invest
heavily in improved animal
genetics if the pasture forage
system doesn’t allow those
genetics to express themselves.
Cattle experts will agree — a
key component
of any cattle
management
system is providing adequate amounts
of high-quality,
nontoxic pasture forage.
Producers
wanting to capture the full genetic potential
of their cattle will wisely invest
time and money into providing
and maintaining productive,
high-quality pastures.
Fescue toxicity is a widely
known and well-documented
condition in beef cattle. After
the cause of this condition was
discovered in the mid-1970s,
scientists released a number
of tall fescue varieties that
were “endophyte (fungus)free.” Endophyte-free varieties
eliminated livestock health and
production issues, but without
the endophyte, these fescue
varieties could not survive field
conditions long term.
In 1997, scientists in New
Zealand discovered strains
of nontoxic endophytes that
allowed for the development
of a revolutionary new “novel”
endophyte-infected fescue variety – Jesup MaxQ®. Developed
cooperatively by former University of Georgia plant-breeder
Joe Bouton and scientists in
New Zealand, MaxQ eliminates
all health and production problems associated with fescue
toxicosis while offering similar
plant persistence and hardiness
found in toxic varieties.
Prior to its release in 2000
to Pennington Seed, Inc. for
marketing, MaxQ underwent
extensive research at leading
universities throughout the
U.S. to prove plant persistence
and hardiness as well as livestock health and performance.
With more than 10 years of
proven performance with Jesup
MaxQ, a second novel endophyte-infected variety — Texoma MaxQ II — was released
for marketing in 2011. Detailed
information on Jesup MaxQ
and Texoma MaxQ II is available on the Pennington website
at www.penningtonusa.com.
PAYS
Persistence PAYS
Early in its development, MaxQ was proven to be as
persistent, durable and dependable as toxic KY 31 in
abusive research trials (close continuous grazing
with bermudagrass competition in hot, drought
stricken summers). Ten years of on-farm experience
across the fescue belt has given testimony to the
exceptional persistence of MaxQ.
Performance PAYS
Unlike toxic KY 31, with MaxQ you can expect higher average daily gains, conception
rates, birth rates, and weaning weights... and all that adds up to money in the bank!
Stocker Steer Gain Response to MaxQ
Spring Phase
Avg Daily Gain
Gain/acre, lbs.
Toxic Fescue
0.68
102
MaxQ
1.72
Improvement
+153%
249
+144%
Adapted from Parish et al., 2003 3 yrs data from Calhoun and Eatonton, GA
Investing PAYS
Proven persistence, more calves, heavier calves, better condition scores, increased
herd health, more milk . . . it’s easy to see how MaxQ can pay for itself in as little as
two years. Now with lower establishment cost per acre, get an even stronger return
on your investment.
“I tried endophyte-free fescue and within 18 months there was no fescue left. Don’t waste your
money on endophyte-free fescue. Plant MaxQ and get maximum production and a long stand life.”
Brent Bolen - Idabel, Oklahoma
“My cattle consumed more MaxQ, gained more weight and bred back better than those on the toxic
KY31 fescue. Cattle producers have some real opportunities to make money with MaxQ.”
Harold E. Haskins, DVM - Diamond, MO
“When you come across a product like MaxQ that works as described and has a positive impact on
your cattle and your bottom line, why wouldn’t you use it?”
Rod Nowland - Oxford, Alabama
Call us or visit our website to learn more about the persistence & performance of MaxQ.
1-800-285-SEED • www.penningtonusa.com
YOUR FORAGE SEED SOLUTION
Neighborly Advice
Forages
Dealing with pastures, hayfields after drought
T
he extreme
heat
and drought
from earlier
this summer have
resulted in
poor forage
Dr. Gary Bates
production
University of Tennessee and possible
Forage Specialist
stand loss
in many pastures and hayfields.
Clearly, the amount of forage
produced is directly proportional to the amount of rainfall.
Without adequate moisture,
few forage practices will be
successful, but there are some
things that can be done over the
coming months to decrease the
impact of the summer’s drought
on next year’s production.
1. Evaluate tall fescue fields
for stand loss. Kentucky 31
tall fescue is a very persistent
plant, even under extreme
drought conditions. Before
deciding that a field needs to be
replanted, let the plants regrow
for five to six days, then thoroughly evaluate the amount of
tall fescue remaining. If you
can find a tall fescue plant every 6 inches (even if it has only
two or three tillers), you should
have enough plants present to
give full yield in the spring. If
less than this is found, drill
wheat into the stand. This will
provide the needed grass plants
for the spring yield. This is a
temporary measure, aimed at
helping the pasture through
until spring. Tall fescue should
be reseeded the following fall.
2. Fertilize tall fescue in the
fall. Because of the unpredictability of the winter, applying
nitrogen (N) to tall fescue
in the fall is risky. Getting
enough growth to warrant it
will depend on the length of
the growing season left in the
fall. After Oct. 1, the chances
of being profitable with an N
application is significantly reduced. The only way to justify
it is if you are sure hay supplies will not last through the
winter and little hay is available
for purchase. Limit the N to
30 pounds per acre and apply
it only to your best tall fescue
stand. Keep cattle off this field
to allow as much accumulation
of forage as possible.
3. Consider fall weed control. Winter and spring weeds
can decrease the amount of forage that is produced in spring.
Buttercup and thistle can be
controlled with an application
of 2,4-D if applied at the right
time. Using 2 pints per acre
in the late fall/early winter can
adequately control these weeds
and eliminate the competition
they create in the spring. Apply
2,4-D in mid-November or later, when the forecast calls for
three days with 60-degree high
temperatures. Be sure to read
and follow all label instructions
before using this or any other
herbicide.
4. Speed up spring growth
with early N fertilization. If
hay supplies are running tight
at the end of the winter, early
grazing may be produced with
an application of nitrogen. Just
as in the fall, this is a risky
proposition because no one can
predict the last freeze or when
conditions will become favorable for forage growth. Apply
no more than 30 pounds of N
per acre to the tall fescue field
that has the best stand and
the least amount of clover. To
provide early grazing, this can
be done mid to late February.
There is no guarantee that
early grazing will be produced,
but if the weather cooperates,
an extra couple of weeks can be
shaved off hay feeding season.
September 2012
21
Story and photos by Chris Villines
Part of Smokey’s weekly rehabilitation from Januar
20-minute sessions walking on an underwater tread
Hospital at UT’s Veterinary Medical Center, where h
Smokey IX stands stoically on the field at Neyland Stadium, where on crisp fall Saturdays the University of Tennessee’s
football fans gather to watch their beloved Vols in action. Since 1953, nine different bluetick coonhounds have assumed the
role of the incredibly popular mascot, who leads the Big Orange through the traditional “T” prior to kickoff at each home game.
N
eyland Stadium, usually
packed with more than
100,000 fanatical, fullthroated University of Tennessee fans during football season,
is eerily quiet on a drizzly
August morning. The only activity is what a few workers are
doing to clean up from the prior
night’s high school football
jamboree as a prelude to getting
storied Shields-Watkins Field
ready for the first home game of
the 2012 season against Georgia State on Sept. 8.
Soon, however, a buzz starts
as a familiar orange-and-white
clad Vol makes his way into the
stadium’s tunnel. Some of the
workers savor this rare opportunity to get one-on-one time
22
September 2012
with the legendary figure, who
gladly honors their requests for
a side-by-side snapshot.
When he finally gets to step
on the manicured turf and test
out his knee that was surgically
repaired in January, the iconic
hero jukes left, then right,
trots straight ahead, and finally
howls with sheer satisfaction.
It’s a purely logical response
from this particular “athlete in
action:” He’s UT’s wildly popular bluetick coonhound mascot,
Smokey, and those witnessing
his four-legged frolic on the
field agree that he’s ready for
“football time in Tennessee!”
“He’s moving around really
well,” says Jonathan Harrison,
a senior food and agricultural
business major from Watertown
who will be one of Smokey’s
game-day “handlers” this season, an honor given to select
members of the university’s
Alpha Gamma Rho (AGR)
social-professional fraternity. “I
think Smokey and the team are
in for a great season.”
Knoxville l
A day before his light work
on the Neyland Stadium turf,
Smokey IX — who became
the ninth incarnation of the
beloved mascot at the 2004
Peach Bowl — was across the
sprawling UT campus doing
some running of a different
sort. He was working hard to
rehabilitate the back right knee
on which arthroscopic surgery
was performed in January to
repair a partially torn anterior
cruciate ligament (ACL). The
rehab occurs weekly at the
same place Smokey had the
surgery — the John and Ann
Tickle Small Animal Hospital
at the university’s Veterinary
Medical Center, where he walks
on an underwater treadmill and
performs balancing exercises
to help maintain muscle and
cardio fitness.
Smokey’s surgeon, Dr. Darryl Millis, first discovered the
mascot’s signs of lameness last
season during the second half
of the Vols’ home game against
Cincinnati. The diagnosis was
a partial tear of the ACL, and
though treatment on the knee
began immediately, Smokey was
able to finish out the 2011 season before undergoing surgery.
With his rehab going well,
Millis says there’s no doubt
Smokey will be ready to take the
field Aug. 31 for the Vols’ first
football game — against North
Carolina State in Atlanta — of
the 2012 season, with Co-op
once again a sponsor of Vol
Network radio broadcasts (see
accompanying story, page 25).
“Throughout the whole process, Smokey has been a model
patient and a hard worker,” says
Millis. “He’s been so willing to
do whatever we want him to do.
He’s looking pretty good now.”
