July 2014

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Also insideFather-son duo craft quality handmade brooms together - p. 18

Co-op formulates supplement to boost nutrition of distillers’ grains - p. 20

Cover crops help protect soil health and productivity between seasons - p. 22

Breaking newgroundGrowers work with Co-op to put WinField’s R7 Tool to the test

July 2014 3

‘From grass to glass’ Annual luncheon in Nashville kicks off Tennessee’s June Dairy Month celebration.

‘Sum of Us’ wins it all TFC’s unusual annual report/promotion booklet is CCA’s top publication.

A sweep deal Kenton’s Matthew Pitts and father Randy craft quality handmade brooms together.

Good spirits Co-op Stillage Booster turns wet distillers’ grains into a balanced ration for cattle.

Asset protection Between seasons, growers turn to cover crops to maximize soil quality and productivity.

Blue-ribbon reputation Trenton’s Farrow and Brenda Ward are known for quality lambs and service after the sale.

TenneScene

Cristy Dunn is proud of her Appalachian heritage and not afraid to paint about it. Folks driving through downtown Mountain City couldn’t be happier, either. Cristy, a lifelong resident of the area and the art teacher at Johnson County High School, used her artistic talents to create a colorful mural of local legend Clarence “Tom” Ashley, a clawhammer banjo player who played with the likes of Roy Acuff and Doc Watson. The mural, unveiled this past November, hangs on the corner of South Church and Donnelly streets and is the first of three in a series that Cristy will paint called the “Mountain Heritage Music Project.” — Photo by Chris Villines

Cover StoryJuly 2014

4 As I Was Saying Salt shaker inspires Jerry Kirk to recall memorable advertising slogans.

4 Our Country Churches Nance Church of Christ in Crockett County.

14 New at Co-op Learn about seven new products available at your hometown store.

16 Neighborly Advice Tomato production, summer pastures.

30 What’s cookin’? Recipes are bursting with blueberries.

34 Every Farmer Has A Story Meet Hancock County’s Tom Visser, who is living the American dream with his family.

In every issue

Precision agriculture is reaching new levels on farms across Tennessee with help

from innovative programs like WinField’s R7 Tool, a robust online platform that offers a vast database of satellite imagery and crop data to assist growers in making strategic production decisions. Agronomist Gilbert Martin of Rutherford Farmers Cooperative, left, is among the Co-op personnel working with WinField representatives like Master Agronomy Advisor Jack Christian to help their customers implement this technology.

News and features

ON THE COVER: Matthew Herndon, left, who farms 2,000 acres with father Jimmy in DeKalb County, and WinField’s Jack Christian review a management zone map of this cornfield using the R7 Tool’s new iPad app. — Photos by Allison Morgan

8 Breaking new ground

18 12

contents

185

20 22

22

26

4 July 2014

As I Was Saying

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 CooperatorP.O. Box 3003

LaVergne, TN 37086 Phone: (615) 793-8339

E-mail: tlewter@ourcoop.com

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.

Editor: Allison Morganamorgan@ourcoop.com

Communications Specialist: Chris Villinescvillines@ourcoop.com

Communications Specialist: Sarah Geyersgeyer@ourcoop.com

Contributing Editor: Jerry Kirkjkirk@ourcoop.com

Senior Graphic Designer: Shane Readsread@ourcoop.com

Graphic Designer: Jason Barnsjbarns@ourcoop.com

Layout & Production Coordinator:Travis Merriman

tmerriman@ourcoop.comEditorial Assistant: Polly Campbell

pcampbell@ourcoop.comAdvertising Information: Keith Harrison615-793-8585, kharrison@ourcoop.com

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.

TFC Board of Directors:Chairman — Kenneth Nixon,

Carthage, Zone 2Vice Chairman — Johnny Brady,

Riceville, Zone 3Larry Paul Harris, Wildersville, Zone 1

Amos Huey, Kenton, Zone 1Richard Jameson, Brownsville, Zone 1

Clint Callicott, Only, Zone 2Stephen Philpott, Shelbyville, Zone 2

David Sarten, Sevierville, Zone 3George Smartt, McMinnville, Zone 3

Chief Executive Officer — Bart Krisle

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.

TFC’s website: www.ourcoop.com

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July 2014Volume 55, Number 7

www.facebook.com/ TennesseeFarmersCooperativewww.twitter.com/TNFarmerswww.pinterest.com/tnfarmerswww.youtube.com/TnFarmersCooperative

Our Country Churches

The first religious services at Nance Church of Christ in the Nance community of Crockett County at Highway 152 and Nance Road were held in a school building around 1890. Two years after the school burned in 1905, Bible classes began once again. The first elders and deacons were appointed in 1913, and just three years later Claude Laman donated the land across the street where the current struc-ture stands today. The church was damaged by wind and a tornado in 1951 and 1963, re-spectively, but was rebuilt. Now, with 150 members, the congre-gation continues to grow and warmly welcomes visitors.

230th in a series to show where our rural Co-op friends worship

Nance Church of Christ in Crockett County

Jerry Kirk

Contributing Editor

— Submitted by Notre Brown

Filling a salt shaker started all this!

I must’ve been more alert than I realized on a recent morning when, without even thinking, I grabbed a box of table salt from our kitchen pantry to fill a shaker. For some reason, when I set the familiar dark blue container on the

counter, the colorful, wrap-around image that immediately identifies the famous brand caught my eye.

So did the simple but ingenious retractable spout that makes pouring salt from the box so easy. There’s no way of knowing how many times I’ve used that little metal spout in my lifetime, but I’d never even considered its actual worth. While thinking to myself something like, “This is a handy little thing,” I lifted the spout and filled the shaker without spilling even a grain.

The product I was pouring was Morton Salt, a brand that I — and zillions of others — grew up with. For 100 years now, on each of those dark blue boxes of Morton Salt is a draw-ing of a little girl who’s protected by an oversized umbrella as she walks with a box of salt — its pouring spout obviously open — tilted backward under her left arm. The real message of the illustration is the fact that salt is pouring from the box, even when it’s raining! And the slogan the company adopted a century ago to accompany the illustration proved to be a real winner: “When It Rains It Pours®.” (Personally, though, I think the slogan needs a comma so it would read, “When It Rains, It Pours.” Maybe that’s merely my penchant for editing things!)

Regardless, the Morton campaign has had real staying power, and for good reason: Nobody likes to deal with soggy salt in their shaker or anywhere else. After the original 1914 illustration, the subject’s hair, dress, and shoe styles were updated in spiffed-up versions released in 1921, 1933, 1941, 1956, 1968, and earlier this year. From my calculations, we had that ’68 version for 46 years!

When Advertising Age Magazine named its “Top 10 Famous Advertising Slogans of the Century” several years ago, Morton Salt’s “When It Rains It Pours” finished in the top 10 at No. 9.

Tennessee gained some noteriety, too, when “Good to the Last Drop” finished at No. 6 on Ad Age’s elite list. That, of course, is the slogan for Maxwell House coffee, which was served at and named after a landmark hotel in downtown Nashville. Theodore Roosevelt was said to have commented that a cup of coffee he enjoyed at the hotel was “good to the last drop.” Other celebrities and dignitar-ies listed among former guests of the famous hostelry are Sarah Bernhardt, William Jennings Bryan, Buffalo Bill Cody, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Annie Oakley, and six U.S. presidents besides Teddy Roosevelt. The Maxwell House Hotel was destroyed by fire on Christmas night 1961.

Capturing the No. 10 spot on the “century’s best” list was a three-word slogan that brought instant fame to 81-year-old actress and retired Chicago manicurist Clara Pellerago. Who could forget Clara’s bellowings of “Where’s the Beef?” in a wildly popular campaign for Wendy’s chain of fast-food restau-rants? The point of Clara’s rantings was that, unlike Wendy’s, some competitors served much more bun than beef with their burgers.

Now, just for fun, try to name the product or service provided by the other top 10 and honorable mention (HM) slogan winners in the Ad Age rankings (answers are at the bottom of the page):

No. 1, “Diamonds Are Forever”; No. 2, “Just Do It”; No. 3, “The Pause that Refreshes”; No. 4, “Tastes Great, Less Filling”; No. 5, “We Try Harder”; No. 7, “Breakfast of Champions”; No. 8, “Does She ... or Doesn’t She?”; HM1, “Look, Ma, No Cavities!”; HM2, “Let Your Fingers Do the Walking,”; HM3, “...Melt in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hand”; HM4, “We Bring Good Things to Life.”

The answers: 1. DeBeers (If you missed this one, join the club. Wikipedia says it’s a cartel of compa-nies that pretty much dominates the diamond industry); 2. Nike; 3. Coca-Cola; 4. Miller Lite; 5. Avis; 7. Wheaties; 8. Clairol; HM1. Crest; HM2. Yellow Pages; HM3. M&Ms; HM4. General Electric.

July 2014 5

News briefs

The Summer Celebration Lawn and Garden Show will return for its 25th year on Thursday, July 10, at the University of Tennessee Gardens, located on the grounds of the West Ten-nessee AgResearch and Education Center in Jackson.

The popular annual event features a full day of garden talks, tours, sales, and demonstrations. Activities kick off at 9 a.m. and include the Master Gardeners’ Plant Sale, gardening advice from UT horticulture experts, elaborate garden displays, and shopping with plant vendors and craftsmen. The 4-H All-Stars will also be selling hamburgers hot off the grill.

Admission is $5 for adults and free for children 17 and under. Activities conclude at 6 p.m. For more information, including directions to the event, visit west.tennessee.edu.

Summer Celebration returns July 10

Value-added dairy workshop is Aug. 5An upcoming five-hour University of Tennessee Extension

workshop, “Taking a Look at Value-Added Dairy Opportunities,” will help cow, goat, and sheep farmers learn about calculating milk production costs and assessing the costs and opportunities associated with on-farm milk processing.

The workshop will be held Tuesday, Aug. 5, in Knoxville, beginning at 10 a.m. and ending by 3 p.m. Eastern time. There is no fee to attend, but pre-registration is required by July 29 as space is limited. A meal is included.

Pre-registration information is available on the UT Center for Profitable Agriculture’s website at ag.tennessee.edu/cpa or by contacting Nancy Austin at the UT Department of Food Sci-ence and Technology at 865-974-7717 or naustin@utk.edu.

(See Glass, page 6)

‘From grass to glass’Annual luncheon kicks off June Dairy Month celebration

Tennessee Commissioner of Agriculture Julius Johnson welcomes industry leaders to Ellington Agricultural Center in Nashville to celebrate Tennessee’s annual June Dairy Month kick-off luncheon. At left is special guest Lacy Upchurch, Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation president.

Story and photos by Gina Locke

W ith milk still one of the most nutritious products on the

market today, industry leaders had plenty to celebrate with the “Dairy Packs Power”-themed luncheon May 30 at Ellington Agricultural Center in Nashville.

More than 100 farmers, students, and industry support-ers gathered for the annual event that kicks off June Dairy Month festivities in Tennessee. Among special guests were Tennessee Commissioner of Agriculture Julius Johnson and Cheryl Hayn, chief executive officer of the Southeast United Dairy Industry Association (SUDIA).

Master of Ceremonies Tony White, a veteran dairyman in Chapel Hill who’s also vice-president of the American Dairy Association of Tennessee, quickly set the tone for the luncheon by stressing that “milk is nature’s

most perfect food, so it does pack power.”

