Meet the top 10 Southeastern farmers of 2021

<p>For thirty-nine years Thomas Ellis has practiced agricultural diversification through his cattle, poultry, and pecan processing and manufacturing enterprises at Triple E. Farm and Priester’s Pecans, Inc. A third-generation Lowndes County farmer, Ellis grew up on a dairy farm and studied marketing and agriculture at Auburn University. He purchased part of a commercial beef herd from the widow of a local cattleman in 1981 and began to rent pasture until he purchased his farmland in the fall of that year. Two years later, he and his wife, Melissa, built their first broiler houses.</p>

<p>Today their operation spans 1000 acres of owned and rented land and includes annual production units of forty-five cows and calves, six-to-twelve bulls, 1000 head of stocker calves, and three poultry houses that produce approximately 400,000 chickens. Additional crops include 450 acres of grazing, 400 acres of mixed summer grasses, and 60 acres of rye grass and winter peas for baleage.</p>

<p>Located just west of Lonoke, Arkansas, I.F. Anderson Farms, Inc. is the largest baitfish hatchery in the world. This premier aquaculture enterprise was started in 1949 by the late I.F. Anderson and his father, the late W.L. Anderson. Now, the third and fourth generations are in charge, with James Neal Anderson as president/owner, and his son, Jamie Anderson, as vice-president/co-owner.</p>

<p>Jamie Anderson began working in the family business thirty-two years ago, when he was just twelve. He recalled, “Working alongside and learning from my grandfather and father—my true mentors—meant being part of a family heritage that’s always been a great source of pride. And, because we’ve been around for so long, we have a reputation, tradition, and values to uphold, which we take seriously.”</p>

<p>Raymond R. “Rick” Roth Jr. is the only son of a very successful second-generation Belle Glade farmer, the late Ray R. Roth. He has been farming in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) in Palm Beach County, Florida for 44 years. Rick holds a BS degree in Mathematics from Emory University, graduating in 1976. His love for agriculture became apparent when he returned home from college to work for a season.</p>

<p>Roth recalled, “My dad never pressured me to follow in his footsteps but gave me the freedom to make up my own mind, a choice I appreciate to this day. I gave my son, Ryan, the same freedom to choose.” That college break clearly showed him how dynamic winter vegetable farming was.</p>

<p>Today Roth Farms employs 25 full-time staff and approximately 150 seasonal workers, both local and H2A labor. It is one of the most diversified farming operations in the state with some of the best soil anywhere. Roth explained what makes it so special.</p>

<p>Samuel L. (“Lee”) Nunn has always been around farming. His grandfather owned and operated a dairy and row crop operation in Morgan County until 1986 and, after retiring, continued to keep a small beef cattle herd. At 87, he is proud that his grandson followed in his footsteps.</p>

<p>Today Lee Nunn Farms consists of Custom Farm Service, Ag Construction Company, a private trucking company, and 1530 leased and owned acres under cultivation with yields as follows: 750 acres of wheat yielding 67 bushels/acre; 440 acres of soybeans yielding 38 bushels/acre; 380 acres of cotton yielding 985 lbs./acre; 360 acres of corn yielding 128 bushels/acre; and 140 acres of winter field peas yielding 42 bushes/acre.</p>

<p>Stephen J. Kelley was raised on a sixty-acre farm, although his parents worked off the farm. Some of his earliest memories include raising hogs, cattle, and corn with his family. And they always cultivated a big garden at home. By middle school he was helping his older brother raise about an acre and a half of burley tobacco on their grandfather’s 170-acre farm.</p>

<p>In high school, he partnered with his brother to raise the tobacco on shares. He recalled, “My parents hoped that I wouldn’t make farming a career, but my love of the land had been instilled early on, and farming became my goal.”</p>

<p>Kelley Farms owns 2,504 acres with Kelley personally farming 1,275 of those acres. Crop yields at Kelley Farms are as follows: 210 acres of corn yielding 175 bushels/acre; 70 acres of soft red winter wheat for grain yielding 70 bushels/acre; 815 acres of soybeans produce 55 bushels/acre; 600 acres of wheat cover are also planted. In addition, the farm has a 160kW solar electricity system.</p>

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<p>Eight hundred acres are leased for hunting duck, deer, and turkey, and 190 acres are allotted for timber to produce saw logs. A final source of revenue is the growing of seed stock soybeans, which can, depending on the quality, sell at a premium over commercial beans.</p>