Smokey’s knee issue is the
ry’s surgery on his back right knee involves
dmill at the John and Ann Tickle Small Animal
he is observed by vet assistant Carol Tuft.
most recent chapter in the
colorful history of the Vols’ treasured bluetick mascot that dates
back to 1953 and is chronicled
in a new book, “Smokey: The
True Stories behind the University of Tennessee’s Beloved
Mascot,” to be released next
month. The book is co-authored
by Knoxville writer and noted
Vol historian Thomas J. Mattingly and Earl Hudson, who has
owned the past three Smokeys
after picking up the torch from
his sister and brother-in-law, the
Rev. Bill and Mildred Brooks,
owners of Smokeys I through VI.
“After UT won the national
championship in 1951, people
got to thinking, ‘Here we are
as national champions, and we
don’t even have a mascot,’” says
Hudson, who took ownership
of the Smokey line in 1994.
“Some people suggested a Tennessee walking horse, but how
would he have made personal
appearances, that type of thing?
So next on the list was a bluetick coonhound.”
After it was decided early in
1953 that this native breed of
dog should represent the school,
a contest to fill the position was
conducted by the UT Pep Club.
An announcement in local
newspapers read, “This can’t be
an ordinary hound. He must be
a ‘Houn’ Dawg’ in the best sense
of the word.”
Leading up to the contest,
Knoxville News-Sentinel outdoors writer Chambliss Pierce
made a bold prediction in the
newspaper’s Sept. 24, 1953,
edition by hinting strongly that
Rev. Brooks’ dog would be the
one to beat:
“Blue Smokey, a huge,
droopy-eared, sad-eyed bluetick
coonhound, is picturesque as
well as perfect, if you can say
that about a dog. He’s a showman by choice and as gentle
as a four-point pledge. But
he boasts a seven-generation
pedigree and has twice won the
Southeastern championship
in addition to bench victories
throughout Tennessee, Ohio,
and Indiana. And this is to say
nothing about the countless
coons who have suffered the
hot breath of Smokey’s chase.
I know that is a lot of words to
give a dog, and I know a lot of
friends have gotten less. But if
Blue Smokey takes out on the
field Saturday, I want everyone
to know they’re looking at something special. And I’m sure a
lot of coons and hunters would
breath a sigh of relief.”
At halftime of the Vols’ first
home game in 1953 against
Mississippi State, the coonhound candidates were escorted
onto the field by their owners.
“According to my sister, there
were 19 dogs judged that day,”
Hudson says. “Bill’s dog was
the last in the line to be judged,
and when they got to him, they
patted him on the head. Well,
ol’ Blue Smokey started howling, and that got people to
cheering. And the more they
cheered, the more he howled.
He was clearly the winner, and
it went from there.”
Shortly thereafter, the dog’s
name was shortened to Smokey.
Sadly, Smokey I’s life was cut
short in 1955 when he was hit
by a car. But in stepped his son,
Smokey II. Mattingly says this
is where the first bit of mascot
hijinks from a rival Southeastern Conference school began.
“Some boys who said they
were with the Pep Club went
over to the Brookses’ house
and told them that they were
supposed to take Smokey for
some pictures,” says Mattingly.
“They had Tennessee plates on
their car and seemed to know
the family. As it turns out, they
were from the University of
Kentucky. When the dog wasn’t
returned by noontime the next
day, the Brookses knew something was wrong. The dognappers later sent a postcard to
the Brookses to let them know
Smokey II was safe. The card
read: ‘Rest assured Smokey
will be all right. Just a friendly
rivalry. Will return.’”
The dog was returned at
gametime without incident.
Another notable bit of mischief, this time self-inflicted by
Smokey XIII, occurred the day
before the Vols played in the
1998 national championship
game against Florida State at
the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona.
“Smokey was at the hotel
and decided to eat one of the
wash cloths,” Mattingly explains. “Doctors weren’t sure
if he could even go to the game
until they had the wash cloth
removed. They x-rayed him and
said the wash cloth removal
could wait until they got back to
Knoxville. Smokey was as active
as ever at the game; you’d never
know anything was wrong at
all.”
The Brookses cared for each
Smokey until Bill’s death in
1986, and Mildred, with the
aid of friends, then took over.
When she began to experience
her own health struggles, her
brother, retired pharmacist Earl
Hudson, offered to take ownership of the hallowed mascot.
(See Smokey, page 24)
Retired Knoxville pharmacist Earl Hudson followed in the footsteps of his sister and
brother-in-law, the late Mildred and Rev. W.C. Brooks, as Smokey’s owner in 1994.
The Brookses owned all of the Smokeys for the prior 41 years. Earl and writer Tom
Mattingly are co-authors of “Smokey: The True Stories behind the University of
Tennessee’s Beloved Mascot,” a book that’s scheduled for release next month.
ABOVE: This undated photo from Earl Hudson’s scrapbook shows Rev. Bill
Brooks and Smokey I being led onto UT’s field prior to a Vols home game.
— Photo courtesy of UT RIGHT: Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity member
Jonathan Harrison of Watertown, left, is one of four Smokey handlers this
season. Also holding Smokey’s vest is AGR chapter president Will Batey.
September 2012
23
Smokey
(continued from page 23)
“I told Mildred, ‘Why don’t
you let me take over?’” says Earl,
a 1950 UT graduate whose own
failing health has forced him to
leave Smokey IX in the care of
his son, Charles. “She agreed.
She brought [Smokey VII] over
here, and I began watching over
him and later Smokey VIII and
Smokey IX.”
While the Brookses and
Hudsons have had year-round
responsibility for the mascots,
AGR members have had the
distinct honor of handling
Smokey on game days since
1977. The handlers transport
Smokey from his home to each
game and help lead him through
the “T” formed on the field
by the school’s “Pride of the
Southland Band.” This year,
four AGR members will share
in the privilege: Trey McAdams,
Bert White, Evan Betterton, and
Jonathan Harrison.
“It’s exciting,” says McAdams,
a senior marketing major from
Brownsville. “It’s something
you don’t expect when you come
24
September 2012
Dr. Darryl Millis, center, who performed Smokey’s arthroscopic knee surgery earlier this year, observes his progress along with
“Smokey” book co-author Tom Mattingly, left, and Carol. Millis has declared Smokey fit for the upcoming UT football season.
to college. It’s a pretty big deal
around here to be Smokey’s
handler.”
AGR president Will Batey of
Columbia says people gravitate
naturally toward the popular
mascot.
“Smokey’s an established historical figure for the university,”
he says. “He’s something that
you associate with Tennessee
football.”
And as long as there are
fall football afternoons in Big
Orange Country, Hudson feels
confident that the loveable bluetick coonhound will roam the
sidelines, serving as a rallying
point for Vol fans everywhere.
“Smokey is the spirit of the
UT football team,” Hudson
says. “He’s an icon.”
The book, “Smokey: The
True Stories behind the University of Tennessee’s Beloved
Mascot,” can be ordered from
the University of Tennessee
Press for $29.95. For more
information or to order, visit
www.utpress.org/smokey.
Co-op increases Vol Network presence
Bob Kesling, the “Voice of the Vols,” sits high atop Shields-Watkins Field in the
Neyland Stadium pressbox. Along with his play-by-play duties, Kesling can be heard
on two 30-second Co-op commercials that will air during Vol Network broadcasts.
To many Tennesseans, fall
means two things: bringing in
the harvest and cheering on the
University of Tennessee football team. And while there’s
always a healthy representation
of Vol Nation inside Neyland
Stadium, hundreds of thousands of other fans are tuning
in to the “statewide stadium,”
the Vol Network, which is
heard on 70 affiliates across
Tennessee and online at
www.utsports.com.
Co-op has been a longtime
Vol Network sponsor, and this
season that support will be even
more evident throughout each
football broadcast. For starters,
Co-op will serve as the official
sponsor of game-time weather
conditions to be given by Bob
Kesling, the “Voice of the Vols.”
“I think that the University
of Tennessee and Co-op are two
of the strongest brands in the
state,” says Kesling, in his 13th
season as the Vols play-by-play
announcer. “For many years
now, the Co-op has had a strong
tradition of helping farmers and
homeowners, and we look forward to a continued partnership
with Co-op on the Vol Network.”
Given the importance of
weather to farmers, Keith
Harrison, Tennessee Farmers Cooperative marketing,
advertising, and promotions
coordinator, says the forecast
sponsorship is “a natural.”
“The weather is a key component of the strategies and
outcome of a football game,
just as it plays a key role in the
success of a farmer’s crops or a
homeowner’s lawn and garden,”
says Harrison. “Therefore, we
felt it made sense for Co-op to
sponsor the game-time weather
conditions on the Vol Network.”
During the in-game radio
broadcast, two 30-second Co-op
commercials will also air at various intervals. In addition, Co-op
is continuing its sponsorship of
Kesling’s weekday “Vol Notebook” radio report, a partnership
that began last year, and will advertise in the official UT football
and basketball yearbooks.
Glenn Thackston, Vol Network associate general manager,
says the Vol Network and Co-op
are “a perfect fit” for each other.
“Our footprint and Co-op’s
footprint match up with each
other,” he says. “If you look at
Co-op’s membership and the
University of Tennessee’s fan
base, there are so many commonalities. The university has
a rich agricultural background,
which ties in to the history of the
Co-op. These are two powerful
brands that play off of each other
and strengthen each other. It’s a
match made in heaven.”
September 2012
25
Deep in the central Utah mines of Redmond Inc., employees, from left, Blake Butler, Gene Price, Todd Nemelka, and Joe Anderson stand on ancient salt and mineral deposits that
are the source of their all-natural Trophy Rock deer supplement. Though salt has been mined here since 1958, the rocks have only been marketed to hunters since 2002.