Nolensville’s John Sanford, a customer of Rutherford Farmers Cooperative’s Eagleville branch, was recognized as the 2014 Outstanding Dairy Promoter of the Year at the luncheon. Short-ly after the dispersal of his dairy herd in 1976, Sanford went to work for the Tennessee Depart-ment of Agriculture where he put in 35 years of service.

“It is so pleasant to stand up here and see all of these young people,” John said. “I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”

He stressed that with the current consumer more than three generations removed from the farm, it is more im-portant than ever to educate the general public on milk production — what it takes to go “from grass to glass” — and thanked everyone involved in the process along the way.

One young man heavily involved in that process is Ben Jordan of Marshall County, an incoming freshman at the University of Ten-nessee at Martin and the 2013 4-H dairy project state winner. Ben, son of Ken Jordan, manager of Marshall Farmers Co-operative’s Chapel Hill branch, and wife Mela-nie, has been showing Jersey cows since he was a youngster.

“When I first started, I was leasing the Jersey calves I was showing,” said Ben. “With the Jersey breed, you have to be good if you’re going to be competitive. Once we got our own cows, I learned how to be a better showman, more about the ge-netics so I could help pick bulls, and more about nutrition so we could feed them better. I even

learned how to judge so I would know which animals to select.”

Ben’s hard work paid off with a second-place finish in his class last year at the North American International Livestock Exposi-tion (NAILE) in Louisville, Ky.,

6 July 2014

(continued from page 5)Glass

where he showed a heifer he and his brother raised. Ben isn’t just successful in the ring, how-ever. He also attended the 2013 National Dairy Conference in Madison, Wis., where he said he discovered his passion to one day become a genetic evaluator.

Warren County’s Ellen Woods was recognized at the luncheon as a state winner in the 4-H food science project. Ellen, who opened her own restaurant — Ellie Michellie’s Eatery — April 14 in Morrison, stressed to the audience that “there is nothing more rewarding than helping supply the world’s dinner table.”

Also recognized at the event were other young dairy advo-cates, including June Dairy Month chairmen from 43 coun-ties and the 2013 4-H dairy promotion state winners. Divi-sion winners in the promotion competition, listed with total cash awards for each, were: Tallen Gooch, White County, Division I, $500; Austin Barry, Warren County, Division II and the Media Award, $750; and Kelly Hunt, Sumner County, Division III and the Best-Use of-Theme award, $750. Each division winner’s county Exten-sion program was also awarded $200 for future programing.

Top honors were also handed out for the Dairy Quiz Bowl

competition. Winning first place in the Junior Division was the Williamson County team: Kendall Warpool, Jayme Oz-burn, Sydney Lamb, and Isaiah Osborne. Second place in this division were Marshall County team members Elizabeth Wor-ley, Dalton Colvin, Jacob Johns, and Jacob Gillespie.

The Senior High Division winning team from Henry County will represent Tennessee at NAILE this November. Team members are Brooke Williams, Haily Goldman, Kasey Pickle, and Emily Rose.

In a popular competitive event, winners of the annual June Dairy Month poster con-test were recognized for their creativity in incorporating the theme “Dairy Packs Power” in their entries. Winning first place and $500 for herself and $200 for her county’s Extension pro-gram was Holly Shaw of Cum-berland County. Second-place honors went to Kayli Gunter of Rhea County, $300, and placing third was Lydia Ferguson, Clai-borne County, $200.

The program segment that packed the most power at the luncheon, though, was the key-note address by Inquoris “Inky” Johnson, former star cornerback on the University of Tennessee football team.

Stressing the benefits of drinking milk, Inky challenged the attentive audience: “Every day, think of yourself as a gallon

of milk. Something so perfect, some-thing so powerful that changes lives all across the nation.”

Inky knows all about the power of changing lives. As a kid growing up in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of inner-city Atlanta, he said he shared a two-bedroom home with 13 other family members and dealt with gang members and drug dealers every day. But, he stressed, he never let that discourage him. Instead, he drew on his relentless deter-mination and God-given athletic talent to follow his dream

of one day playing Division I college football and making it to the National Football League.

“You can’t look at your cir-cumstances,” said Inky. “You have to look at your destination.”

And that is exactly what he did. Despite attending a school he said some called “Crime High” and others deemed the lowest-performing school in Georgia, Inky persevered. After injuries prevented him from playing his junior year of high school, he managed to keep his spirits up until he finally met the man who would give him the break he had been waiting for — Big Orange head coach Phillip Fulmer.

“He looked me dead square in the eyes and told me, ‘I want to offer you a full scholarship to the University of Tennessee,’” said Inky with pride, as he described the moment that his dreams became a reality. “I said, ‘Coach, you know my situation, right?’ He said, ‘Yes, I know your situa-tion, but I believe in you.’”

Inky said he considers him-self blessed to be one of the few young people from his neigh-

borhood who made it off the streets and earned a “full ride” scholarship to UT. He added that he never intended for his upbringing to be an excuse for not achieving success.

“I don’t believe that you’re a product of your environment,” Inky said. “You’re a product of your decisions and your choices.”

While he had earned the right to play Southeastern Conference football, the chal-lenges that Inky was to face were only beginning. It was just an “ordinary tackle” in Neyland Stadium against Air Force on Sept. 9, 2006, that led to trag-edy as far as his football future was concerned. With a para-lyzed right arm, Inky’s football career was over. But he refused to wallow in self-pity.

“When I encountered my injury, I was back in class three days later and went on to get my master’s [degree],” he said. “The only reason I have been success-ful is because I just kept going. At the end of the day, we are all really in the business of leaving a legacy and leaving a mark on this world that can’t be erased.”

LEFT: Former University of Tennessee star cornerback Inquoris “Inky” Johnson, Tennessee’s 2014 June Dairy Month luncheon keynote speaker, discusses the importance of pursuing dreams and overcoming adversity. RIGHT: After 35 years with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Nolensville’s John Sanford is recognized as the 2014 Dairy Promoter of the Year.

LEFT: Creative use of this year’s “Dairy Packs Power” theme earned second place for Kayli Gunter, left, of Rhea County, and third place for Lydia Ferguson of Claiborne County in the poster contest. First-place winner Holly Shaw of Cumberland County is not pictured. RIGHT: Senior high Quiz Bowl champion team members from Henry County are, from left, Brooke Williams, Haily Goldman, Kasey Pickle, and Emily Rose. Not pictured is Coach Laura Moss.

After demonstrating their knowledge of the dairy industry prior to the May 30 luncheon, Quiz Bowl winners are honored in the senior and junior divisions. Junior champions from Williamson County are, from left, Kendall Warpool, Jayme Ozburn, and Sydney Lamb. Not pictured are team member Isaiah Osborne and Coach Julie Ozburn.

Reserve champion junior Quiz Bowl team members from Marshall County are, from left, Elizabeth Worley, Dalton Colvin, Jacob Johns, and Jacob Gillespie. Coach Rob Augustin is not pictured.

July 2014 7

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CO-OP SPECIAL!

Hundreds of 4-H and FFA members from across the state will be packing up their boots and show attire and hauling their prize beef cattle and sheep to Murfreesboro and Cooke-ville this month to compete in the Tennessee Junior Livestock Exposition, one of the nation’s premier shows of its kind.

For many participants and their families, Expo is an annual journey in pursuit of plaques,

trophies, and scholarships in competition with some of the best exhibitors and livestock that Tennessee has to offer. For oth-ers, especially those making their Expo debuts, it will be a valuable learning experience, one they’ll build on year after year.

Beef events will be held Mon-day, July 7, through Wednesday, July 9, at the Tennessee Live-stock Center on the campus of Middle Tennessee State Uni-

versity in Murfreesboro. Sheep competition will follow the next week — Monday, July 14, through Wednesday, July 16 — at Hyder-Burks Pavilion on the campus of Tennessee Techno-logical University in Cookeville.

Co-op is a longtime supporter of Expo, which featured 564 exhibitors from 61 counties in last year’s events. Those youth showed 1,203 animals and participated in a wide variety

of activities to showcase their knowledge and skills developed by participating in 4-H livestock projects, including skillathon and showmanship competitions.

For more information, visit the University of Tennessee’s Animal Science website at http://animalscience.ag.utk.edu/4-HLivestock.html.

Look for 2014 Expo coverage and a complete list of winners in the September Cooperator.

Expo is right around the corner for exhibitors

Tennessee State University and the University of Tennessee will be holding three different Advanced Master Meat Goat Producer meetings in August in all regions of the state.

These classes are the next level of the Master Meat Goat Producer program, which is de-signed as an educational tool to broaden management skills and improve the competitiveness in the marketplace for goat produc-ers. For those who already hold the certification, the advanced course allows eligible producers to continue receiving 50-percent cost-share instead of the stan-dard 35 percent in the state’s Tennessee Agricultural Enhance-ment Program.

Cost of the three-day course is $100 to producers who already have a farm premises identification number and $200 to those who do not. All checks can be made to the University of Tennessee. Here are the dates and locations:

l Monday through Wednes-day, Aug. 4-6, Middle Tennessee Research and Education Center in Spring Hill. For more infor-mation, contact An Peischel at 615-963-5539 or apeischel@tnstate.edu.

l Wednesday through Friday, Aug. 6-8, West Tennessee Re-search and Education Center in Jackson. For more information, call Ron Blair at 731-968-5266 or email at rblair3@utk.edu.

l Thursday through Satur-day, Aug. 21-23, Roane State Community College in Harri-man. For more information, contact Grant Palmer at 865-376-5558 or gpalmer@utk.edu.

Master Meat Goat meetings in August

8 July 2014

W hen new technology hits the market, some-one has to put it to the

test so others can benefit from that experience.

Four farms served by Ruth-erford Farmers Cooperative — Herndon Farms in DeKalb County, HH&R Farms in Can-non County, and Hutch Four Farms and Batey Farms in Rutherford County — are do-ing just that. They are among the first growers in Tennes-see to try a new field data management solution based on in-season satellite imagery through WinField’s R7 Tool. The farmers are working with their local Co-op to utilize cutting-edge practices such as field-mapping, tissue-sampling, and prescriptions for variable-rate planting and fertilizing.

Ultimately, these innovative growers are hoping the pro-gram can take their precision agriculture capabilities to a whole new level, says Gilbert Martin, Rutherford Farmers Cooperative agronomist.

“These guys are willing to try

it and see if it makes sense for them,” says Gilbert. “If we can show that it has value to our farmers, then it’s something we need to be putting our resourc-es into.”

At the heart of this effort is the R7 Tool, a comprehensive online resource that is breaking new ground in the precision ag industry. This exclusive Win-Field tool is powered by a vast database of more than 20 years of satellite images measuring plant biomass, which indicates the health of a particular crop. These images, combined with soil-type maps, weather history, and data and photos collected at WinField’s Answer Plots and on-farm field trials, allow the R7 Tool to use sophisticated calculations to estimate crop yields, map field variability, set up different management zones, and generate variable-rate prescriptions for seed-ing and nutrient applications among other features.

Nationally, more than 16.1 million acres have been mapped using the R7 Tool

since it debuted in 2012, ac-cording to Scott Buchli, direc-tor of WinField’s R7 team.

“R7 is truly a decision sup-port tool that allows growers to access imagery, data, and advi-sors to help them manage their crops for improved profitabil-ity,” says Scott. “With the push for higher yields, growers have

to manage their crops more intensely. The R7 Tool can help them do that.”

