My Turn

Greetings from the University of Georgia Tifton Campus! We have been celebrating a momentous occasion at UGA Tifton, and I would like to share that event with you. A bill passed by the Georgia General Assembly in August 1918 created the Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station, now UGA Tifton. Tifton was selected as the location for the station in May ... Read More »

After many years of the Cotton Farming magazine staff asking me to write a “My Turn” article, I did so in May 2017. I received so many positive reactions from the readers I thought I would try again. This time I want to focus on using lobbying in the USA to push agriculture forward in a positive direction. As I ... Read More »

I was raised northeast of Lubbock, Texas, on a cotton, grain sorghum, wheat and cattle farm near the community of Farmer, which is just north of Lorenzo. Both of my grandfathers farmed, and I remember them and my dad talking about the importance of leaving the land in better shape than it was when you started. The farm was homesteaded ... Read More »

I grew up in the little town of Ropesville, Texas,  population 435,  right in the middle of the “world’s largest contiguous cotton patch.” My maternal grandfather, Jerry Green, was a gin manager. My paternal grandfather, Wilburn Chambers, was a gin manager and shareholder in an Farm Center Gin and Elevator — an independent cotton gin between Lubbock and Ropesville. Fifty-five years ... Read More »

Old No. 2 died last night. I found her this morning in the “boot” pasture way over by the tree line. I knew it was coming for some time now, but somehow that didn’t lessen the disappointment. She had been having trouble getting to her feet and for a cow, not being able to do that is a death sentence. ... Read More »

I’m not sure why I fell in love with agriculture at a young age. I wasn’t pushed into agriculture, but I feel like I was pulled — much like the smell of a fresh pot of coffee has a way of pulling you out of bed. The ingredients were present. The first toy I remember was a 4000 series 1/16 ... Read More »

My great grandfather, William Stiles, settled the family here in Lee County, Arkansas, and started acquiring land in the community where we live and work today. My grandfather, Earl Wayne Stiles, and my dad, Earl Ramey Stiles, worked some of the same land in the 1940s. On my mother’s side, my grandfather, Claude Smith, and his son, Kirby Smith, lived ... Read More »