Editor’s note: Portions of this story were excerpted from “Inside
Archery” magazine, June 2012, and reprinted with permission.
Photos, except bottom of page 27, were provided by Redmond Inc.
L
ong before recorded history,
volcanic activity encased an
ancient seabed and created
a unique natural salt and mineral
deposit in central Utah.
Today, those deposits are
the source of Trophy Rock allnatural mineral lick, one of the
most effective products available
to attract deer and supplement
their diets.
“This is a unique salt deposit
in that it actually comes to the
surface,” explains Rhett Roberts,
owner of Trophy Rock’s parent
company, Redmond Inc. “Usually, rain dissolves the salt and
pushes it down into the ground,
but our deposit was protected by
a layer of volcanic ash. Native
Americans who lived in this area
hundreds of years ago found
salt rocks in their dwellings, and
when the first pioneers
settled here, they
noticed
26
September 2012
animals going to this deposit and
using it as a salt mineral lick.”
In 1958, brothers Milo and
Lamar Bosshardt, who were
farming land over what would
become the Redmond mines,
began extracting the salt rock
with hand-picks and shovels
and marketing it to local livestock producers. In turn, those
farmers credited the naturally
balanced mineral for healthier
herds. The product’s reputation
— and the company — grew.
Along with livestock and horse
minerals, Redmond eventually
began selling other products,
including highway de-icers and
gourmet table salt, and now
mines about 600,000 tons of salt
a year for various markets.
But the company might not
have entered the wildlife industry if Tennessee native Joe
Anderson hadn’t been paying
close attention to the habits of
the mule deer he was hunting in
Colorado in 1995.
“I noticed the deer visiting
a slick-looking red rock, and I
wanted to see how the whitetails
I hunted back home in Williamson County would react
to it,” says Anderson. “So I
Redmond employees, from left, Kelley Janson, Boyd Jewkes, Jeremy Williams, and
Shawn Christensten sort Trophy Rock mineral blocks as they come out of the mine.
‘borrowed’ some of the rocks and
discovered that the deer went
crazy for them. I tracked down
the source and started talking
with Redmond about marketing
it to deer hunters.”
After years of testing and
experimenting, Redmond officially launched Trophy Rock
in 2002. Anderson, who has
since moved to Cadiz, Ky., now
handles Trophy Rock’s marketing
and distribution for Southeast
companies, including Tennessee Farmers Cooperative, which
he credits with helping put the
product “on the map.”
“Trophy Rock was a natural fit
for our company,” says Roberts.
“The reason we’ve been success-
ful in the agriculture industry
is because of how well the salt
works in increasing animal
health, so it’s logical that it
would have those same benefits
for deer and other wildlife.”
Each 20-pound “chunk” of
Trophy Rock (#714323 at your
local Co-op) comes from the
natural salt-mineral deposits
some 300 feet deep in Redmond’s mines near Heber City,
Utah. Geologists estimate that
the deposit is more than 5,000
feet deep, says Roberts.
“The deposit is in a dome
formation that pushed up like a
mushroom from pressures under
the earth’s surface many years
ago,” he says. “So it’s basically
one big block of Trophy Rock
that we go in and mine. All we
do after that is get it to the size
we want and distribute it to the
store or customers.”
Chance Martin, the TFC
product specialist who handles
Trophy Rock, says Co-op has carried the product since “Day 1,”
and it’s been one of the system’s
best-selling hunting products
ever since. What makes Trophy
Rock so special is that it remains
in its all-natural state, similar to
the salt licks that deer seek out
in the wild to get the nutrients
they need for growth and development. Trophy Rock is loaded
with more than 65 trace minerals, including sodium, calcium,
potassium, sulfur, magnesium,
iron, phosphorus, manganese,
copper, and zinc, which are essential for animals to reach their
potential, explains Roberts.
“Animals know what their
bodies need, and that may be
why deer come to Trophy Rock
so well,” he says. “They’re looking for those minerals. And Trophy Rock is different from other
mineral supplements because
it is like seawater, which also
closely approximates the mineral
makeup of an animal’s blood.”
Trophy Rock also blends in
with the environment and lasts
several times longer than manmade supplements because of its
dense, all-natural form. Hunters
report that one rock is good for
up to three months of moderate
animal traffic. A new “loose”
version of the mineral, Trophy
Rock 465, will also be available
in early 2013. The name reflects
its use in all four seasons and the
65 minerals it contains.
While, on the surface, Trophy
Rock is a benefit to wildlife,
Roberts says the supplement has
advantages for hunters as well.
“For us, the primary driver is
the experience of hunting with
family and friends,” says Roberts. “I grew up hunting, and I
now take my son out just like my
father took me out. We like having a product that can promote
the heritage of hunting.”
Trophy Rock and other
wildlife and hunting supplies are
available at your local Co-op.
For more information, talk with
your Co-op experts or visit online at www.trophyrock.com.
Though the natural state of Trophy Rock helps it last longer than man-made deer
supplements, exposure to rain, snow, or standing water shortens the rock’s life span.
Placing it on an elevated spot — like an old stump — where water won’t pool will help
extend its use. Check rocks every three to four months for replacement.
Daryl Alexander of Trophy Rock staffs the
company’s booth at the Co-op Buyers’
Show in July. Customers can find Trophy
Rock in similar displays at their Co-ops.
September 2012
27
Story and photos by Mark E. Johnson
Morrison beef cattle producer Pat Hutton inspects a Bermudagrass pasture that she
uses for rotational grazing. Pat, Warren County Farmers Cooperative’s newest and
first-ever female director, raises Angus with her husband, David, retired director of
student financial aid at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.
From left, David, Pat, and Warren Farmers Cooperative manager Don Robbins inspect a
few members of the Huttons’ 26-head herd. The couple feeds Co-op 14% Professional
Beef Developer with Rumensin (#94176).
J
ewelry? A turtleneck sweater? A day-spa gift certificate?
Not a chance.
Ask Morrison beef cattle
producer Pat Hutton what her
favorite Christmas gift from
husband David has been lately,
and you may be surprised by her
answer: a calf-puller.
Morrison
l
“I was so excited!” exclaims
Pat without a trace of sarcasm.
“Earlier in the year, we were
watching our local vet — Dr.
[Jerry] Hackett — use one to
deliver a problem calf, and
David said, ‘You need one of
those gadgets!’ I figured it was
too expensive, but David bought
one, gift-wrapped it, and told
me it was something for our
28
September 2012
son, Jonathan. I was suspicious,
though, because I recognized
the shape. I’d been studying
them for quite a while.”
For those who know Pat well,
it’s only natural that she would
point to a calf-puller as a favorite gift. The longtime maternity
ward nurse, mother of two, and
first-ever female director of
Warren Farmers Cooperative is
a farming “junkie.” Since she
was a little girl, Pat has had a
passion for agriculture, especially anything involving animals,
says her father, Bill Turner.
“I don’t know why the
young’un had to have so many
animals,” says Bill with a shake
of his head. “The cat had to be
having kittens, the dog had to
be having puppies, and the cows
had to be having calves. We only
had six acres, and we started
running out of room.”
Pat says she even learned
about the enterprise of agriculture as a young girl.
“One of my aunt’s brothers was a dairyman, and one
year he asked me if I would
raise bottle calves for him,” she
recalls. “He would give me one
out of every four. At one time,
I had 20 bottle calves I was
feeding out of one little barn.
He also paid me to go clean
his milk barn in the summer
before inspection. I wouldn’t do
it now, but I also wouldn’t trade
that experience for anything.”
By the time she graduated
from high school, Pat was determined to follow her dream of
working in animal agriculture.
She just wasn’t sure how or
where. Since her parents didn’t
own a farm with enough land for
cattle, Pat knew that she would
have to make money elsewhere
to buy property of her own, so
she rechanneled her passion for
baby animals into a talent for
caring for baby humans.
“I went to Middle Tennessee
State University [in Murfreesboro] and earned a degree in
nursing,” say Pat. “I started
working in labor and delivery
and loved it — still do.”
During her college years, Pat
met David, an accounting ma-
jor, and the two married. Following a variety of job opportunities, the couple moved from
Murfreesboro to Chattanooga
then Clarksville over a 10-year
period, always with the notion
they’d someday settle back into
the Morrison area of Warren
County. The opportunity arose
in 1989 when 40 acres of land
owned by Pat’s great-grandmother became available.
“I was originally interested in
just purchasing a lot to build a
home on, but the family suggested that we buy the whole thing,”
she says. “The farm required a
lot of work to get it in shape, but
we decided to go for it.”
The couple then began commuting to jobs in Nashville and
Murfreesboro while preparing
the property for a beef herd.
“I think people probably
thought we were crazy,” laughs
Pat. “I remember that our
daughter, Amy, was in middle
school in McMinnville and one
of the teachers asked her, ‘Why
do your parents live here and
commute up there?’ Amy said,
‘Oh, it’s the farm.’”
Indeed, the farm became
the couple’s focus for several
years, says Pat.
“We started out by cutting
timber and clearing with a
bulldozer,” she says. “Uncle Ike
[Turner] came out and helped us
disk it, followed by Co-op sowing
and fertilizing the pastures. By
the next year, the grass was coming up and we’d cut 200 cedar
posts off this farm and added
some 95 steel posts. Neil Miller,
who had been my seventh- and
eighth-grade science teacher,
advised me to buy Angus cattle
because they’re easy-calving and
would do fine with us being gone
a lot of the time. He helped us
purchase our first five heifers in
1992.”
During those earlier years,
Pat was a “sponge,” soaking up
farming information and skills
from any and every knowledgeable source, reports Ike, who
farmed nearby.