Until now, the R7 Tool has mainly been used for seed placement strategies, says Scott, but as new features and information have been added, the program is being more widely integrated with preci-

Growers work with Co-op to put WinField’s R7 Tool to the test

DeKalb County grower Matthew Herndon, left, and WinField Master Agronomy Advisor Jack Christian look at a zone management map of this field of Croplan 6926 corn using the WinField R7 Tool’s new iPad app, which makes this innovative decision-making resource mobile for convenient, on-the-go crop production insights.

The Herndon family, from left, Matthew and his parents, Fran and Jimmy, work together to raise 2,000 acres of row crops in DeKalb County. The Rutherford Farmers Cooperative members upgraded their John Deere planting equipment a few years ago to this 16-row model with precision seeding capabilities.

By Allison Morgan, photos by Allison Morgan and Gina Locke

July 2014 9

sion ag technology on the farm. New features for 2014 include an iPad app and enhanced in-season imagery resources. A 300-percent increase in satel-lite coverage is generating eight times as much data versus last year, he adds.

“The iPad app is driving more adoption of the R7 Tool from a simplicity standpoint, giving sellers and their custom-ers access to the imagery, maps, and Answer Plot data in the field,” says Scott. “And we’re really pushing the in-season images right now because of their ability to help the grower protect their investment by addressing pest and nutrient deficiency challenges. Alto-gether, we have the largest in-season imagery program in the country.”

Though precision agriculture has been a focus of the Co-op system since the early days of GPS guidance on the farm, the R7 Tool is allowing growers to take advantage of this technol-ogy like never before, says Alan Sparkman, Tennessee Farmers Cooperative agronomy market-ing manager.

“TFC has been involved in precision ag for nearly 20 years now, but we’ve never used satellite imagery like we are now,” says Alan. “The R7 Tool is a new platform, something that no one else in our region offers, and WinField is contin-ually adding functionality and resources to make it an even more valuable data manage-ment tool. It’s important that our people get involved early so they can take full advantage of it now and in the future.”

Growers Jimmy Herndon and son Matthew, who raise 2,000 acres of corn, soybeans, and wheat in DeKalb County, are hoping to find out firsthand just how much the R7 Tool can benefit their operation.

“We’ve owned variable-rate technology for several years and haven’t used it to its full poten-tial,” says Jimmy. “Now, with the help of the Co-op, we’ve been able to put our precision planting equipment to use, and we’re going to variable-rate our nutrients as well. Basically, we

want to improve our yields and make smarter decisions about our inputs.”

The Herndons enrolled 90 acres of corn in the Advanced Acre program for 2014, select-ing one of the more challenging fields that they farm, says Jimmy. Based on satellite imagery and soil-type maps, the R7 Tool helped them identify four dis-tinct zones within the field and generated prescriptions for four different plant populations based on the potential of each zone.

“We picked this field on purpose because it has a lot of variability,” he says. “We’ve got high red ridges and low fertile settlement basins. On the back-side we’ve got a lot of eroded-type property. It’s going to be a real test for these different populations.”

During the growing season, updated satellite imagery can be used to narrow down prob-lem areas and use NutriSolu-tions tissue analysis to identify the need for crop protection or nutrient applications, says Win-Field Master Agronomy Advisor Jack Christian, who works in conjunction with the Co-op to put the R7 Tool in action for area growers like the Herndons.

“If we start seeing problem areas, we can go to that par-ticular spot in the field and pull some samples,” he explains. “In a 90-acre field, you’re never go-ing to be able to walk every inch of it. But with this program, you can pinpoint the exact spot and see what’s going on.”

Though the outcome of these practices won’t be known until harvest, Jimmy says he’s “excited” about the R7 Tool’s possibilities.

“With practice, it’s going to become easier, and we’ll gain more knowledge of how to use the variable-rate technology,” says Jimmy. “I’ve been wanting to get this going for a while, and it’s good that the Co-op is offering this for us.”

In neighboring Cannon County, HH&R Farms’ Danny Powell is also trying the R7 Tool with 115 acres of corn in hopes of taking full advantage of existing precision agriculture tech-nology in his family’s 2,800-acre row-crop operation.

“After we looked into the program and the cost, we felt like it was worth giving it a shot,” says Danny, who is joined in the operation by wife Darlene and their children, Ryan, Heather, and Holly. “We’ve got a lot of variability in our fields — from high rolling hills to good bottom grounds. Our equipment has the capabil-ity to do the variable rate, and so does the Co-op’s equipment, so all I have to do is overlay their guidance with mine.”

For the 2014 season, the Powells used the R7 Tool to generate variable-rate prescrip-

tions for both seeding and fertilizing.

“We’re putting the plants and the plant food, as needed by zones,” says Danny. “We’re hop-ing to gain a little more yield in the better parts of the field by having a higher population, and in the less productive areas we can do better with a lower pop-ulation because it doesn’t have the capability to utilize as many plants. We’re doing the same thing with our fertilizer — not putting as much input cost into the ground that may only make 150 bushels, if we’re lucky, and run that up into the 200-bushel range in good areas.”

lDeKalbCounty

LEFT: Brandon Whitt, with daughter Mary Corinne, is working with Rutherford Farmers Cooperative to implement the R7 Tool’s crop production insights with the precision-guided equipment that he and father-in-law John L. Batey use on their 1,800-acre diversified farm. RIGHT: Rutherford County-based growers Glen Hutchinson, left, and son Will have been using precision agriculture equipment for several years but say they hope the R7 Tool will allow them to take full advantage of the technology.

With the variability in his Cannon County fields, Woodbury’s Danny Powell says he believes the R7 Tool will help make best use of farm inputs.

(See R7 Tool, page 10)

lCannon County

10 July 2014

(continued from page 9)R7 Tool

Rutherford County-based growers Will Hutchinson and his father, Glen, who raise 3,300 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, and alfalfa, are also eager to see the results of using precision planting prescriptions with the 50-acre field they en-rolled in the R7 Tool program this year.

“We tapped into several years’ worth of history on this 50 acres, and we were able to be a lot more educated on the front end,” says Will. “It takes a lot of the guesswork out of the decision-making. I’m anxious to get the combine in the field, compare yield maps, and then make an evaluation for next year.”

Although the Hutchinsons have been using precision-capa-ble equipment for several years, Will calls the R7 Tool “the miss-ing piece of the puzzle.”

“This technology is going to be really important moving forward and may be a real op-portunity to save money and make money,” he adds. “The quicker we can get it under our belt and get rolling with it, the better off we’ll be mov-ing forward.”

Taking full advantage of precision technology is what led Rutherford County’s Bran-don Whitt, who farms with his father-in-law, John L. Batey, to use the R7 Tool’s features on three fields of corn totaling 130 acres. Brandon says GPS-

guided equipment is used in every aspect of Batey Farms’ crop production, which con-sists of 1,800 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, and milo along with hay and a pick-your-own strawberry patch.

“Profit opportunities in ag-riculture are good with prices the way they are, but at the same time, the opportunity for loss is much greater than it used to be,” says Brandon. “I want to equip our farm with technology that helps us take advantage of every acre. Why waste money on land that’s not going to produce and take away from land that will? That’s the biggest reason we decided to go this route.”

Brandon says precision technology and resources like the R7 Tool are allowing him and other farmers to be smarter about how they use their crop inputs, which not only protects their investment and improves potential for

profitability but also promotes more environmentally friendly farming practices. That’s especially important, he says, in the highly populated area where his family farms near Murfreesboro.

“I believe that it’s important to put our fertilizer and chemi-cals where they need to be and at the rate we need to apply,”

says Brandon. “It is really a compliment to the Co-op sys-tem for being on the forefront of technology and providing this opportunity to individual farmers. It can make all of us more efficient and better stew-ards of the land.”

For more information on the R7 Tool, visit with the agrono-my experts at your local Co-op.

The R7 Tool can generate prescriptions that allow growers to take advantage of variable-rate fertilizer applications, like this nitrogen being spread by Rutherford Farmers Cooperative in DeKalb County. This practice allows plant nutrients to be varied according to the yield potential in different management zones of the field as identified by the R7 Tool.

lRutherford County

The R7 Tool iPad app debuted for the 2014 season and makes the program more convenient for agronomists and their growers. Here, WinField’s Jack Christian shows how the app allows the zone maps to be imported into the Google earth satellite imagery website for pinpointing a GPS location within the field.

July 2014 11

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Won’t spook your cattle!

“Sum of US,” a colorful, multipurpose booklet that was distributed at Tennessee Farm-ers Cooperative’s 2013 an-nual meeting, has been named “Publication of the Year” by the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA), an organi-zation of professional commu-nicators who work for various types of co-ops in the U.S. and Canada.

Awards were presented at CCA’s 2014 Institute May 31-June 3 in Pittsburgh, Pa.

The top publication award was one of 10 given to members of TFC’s communications staff in the competition that attract-ed 678 entries.

“Sum of US,” an effort of the entire TFC Communica-tions Department, drew high praise from the judge, who said, “The color graphics and photos are fabulous … [publication] showed great font choice and usage and featured a nice paper choice.” Senior graphic design-er Shane Read led the design effort for the winning project.

On its way to capturing the top honor, “Sum of US” first won its class for brochures, pamphlets, and one-time pub-lications that had budgets of more than $5,000.

This marks the fourth time in five years that the yearly booklet, which doubles as TFC’s annual report and an informa-tional/promotional piece for the entire Co-op system, has won CCA’s top award for publica-tions. The 2010, 2011, and 2012 versions were also top winners in the competition.

Communications specialist Chris Villines, who was elected to the CCA board of direc-tors at the Pittsburgh institute, came home with a total of four awards, including two first-place finishes in writing competition. The first was in the featurette category for “Thank You, Mr. Jernigan,” a moving tribute to Donald Jernigan as he com-pleted his term on the TFC’s board of directors and his year as board chairman. The short feature ran in the January 2014 Tennessee Cooperator.

Chris also took top honors in the corporate public relations competition for his March 2014 story, “Ultimate Complement,” which detailed how forage and feed work together in Landon and Cindy Backus’ highly suc-cessful equine operation in Blount County.

“New life,” a dramatic photo of a just-born lamb being intro-

duced to its mother by Clinton farmer Joe Hall, earned Chris a second-place award in the photo feature category. It ran in the April 2013 Cooperator.

Chris had another winner in that April issue of the publica-tion, too — a third-place finish in technical writing for “Per-fecting Their Graft,” a detailed account of an unusual work-

shop that focused on pruning and grafting apple trees.

The versatility of Allison Morgan as a communicator was reflected in three awards the Communications Department

TFC’s annual report/promotion booklet is CCA’s top publication‘Sum of US’ wins it all

July 2014 13

manager and Cooperator editor received, including first place in headline writing. “Gray Heirs” was the fitting title she gave to her April 2013 Cooperator fea-ture centered around Matthew Gray’s happy — and welcome — return to the family farm in Obion County.

Allison’s “Kid & Lamb,” a shot of 5-year-old Milly Koop petting a sheep on the fam-ily’s Cornersville farm won third-place honors in the photo feature competition. She also

As has been the case each year since its inception more than three decades ago, the 2014 Milan No-Till Field Day on Thursday, July 24, in West Tennessee is expected to at-tract hundreds of farmers who are interested in learning the latest research results on cur-rent agricultural topics — from row crops and beef cattle to unmanned aerial systems and natural resources management.