<p>From both sides of his family Joe Edmondson inherited a passion for farming the land around Vardaman, Mississippi. Fueled by the untimely death of his father when Joe was only ten, he began in earnest to assume the responsibility of making the family farm as productive as possible.</p>

<p>Can’t was a word he didn’t allow himself to say. Joe remembered, “At the age of fifteen, I went to court with my mother to waive my minority rights so that I could purchase my first forty acres of land. From that point on, I never looked back.”</p>

<p>Today, Topashaw Farms owns 2,227 acres, rents 4,293 acres, and has 275 mama cows, 13 bulls, 250 calves, and 5 horses. Sweet potatoes have become their staple crop with 2,905 of planted acres yielding 490 bushels per acre. Corn is planted on 871 acres with a yield of 146 bushels per acre. Soybeans constitute 2,743 acres with a yield of 61 bushels per acre and 910 acres total are irrigated. The storage capacity for sweet potatoes has reached 2,000,000 bushels, with 600,000 bushels under refrigeration.</p>

<p>As a boy growing up in Sampson County, North Carolina, James L. “Cookie” Lamb was curious about everything pertaining to farm life. Long before he was old enough to do so, he yearned to drive a tractor or a truck, take care of animals, and understand how farm tools and equipment worked.</p>

<p>It was the beginning of a lifelong devotion to the land—land to which his grandfather and father dedicated their lives. The Lamb family’s cash crop on their seventy-five acres had traditionally been tobacco, but they also grew cucumbers, okra, corn, and soybeans and raised hogs and a small herd of cattle.</p>

<p>Lamb built a pig nursery farm on the same 75–acre tract in Clinton where he grew up. He and his family manage the nursery operation and grow corn, soybeans, millet, and Bermuda grass and raise a few cattle. Over the years Lamb has constructed two swine barns to house his animals and purchased three new tractors and attachments.</p>

<p>York, a small town nestled in the hilly Piedmont region of South Carolina, is home to Bush-N-Vine Farm, a fruit and vegetable-growing enterprise owned and operated by Robert “Bob” Martin Hall. His career began forty-one years ago on land that’s been in his family for a century and a half.</p>

<p>Bush-N-Vine Farm’s land under cultivation has doubled since the early 1980s and now supports three direct marketing fruit stands: the large main one in York is open year round, and the ones in Rock Hill and Lake Wylie are seasonal. Produce is grown in three ways: in open fields, high tunnels, and greenhouses.</p>

<p>After graduating from high school, Jay Yeargin purchased a 60–acre farm with a USDA loan for beginning farmers, which allowed him to finance 100 percent of the land.</p>

<p>He recalled, “Over the ensuing years, I bought more farm land by working with the USDA and began to lease land as it became available. Knowing my career goal was already set, I enrolled at the University of Tennessee at Martin and earned a BS degree in Agriculture in 2004.”</p>

<p>Yeargin now operates his multi-faceted agricultural business in Weakley County on 2,700 acres with yields as follows: 1,100 acres of yellow corn yielding 145 bushels/acre; 1,000 acres of soybeans yielding 55 bushels/acre; 600 acres of commercial soybean seed yielding 45 bushels/acre; and 600 acres of wheat yielding 75 bushels/acre. Custom dozer and track hoe work and mowing: 300–500 hours per year; 60 head of bulls, cows, and heifers; and 700 round rolls of hay/forage/year.</p>

<p>Charles Edwin (“CJ”) Isbell Jr. is carrying on a seventy-year family tradition at Keenbell Farm in western Hanover County. His grandparents, Joe and Kathleen Isbell, purchased the original 175 acres in 1951.</p>

<p>Today, at 340 owned and leased acres, the farm specializes in grass-fed beef, pasture-raised pork, free range poultry, turkeys, eggs, and specialty non-GMO grains. Isbell recalled, “All that was on the property back in the early fifties was a two-story wooden house with daylight showing through the boards and an old corn crib.”</p>

<p>Today Keenbell Farm acreage is split between livestock and specialty grains. Livestock numbers are: 110 beef cattle; 100 pigs; 1,100 head of laying hens; 3,000 head of broiler chickens and turkeys. Major crop yields are: 115 acres of corn yielding 100 bushels; an average of 25 acres a year of popcorn yielding 1,500 lbs./acre; an average of 50 acres of winter wheat yielding 65 bushels/acre; 35 acres of rye yielding 35 bushels/acre; and 150 acres of multi-species cover crops yielding 3 tons/acre.</p>