“She would come and help
me haul hay,” he says. “Now,
you have to have a mower, a
rake, a baler, and a tractor, and
she learned how to operate
all of these things. Pat’s a fast
learner. Then she acquired her
own equipment a little at a time
and would call me to come help
her hook something up until she
got the hang of it. Next thing
you know, she’s got a new tractor with air conditioner, radio,
and all, and she doesn’t need
me for anything!”
Indeed, the Hutton farm
grew and improved steadily over
the next two decades as Pat and
David became more skillful and
confident. Within seven years,
the couple had added 58 adjoining acres. Through exhaustive
genetics study and carefully
made purchases, Pat increased
the herd to some 26 head while
becoming a mainstay at area
beef meetings and Tennessee
Livestock Producer and Warren County Livestock Feeder
Calf sales. Utilizing Natural
Resources Conservation Service
programs to install an extensive
watering system for rotational
grazing, the Huttons also built
a hay barn and purchased a
Powder River cattle-working
system and a maternity pen
from Warren Farmers Cooperative using cost-share funds
from the Tennessee Agricultural
Enhancement Program.
And Pat still commutes to
her job at Stone Crest Medical
Center in Smyrna.
“After 22 years, [hospital
administrators] have learned to
‘go with the flow’ with me,” she
LEFT: Pat and David, married 32 years, have a daughter, Amy, a student at MTSU, and a son, Jonathan, a sports radio personality
on Nashville’s 104.5 “The Zone.” The 1952 Farmall tractor behind the couple was restored by Pat’s father, Bill Turner, and uncle,
Ike Turner. RIGHT: The Huttons discuss their new solar panel “farm” with Ike, Pat’s farming “mentor.” The solar panels, which
were installed last fall and became operational in January, generate income for the Huttons as well as electricity.
says with a smile. “They know,
for instance, that if it’s hay
time, I may need extra hours
off. I also supplement their
diets with freezer beef. I guess
it all makes for good conversation. One doctor couldn’t remember my name when he first
started there, so he referred to
me as ‘The Cow Woman.’”
With each passing year, Pat
and David have looked for new
ways to increase efficiencies
to make their operation more
profitable. The farm took on
a new look in January when
they installed a system of 144
solar panels on the property to
generate electricity.
“The electricity runs out of
the photocells into a converter
that turns it into alternating
current,” David explains. “After
that, I could run it directly
into our house if I wanted, but
instead I chose to participate in
a [Tennessee Valley Authority]
program in which the electricity goes directly into the TVA
power grid. Every month, we
get paid for all the electricity we produce except for the
amount we use on our property.
We’ve been very pleased. It
should pay for itself in roughly
five to six years.”
The solar farm is not the only
thing that’s created sparks for
the Huttons over the past year.
Last fall, Pat’s name was put on
a “short list” of possibilities to
fill a vacancy on Warren Farmers Co-op’s board of directors.
Manager Don Robbins says the
decision to nominate the cattle
producer was “fairly easy.”
“Nobody could see any reason why a lady shouldn’t be on
the board,” he says. “Pat is at
every cattle producers’ meeting you can think of, she does
everything right on her farm,
and she has a wonderful Angus
herd. She uses rotational grazing, takes advantage of Ag Enhancement, and is entrenched
in agriculture in this county. I
think it was a ‘slam dunk’ for
the nominating committee, and
we’re thrilled to have her on
the board.”
Pat says she’s learned “a
great deal” in her first year as a
Co-op director.
“It’s interesting to see things
from this perspective,” she says.
“I’ve learned that Co-op helps
out a lot of people and is really
there as a service to help farmers get the things they need at
the lowest possible price. And
I’ve really enjoyed listening
to the other board members,
who I refer to as ‘real’ farmers
because that’s how they make
a living. It’s eye-opening to see
some of the challenges that
other types of farmers have. I
really admire these folks.
“Farming is tough,” she
adds. “It takes careful management, insight, and a whole lot
of God’s help.”
September 2012
29
Show rings come alive as Expo arrives
4-H, FFA members train, show prize beef animals, sheep in quest of placings, ribbons
Houston Hebert, Williamson;
Cheyenne Taylor, Williamson; Wesley Goodman, Williamson; Colin Howd, Henry;
Zack Plowman, Henry; Corbin
Hughes, Williamson; Brittany
Yates, Williamson; Addison
Wilson, Cumberland; Miranda
Graham, Rhea.
First-place Market Show
Premier Exhibitor — Kaley
Lee, Franklin, Senior Level II;
Whitney Morrow, Polk, Senior
Level I; Tyler Haley, Williamson, Junior High; Ally Morrow,
Polk, Junior; and Eli Dotson,
Lincoln, Explorer.
Morgan Lehnert of Lawrence County, right, was named the grand champion winner of the Market Steer Show at the Tennessee
Junior Livestock Exposition beef events held July 9-12 in Murfreesboro. Her 1,305-pound entry was tops in Division III before
earning the overall prize. Celebrating Morgan’s win are, from left, her mother, Misty, father, Justin, and brother, Cole.
By Jerry Kirk and Claire Sellers
Photos by Claire Sellers and
Chris Villines
S
tout steers, haughty
heifers, and showy sheep
brought idle show rings
to life in Murfreesboro and
Cookeville in July as 4-H and
FFA members and their prize
animals competed for top
awards in the 2012 Tennessee
Junior Livestock Exposition.
The 41st edition of Expo
— one of the largest and most
prestigious events of its kind
in the nation — attracted
1,172 head of fine Tennessee livestock. And on hand to
put them through their show
ring paces were the 564 young
exhibitors who had raised,
trained, and no doubt pampered the animals back home.
The exhibitors came from 61
of Tennessee’s 95 counties.
Expo beef events were held
July 9-12 at the Tennessee
Livestock Center in Murfreesboro, and sheep competition
followed a week later — July
16-19 — at Hyder-Burks Arena
in Cookeville.
The 2012 Market Steer
30
September 2012
Show — always an Expo highlight — attracted 61 entries
that were raised and shown
by 58 4-H and FFA members
from 19 Tennessee counties.
Lawrence Countian Morgan
Lehnert’s 1,305-pound steer
captured the show’s coveted
championship ribbon. Selling
for $3.06 a pound at an auction that followed the show,
the prize steer earned a $4,000
paycheck for Morgan.
“I worked so hard for this
day,” said Morgan, an eighthgrader at Ethridge Middle
School. “My parents asked me
if I wanted to play basketball
or softball, but I wanted this to
be my sport. I spent time every
day rinsing my steer, feeding
him, and working with him. I
practically lived with him!”
Colin Howd of Henry
County took reserve champion
honors with his 1,250-pound
entry for which Howd Construction paid $1.76 a pound
— or $2,000 — at the auction.
The steers of both Morgan
and Colin captured grand and
reserve champion titles in the
Division III contest before vying
for the overall championship.
Winners in the other three
divisions were:
Division I — Zack Plowman,
Henry County, champion; Ally
Morrow, Polk County, reserve.
Division II — Grant Saum,
McNairy County, champion
and reserve.
Division IV — Caitlin Greer,
Claiborne County, champion;
Mary Pitts, Houston County,
reserve.
Emerging as first-place
winners in the highly regarded
showmanship competition were
Blythe Graham, Cumberland,
Senior Level II (11th and 12th
grades); Blake Bowman, Williamson, Senior Level I (ninth
and 10th grades); Morgan
Lehnert, Lawrence, Junior High
(seventh and eighth grades);
Wyatt Haley, Williamson, Junior
(fifth and sixth grades); Eli Dotson, Explorer (fourth grade).
Other Market Steer Show
awards, listed in order of finish,
were:
County group of five — Henry, Williamson, and Houston.
Outstanding county exhibit
— Williamson.
Top 10 carcass awards —
Alexander Coleman, Houston;
Registered Beef Heifer Show
A total of 103 exhibitors
from 49 counties showed 299
registered heifers in this popular event, which featured 12
breed classes. Winners were:
Angus — Mackenzie Bracewell, Williamson, champion;
Deanna Schoolfield, Henry, reserve; Joshua Rollins, Bedford,
champion bred-by-exhibitor.
Charolais — Jacob Wade,
Bedford, champion; Haley
Brazel, Sumner, reserve; James
Baird, Wilson, champion bredby-exhibitor.
Chi-influenced — Blythe
Graham, Cumberland, champion and reserve bred-by-exhibitor; Chole Dillard, Cannon, reserve; Morgan Lehnert,
Lawrence, champion bred-byexhibitor.
Hereford — Libby Rushton,
Humphreys, champion; Michelle Smith, Trousdale, reserve,
champion bred-by-exhibitor, and
reserve bred-by-exhibitor.
Limousin — Paul Steelman,
Cannon, champion; Ashlynn
Light, Hawkins, reserve and
champion bred-by-exhibitor;
Taylor Green, Cumberland,
reserve bred-by-exhibitor.
Other Breeds — Elizabeth
Dodson, White, champion; Jaxon Veach, Williamson, reserve;
Kendall Vanwinkle, Blount,
champion bred-by-exhibitor.
Polled Hereford — John
Woolfolk, Madison, champion;
Kendell Garrell, Marshall, reserve; Claire Garrell, Morgan,
champion bred-by-exhibitor;
Jordan Hopkins, Franklin,
reserve bred-by-exhibitor.
Salers — Haley Harris, Wilson, champion, reserve, champion bred-by-exhibitor, and
reserve bred-by-exhibitor.
Appendix Shorthorn — Hallie Dillard, Smith, champion,
reserve, champion bred-byexhibitor, and reserve bred-byexhibitor.