Sixteen tours are on the agenda for this year’s event, billed by promoters as “one of the most far-ranging agricul-tural field days in the nation.” The first tour departs at 7 a.m. and the final at 1 p.m. Topics include cover crops, soil man-agement, and no-till production of corn, cotton, and soybeans. Visitors can see crop variety demonstrations, learn how to plan for the future of their farms, and even assemble meals for local food banks.

The field day also features a huge trade show, which will include Tennessee Farmers Cooperative among the exhibi-tors. Co-op livestock handling equipment will also be featured in beef cattle demonstrations.

Field day visitors can also browse the West Tennessee Agricultural Museum, which features an extensive collection of agricultural artifacts.

For more information, including directions to the field day site at the University of Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center at Milan, visit http://milan.tennessee.edu, call 731-686-7362, or check out the Milan No-Till Facebook page.

Milan No-Till returns July 24

Miraco Automatic Livestock Waterers for Every Tennessee Producer

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Experience the All New i Series Energizer Systemi Series Fence Energizers carry a powerful shock, but they also monitor your fence performance, informing you of any voltage drops or issues so immediate action can be taken. These energizers come packaged with a controller that allows fence information to been seen in a convenient location up to 160’ away from the energizer.

An i Series Energizer and Controller when coupled with add-on products like the i Series Fence Monitor and Fence Remote offer unmatched performance, productivity and peace of mind. The optional SMS Controller will even send text alerts to your phone notifying you of an issue with your fence.

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Think clean, fresh water at the right temperature all year long - and you can have all this without electricity in select models!

Miraco waterers meet TN NRCS cost share standards. Most models now available to all Tennessee Farmer Co-op locations. Visit your nearest Co-op location to learn more.

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teamed with Mark Johnson, a member of the Cooperator staff at the time, to capture second-place honors in the photo illustration category for “Chicken Feta Pasta,” which accompanied the April 2013 “What’s Cookin’?” column.

Rounding out TFC’s list of CCA awards, the Communi-cations Department placed second in the social media category with TFC’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest sites.

On hand to accept Tennessee Farmers Cooperative’s award for “Publication of the Year” at the 2014 Cooperative Communicators Association Institute on June 2 in Pittsburgh, Pa., are, from left, Sarah Geyer, Allison Morgan, and Chris Villines.

14 July 2014

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An auction isn’t your last resort. It’s the bestway to get market value or more for the land,

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The Can Cooker Jr. (#6804811) is a unique outdoor cooking de-vice that allows you to cook a lot of food without a lot of work. Best of all, Can Cooker Jr. works on any heat source: campfire, camp or propane stove, charcoal or gas grill, turkey fryer, stove top, etc., and it’s easy to clean up. All this makes Can Cooker Jr. ideal for camping, hunting, fishing, tailgating, family gatherings, picnics, or any outdoor get-together. Because Can Cooker Jr. cooks with steam, it’s also healthy. The unit’s revolutionary one-piece “shouldered” design creates convection, which circulates the steam for faster cooking. The circulating steam also helps keep food from sticking to the inside of the Can Cooker Jr., making clean-up remarkably easy. Food that comes out of Can Cooker Jr. is fresh, flavorful, and maintains its natural flavor better than that from other forms of cooking because the steam does not leach away the flavors and nutrients. Everything comes out tender and tasty, never dry. Because Can Cooker Jr. is so easy to use (load it, place it on the heat source, and wait about an hour) you can play or socialize instead of cooking the meal. Can Cooker Jr. has all the features of the original Can Cooker, with its smaller 2-gallon capacity.

Use this Bayou Classic 14-inch Dual-Burner High-Pressure Cooker with Extension Legs to prepare delicious and memora-ble meals outdoors. The cooker features dual cast-iron burners, each accommodating a large stockpot. Extension legs will raise the cooktop surface to a height of 25 inches, eliminating bending and stooping while you cook.

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Boost the health, appearance, and ecology of your pond by using Pond Booster in the spring and fall. Pond Booster is a combination of blue pond dye and specialized beneficial bacteria designed to work in colder water.

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Bayou Classic Dual-Burner Cooker

July 2014 15

®�New at Co-op

Henke/Buffalo Model 5540 Feedyard Scraper

DynaZap Extendable Insect Zapper

Winntec 420300 3-Ton Garage Jack

The Model 5540 Feedyard Scraper is designed for the needs of those feeders utilizing medium-horsepower tractors but who still require tough, versatile equipment capable of getting the job done. Available in 10-, 12-, and 14-foot widths, each comes standard with a curved cutting blade and replaceable, rugged side blades.

The DynaZap (#6804813) is different from other fly swatters and racket zappers due to its extend-able handle and telescopic head. The head bends in multiple directions, making it easy to kill bugs in hard-to-reach areas like walls and ceilings. Light-weight and easy to use, the DynaZap has a safety switch that electrifies the grid only when turned on. It is effective against mosquitoes, flies, wasps, and other insects on contact without leaving a smudge or smear to clean up. It also folds com-pactly, making it easily portable for everyday use.

Winntec 420300 3-ton Garage Jack (#68143) is equipped with the TURBO LIFTER system, rubber saddle, and handle bumper. The pump pistons (protected with a jacket to prevent intrusion of dirt) are placed at a 45-degree angle, so a complete pumping stroke will al-ways be utilized. The jack has a chrome main ram.

Features:• Strong, rectangular-tube steel construction• Tilt axle and side blades allow the operator to precisely control the cutting pattern• Full, 20-inch dump height clearance• Versatile and easily maneuverable in enclosed feedyards• Two double-beveled, curved blades per scraper allow effective cutting in all soil conditions• Designed to be pulled with 125-225-h.p. tractors• Great for cleaning feedyards, removing snow, maintaining driveways, and many other uses

16 July 2014

Neighborly AdviceGarden

Toma-toes are

consistently considered the most popular vegetable in American gardens. Ev-eryone has a different

idea about which variety is best. Some people like them yellow, orange, or even purple. Some like them as big as a softball or as small as a dime. Luckily, there are more than 700 differ-ent varieties in cultivation today.

After weeks of fertilizing, wa-tering, and watching for insects and disease, July is the time when everyone is competing to have the first ripe tomato. Will you have bragging rights this year? It is time to harvest when the tomato turns red, pink, or yellow, depending on the variety.

The color should be even. Ripe red tomatoes do not have green on one side. If it is a little soft when squeezed or in between firm and soft, it’s time to pick.

Tomatoes ripen from the inside out. If it looks ripe on the outside, it will be ripe on the inside. Tomatoes need warmth to ripen, not light, so they will continue to ripen even on cloudy days. Never refrigerate fresh tomatoes. This can spoil the flavor and texture that make up the garden tomato taste.

The two major categories of tomato varieties are heirloom and hybrid. Heirloom vegetables refer to any type of seed that has been grown for a number of years and passed down from gardener to gardener. Heirloom plants are “open-pollinated,” which means the plants are pol-linated naturally. Plants grown from heirloom seeds may not be as predictable as hybrid plants, but many gardeners prefer the

flavor and appreciate that it is preserving a vegetable’s heritage.

Hybrid plants are created when breeders cross-pollinate different plants to maximize their best features, such as yield, size, resistance to disease, and taste. Hybrid plants are not likely to produce a new generation with the same qualities. The majority of the time, the second genera-tion may look something like one of the parent plants used to create the hybrid. Hybrids tend to be reliable and produce more uniform vegetables in abundance without losing flavor.

If you have grown an heir-loom tomato, you can save seeds for next season. First, wash an heirloom tomato and then cut in half across the middle. Gently squeeze tomato seeds and juice into a labeled glass or plastic container. Fill them half full and set out of direct sun in an area where you will not be bothered by the odor or fruit flies. Allow

Time to harvest, enjoy garden tomatoesthe seed mixture to sit until the surface is partially covered in whitish mold. Scrape it off, being careful not to remove the seeds. Fill the container with water, and the good seeds will sink to the bottom. Discard the floating seeds and pulp. Repeat until the good seeds are clean. Pour them into a strainer, rinse, and drain. Lay the seeds on a plate for a few days to dry.

Now that your tomatoes are ripening, consider how you want to use them. Besides enjoying them straight from the garden, there are ways to preserve that goodness year-round. Whole cherry tomatoes or slices of large tomatoes can be dried in a de-hydrator machine. Freezing and canning are also popular uses for fresh tomatoes. Check with your local Co-op or Extension office for advice on canning.

And, of course, don’t forget to share your tomatoes with friends and family! Happy harvesting.

Dawn Matlock

Home, Lawn, Specialty Product Manager

July 2014 17

Neighborly Advice Beef

So far this year,

we have experienced varied growing conditions for pas-ture and hay. With spring-calv-

ing herds, the season’s higher-quality forage often coincides with peak milk production and the beginning of grazing for young calves. As we transition into summer and our weather changes, so does the nutrient content of most forages. While lush, green grass may require no supplementation beyond high-magnesium mineral, summer grass often needs some nutri-tional help.

Though nutritional require-ments of beef cattle are well established, they do vary with

age, weight, sex, rate of weight gain, milking ability, and stage of production. However, for-age quality varies with species, season of the year, fertilization program, and rainfall. The value of growing forages as feed for livestock is constantly changing. Thus, sampling and subsequent testing to determine nutritional content become nec-essary. A basic forage test that defines crude protein, fiber, and estimated energy value, usu-ally as total digestible nutrients (TDN), is relatively inexpensive and may be facilitated through Co-op, Extension, or other trusted source. More sophisti-cated tests can also determine the concentration of vitamins, minerals, nitrates, and even certain toxins.

There are times when grow-ing forages will meet or exceed the nutritional requirements of cattle. Unfortunately, during the summer, this may not be the

case, especially for 2-year-old and 3-year-old cows, mature cows in peak lactation, and calves with excellent genetic potential for growth. While dry, pregnant cows on summer pas-ture may not require additional nutrition for maintenance, it may be necessary to supplement to improve body condition for breeding or calving. In times of drought, supplementation may prove invaluable, not only by maintaining body condition and performance, but also by serving to extend forage supply.

Often, cows enter winter in less-than-optimum body condi-tion because summer pasture alone was inadequate to main-tain body weight and produce milk for a nursing calf. It is much less expensive to maintain cows in optimum body condi-tion than to improve that condi-tion during late fall and winter.

To assure that the nutritional needs of your cattle are met

Help summer pastures produce more beefduring summer grazing, forage-test to discover your nutritional “base.” Then, use available resources to determine the nutritional requirements of your cows and/or calves. Consider your personal feeding style and design an appropriate supple-mentation program. Forage-based diets almost always re-quire supplemental phosphorus, and most forages are deficient in copper, zinc, and selenium. A salt-based vitamin-mineral sup-plement such as Co-op Supreme Cattle Mineral (#678) provides a nutritional cornerstone.

Rewards for monitoring forage quality and managing to get the most from summer grass should come in the form of increased weaning weights of calves and improved body condi-tion of your cow herd. Rely on the livestock experts at your local Co-op for help with a graz-ing and supplement program for your herd this summer.

Dr. Paul Davis

Director, TFC Feed and Animal

18 July 2014

When Randy Pitts joined his family for dinner one summer

evening in 1986, he knew he had the perfect part-time job for his and wife Mary’s 13-year-old son, Matthew.

Randy, principal of Kenton Elementary School at the time, had been asked by his secretary if he and Matthew, who had an affinity for antique tools and equipment, would be interested in the machines that her late uncle used to make brooms. She said no one in her family knew what to do with them.

