It’s National Agriculture Week!

Editor’s Note: In honor of National Agriculture Week, which is celebrated on March 16-22, Wheeler County Schools Agriculture Teacher Hannah Henry Snively shares an overview of some of the cornerstone agricultural businesses in the county.

This week is National Agriculture week, a week set aside to celebrate our nation’s number one industry. I’ve heard all my life that agriculture was about cows, sows, and plows. In today's world, agriculture is so much more than that! Our top three agricultural commodities here in Wheeler County are timber, cotton, and watermelons. I reached out to a few of our families that own agriculture businesses to ask them some questions about their businesses.

Carey Locke, owner of Locke Logging, started his business in 1988. His company purchases pine and hardwood trees to harvest. Sometimes they also purchase land. Mr. Locke says his company takes pride in merchandising wood and taking care of the land. He says the biggest challenge he faces right now is quota and the pulpwood market because the market has been flooded due to all the storm wood. His tip for future loggers is, “Always be honest and work hard. Be smart with your money and always be honest with everyone you deal with. Gain people’s respect and they will want you to cut their timber.” Carey Locke, age 68, is a well-respected member of our community and a supporter of Wheeler County FFA.

It’s almost spring; flowers are beginning to bloom. The grass is turning green, and plants are coming out of their long slumber from winter. Troy Windham, age 42, from Windham Greenhouses, Inc., outside of Glenwood gets to see beautiful flowers every day when he goes to work, even in the winter. Windham’s parents, Larry and Janie Windham, started the business in 1979 shortly after graduating from the University of Georgia with horticulture degrees. He says, “My wife, Rebecca, works with me, as well as my mother, Janie, and father, Larry.” At Windham’s Greenhouses, they grow annuals, Perennials, Ornamentals, “A little bit of everything.” Windham says increases in the price of inputs relative to what is a reasonable price to charge for a quality plant are his biggest challenges in his business. He says what makes his business fun is that there are plants for every season of the year.

Bobby Browning, age 75, taught auto mechanics and worked in the transportation department in the Wheeler County School District for over ten years before he began Browning Straw Company in Alamo. Although he had farmed all his life while working other jobs, he says he purchased a Massey Ferguson 1100, a chisel plow, a set of four-row planters, and he rented about six acres to start growing corn in 1971. He also grew soybeans and some peanuts, and he baled pine and wheat straw. Browning says the most difficult part of farming and the straw business is that your input costs exceed that of your output. Browning recalls, “When I was a boy, diesel was a dime a gallon. In the late 90s-2000s, it was still 60 or 70 cents a gallon. It’s over $3.00 a gallon now. Petroleum is in everything and affects much more than just the price of diesel in farming. It’s true in the straw business, too.”

Browning says insurance is about eight times what it cost when he started too. Also, tags and tires have gone way up in cost. He purchased a new 1066 International in 1976 for $14,000. Today, he says the equivalent of that would cost $220,000. “You can’t hardly make it just farming anymore, you need a supplemental job.” Browning’s daughter, Allison Page, works with him as his office manager although she wears many different hats in Browning Straw Company. Browning says, “She does whatever she needs to do for the business.” His grandson, Tyler Bowen, also worked with him when he started the straw business. His grandson, Noah Page, works with him now. Leslie Bunnell, his daughter, worked with him for several years too.

Jewell Gillis, age 94 of Glenwood, says her late husband, Emmitt Gillis, established Gillis Farm in 1964 with just 150 acres and a one-row planter. She’s proud to tell he was the first Wheeler County resident to own a traveler and put in a pivot for irrigation. Gillis grew corn, cotton, peanuts, hogs, and cows. Jewell Gillis says, “You have to be dedicated like Mr. Emmitt was to farm. Start small and grow. Make the most of what you have and do what you love. Put every seed in the ground with the faith that God will make it grow. Always give back whatever you take- give to the soil, pay your tithes, give back to the farm, and share with others.”

Gillis won numerous awards for his high yielding crops. Many farmers in the area used to go to him not only for farming advice, but also for life advice. He was a cornerstone in the Wheeler County community for many years and his legacy lives on through the people whose lives he touched.

Agriculture is the basis of everything we do. It has been said, “If you ate today, thank a farmer.” I say, agriculture affects everything we do. So we shouldn’t only thank farmers, but we should thank everyone that works in the agriculture industry. We see your hard work. We see the long hours you put in. We appreciate you this week and every week. Happy National Agriculture Week!

BROWNING STRAW COMPANY – Bobby Browning works to bale peanut hay and straw.

LOCKE LOGGING – Locke Logging workers clear an area of timber.

WINDHAM’S GREENHOUSES – Windham’s Greenhouses has been a staple of Wheeler County agriculture for decades.