Shorthorn — Samantha
Roberts, McMinn, champion; Melinda Perkins, Henry,
reserve; Janna Owen, Lincoln,
champion bred-by-exhibitor;
Aaron Lay, Monroe, reserve
bred-by-exhibitor.
Simmental — Tyler Haley,
Williamson, champion and
reserve bred-by-exhibitor; Kayla
Jackson, Wilson, reserve and
champion bred-by-exhibitor.
Percentage Simmental —
Addison Wilson, Cumberland,
champion; Wyatt Hayley, Williamson, reserve; Ally Hargrave,
Lincoln, champion bred-byexhibitor (no reserve bred-byexhibitor).
Kelly Jarrell Memorial Award
(county group of five heifers),
listed in order of finish — Williamson, Marshall, Franklin,
Lincoln, Henry, Sumner, Rutherford, Polk.
First-place winners, showmanship — Blythe Graham,
Cumberland, Senior Level II;
Samantha Reese, Marshall,
Senior Level I; Kristen Brown,
White, Junior High; Hallie
Dillard, Smith, Junior; Deanna
Schoolfield, Henry, Explorer.
First-place winners, Heifer
Premier Exhibitor — Rosa
Haynes, Polk, Senior Level II;
Market Steer Show exhibitors await judge Ryan Rathmann’s critiques as another class of entrants waits outside the show ring.
(See Expo, page 32)
Hannah Bowling of Morgan County
smiles as she leads her 972-pound steer
into the show ring in Class 1 of the
Market Steer Show.
September 2012
31
Expo
(continued from page 31)
Emily Ivey, Loudon, Senior
Level I; LeAnna Turner, Wilson, Junior High; Kendall Garrell, Marshall, Junior; Janna
Owen, Lincoln, Explorer.
First-place winners, Beef
Skillathon — Rosa Haynes,
Polk, Senior Level II; Whitney
Morrow, Polk, Senior Level I;
Abigayle Pollock, Lincoln, Junior High; Aaron Lay, Monroe,
Junior; Janna Owen, Lincoln,
Explorer.
Commercial Heifer Show
In a separate Commercial
Heifer Show, which attracted
103 entries from 26 counties,
top awards were captured by
Taylor Green, Cumberland,
champion; Colin Howd, Henry,
reserve; Morgan Lehnert, Lawrence, champion farm-bred;
and Allison Higgins, Cannon,
reserve farm-bred.
Taking first-place honors in
the showmanship competition
were Allison Higgins, Cannon,
Senior Level II; Samantha
Reese, Marshall, Senior Level
I; Morgan Lehnert, Lawrence,
Junior High; Wyatt Haley, Williamson, Junior.
On to Cookeville
As is the case with each
Expo, dozens of eager 4-H’ers
and FFA members, along with
their show-ready sheep, headed
to Cookeville in hopes of capturing top placings in a wide
array of competitive events.
Take a look at these numbers as an indication of just
how popular sheep-raising is
among the state’s younger set:
The Cookeville competition
featured 709 sheep entered
and shown by 239 exhibitors
from 41 Tennessee counties.
And a look at the number of
quality entries in a single event
— the Market Lamb Show —
validates that these enterprising exhibitors are dedicated to
raising and showing championship sheep. This year, in the
market lamb event alone, 118
exhibitors from 34 counties
showed 256 animals.
When the show ring dust
had settled and the judge
had made his decision in that
heated competition, an entry of
32
September 2012
Karley Warner from adjoining
White County captured the
grand championship ribbon
while Haley Brazel of Sumner
County earned reserve champion honors.
After the show, happy Haley
expressed pure pleasure that
her Co-op-fed entry had finished as reserve champion: “I
feel really proud of my sheep.
He did his best, and that’s all I
can ask for.”
Besides garnering the
show’s top honors, Karley’s and
Haley’s prize sheep also captured champion and reserve
ribbons, respectively, in the
competition for Tennesseebred market lambs.
Several area businesses —
including White County Farmers Cooperative — and individuals paid $2,600 for Karley’s
137-pound grand champion
lamb. Another group of bidders bought Haley’s 141-pound
reserve champion for $600.
Here are the Market Lamb
Show winners, listed with their
home counties:
Crossbred black-face —
Karley Warner, White, grand
champion and champion
Tennessee-bred; Paul Thompson, Cumberland, reserve
grand champion and reserve
Tennessee-bred.
Crossbred white-face —
Samantha Reese, Marshall,
champion and champion
Tennessee-bred; Ashley Tuttle,
Sumner, reserve; Haley Webb,
Hawkins, reserve Tennesseebred.
Hampshire — Haley Brazel,
Sumner, champion and champion Tennessee-bred; Karley
Warner, White, reserve champion and reserve Tennessee-bred.
Other breeds — Cassie McConkey, Loudon, champion
and champion Tennessee-bred;
Cora Key, Clay, reserve and
reserve Tennessee-bred.
Shropshire — Taylor Cox,
Macon, champion and champion Tennessee-bred; Jade Ellis, Macon, reserve and reserve
champion Tennessee-bred.
Suffolk — Craig Wininger,
Hawkins, champion; Karley
Warner, White, reserve and
champion Tennessee-bred; Jade
Ellis, Macon, reserve Tennessee-bred.
Showmanship — Grant
Saum, McNairy, Senior Level
II; Cassie McConkey, Loudon,
Senior Level I; Madison Moats,
Loudon, Junior High; Murray
Perkins, Henry, Junior; Kenna
Lambert, Campbell, Explorer.
Skillathon — Rachel Wolters, Maury, Senior Level II;
Gage Goddard, Loudon, Senior
Level I; Madison Moats,
Loudon, Junior High; Garrett
Franklin, Clay, Junior; Summer
Beeler, Union, Explorer.
Premier Exhibitor — Jared
Bruhin, Sevier, Senior Level
II; Cassie McConkey, Loudon,
Senior Level I; Luci Allen, Macon, Junior High; Jacey Monicer, Hawkins, Junior; Kayla
Lambert, Campbell, Explorer.
Breeding Ewe Show
Seventy-seven exhibitors
from 22 counties showed 280
registered sheep in the 2012
Breeding Ewe Show. Here are
the winners:
Cheviot — Rachel Wolters,
Maury, champion, champion
flock; Justin Cross, Knox, reserve, champion-bred-by-exhibitor, reserve bred-by-exhibitor.
Dorset — Emily Ellison,
Cocke, champion, champion
bred-by-exhibitor, champion
flock; Haley Webb, Hawkins,
reserve; Dylan Belcher, Trousdale, reserve bred-by-exhibitor.
Hampshire — Madison
Moats, Loudon, champion;
Gage Goddard, Loudon, reserve, champion flock; Hannah
Cross, Knox, champion and
reserve bred-by-exhibitor.
Jacob — Gage Willis, Overton, champion and reserve.
Katahdin — Mary Evelyn
Peckenpaugh, Dyer, champion,
reserve, champion and reserve
bred-by-exhibitor, champion
flock.
Montadale — Jared Bruhin,
Sevier, champion, reserve,
LEFT: Karley Warner of White County took home the coveted prize as supreme grand champion of the Market Lamb Show at the
competitive Tennessee Junior Livestock Exposition sheep events. TOP RIGHT: Marshall County’s Trenton Warren grooms his
7-month-old commercial shorthorn heifer prior to the Commercial Heifer Show. BOTTOM RIGHT: Kenna Lambert of Campbell
County, left, grooms her crossbred black-face lamb with help from Expo volunteer Keith Odom before the Market Lamb Show.
champion and reserve bred-byexhibitor, champion flock.
Natural color — Morgan
Cox, Loudon, champion,
reserve, champion and reserve
bred-by-exhibitor, champion
flock.
Oxford — Nathan Long,
Loudon, champion, reserve,
champion bred-by-exhibitor,
champion flock; Brittany
Gardner, Washington, reserve
bred-by-exhibitor.
Other breeds, wool —
Maryanna McClure, Dyer,
champion, reserve, champion
and reserve bred-by-exhibitor,
champion flock.
Other breeds, mutton — Dillon Jones, Warren, champion,
reserve, champion and reserve
bred-by-exhibitor, champion
flock.
Polypay — Ladonna Tanner,
Wilson, champion, reserve,
champion and reserve bred-byexhibitor.
Shropshire — Jared Bruhin,
Sevier, champion, reserve,
champion and reserve bred-byexhibitor, champion flock.
Southdown — Kristen Walker, Blount, champion; Cassie
McConkey, Loudon, reserve,
champion and reserve bred-byexhibitor, champion flock.
Suffolk — Trenton Melhorn,
Morgan, champion, reserve,
champion and reserve bred-byexhibitor, champion flock.
Tunis — Shannon Palko,
Knox, champion, reserve,
champion and reserve bred-byexhibitor, champion flock.
Showmanship — Tori Bryant, Lawrence, Senior Level II;
Martin Dickey, Union, Senior
Level I; Justin Cross, Knox,
Junior High; Abby Tipton,
Loudon, Junior, Larkin Moats,
Loudon, Explorer.
Premier Exhibitors — Rachel Wolters, Maury, Senior
Level II; Savannah Knight, Macon, Senior Level I; Madison
Moats, Loudon, Junior High;
Cooper Belcher, Trousdale,
Junior; Larkin Moats, Loudon,
Explorer.
Supreme champion bredby-exhibitor — Jared Bruhin,
Sevier; reserve, Cassie McConkey, Loudon.
Robert Powell Memorial
Award for supreme champion
flock — Cassie McConkey,
Loudon.