“And, honestly, neither did we,” says Randy. “But with Matthew’s appreciation for an-tique tools, I wasn’t surprised when he responded, ‘Well, you get the equipment, and we’ll figure out how to make a broom.’”

And they did. Now, 28 years later, the father-son duo has made more than 15,000 old-fashioned, Shaker-style util-ity brooms. Matthew actually learned the craft from broom-makers at Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill, Ky., where he spent a day watching and prac-ticing.

“They explained the process and were very patient with him,” says Randy. “He even got to make three brooms. It was a first-class lesson in broom-making.”

With a work area built onto the backyard chicken coop

at the Pitts family’s Kenton home, Matthew set up shop and taught his father part of the process. Almost immedi-ately, the two were selling all the brooms they could make to family, friends, and neighbors.

Though the brooms were lovingly made by hand with the highest-quality broomcorn and antique equipment, Matthew sold them for the very reason-able price of $10 each until a few years ago when he upped the price to $12.

“I wanted to make the best broom out there for use, not for decoration,” stresses Mat-thew, acknowledging that many brooms just like his sell for much more. “You could price this broom at $40, but it’s go-ing to hang on a wall. When our customers buy a broom for $12, they’re going to use it, fall in love with it, and hopefully come back and buy another one.”

Kenton resident Jo Ann Reed has bought several dozen from Matthew over the years.

“One year I bought a bunch to give as Christmas presents,” says Jo Ann. “When Matthew

asked me what I was going to do with so many brooms, I an-swered, ‘Well, these I’m giving as gifts, and this one I’m going to fly around on!’

“All kidding aside, there’s really nothing like Matthew’s brooms. They’re the best.”

After perfecting his skills and getting the business rolling dur-ing his teenage years, Matthew continued to make brooms on weekends and holidays while attending the University of Ten-nessee at Knoxville.

“Matthew would come home from school and wind as many brooms as he could,” says Ran-dy, who recently retired after

l Kenton

For nearly 30 years, Kenton’s Matthew Pitts and his father, Randy, have been crafting handmade brooms together

LEFT: One of the final steps in the broom-making process is to comb out any remaining broomcorn seeds. “Can you imagine someone using that on a dog?” laughs Randy. ABOVE: Matthew, left, and Randy still use the antique equipment they bought 30 years ago. On the far wall of the broom shop, pictures from Matthew’s first lesson, along with framed newspaper articles, are displayed behind hanging finished brooms.

Story and photos by Sarah Geyer

A sweep dealEvery one of his handmade brooms has a hole in the handle for a reason, says Matthew Pitts — to remind the owner to hang it up between uses. Keeping the bristles off the ground when stored extends the life of the broom.

July 2014 19

and son. Matthew operates the wrapping table, attaching broomcorn with wire while spinning the handle and secur-ing the wire with nails. Then Randy places the broom in a press and stitches three rows, interweaving seven stitches for each row and combing out the bristles between each step.

With sewing complete, the broom’s end is trimmed, and the final step is to stand the broom upright. This test, Mat-thew explains, is the sign of a good broom.

“Quality means everything to me,” says Matthew. “I take pride in creating the best broom you’ll ever own.”

Filled with a collection of antique corn shellers, license

42 years as principal of Kenton and Ridgemont Elementary Schools. “Then I would sew them after school and on the weekends.”

After graduating in 1995 with a forestry degree, Matthew moved back to Obion County to work for Tyson Foods, where he serves as a quality assurance manager for the plant in Union City. He and his wife, Laura, also an educator, live in Troy with their two children, Mary, 10, and Daniel, 8.

“Once I got married and started my career and family, the broom-making slowed down some,” says Matthew. “But now that the kids are older, I’ve got-ten back into it.”

Over the years, Matthew and Randy sold their handmade wares at specialty shops and various events — including Collierville Arts on the Square, Paris Landing State Park Festi-val, and Davy Crockett Days in the town of Rutherford. At these festivals, the pair would often make brooms on site using an extra set of antique equipment they purchased to avoid moving their original set from the shop.

“Matthew would bring a bunch of brooms, and then we’d make them as fast as we could all day long,” explains Randy. “At most fes-tivals we’d leave with an empty truck and a list of orders.”

Nowadays, the Pittses, customers of Obion Farmers Cooperative’s Kenton branch, mainly make brooms by special order and can be found at one festival each year, the West Tennessee Agricul-tural Museum’s Fall Folklore Jamboree in Milan, where they’ve participated nearly every October since the event’s inception in the late 1990s.

The supplies need-ed for making this old-fashioned type of broom are simple — broomcorn, wooden handles, wire, and broom nails — but also scarce.

“Broom-making is a dying skill, so find-ing supplies has become more and more difficult,” says Mat-thew, explaining that he and his father now order from the R. E. Caddy Co. in North Carolina.

Equipment needed to make the broom is also simple — a wrapping table or winder, press, cutter, and comb. The Pittses still use the machines they ac-quired from Randy’s secretary years ago, but they’ve added to their collection through the years, often discovering parts in old barns and sheds.

“Most people have no idea what the equipment is,” laughs Randy. “We found a broom comb a few years back being used on a dog.”

The broom-making process is a team effort between father

plates, and Matthew’s first brooms, the broom shop holds many memories for both father and son. Often working together in silence, Matthew and Randy have a unique bond built on nearly three decades of their beloved hobby.

“We always had an affinity for the old crafts, old tools, and the old way of doing things, so when the broom-making opportunity came along, we had to try it,” Mat-thew explains. “We just con-tinue to do it all these years because we enjoy creating something useful.”

For more information on the Pitts family’s brooms, call Matthew at 731-536-6148 or Randy at 731-749-5287.

LEFT: One of the final steps in the broom-making process is to comb out any remaining broomcorn seeds. “Can you imagine someone using that on a dog?” laughs Randy. ABOVE: Matthew, left, and Randy still use the antique equipment they bought 30 years ago. On the far wall of the broom shop, pictures from Matthew’s first lesson, along with framed newspaper articles, are displayed behind hanging finished brooms.

Randy, seated left, and Matthew, seated right, are flanked by family on the porch of their workshop. Just behind Randy stands his wife, Mary, and behind Matthew is his wife, Laura. On either end are Matthew and Laura’s two children: Mary, 10, left, and Daniel, 8, right.

LEFT: Making brooms is a team approach. Matthew uses the wrapping table and pedal to wrap wire, attaching the broomcorn securely to the handle. RIGHT: Randy steadies the broom in the press as he sews three rows, weaving waxed yarn carefully to create seven stiches per row.

20 July 2014

Story and photo by Allison Morgan

I n the age-old process of making Tennessee whiskey, the amber alcohol that goes

into distinctively labeled bottles is the prized product of the distillery as well as spirit-lovers around the world.

But Lynchburg livestock producer Jerry Ray prefers what doesn’t go into those bottles. He’d rather have the leftovers.

The Bedford Moore Farmers Cooperative member uses wet stillage — the residual material that remains after the whiskey fermentation and distillation processes have been completed — as a key ingredient in the ration for the 400 or so steers he’s backgrounding at any given time. This liquid form of still-age is mostly water with a small percentage of nutrient-dense solids from the sour mash mix of corn, rye, and malted barley used in whiskey production.

Jerry and son Chris trans-port one or two loads of stillage daily from the local distillery on their 4,000-gallon tandem tanker truck and keep their feed troughs filled with the liquid, which has no alcohol content but does provide a reasonable amount of protein and some fat. What would normally be considered a waste product for the distillery is an important and economical feed source for his cattle, says Jerry.

“It’s a good thing for us,” he says. “The cattle love it. It puts gain on them quick. And the cost is practically nothing. The expense is really only in the transportation since we’re haul-ing mostly water.”

Just like the whiskey-making tradition, there’s nothing new about feeding cattle the byprod-

uct of grain alcohol production. Farmers have been doing that for generations. At the same time, livestock experts have long cautioned producers that be-cause of its nutritional deficien-cies stillage shouldn’t be used as the sole ration.

That’s why Co-op recently began offering a feed that works hand-in-hand with wet or dry stillage to replace the nutri-tion that has been removed at the distillery. This pelleted product, Co-op Stillage Booster (#94510), is specifically formu-lated with essential nutrients that stillage does not provide, explains Dr. Paul Davis, director of Tennessee Farmers Coopera-tive’s Feed and Animal Health Department.

“This is a classic case of taking what producers have on the farm and using our knowl-edge and ingredients to create a Co-op supplement that comple-ments their feeding program,”

says Paul. “Our emphasis is on what’s not there. Important nutrients are lost in the distill-ing process, so we put them back in to give the animal a total package.”

When distillers extract the alcohol from the grain mash, they remove a key source of energy, explains Rick Syler, TFC feed specialist who has worked closely with Jerry and other area producers to incorporate Co-op Stillage Booster into their opera-tions.

“What’s left in the distillers’ grains are just protein and fat, so this feed provides a source of energy along with a vitamin-mineral package and an additive to improve feed efficiency,” says Rick. “It basically turns an in-gredient into a balanced ration.”

Before Jerry began using the Co-op Stillage Booster nearly three years ago, his biggest concern with the wet stillage was bloat, likely caused by the amount of liquid the cattle were consuming — averaging 10 gallons per head per day. He was experiencing as much as 1 percent death loss from bloat-ing, which would usually strike cattle after they’d reached 800 pounds and were almost ready to go to market. Replacing some of that liquid with the dry feed appears to have alleviated this problem, he says.

“It’s not a gas bloat; it’s more of a liquid bloat, and the cattle don’t make it far when that happens,” Jerry explains. “When Co-op came up with this supplement, we pretty much eliminated the problem. I prob-ably only have one or two cases of bloating a year now.”

Besides solving this issue, Jer-ry says adding the Co-op Stillage

lLynchburg

Co-op Stillage Booster turns wet distillers’ grains into balanced ration for cattle

Wet stillage from a local whiskey distillery and a special Co-op supplement are key components of the feeding program for Chris Ray, above, and his father, Jerry, on their Lynchburg farm, where they background some 400 head of cattle.

Cattle at Ray Farms love the wet stillage, which is topdressed in the feeding trough with hay or straw and Co-op Stillage Booster pellets.

July 2014 21

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any flies. I can tell a big differ-ence.”

With the Co-op supple-ment taking care of both the nutritional deficiencies and fly control problems, Jerry says the advantages of low cost and high rate of gain outweigh any other drawbacks of using wet still-age. While the product may be considered an afterthought to the whiskey-makers, Jerry says it will stay at the forefront of his operation and help keep him and his cattle in good spirits.

“People ask me if the cattle

Booster has also improved the performance of his cattle and increased the profitability of his operation. Each week, he brings in a new load of calves — mostly steers weighing 550 to 600 pounds — purchased from the Tennessee Livestock Pro-ducers (TLP) market in Fayette-ville. The incoming calves get Co-op 15% Pelleted Low-Stress Beef Starter A+B (#94284) and Co-op Balancer IGR Cattle Mineral-RUM (#96501) for about a week, and then they are introduced to the Co-op booster pellets at a rate of 3 pounds per head per day top-dressed with hay or straw over an unlimited supply of stillage.

“The big thing about this beef supplement is the gain I’m see-ing,” says Jerry, who also raises 1,500 acres of corn, soybeans, and wheat and 200 acres of hay. “I was getting 1.8 to 2 pounds on my average daily gain before, and this has bumped it up to 2.5 to 3. So I’m rotating cattle a lot faster. I can turn three groups a year now, where I was just turn-ing two. The bloating was the No. 1 concern, but the added gain is a huge plus.”

