Meet The Team

A message from Rusty:

I have been working since I was 10 years old. My Papaw Woods was a farmer that always needed a field hand to work and I always loved spending time with him. No one else of us Grandkids wanted to work but I would do anything to be around him so I talked him into teaching me how to drive a tractor when I was 10. He had these huge Massey Ferguson tractors with big fenders and I used to ride for hours on the fender while he drove.

Sometimes I would spend the entire day riding that tractor with him. Then I got to where I would operate the hydraulics for him when he would turn around on the turn rows. Very few words were said during these training days as he didn’t have much to say. One day we were plowing with a 4 row disc about halfway through the field and had just made a turn and got straightened out and throttled back up when he stood up and said “Here” motioning for me to take the wheel and the seat. So I did and the next thing I know he steps off the tractor and starts walking back to his truck. I just kept going and never let up. I was a little bit scared when I got to the turn but I did it just like I had watched him do hundreds of times and it went smooth as silk. There I go. That was the beginning of what has become my life.

My Papaw was the very best at what he did and the few words of knowledge he shared with me that day and all the times I spent with him have patterned the way I approach every job I perform to this day. You see, there is an art to farming and it requires expertise. When you take to a field with a tractor and a piece of equipment, there is a technique that has to be used to turn the earth and prepare it in a special way for crops to produce the highest and best quality yield.

I remember one particular lesson on how to make your rows straight and why. If your rows are straight, it will be easier to harvest. If you have crooked rows you are wasting acreage and the machine you use to harvest will miss some of the crops. My Papaw would always start in the middle of the field and pick a direction he wanted the soil to be turned in. He would take the radiator cap on the tractor and line it up with a marker at the end of the field. Most of the time it would be a distant tree. Once you got lined up with the marker, you would plow towards that mark in as straight a line as possible. Once you made that first cut, you would work to one side of the field, go back to the first cut and work to the other side.

I will admit though, my rows were NOT always straight. It was hard for me as a 10 year old to stay focused on something on the horizon for that length of time. I can remember lining my tractor up and plowing to the end of the field and looking back just knowing my rows would be straight like my Papaw’s and seeing that zigzagging line. But I eventually got the hang of it. Now that I think about it, this is how my life has been up to now. I have always been able to find the mark on the horizon and I have tried to get there in the straightest line as possible.

Most of the time though, I still make those zigzags which has been okay as long as I get to where I am supposed to be. The lessons from my Grandfathers (My Papaw Barfield was a carpenter who built houses. A story for another time.) as well as from my Dad and Uncles have made me a successful person and I believe it is because I surround myself and my business with GOOD people who are mostly my family.

Our business is truly a family owned and operated enterprise starting with my wonderful wife Cheryl who watches us from heaven now, my loving Sons and Daughters who help me in every way possible and of course our employees who are also our friends. We are truly BLESSED for having all of the family and friends in our life and for the success that we have achieved. The Lord is our marker and our radiator cap is lined up! Our rows are getting straighter every day. God Is Good! All The Time! All The Time! God Is Good!