Market Lamb Show exhibitors from across the state line up their lambs for the judge’s critical eye in the show ring of HyderBurks Arena in Cookeville during the 2012 Tennessee Livestock Exposition sheep events, which were held July 16-19.
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(See Expo, page 34)
TFC-9.8125x13.75 CH Ad 0612.indd 1
6/4/12 10:36 AM
September 2012
33
Expo
(continued from page 33)
County group of five, listed
in order of finish — Williamson, Loudon (second and
third), Union, Knox.
Commercial Ewe Show
John Edwards of Campbell
County continued his Expo
winning ways by capturing the
grand championship of this
year’s Commercial Ewe Show,
which attracted 173 entries
from 29 counties. Reserve
champion honors went to Karley Warner of White County.
John also had the grand
and reserve champions among
farm-bred commercial ewes ,
and Karley added to her haul of
Expo ribbons and awards by taking reserve champion honors.
Here are the other Commercial Ewe Show winners:
White-face, Lamb Division — Karley Warner,
White, champion; Ben Davis,
Hawkins, reserve; Haley Webb,
Hawkins, champion farm-bred;
Emily Ellison, Loudon, reserve
farm-bred.
34
September 2012
LEFT: Garrett Franklin of Clay County shows off his Hampshire lamb before the Market Lamb Show in Cookeville. RIGHT: Beef
Expo exhibitors participate in the annual Beef Skillathon. In the foreground, University of Tennessee animal science professor
Dr. Dwight Loveday, right, assists Elaine Gerrard of Rutherford County in a Skillathon exercise.
White-face, Yearling Division
— Lucas Mendel, Williamson,
champion; Morgan Cox, reserve and farm-bred champion;
Xiaodi Whitfield, Sullivan,
reserve farm-bred.
Champions — Karley Warner, White, grand; Ben Davis,
Hawkins, reserve; Haley Webb,
champion farm-bred; Morgan
Cox, Loudon, reserve farm-bred.
Black-face, Lamb Division
— John Edwards, Campbell,
champion, champion and reserve farm-bred; Karley Warner,
White, reserve.
Black-face, Yearling Division
— John Edwards, Campbell,
champion and champion farmbred; Cooper Belcher, Trousdale, reserve; Lucas Mendel,
Williamson, reserve farm-bred.
County group of five —
Campbell County, first; Loudon
County, second; and Trousdale
County, third.
Premier Exhibitor — John
Edwards, Campbell, Senior
Level II; Gage Goddard, Loudon, Senior Level I; Nathan
Long, Loudon, Junior High;
Garrett Franklin, Clay, Junior;
Kenna Lambert, Campbell,
Explorer.
Showmanship — Jared
Bruhin, Sevier, Senior Level
II; Cassie McConkey, Loudon,
Senior Level I; Taylor Cox,
Macon, Junior High; Garrett
Franklin, Clay, Junior; Kenna
Lambert, Campbell, Explorer.
Overall Skillathon — Rachel
Wolters, Maury, Senior Level
II; Gage Goddard, Loudon,
Senior Level I; Madison Moats,
Loudon, Junior High; Garrett
Franklin, Clay, Junior; Summer
Beeler, Union, Explorer.
Now there are 12
Latest edition in Co-op’s commemorative
4-H/FFA knife collection available this fall
With the arrival this fall of
a handsome and handy Texas
Jack two-blade model, Co-op
has offered an even dozen highquality Case knives to customers
who collect the commemorative
cutlery as a way to help fund 4-H
and FFA programs in Tennessee.
The 2012 knife is the 12th in
a program that since 2001 has
raised some $225,000 — including $25,000 last year — in
which the state 4-H and FFA
foundations share equally to
help finance their respective
youth programs.
Nickie Vincent, manager of
TFC’s Home, Lawn, Specialty
(HLS) Department, says the
goal is to raise that much again.
“We’re confident that
we’ll reach our goal
this year,” Vincent
says. “Co-op customers
who have participated in
the knife program always look
forward to the time when a new
knife is released.”
Sponsored by Tennessee
Farmers Cooperative in
cooperation with the iconic W.R.
Case and Sons Cutlery Co. of
Bradford, Pa., this year’s knife is
a perfect complement to those
previously issued in the Co-op
program.
Retailing for $49.99, the new
knife has Tru-Sharp surgical
steel blades and peach-seed
jigged Kentucky Bluegrass
handles. The distinctive FFA
and 4-H logos are deeply
engraved on the nickel silver
bolsters and the historic Case
“Bomb Shield.” The logos are
also engraved on the knife’s pen
blade and the banner “Support
4-H and FFA 2012” on the clip
blade. The knife is packaged
in an exclusive, full-color box
designed by TFC.
As an added attraction in
2012, Vincent says Co-op will
soon offer a custom showcase
capable of displaying all of the
4-H/FFA knives as a single collection.
Chance Martin, HLS product
manager who handles the Case
line for the Co-op system, says
he has enjoyed working with this
special knife program.
“It’s great to be involved with
the 4-H/FFA knife project,” he
says. “Co-op has always placed
a high priority on its pledge to
support and bolster youth ag
organizations, and this program
has really come through. We
are proud that this partnership
is still so strong after more than
a decade of working together for
such a worthy cause.”
Because the program is so
popular with collectors and others, both Vincent and Martin
urge interested customers to preorder their 2012 knives through
their local Co-ops or look for
them in their stores.
“TFC has only commissioned
Case to produce a controlled
number of the knives, and historically they sell out quickly,”
Martin says. “Once those are
gone, no more will be available.”
September 2012
35
36
September 2012
Fundraiser plows ahead at
Oct. 13 Spring Hill event
Visitors to the annual Antique Tractor Show & Plowing event on Saturday, Oct. 13,
will be able to witness vintage farm equipment like this at work on the grounds of
the Museum of Early Farm Life in Spring Hill.
“Bring your own plow” is a
standing invitation for anyone
planning to attend the Ninth
Annual Antique Tractor Show &
Plowing on Saturday, Oct. 13,
near Spring Hill.
Plenty of plowing will be
done that day at the Tennessee
Museum of Early Farm Life,
says organizer Joe Roberson,
and proceeds will go to the
unique attraction.
“This is now the favorite
show of many antique tractor
owners, and fun is had by all,”
says Roberson. “The show has
averaged more than 100 tractors
the last four years.”
Admission is $5 per person,
and gates open at 8 a.m. Children 12 and under are free with
a paying adult.
While adults enjoy tractorplowing activities staged by
Tom King of Murfreesboro and
browse among the dozens of
tractors on display, children can
take advantage of free wagon
rides throughout the day.
“This is the only fundraiser
for the museum,” Roberson
says. “Our facility is a nonprofit
organization served entirely by
volunteers dedicated to preserving early farm equipment and
educating the public about how
life used to be on the farm.”
The museum is located on
U.S. Highway 31, behind Rippavilla Plantation. For more
information, contact Joe Roberson at 931-381-3686.
Farmland Legacy
event set for Nov. 1
The 2012 Tennessee Farmland Legacy Conference “Planning Today for Tomorrow’s
Farms” will be held Thursday,
Nov. 1, at Montgomery Bell
State Park in Burns.
Hosted by the Tennessee
Farmland Legacy Partnership,
the conference will provide
information, resources, and
networking opportunities for
Tennessee landowners, farmers, community planners, and
officials. General and breakout
sessions and panel discussions
are planned on a variety of topics, including leasing and rental
of farmland, conservation easements and programs, timber
management, estate planning,
small acreage production, and
many community and planning
topics.
The following day, participants can attend an optional
tour of area Century Farms.
For more information and to
register, visit www.farmland
legacy.org, or call the University of Tennessee Conference
Services at 865-974-0280.
September 2012
37
What’s Cookin’?
Rice Age
Creative cooks share variety of
recipes that go with the grain
E
very day, more than 3 billion people eat
rice. It’s one of the most widely consumed
foods in the world and a staple in the diet
of many cultures. Extremely versatile, rice can
be as plain or as fancy as you want it to be, as
this month’s selection of recipes shows.
September is National Rice Month, which coincides with harvest and celebrates the U.S. rice industry. Eighty-five percent of
rice consumed in the U.S. is grown here, mostly in Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas — although a
few fields can be found at the western edge of Co-op country.
In a variety of forms, rice is a low-cost, wholesome accompaniment to a meal or a key ingredient in a main dish. Deborah Huston of Cottage Grove creatively uses rice in a pizza crust heaped
with a hearty helping of toppings. Her “Rice Pizza” recipe has
earned Deborah our Cook-of-the-Month for September.
Other recipes featured are Homemade Creamy Chicken and
Rice Soup, Alfredo Rice Casserole, Rice Heavenly Hash, Low
Country Red Rice, Grandma’s Apples and Rice, Wild Rice Salad
with Dried Cherries, and Rice and Sausage Casserole.
Enjoy!
Can you spot the rice in this dish? It’s forming the foundation for a colorful combo
of toppings — ground beef, sausage, mushrooms, onions, peppers, pepperoni, and
cheese. This “Rice Pizza” recipe earns Deborah Huston our Cook-of-the-Month
honors for September.
— Photo by Mark E. Johnson, food styling by Allison Morgan
Clip, save, and serve
Rice Pizza
September 2012 winning recipe
What you will need:
Directions:
• 3 cups cooked white rice
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 cup sour cream
•11⁄2 pounds ground beef
• 1 pound sausage
• Toppings of your choice, such as mushrooms, chopped onions and green peppers, diced ham, bacon bits, pepperoni
• 1 quart pizza sauce
• 2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
Combine rice,
cream cheese, and
sour cream; spread
into 9-x-13-x-2-inch
pan. Fry ground beef
over medium heat for
12 to 15 minutes, until
well browned. Spread
over rice mixture.