The calves remain on the farm about four months, and Jerry’s goal is to add 300 pounds of gain before they are sold. He markets his cattle in tractor-trailerload lots through the TLP video auc-tion in Columbia once a month.

“One of the first things Jerry said when I showed him how much more they should gain on this feed was, ‘Wow! I can run more cattle through here, and I can run them through quicker,’” says Rick.

During fly season, Jerry also has the convenient option of adding ClariFly® feed-through larvacide to the Co-op Stillage Booster. Targeting horn flies, the most economically dam-aging pest for beef and dairy farms, the active ingredient in ClariFly kills the larvae before they can mature and breed, explains Rick.

“The cattle ingest ClariFly in their feed, and it comes out in the manure,” he says. “There, the fly larvae consume the ClariFly, and they never make it to the adult stage. When the cattle aren’t irritated by flies, it helps their average daily gain because they’re eating better and are under less stress.”

The stillage is especially prone to attract flies, says Jerry, but the ClariFly has virtually eliminated these blood-sucking pests.

“Before, there would just be swarms of flies around the feed troughs and all over the cattle,” he says. “Now, you hardly see

get drunk from the stillage, but no,” says Jerry. “There’s no alcohol. The distillery gets ALL of the alcohol out. But once the cattle get on it, they love it. It’s like they’re addicted to it. Now that we’ve added the Co-op pel-lets, I don’t have to worry about bloating, it’s cut down on the hay and mineral they eat, and I’m getting better gain. It’s just a good deal all the way around.”

For more information on Co-op Stillage Booster, beef feeds, or cattle minerals, visit with your Co-op livestock experts.

LEFT: Ray Farms employee Shawn Adams pours Co-op Stillage Booster pellets on top of the wet stillage and hay mixture, completing the ration. The Rays say that hand-feeding helps keep the cattle gentle. RIGHT: Jerry, left, and Chris say their cattle have had fewer health problems and make better gains since they added Co-op Stillage Booster to their feeding program.

Jerry, left, incorporated Co-op Stillage Booster into his feeding program three years ago at the recommendation of Rick Syler, center, Tennessee Farmers Cooperative feed specialist, and Mark Shelton, manager of Bedford Moore Farmers Cooperative’s Lynchburg store, where the Rays purchase their farm supplies.

22 July 2014

Buy the seed. Plant the crop. Nurture it along the way. Harvest it. And then

start the whole procedure again a year later.

Crop production is a pretty straightforward process, right?

Not so fast.What about the months be-

tween harvesting and planting, when the field lies dormant?

Crop experts and an increas-ing number of producers are realizing it’s important to keep soil activity going through late fall and winter in preparation for the next round of cash crops. And the way to keep the ground working, they agree, is by planting a mix of cover crops.

“Cover crops have so many benefits,” says Bryan Johnson, product manager in Tennessee Farmers Cooperative’s Seed Department. “Not only do they improve the nutrients in the soil and reduce soil compac-tion, but they also help lessen water runoff and nitrogen leaching, provide early-season weed control, add organic mat-ter to the soil, and help limit pests and diseases.”

Cover crops are nothing new, historically used to increase soil health and productivity. With advances in commercial fertil-izer technology in the 1960s, coupled with the investment of time and money that cover crops entail, their use fell by the wayside.

However, recent agricultural challenges such as drought, de-layed seeding, high input costs, longer growing seasons, and leaching concerns have more and more growers taking an interest in improving their soil quality through cover crops. Ac-cording to U.S. Department of Agriculture statis-tics, an estimated 1.5 million to 2 million acres of such crops were planted nation-wide in 2012.

Essary and Cherry Farms, a 3,500-acre corn and soybean operation in Milledgeville at the junction of

Chester, Hardin, and McNairy counties, is one example of the increasing number of Ten-nessee operations discovering — or, in this case, rediscover-ing — the advantages of cover crops.

“Back in the mid-’80s, we had a field full of Austrian peas and wheat with a few oats mixed in,” says Ricky Essary, who is partners on the farm

with son Kevin and son-in-law Jason Cherry. “We cut that for hay. My uncle, who had a bunch of cattle, gave that hay to them and said it was as good as he had ever fed. That’s the first notice that I took of cover crops, and I should have been more observant. I let it slip for several years.”

Four years ago, Ricky, Kevin, and Jason began introducing cover crops to their soil. Start-ing out with an experimental 20 acres of wheat and radishes in their first year, the First

lMilledgeville

Producers turn to cover crops to maximize soil quality, productivity

A cover crop blend that includes ryegrass, wheat, Jerry oats, and crimson clover grows thick at the farm of Gerald and Wayne Stephens in Henderson County. They planted this mix of cover crops behind soybeans to help conserve moisture, keep the soil protected over the winter into spring, and provide residue for the next row-crop season.

ABOVE: This is one of many purple top turnips that made up part of the cover crop mix at Essary and Cherry Farms in Milledgeville. RIGHT: From left, Kevin Essary, Ricky Essary, Jason Cherry, and Perry Hearn say they’ve seen poor crop ground make marked improvements with cover crop usage.

By Chris Villines

July 2014 23

Farmers Cooperative members were encouraged enough by the benefits that they have steadily increased their cover crop acreage and mix in each of the succeeding years. They primar-ily use Conservation Science Genetics products from Allied Seed, a forage production com-pany partly owned by Tennes-see Farmers Cooperative.

“We’ve been planting a five-way blend of crimson clover, Austrian winter peas, cereal rye or oats, Eco-Till radishes, and purple top turnips,” says Ricky. “The cover crops have helped put a lot of nutrients back in the soil, and with the majority of our ground being creek-bottom land, they’ve helped a whole lot with erosion, too.

“We’ve also noticed that the cover crops make the ground more mellow. When you’ve got something like radishes that grow 6 to 8 inches in the ground, it’s going to break up that soil. That makes it a lot easier on your equipment as opposed to hard ground.”

Natural Resources Conser-vation Service (NRCS) grazing specialist Greg Brann says that another way cover crops help the cause at Essary and Cherry Farms is by providing food for earthworms, which, in turn, further benefit the soil profile.

“Earthworm castings, or waste, are up to five times more fertile than the surrounding soil,” explains Greg. “And they improve water filtration rates and absorption rates, helping the soil to drain better. Less runoff means less watering and less erosion. Earthworms are a good sign of soil health.”

Another West Tennessean, Oakland’s John Sullivan, raises some 6,000 acres of corn, beans, wheat, and purple hull peas on his Fayette County farm. He also says he’s seeing an improvement in soil quality through his cover crops pro-gram, which currently encom-passes “between 800 and 1,000 acres” of cropland. A recent dig into the soil of one of his fields planted with cover crops revealed a thriving earthworm population.

“I put a mix of 10 pounds [per acre] of Eco-Till radishes and 20 pounds of Purple Boun-ty hairy vetch behind my corn, with the vetch doing well and the radishes going away prop-erly,” says John, a Mid-South Farmers Cooperative member. “We’ve really concentrated on putting out more cover crops the past three years. The first year we put out a mix of crimson clo-ver, Austrian winter peas, and vetch, but the vetch seemed to have better coverage and survivabil-ity, so we’ve stuck with it and added the radishes.”

Eco-Till radish is specifically designed for fall/winter cover crop applications. They are a popular choice for producers be-cause of their deep penetrating taproot and other benefits such as reduced soil compaction, improved nutrient recycling,

and increased organic matter in the soil.

Purple Bounty hairy vetch is a winterhardy, early-maturing variety developed for high nitrogen fixation — up to 200 pounds of nitrogen per acre by spring when planted in late summer. It forms ground cover slowly in the fall, but root devel-opment continues through the

winter with substantial growth in the spring.

“It’s amazing how vetch goes along with a crop that winter kills,” says Allied Seed Southern

sales representative Greg Aston. “With winter-kill, the vetch takes over and provides ground cover and subsequent growth in the spring.”

One of the main advantages that John says he’s seen from the vetch is its ability to over-power weeds.

“One of our fields was really bad with pigweeds, and the vetch provided the canopy and mat to suppress them,” he says. “It’s worked well. The first year we planted the vetch we didn’t think we were going to have much of a crop. But once it got warm and time to go to the field and plant, that vetch really took off.”

John, like Essary and Cherry Farms, is taking part in NRCS funding opportunities — such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) — available to eligible landowners who estab-lish cover crops on their land. He believes the combination of the incentives and the many benefits cover crops provide makes growing them well worth the effort.

“It literally pays for itself over time,” John says. “In my opinion, it’s just about ridicu-lous not to do it.”

At his family’s Century Farm in Gadsden, Matt Griggs

lOakland

LEFT: Gadsden corn, wheat, soybeans, and cotton grower Matt Griggs says his “big experiment” with cover crops holds great potential. RIGHT: John Sullivan, left, followed corn with Eco-Till radishes and Purple Bounty hairy vetch on this field at his Oakland farm. Here, he discusses his cover crops program with, from left, Mid-South Farmers Cooperative precision ag specialist Matt Sanders, Mid-South Farmers agronomist Davis Cocke, and Allied Seed Southern sales representative Greg Aston.

LEFT: Photographed in March, the Purple Bounty hairy vetch at John Sullivan’s farm starts to form a canopy on the ground, proof of its winter hardiness. RIGHT: Fast forwarding to May, John’s same vetch crop experienced rapid growth to further penetrate the soil.

(See Asset, page 24)

24 July 2014

(continued from page 23)Asset

admits that he’s “still learning” a lot about cover crops. The Crockett County grower mainly experimented with Eco-Till radishes on select acreage for two years before planting a mix of cover crops this past year on 600 of the 1,600 acres where he produces corn, soybeans, wheat, and cotton.

“Every acre that I grew corn on last year got a cover crop after it,” says Matt, a member of First Farmers Cooperative. “And then I planted a cover crop on one field of full-season beans that didn’t go into wheat, and it got a lot of residual nitrogen.”

Matt incorporated several different mixes in his fields to gauge the results, using some combination of Eco-Till radish-es, cereal rye, crimson clover, Austrian winter peas, Purple Bounty hairy vetch, and Jerry oats.

“I sowed one field with winter peas in November,” he says. “As soon as they started to sprout, I pulled a couple of plants up, and they already had nodules where they were pro-ducing nitrogen. What I’ve seen out of the winter peas, I like. With the clover, I like the root system. I’ve learned that with the radishes, you don’t want to plant them any later than the first of October. There just isn’t enough time to get good growth. And where I planted a mixture of rye and oats at 50 pounds per acre, it looked like a golf course.”

As part of his continuing edu-cation on cover crops, Matt says he’s discovered that they need to be treated “just like regular crops.”

“If you’re going to no-till them, then you need to make sure that field is burned down and weed-free,” he stresses. “Crops don’t like competition.”

Adding that his cover crops program is a work in progress, Matt says he’s committed to sticking with it for the long haul.

“You hear about things that are supposed to be great for your crops like irrigation, these magic foliar fertilizers, and everything else,” he says. “But I think cover crops are the way to go. I don’t have a single acre that is suitable for irrigation. If I can improve my field’s water-holding capacity, that’s an extra inch of water in the soil that comes in really big around Au-gust when it’s dry. The benefits of cover crops are not some-thing you can put a pencil to and figure out how much more you’ll be making, but you know it’s there.

