Ever Wonder What Happens on a Farm During the Winter?

On a brisk January day, Austin Hamilton outfitted in his typical t-shirt, faded blue jeans, work boots, and seed-company-supplied-cap, stands alongside four John Deere tractors and twenty hardworking employees discussing what takes place during the twenty or so days of laying plastic in our South Georgia fields. It is during these winter months each year that one-third of Southern Valley’s fields are shimmied under straight rows of black plastic in preparation for the coming growing season.

Once the harvest ends in late October or early November, the plastic and any remaining stakes and netting from the prior year are pulled up and the fields immediately begin to be prepped for the following spring.  Like the taking apart of a concert stage, the fields are dismantled piece by piece, yet seemingly all at once. The laying of the plastic begins soon thereafter, generally stretching well into the month of January.

For over twenty years now, Southern Valley has been growing the vast majority of its produce on plastic. We do this to decrease weed, pest, and disease issues within the soil, with the added bonus that drip tape is dispensed along with, and underneath, the plastic which later allows inputs such as irrigation water and fertilizer to go directly to the root zone.  In addition to those benefits, the plastic also helps keep the product off of the soil, therefore maintaining a cleaner product.

Despite the benefits of growing on plastic, the process is not without its additional inputs: increased labor costs to both install and disassemble the plastic, as well as the cost of the plastic itself. To increase sustainability – both economically and environmentally – we strive to get as many as six seasons, or three years, out of each laying of plastic, hence the reason for completing one-third of our fields each year.

In the field visit to Austin, he was in the process of laying plastic across a field in a manner so as to conduct twenty-five different tests in the upcoming year.  Contrary to the image of a bumbling backwoods redneck that farmers are often portrayed as, many farmers spend significant time, money, and energy experimenting with the most efficient and beneficial ways to grow their crops. Being fairly fresh back on the farm from college, Austin is chock full of ideas he wants to experiment with and implement. For instance, last year he conducted trial plantings of cotton and corn behind squash – the only plantings of its kind we are aware of around these parts.  We can’t reveal any secrets for what he’s doing the twenty-five tests on this year, but we’re always excited to see what he’s got up his proverbial farmer’s sleeves.

Austin comes by his experimentation honestly. His father, Kent, CEO and President of Southern Valley, has long been one to explore various crop growing techniques. For one, he was growing crops on plastic when no one in this area had so much as dreamed of doing so. In an earlier conversation I had with Kent’s mother, Wanda, she recalled that people called them crazy at the time – told them they’d never make a living growing on that plastic. Kent has since experimented with making his own compost and fertilizer and is currently exploring options to have our much-needed Pole-Grown Cucumber stakes supplied in-house.  This desire to continuously search for newer and better methods, which Austin has seemingly inherited from his father, will ensure that Southern Valley’s next generation will continue to be as progressive and innovative as the last.

As for me, I spent most of our visit relishing in the sense of immediate gratification washing over me as I watched what was once a field of loose dirt sure to find its way to the inside of my shoes become tidy rows of soil covered seamlessly in beautiful black plastic left to reflect the setting sun.