Brown sausage; layer
over beef. Top with
your favorite pizza toppings, then pour pizza sauce over all. Bake
at 350º for 45 minutes. Top with cheese.
Bake for additional 10 minutes.
Deborah Huston, Cottage Grove, Henry Farmers Cooperative
38
September 2012
Homemade Creamy
Chicken and Rice
Soup
1 whole uncooked roaster
chicken
8 cups water
3 stalks celery
2 whole turnips
2 tablespoons butter
4 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup rice
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1
⁄2 teaspoon salt
Additional salt and cracked
pepper to taste
Wash the chicken in cold water
and place in a large pot. Add
water, celery, and turnips; bring to
a boil. Cover slightly, reduce heat
to medium, and allow it to boil for
30-40 minutes (depending on the
size of the chicken).
Once the chicken is fully
cooked, drain the stock into another pot through a fine strainer.
Reserve the chicken and discard
the celery and turnips.
Using the same pot the
chicken was boiled in, melt butter on medium heat and add the
carrots and onion. Sauté for 3-5
minutes; add flour and coat the
vegetables while gently stirring.
Add the strained chicken stock,
rice, bouillon cubes, and salt; boil
for 15-20 minutes or until the
rice is fully cooked.
While the soup is boiling, remove the meat from the chicken
bones and add to the pot. Season to taste with more salt and
cracked pepper.
Rebecca Radosavlevici
College Grove
Rutherford Farmers Cooperative
T
Alfredo Rice
Casserole
11⁄3 cups refrigerated alfredo
sauce
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup cooked wild rice
1 cup marinated quartered
artichoke hearts, chopped
8 bacon strips, cooked and
crumbled
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1
⁄4 cup grated Parmesan
cheese
1
⁄4 cup chopped sun-dried
tomatoes (not packed in
oil)
1
⁄4 cup chicken broth
1 garlic clove, minced
1
⁄2 teaspoon pepper
In a large bowl, combine all
ingredients. Transfer to a greased
8-inch square baking dish. Bake,
uncovered, at 350º for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly.
Yield: Five servings.
Theresa Patterson
Taft
Lincoln Farmers Cooperative
T
Rice Heavenly Hash
2 cups cooked white rice
11⁄2 cups milk
1
⁄4 cup sugar
1 (3-ounce) package cream
cheese
1 cup canned pineapple
tidbits, drained
1 large navel orange, peeled,
diced
1
⁄4 cup chopped maraschino
cherries
1 cup miniature marshmallows
⁄2 cup flaked coconut
⁄4 cup slivered almonds
1 envelope whipped topping
mix, prepared, or 1⁄2 pint
whipping cream, whipped
Addtional maraschino cherries as garnish
Combine cooked rice, milk,
and sugar in a saucepan. Cook
until thick and creamy, about
10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cut cream cheese
into small cubes and stir into
warm rice mixture. Stir again
when the cheese softens and the
mixture cools.
Fold in pineapple, oranges,
chopped cherries, marshmallows,
coconut, almonds, and whipped
cream. Spoon into serving
dishes and chill. Garnish with
cherries.
Yield: 12 1⁄2-cup servings.
Carolyn Devers
Southside
Montgomery Farmers Cooperative
1
1
T
Low Country
Red Rice
4 strips bacon
1
⁄2 cup chopped onion
1
⁄2 cup chopped celery
1
⁄2 cup chopped bell pepper
1 cup uncooked rice
11⁄2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 (8-ounce) can tomato
sauce
Fry and crumble bacon; reserve drippings. Saute´onion, celery, and pepper in drippings. Add
rice, chicken broth, sugar, salt,
pepper, and tomato sauce. Bring
to a boil; stir once with fork. Stir
in bacon. Cover and cook on low
heat for 30 minutes.
Teresa Vinson
Union City
Obion Farmers Cooperative
T
Grandma’s
Apples and Rice
11⁄4 cups uncooked brown
rice
4 tablespoons butter, divided
21⁄2 cups chunky applesauce
1 cup peeled, cubed apples
1
⁄4 cup packed brown sugar
13⁄4 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
Dash salt
Cook rice according to package directions. Stir 2 tablespoons butter into hot rice. Add
applesauce, apples, brown sugar,
11⁄2 teaspoons cinnamon and
salt. Spoon into a greased, deep
2-quart baking dish. Dot with
remaining butter; sprinkle with
remaining cinnamon.
Bake, uncovered, at 350º for
35 minutes or until heated. Serve
warm or cold.
Yield: Six to eight servings.
Mildred H. Edwards
Lebanon
Wilson Farmers Cooperative
T
Wild Rice Salad with
Dried Cherries
1 (6.2-ounce) box quickcooking long-grain and
wild rice mix
1 medium, unpeeled apple,
chopped (1 cup)
1 medium green bell pepper,
chopped (1 cup)
1 medium stalk celery,
chopped (1⁄2 cup)
1
⁄2 cup dried cherries,
chopped
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1
⁄3 cup dry-roasted peanuts,
toasted
Cook rice mix according to
package directions, omitting
butter. Spread rice evenly in a
thin layer on a large, ungreased
cookie sheet. Let rice stand for
10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cool.
Mix apple, pepper, celery, and
cherries in a large bowl. Mix soy
sauce, water, sugar, and vinegar
in a small bowl until sugar is dissolved. Add rice and soy sauce
mixture to apple mixture. Gently
toss until coated. Add peanuts;
gently toss
Yield: Seven servings.
Carol Walker
Fayetteville
Lincoln Farmers Cooperative
T
Rice and Sausage
Casserole
1 pound hot or mild sausage
1 onion, chopped
1 sweet green pepper,
chopped
1
⁄2 cup chopped celery
1 cup quick-cooking rice
1 (4-ounce) can pimientos
1 cup grated sharp Cheddar
cheese
1 (10-ounce) can cream of
chicken soup
1 (10-ounce) can cream of
mushroom soup
Brown sausage in a skillet;
drain grease. Combine all other
ingredients in a microwavable
dish. Cover and microwave on
full power for 14 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking.
Add sausage and stir.
Peggy Bryan
Hillsboro
Coffee Farmers Cooperative
Facebook exclusive!
We receive so many great recipes
each month, we can’t print them
all! But visit us on Facebook for
more recipes available only to fans of
our page. Visit www.facebook.com/
TennesseeFarmersCooperative and click
on “Notes” to get the recipes.
Old-fashioned Christmas treats
featured in December
It’s hard to believe that December is just a few
months away and we’ll be pulling out those timeless
Christmas recipes that help make the holidays complete. For our December “What’s cookin’?” column,
we want your favorite recipes for old-fashioned
Christmas treats — cookies, candies, cakes, or any
other holiday goodie. The person submitting the best
recipe will be named Cook-of-the-Month and receive
$10. Others sending recipes chosen for publication will receive $5.
Monday, Nov. 5, is the deadline for your Christmas treat recipes.
Don’t forget: Only recipes with complete, easy-to-follow instructions
will be considered for publication. Several recipes are disqualified each
month because they do not contain all the information needed to prepare
the dishes successfully. Recipes featured in “What’s cookin’?” are not independently tested, so we must depend on the accuracy of the cooks sending
them. Always use safe food-handling, preparation, and cooking procedures.
Send entries to: Recipes, Tennessee Cooperator, P.O. Box 3003,
LaVergne, TN 37086. You can submit more than one recipe in the same
envelope. You can also e-mail them to: [email protected]. Be
sure to include your name, address, telephone number, and the Co-op
with which you do business. Recipes that appear in the “What’s cookin’?”
column will also be published on our website at www.ourcoop.com.
September 2012
39
A day at the
HOMESTEAD
Granville’s newest attraction draws history buffs
Story and photos by Mark E. Johnson
and nostalgics
Granville’s newest attractions — the Sutton Homestead and Pioneer Village — include an array of antique and vintage items like this 1947 Case tractor, donated by Dr. Jim
McKinney of Cookeville, and mid-1950s-era Chevrolet cars parked in front of the Transportation Museum.
A
s a quaint tourist destination, Granville is rapidly
becoming the worst-kept
secret in Middle Tennessee.
Since the tiny Jackson County town opened its museum in
1999 to document the area’s
rich riverboat history, visitors
have slowly but surely been discovering Granville’s Mayberryesque charm, which has led to
As part of guided tours of the T.B. “Ben”
Sutton homeplace, Sutton and his wife,
Ethel, are portrayed by area residents Liz
Bennett and Randall Clemons, president
of the Granville Museum. Also on the
2.5-acre Homestead property are a
“Pioneer Village,” gristmill, blacksmith
and weave shops, and more.
40
September 2012
tive museum
more endearing and authentic
that includes
attractions, which have led to
a vintage sermore enthralled tourists.
vice station,
Where will it all end?
and a pioneer
“I’m not sure!” laughs Ranvillage with a
dall Clemons, a Granville native and president of the town’s cabin, several
log outbuildmuseum committee. “We’re
ings, and
about to run out of space!”
garden and toRandall admits that he
bacco patchthought the town had run out
es. Each area
of space for any new attracThe Pioneer Village consists of a mid-19th Century cabin,
is staffed by
tions until one of Granville’s
chicken house, smokehouse, and outhouse. The cabin
signature properties — the Ben volunteers
was built in 1820 by the Williamson family, some of the first
— dressed in
Sutton residence — became
settlers in Jackson County. It was moved, log by log, from
a nearby farm. The outbuildings came from the nearby Tom
period clothavailable for purchase in May
McKinley farm and date to the early 1900s.
ing — who
2011. When word about the
tertained for at least four hours
produce real merchandise
sale got out, the response from
available for purchase, including without leaving the confines of
heritage-minded Granvillians
the town.”
corn meal
was immediate.