“I expect it’s going to take at least 10 years of successful cover crop growing to really see a consistent improvement year in and year out. That’s my goal.”

For more information about Allied Seed’s cover crop variet-ies, visit www.alliedseed.com. To learn more about the EQIP and CSP financial programs for cover crop producers, visit your local NRCS office or online at www.nrcs.usda.gov.

Earthworms populate the soil at John Sullivan’s vetch/radish field, a surefire sign that the ground is healthy.

lGadsden

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26 July 2014

For 15 years, 4-H and FFA members in Gibson and surrounding counties have

been winning blue ribbons with the lambs they purchase from Farrow and Brenda Ward at Willow Oak Farms in Trenton.

And they have a border col-lie to thank for it.

In the early 1970s, the Wards, who were raising An-gus cattle on their 105-acre farm, read an article about how helpful a dog could be on the farm. So they bought a border collie.

When he and Brenda had difficulty finding a trainer, Farrow convinced a friend who had border collies to work with their pup for about a month. When he returned the dog to the farm, the friend suggested that Farrow get a flock of cull sheep to use while continuing the training process. That rec-ommendation sparked a new calling for the Ward family.

“They just fascinated me,”

said Farrow. “I got so inter-ested in learning about the sheep that I got rid of the cull flock and got some registered Suffolks instead.”

The Wards’ son, Lucas, also grew to love the sheep and be-gan showing Suffolks in open competitions alongside adults before he was old enough for junior shows.

“He was so young that he couldn’t see over the sheep,” laughs Brenda. “He had to get their legs set up and every-thing by working underneath the sheep because he couldn’t reach over them.”

After noticing the Wards’ dedication to their sheep, Mark Gregory, a neighbor and local high school agriculture teacher, stopped by to borrow Farrow’s grooming stand and clippers. Soon, Mark was asking

his new friend for a big favor: to raise club lambs for his FFA students.

“He said he was having a hard time finding sheep around here and had to go out of state to get market lambs,” says Farrow. “So I agreed, and since Lucas was almost the age to start showing in 4-H, it worked out nicely.”

The Wards started out on a small scale, raising just enough lambs for Mark’s students.

“I’d set a price, and he’d come out and buy the whole lot of them, letting the kids that showed at the most fairs pick out theirs first,” says Farrow.

When students from other

schools soon wanted to buy from the Wards, Farrow started holding silent auctions, fash-ioned after the Angus bull sales he’d attended. Over the years, the Wards have heard a lot of “thanks” from grateful students and their families, but the big-gest show of appreciation is their return business.

“We’ve never had a customer

l Trenton

Trenton’s Farrow and Brenda Ward are known for quality lambs and service after the sale

Samantha Wilkerson, kneeling left, and her ag teacher, Amber Harcrow, kneeling right, feed registered Cheviots at Willow Oak Farms in Trenton, while, from left in back, Savannah and Karen Allen, Ashley Johnstone, Taylor Barker, Michael Allen, and farm owners Farrow and Brenda Ward watch the feast.

Married in 1971, Farrow and Brenda have been raising lambs for 4-H and FFA members in their region for more than 15 years. Since Farrow retired from his 45-year career with Gibson Electric Membership Corporation, he has been able to fulfill his passion as a full-time shepherd.

Story and photos by Sarah Geyer and Gina Locke

July 2014 27

(See Blue-ribbon, page 28)

go anywhere else once they’ve bought one of our lambs,” a proud Farrow says.

Part of that loyalty undoubt-edly comes from the success their customers have had in the show ring.

“Every year since we started selling show lambs, we’ve had someone win a grand cham-pion,” Farrow says.

One of his former custom-ers, Taylor Barker, manager of Crown Vineyards in nearby Humboldt, still attends every auction with his fiancee, Kate-lyn Watt, also a former custom-er. Both are grand champion titleholders.

“When you look around the Gibson County Fair, you can tell which lambs are Ward lambs,” says Taylor. “They just look that good.”

Farrow, who recently retired after 45 years with Gibson Electric Membership Corpo-ration, prides himself on his selective breeding, buying his rams from the Midwest Stud Ram Sale in Sedalia, Mo., the largest sheep sale in the U.S. He also buys back his ewes

after each show season to be used as replacement ewes.

“Actually, Taylor is the reason I decided to buy them back,” Farrow says with a grin. “Taylor didn’t understand what was going to happen to his lamb, that it was going to market. So after his first show, when he went back to the hold-ing area and held his lamb, he had every woman in the room crying. And in that instant, I made a decision I’ve stuck with ever since — to buy back the ewes at market price.”

Ashley Johnstone, a class-mate of Taylor, who started showing club lambs in ninth grade, bought one every year from Willow Oak and won grand champion her junior year at Peabody High School in Trenton.

“I would still show if I weren’t too old,” she says.

These students have more in common than just their place of purchase. They were all part of an agricultural education program that helped them get involved in showing club lambs. Michael Allen, Mark Gregory’s

LEFT: The Wards, in rebuilding their registered flock, have begun raising Cheviots alongside their market lambs and commercial ewes, giving them some 30 head of sheep. RIGHT: Gary Lawson and wife Dannye are the “dynamic duo” of sheep-shearing. For Gary, who began shearing sheep in the late 1970s, this commercial ewe was the 18th he’d sheared on this particular day at Willow Oak Farms in Trenton.

LEFT: Savannah Allen, right, who has attended Farrow’s auctions since she was a toddler, looks forward to being old enough to show in junior competition next year. RIGHT: Four freshly sheared commercial ewes graze on a 40-acre portion of the 105-acre Willow Oak Farms, for which the Wards buy supplies from Gibson Farmers Co-op.

successor as FFA advisor at Peabody High School, is a long-time supporter of Willow Oak Farms.

“The Wards do have great-looking lambs, but they are also great people who help the kids through the entire show process,” says Michael, who has been bringing his daughters Karen, 16, and Savannah, 9, to the Wards’ auctions since they were toddlers. He has firsthand experience with the couple’s award-winning sheep — six of them, actually. Karen has

been showing lambs since fifth grade, and Savannah will soon follow in her footsteps.

“Last year, I got reserve grand champion at the Gibson County Fair with the lamb that I bought here,” says Karen. “Mr. Ward is so nice. He talks to you about each lamb and helps you pick out the one most suited for you.”

Farrow adds that Savannah couldn’t wait until she could show lambs, too.

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(continued from page 27)Blue-ribbon

After losing nearly a third of their herd to coyote attacks this year, Farrow and Brenda bought a pair of llamas, a species touted by ranchers in the West as highly effective guard animals, especially against wolves and coyotes.

“Each year she’d tell me how many years until she got to show,” he says. “Now, it’s ‘Next year!’”

Samantha Wilkerson, a freshman at South Gibson County High School and the FFA chapter secretary, recently bought her first lamb and, as a nervous newcomer, credits Far-row with making the experience a positive one.

“Mr. Ward was very help-ful,” she says. “He picked out a couple of really good lambs and showed me what to look for when picking out the one I wanted. He even gave me a free halter because I didn’t have anything to take her home with. That’s the one I’m still using.”

Her FFA advisor, first-year teacher Amber Harcrow, looks forward to help from Farrow when Samantha shows at the Gibson County Fair. Helping the students out during the show time is an annual ritual for the Wards.

“I go up there on Sunday afternoon when they weigh in and help them get situated and trimmed up,” Farrow says. “Then I go up the next day and help them make final touches on the sheep and then get lined up. I go to all the fairs and sup-port them.”

Farrow credits Gibson Farm-ers Cooperative in Trenton with his sheep success for two rea-sons: one, Co-op Show Lamb Feed with Bovatec (#93531), and two, employing Brenda for 30 years!

“The Co-op has been re-ally good to me,” says Farrow. “Each year they give me five bags of feed — some of the best ration I’ve ever used — to give away at my auction, and they provide me with enough halters for every lamb.”

Unfortunately, the number of kids showing lambs is dwin-dling because many students are choosing goats instead, ac-cording to Farrow and Michael. In fact, the demand was so small this year that the Wards decided not to hold an auction but to sell the lambs individu-ally.

However, as long as students are showing his lambs at the fair, Farrow says he’ll be there to provide help and support.

“I’m as proud of each of them as I was when my own child was competing,” he says. “I just love to see the pride on their faces as they walk out of the show ring with an award.”

For more information on Co-op’s sheep and lamb feeds, visit with your local Co-op professionals or visit online at www.ourcoop.com and click on “Product Catalog.”

July 2014 29

30 July 2014

blueberries

What’s Cookin’?

Clip, save, and serve

With its patriotically colored layers, Red, White, and Blue Trifle is the perfect dessert for summer celebrations. The recipe was submitted by Andrea Bolden of Unionville, our Cook-of-the-Month for July. — Photo and food styling by Allison Morgan

Though small in size, the blueberry is deeply rooted in our country’s history. In fact, the Blueberry Council says that

when Europeans arrived on the continent, Na-tive Americans were already enjoying blueberries year-round. And legend has it that the Indians graciously gave blueberries to the pilgrims to help them survive their first winter.

Folks in present-day America grow blueberries in 35 of our 50 states, supplying more than 90 percent of the world’s crop. High in nutritional value, blueberries are often included by experts in the top 10 list of healthiest foods. It’s no surprise, then, that July is proclaimed National Blueberry Month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

With Independence Day right around the corner, try Red, White, and Blue Trifle from Andrea Bolden, our Cook-of-the-Month for July. This artistic and colorful dish is both tasty and patriotically appropriate for the occasion.

Other recipes featured are Blueberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake, Bonnie Blue-barb Pie, Blueberry-Kiwi Flan, Coffee Break Blueberry Bread, Grilled Chicken Thighs with Blueberry Salsa, Chocolate Blueberry Turnovers, and Blueberry Ice Cream.

Enjoy!

What you will need: Directions:

Embrace your patriotic spirit with this North American native fruit

Blueberry Cream Cheese

Pound Cake

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1⁄2 cup vegetable oil1 (18-ounce) package yellow

butter cake mix1 (3-ounce) package instant

vanilla pudding mix4 eggs, beaten2 teaspoons vanilla extract2 cups fresh blueberriesPowdered sugar, optionalPreheat oven to 325º. Lightly

spray a 9-inch tube or Bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray and dust with flour.

Combine cream cheese and oil in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until smooth

Red, white, &

July 2014 winning recipeRed, White, and Blue Trifle

Andrea Bolden, Unionville, Marshall Farmers Cooperative

• 16 ounces whipped topping, thawed• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened• 7 ounces marshmallow creme• 1 tablespoon lemon zest• 2 tablespoons lemon juice• 1⁄2 cup confectioner’s sugar• 4 cups sliced strawberries • 1 (18-ounce) jar strawberry

jelly, heated until melted and slightly cooled

• 4 cups blueberries• 1 angel food cake, cut in cubes

Combine whipped topping, cream cheese, marshmallow creme, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Beat at medium speed with mixer until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioner’s sugar. Combine

strawberries with 1⁄2 jar of melted jelly. Combine blueberries with remaining jelly.

To assemble, layer 1⁄2 cream mixture in a large trifle or punch bowl. Top with 1⁄2 of cake cubes and all of blueberries. Top with remaining cream, cake, and all of the strawberries. If desired, top with dollops of whipped cream and a few berries.

July 2014 31

What’s Cookin’?

September is sweet with honey

Becoming more popular as a local agricul-ture commodity, honey has been recognized for years as a versatile ingredient and pantry staple that adds a touch of sweet, natural flavor.

