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North Carolina Farm Profits From Cash Crops, Innovation And Quality Equipment


Balancing Crops To Demand And Rotation Guides Scott Brothers Farms Toward Growth BRAD ROBB


home to their Lucama, NorthCarolina family farm after earning degrees from NC State University in 2016, they planted 18 acres of sweet potatoes.


W T


tucky Hay Contest has helped the re- gion’s forage and livestock producers improve their opera- tions. The contest, which is a free program of


F


COLLIERVILLE, TENN. hen


Wyatt and Frank Scott


brothers returned


This year, 200 acres of the root vegetablewill be hand harvested off of 46” beds and they have plans to build infrastructure to ex- pand even further. It has become the farm’s number two cash crop behind to- bacco. The family, which in-


cludes their father, Joey, their uncle, Gary, and


their mother, Tricia, also produces 700 acres of cot- ton, a little wheat, 700 hundred acres of two vari- eties of soybeans (an early group 6 and a group 7 they contract for seed), and corn if the market for it is good. “OurMomis the real backbone of our home and farm. She maintains all the financials and


keeps everyone fed –which is a full-time job in itself,” says Wyatt Scott, who alongwith his younger sib- lings Ben and Sarah, grew up raising cattle and showing them in 4-H and FFA events around the state. “We’ve got four full- time employees and collec- tively we work 2,000 acres of land that varies from


heavy clay tomixed sandy ground,”Wyatt says. Tobacco, sweet pota-


toes and cotton Joey Scott always told


his sons that tobacco pays the bills. “We grew 270 acres of it this year and will add 30 more acres in 2021,” says Wyatt Scott. “Tobacco has been good to us, but consumer demand


Scott Brothers Farms, located in Wilson


County, North Carolina, includes family members (L to R), Sarah, Wyatt, Barbara, Joey, Tricia, Ben and Frank Scott.


for sweet potatoes has in- creased, and we’re build- ing some infrastructure to capitalize on that demand and help us grow even more.” The family currently


trucks their sweet pota- toes to a local sweet po- tato packer and shipping operation.


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Faske Videos Guide Viewers Through Nematode Issues For Soybean Growers LONOKE, ARK.


iny southern root- knot nematodes can make a big dent in


yields and managing these miniature round- worms is a top priority for soybean growers. Nematodes are a large


and diverse roundworm family whose members include a host of para- sites of humans, live- stock


and plants, including Guinea worms


and barber pole worms. They are blamed for bil- lions of dollars in losses every year. Travis Faske, extension


plant pathologist for the University of Arkansas


Travis Faske, extension plant


pathologist for the U of A Sys- tem Division of Agriculture, talks about the nematode


threats to soybean growing in the South.


Image courtesy SCNCoalition Hay Contest Helps Producers Improve Forages, Livestock LEXINGTON, KY.


or more than 25 years, the Eastern Ken-


From left: Reed Graham, Breathitt County


agriculture and natural resources extension agent, David Appelman, Bracken County agriculture and natural resources extension


agent, and Dalton May, Perry County extension intern, prepare hay samples for testing


at UK's Robinson Center for Appalachian Sustainability.


Photo by Charles May, Perry County agriculture and natural resources extension agent


the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, allows producers in participating counties to submit hay samples to UK for testing each fall. “The great thing about


the hay contest is it gives producers a way to get a detailed forage quality test for their hay that includes the usual parameters like


crude protein and total di- gestible nutrients and also high value parameters like fiber digestibility,” said Jimmy Henning, forage ex- tension specialist in the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment who helps lead the annual contest with county exten- sion agents.


CONTINUED ON PAGE 18


System Division of Agri- culture, has worked with the SCNCoalition to pro- duce a series of videos called “Let’s Talk ‘Todes,” geared specifically for Arkansas growers. “There are 100 species


of root-knot nematodes and five that can affect soybean production,” Faske said. “One of those five is the southern root- knot nematode, which is the No. 1 nematode prob-


“This


lem in the state and has increased in distribution over the past 40 years.” The southern root-knot


nematode is found in 85 percent of Arkansas’ soy- bean producing counties. “My program is one of


the very few that is con- ducting applied research to mitigate yield losses by this nematode,” Faske said. “I often get calls from around the country


CONTINUED ON PAGE 15


Livestock Edition


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