This is quite an accomplishand grits,
“We raised
l
ment,
he notes, especially since
a variety of
$187,000 in
Granville
baskets, and the town was barely a blip on
the community
Tennessee’s radar for the several
doilies.
within 30 days,”
decades leading up to the 1999
Randall
says Randall.
says the Homestead is a “perfect opening of the Granville muse“That was enough to purchase
um. In the early 1900s, Grancompanion” to the town’s existthe property and do a lot of the
ville sat at the edge of the Cuming
museum,
gift
shop,
agriculrestoration.”
berland River and was a bustling
tural museum, and centerpiece
The result is the Sutton
riverboat hub where farmers
structure, the T.B. Sutton
Homestead, which opened in
from the Jackson County area
October 2011. On the 2.5-acre General Store.
would bring their goods to be
“[The Homestead] was
property are the Sutton house,
shipped to Nashville. Poised for
a working gristmill, weaving and something we needed,” Randall
greatness, Granville’s potential
says. “A visitor can now be enblacksmith shops, an automo-
Liz, in character as Ethel Sutton, tells stories about the Homestead to visitors Madell and Sue Reynolds,
left, and Cynthia Mathews as “Ben Sutton” (Randall) watches. Randall says tours of the Homestead,
Pioneer Village, and the nearby Agricultural Museum and Granville Museum wouldn’t be possible without
the dedication of some 135 volunteers, some of whom live as far away as Clarksville. The town’s popular
Heritage Day Festival and fall and Christmas events are also attracting thousands of tourists each year.
Volunteer and Granville native Barbara Boone creates
baskets, doilies, and other country crafts in the Weave Shop.
LEFT: From left, Transportation Museum guide and service station “attendant” James Clemons discusses a 1971 Volkswagen Beetle with visitors Nancy Stigler, Madell
and Sue Reynolds, and Odell Braswell. CENTER: The Pioneer “villagers” are portrayed by a real family, from left, Audrey, Ryan, and Peggy Sanders. Nearly all of the
fencing and gardening materials were purchased through Smith Farmers Cooperative in Carthage. RIGHT: Gristmill operator Jim Murff keeps a watchful eye as cornmeal
falls into a catch basin from which it will be collected, bagged, and sold in T.B. Sutton General Store. The mill was built and donated by Jerry McFarland of Lebanon.
for growth fizzled when automobiles came onto the scene
and riverboats became obsolete.
In 1972, the river itself went
away when a Tennessee Valley
Authority dam project created
Cordell Hull Lake.
These days, the river traffic
of old has been replaced by land
vehicles carrying visitors to one
of Granville’s main events — the
annual Heritage Day and Uncle
Jimmy Thompson Bluegrass
Festival in May, the Fall Celebration, Country Christmas, or
the increasingly popular Sutton
Ole Time Music Hour, a weekly
bluegrass music show broadcast
via radio and Internet. With
the addition of the Granville
Homestead, the tiny hamlet has
redefined itself as a true tourist
destination as well as an educational field trip option for area
school children.
“We never dreamed it would
turn into all of this,” says
Randall, pointing out that the
town has hosted more than 600
school groups since the Homestead opened. “We started the
museum in 1999 mainly to preserve our local heritage, and one
thing has led to another. People
now view Granville as a step
back in time. Many tell us that
their stresses of life fade away as
they drive into our town. That’s
exactly what we’re shooting for!”
Sutton Homestead and
Pioneer Village is open noon
to 3 p.m. Wednesday through
Saturday, and admission is $5
for adults, $4 for senior citizens, and $3 for children 6 to
12. Children 5 and under are
admitted free. To learn more
and view a complete list of upcoming events in Granville, visit
www.granvillemuseum.com.
This early 1900s
corn sheller
was donated by
Granville native
Stan Webster.
The rare, two-ear
sheller was used by
Stan’s grandfather,
Stant. “I can barely
remember it being
used in the ’50s,”
says Stan.
September 2012
41
Every Farmer Has A Story David Martin
By Elizabeth Pafford and Allison Morgan
Photos by Allison Morgan
Restoring the vision
Fiscal and physical ailments stopped his father from farming, but David Martin
has resumed the family’s agricultural tradition with his own row-crop operation
Editor’s note: Portions of this story
were originally written by Elizabeth Pafford, a senior ag communications major at the University
of Tennessee at Martin and a
2011 Co-op summer intern.
A
griculture historians have
compared the challenging
2012 growing season to
the devastating drought of 1988.
Charles Martin of Medina
remembers the latter all too well.
That’s the year he quit farming,
and it’s why his 31-year-old son,
David, has had to build his own
farming operation from scratch.
“If the farm economy hadn’t
gotten so tough, I would have
stayed in it longer,” says Charles,
who, at the time, was farming
some 500 acres while driving a
truck for Roadway Express. “I
loved farming, but we were losing more than we were making.
After three bad years in a row, I
made the decision to quit.”
l
Medina
For David, his father’s decision to exit agriculture meant
that choosing a farming career
wouldn’t be as simple as stepping
into the family operation. And
when Charles lost his eyesight in
2004 from a rare complication of
diabetes, David forever lost his
chance to farm side by side with
his father.
“I think a lot of farmers take it
for granted that they got to farm
with their dads,” says David. “I
never really got that opportunity,
and it caused me to face a lot of
challenges that others in my field
don’t ever have to face.”
Though farming was always
on his mind, out of necessity David held several other jobs after
graduating from high school in
1999. He worked for his uncle’s
paving company, drove a truck,
and spent a year at the University of Tennessee AgResearch and
42
September 2012
Education Center at Milan. But
he always had some agricultural
endeavor on the side — whether
it was custom-baling hay or helping neighboring farmers harvest
their crops — and kept working
toward his goal of someday running his own operation.
from offering advice and guidance from past experience. The
elder Martin says he appreciates
the fact that his son is restoring
the family’s farming tradition.
While he can’t see how much
David has accomplished, he can
certainly share in his success.
Taking a break from spraying cotton growth regulator, David Martin inspects the
crop’s progress. Recent rains and milder temperatures have allowed the plants to
recover from the extreme heat and drought earlier in the summer. David has worked
hard over the past seven years to build a full-time row-crop operation on his own.
“I always had in the back of
my head what I wanted to do —
farm — but it was just a matter
of being able to do it,” says David. “I really count my first year
of farming as 2004. That’s when
I traded six cows for a combine.
It wasn’t much of a combine, but
hey, it worked!”
David quickly admits that it
takes an immense amount of
work to build a farm to full-time
status today, especially when
starting from the ground up. In
his case, it took seven long years.
In the last five years, he has
almost doubled his production to
more than 1,000 acres.
“I’ve been lucky to be able to
gain 200 acres or so at a time,
either buying farms or renting
ground,” says David, who grows
cotton, corn, soybeans, and
wheat. “This year, we added
300. It has just steadily grown.”
Though blindness keeps
Charles from physically helping
on the farm, it doesn’t keep him
“Farming is something David
has always enjoyed, ever since
he was little,” says Charles,
who now owns and operates a
portable storage building business with his wife of 39 years,
Becky. “I’m proud he’s able to
do something he likes to do and
make a living at it.”
David says he’s fortunate to be
able to grow his crops on much
of the same land that his father
once farmed around their homeplace near the Madison-Gibson
county line, and he also has help
from his uncles, Larry and Harry
Martin. Harry moves equipment
for his nephew in the spring,
and Larry helps with bulldozer
work or other types of excavating
jobs that David offers as an extra
income-generating endeavor.
“I am very proud to say that
I have my dad and uncles there
for me when I need advice or
help,” says David. “They have all
really helped me over the years
and told me how they would go
about doing something or how
they fixed the same problem 20
years ago.”
Though he’s held a variety of
jobs along the way, David says finally being able to farm full time
is a dream come true. He says it
also suits his personality.
“I like being outside, doing my
own thing, without anyone standing over top of me,” says David, a
customer of Carroll and MidSouth Farmers Cooperatives.
“Plus, there are so many good
people in agriculture. I really
enjoy all the people I deal with.
I’ve learned a bunch from them
and keep learning every day.”
David says he recognizes the
challenges of agriculture, especially in a year like this, but he’s
determined to make his farming
operation successful. He says
diversifying his crops and having
other ventures “on the side,” like
his trucking and dozing services,
help give him a safety net when
times get tough.
“I’ve learned that you need
to have more than one thing
going because something will
pull you along,” says David.
“My dad’s always told me to do
that. My uncles have told me
that. And the other farmers I
know have told me that.”
Children who grow up doing something every day often
either hate it or fall in love
with it. David fell in love with
farming, and now his childhood
passion is his lifetime career
that he would like to pass on to
his children one day.
“Farming isn’t easy, that’s for
sure, and when the last stalk is
cut in the fall, you’re proud for
a little break,” he says. “But
when February rolls around,
you’re ready to go again. I can
only hope that I have a son I’ll be
able to work alongside and watch
production agriculture increase
to where it needs to be to feed
and clothe this growing world
population.”
Medina row-crop producer David Martin, left, is proud to be
carrying on his family’s agricultural tradition that was put on
hold when his father, Charles, had to quit farming for economic
reasons in the late 1980s. When a rare complication from diabetes
affected Charles’ optic nerves in the mid-1990s, he lost his vision
and had to retire from his trucking career with Roadway Express.
His blindness, however, doesn’t keep him from sharing sage
advice with David, his and wife Becky’s only child.
September 2012
43