That’s why we’re asking for honey recipes for our September “What’s cookin’?” column. The person submitting the recipe judged best will be named Cook-of-the-Month for August and re-ceive $10. Others sending recipes chosen for publication will receive $5. Each winner will also receive a special “What’s cookin’?” certificate.

Monday, Aug. 4, is the deadline for your honey 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 inde-pendently 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: amorgan@ourcoop.com. 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’?” col-umn will also be published on our website at www.ourcoop.com.

and creamy. Add cake mix, pud-ding mix, eggs, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until blended. Fold in berries (batter will be thick).

Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake 60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Yield: 6 servings. Martha Jean Burris

UnionvilleRutherford Farmers Cooperative

TBonnie Blue-barb Pie

11⁄2 cup fresh or frozen rhubarb, cut into 1⁄2-inch pieces

11⁄2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1 cup sugar1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour1⁄4 teaspoon salt2 tablespoons butter or

margarinePastry for 9-inch double-

crust pieIn a large bowl, combine

rhubarb and blueberries. (If us-ing frozen fruit, thaw and drain.) Combine sugar, flour, and salt. Sprinkle over fruit; toss lightly.

Line a 9-inch pie plate with pastry; add filling. Dot with butter. Top with a lattice crust. Bake at 450º for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350º. Bake 35 minutes longer or until golden brown.

Ester StoltzfusPembroke, Ky.

Montgomery Farmers Cooperative

TBlueberry-Kiwi Flan

Crust (makes two):1⁄2 cup granulated sugar1⁄2 cup confectioner’s sugar1⁄2 cup butter or margarine1⁄2 cup vegetable oil1 egg3 cups plus 2 tablespoons

flour1⁄2 teaspoon cream of tartar1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda1⁄2 teaspoon vanillaCream cheese filling:1 (8-ounce) package cream

cheese1⁄3 cup sugar1 teaspoon vanillaFruit layer:3 cups blueberries, washed

and drained

2 kiwi fruit, peeled and thinly sliced

Citrus glaze:1⁄2 cup water1⁄2 cup orange juice2 tablespoons lemon juice1⁄4 cup sugar1 tablespoon cornstarchMix crust ingredients together

until well blended. (If desired, substitute store-bought refriger-ated sugar cookie dough).

Grease two 12-inch pizza pans or tart pans with removable bottoms. Divide dough in pans; flatten with hands, dusting with flour if needed. Build up a slight rim around edges. Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes or until crust is golden brown; cool. Carefully remove one crust to a round plat-ter; freeze the other for later use.

Cream together cheese filling ingredients; spread on crust. Arrange blueberries and kiwi in decorative pattern.

Combine glaze ingredients in saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook one minute; cool. Spread over fruit; refrigerate until serving.

Yield: 16-20 servings.Barbara Troxler

NormandyBedford Moore

Farmers Cooperative

TCoffee Break

Blueberry Bread

1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed

1 egg1⁄2 cup sugar1 teaspoon vanilla8 ounces cream cheese,

softened2 cups fresh or frozen blue-

berriesCrumble mixture:1 cup flour1⁄2 cup butter or margarine1⁄2 cup sugarGlaze:2 cups powdered sugar1 teaspoon vanilla3 to 4 tablespoons milkRoll out dough on a lightly

greased 13-x-18-inch jelly roll pan. Beat egg and add sugar, vanilla, and cream cheese. Beat together; spread on dough. Sprinkle blueberries over cream cheese mixture.

Combine crumble mixture ingredients; mix together until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of the blueberries. Bake at 350º for 30-40 minutes or until edges are lightly golden. Cool 10 minutes, then top with glaze.

Combine glaze ingredients. Drizzle over top. Serve warm. Refrigerate leftovers.

Yield: 20-24 servings.Ester Hostetler

BradfordGibson Farmers Cooperative

TGrilled Chicken Thighs with Blueberry Salsa

10-12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1⁄2 cup vinaigrette dressing2 cups blueberries, washed

and coarsely chopped1⁄3 cup green onions, chopped1⁄2 red pepper, chopped fine1 jalapeño pepper, minced1⁄2 cup chopped cilantro1⁄3 cup lime juice1⁄3 cup olive oilSalt and pepper to taste Rinse chicken and place in

a zip-close bag. Add vinaigrette dressing and marinate 1-2 hours in refrigerator.

Combine remaining ingredients in a medium bowl; refrigerate.

Grill chicken until well done. Top with blueberry salsa.

Yield: 4-6 servings.Mildred H. Edwards

LebanonWilson Farmers Cooperative

TChocolate Blueberry

Turnovers

1 (8-ounce) package cres-cent dinner roll dough

3⁄4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, divided

1⁄2 cup canned blueberry pie filling

Preheat oven to 375º. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Unroll dough; separate into four rectangles. Cut off corners to form ovals. Top each with 2 table-spoons pie filling and 1 tablespoon chocolate chips. Fold dough over filling. Press edges to seal. Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool. Melt additional chocolate and drizzle on top.

Linda BainBethel Springs

Mid-South Farmers Cooperative

TBlueberry Ice

Cream

3 cups mashed blueberries1⁄2 cup sugar2 tablespoons lemon juice22⁄3 cups sugar4 eggs7 cups half & half2 teaspoons vanillaMash blueberries; sweeten

with 1⁄2 cup sugar. Add lemon juice. Refrigerate overnight.

In a large saucepan, combine 22⁄3 cups sugar and eggs. Add half & half and heat slowly for 12-15 minutes over medium heat until hot, but not boiling, stirring constantly. Cool. Add vanilla and the blueberries. Freeze in a 1-gallon ice cream freezer.

Mabel YoderGuthrie, Ky.

Montgomery Farmers Cooperative

32 July 2014

July 2014 33

34 July 2014

Guiding his farm Jeep down a precariously narrow stretch of Han-

cock County backroad, Tom Visser points to a field full of fruit trees grown at his Circle V Farms.

“There’s an assortment over there,” he says as a neighbor carefully eases his truck by on the other side of the road. “Some have worked, and some haven’t. Apples and peaches are doing good.”

It was fruit, specifically cit-rus, that led Tom to uproot from his native South Africa for the U.S. in 1990.

“Everybody back home thought I had lost my mind,” he says. “My father was a farmer, and I was his only son. My ancestors came to South Africa in 1674. I could see no future and no security there, however. I wanted to be in the U.S.A.”

Schooled in agricultural engineering, Tom was active in the citrus industry in Africa, so Florida is where he and his family settled when they moved to America. He worked closely with growers and even devel-oped a mechanical harvester that “can remove two tons of oranges per minute.”

But he longed for an agri-cultural lifestyle that took him beyond the orange groves and allowed for the establishment of a farming operation for himself, wife Estie, and their six children (three of whom were born in the U.S.). Tom’s search for a place to build this family farm led him in 1998 to an unkempt, 20-acre tract just north of Sneedville at the Tennessee-Virginia border.

“I found the cheapest land in the United States,” Tom says matter-of-factly as he sits on the deck of the neatly appointed farmhouse he and his family built. “It had been farmed in

American dreamEvery Farmer Has A Story Tom Visser

South African native Tom Visser enjoys the challenge of making his family’s diversified Hancock County farm more productive

Story and photos by Chris Villines

the past, but it was completely neglected and overgrown with weeds. I couldn’t afford anything else at the time, so I just figured, ‘Well, I like to be outside.’ And I liked Tennessee from the start because it wasn’t like Florida, where it stays hot most of the time, or up North where it gets too cold. It’s somewhere in the middle. You get all four seasons here.”

Though Tom still maintains a Florida address and has a stake in the citrus industry through his mechanical harvesting busi-ness, Circle V Harvesting, he and his family now devote the bulk of their attention to Circle V Farms.

Sons Riaan, 29, and Richardt, 25, both of whom are married, and Rebekah, 19, work full time with their father while Ronel, 27, is a stay-at-home mom to her and her husband’s six children. Reuben, 17, and Rachel, 15, like their siblings before them, are homeschooled, juggling their as-signments with farm work.

Each of the Vissers is fluent in Afrikaans, a language spoken in South Africa that’s akin to Dutch. When working on the farm, they often communicate with each other in their native language.

“Even my two daughters-in-law, both Tennessee natives, can speak Afrikaans now,” Tom says

with a smile. “They’re very proud that they have learned a second language. It’s an achievement for them.”

From its modest beginnings, the operation has grown to 650 acres and includes 180 head of Angus and Charolais beef cattle, a flock of Katahdin sheep, tur-keys, chickens, corn, wheat, soy-beans, hay, and fruit trees. The Vissers are members of Hancock

Farmers Cooperative, where they purchase feed, farm inputs, crop protectants, and other supplies.

“If the citrus industry in Flor-ida keeps going into decline like it is, we’ll have to abandon the orange-harvesting business alto-gether,” says Tom. “I don’t have a problem with that. I always knew that I would want to be here full time one day anyway.”

Admitting that the “wheels are always turning” on ways to optimize the farm’s productivity, the innovative farmer says he’s is taking a vertical approach to what’s ahead for Circle V.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I’ve also made a lot of progress,” says Tom, who has put his ag engineering smarts to use on the farm by creating machines such as a combination soybean roaster/corn cracker and converting school buses into silage transport trucks. “We’re to a point where we aren’t going to expand anymore because

we’re landlocked. So instead of expanding in width and length, we have to grow in a vertical plane and come up with some-thing new to market. To me, the answer is in processing.”

There’s already high de-mand for the farm’s processed meats. Stores such as Knox-ville’s Three Rivers Market, a community food co-op, stock Circle V heritage breed turkeys before Thanksgiving. And Tom has discovered that ethnic com-munities in larger metropolitan areas are good places to sell sheep. He’s trucked trailerloads of his flock to urban markets like Nashville and New York City.

Tom asserts that this ap-proach is all part of going the extra mile, adding value to Circle V’s farm products, and being creative in marketing.

“We have to be smarter as farmers,” he says. “The mo-ment we can start processing and take our commodities to a finished product, that’s where the money’s at. If you crunch your numbers, that’s the only op-tion we have. Instead of trying to rake in $200 an acre off of corn or beans, we’ve got to do some-thing so we can make $2,000 an acre.”

As Tom passionately shares this philosophy, he looks over at two of his grandsons busy at play. In all, the Vissers are blessed with 12 grandchildren, between the ages of 1 and 8. Appropriately, those old enough to talk speak both English and Afrikaans.

“We’re growing our own crew for the future of this farm,” Tom says. “We need the infrastruc-ture. I don’t want my children and grandchildren to go flip hamburgers — I want them to be here. And if you teach them to have a backbone and a desire to work, there are absolutely no limits as to how successful they can be.

“That’s one of the things I like so much about this country.”

Agricultural engineer Tom Visser, left, points out features of the combination soybean roaster/corn cracker he created for his multi-faceted Sneedville farming operation, Circle V Farms, to Hancock Farmers Cooperative Manager Joe McDaniel.

lSneedville

July 2014 35

Every Farmer Has A Story

Tom, at right standing in front of one of Circle V’s silage trucks (all of which in a prior life were school buses), doesn’t need to look around to find good help on the farm. He says he’s proud of the contributions made each day by sons, from left, Reuben, Riaan, and Richardt and daughters Rebekah and Rachel (not pictured). Another daughter, Ronel, completes the lineup of the all-R first- name Visser siblings and stays busy tending to her six children.