Farmer in Southwest Ga. & Owner of Reinke Irrigation Dealership.
Leesburg, Ga
Joined June 2011
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Skip row corn double cropped behind wheat is looking good! The thinking was to thicken it up in each row and take every 3rd row out to help late season heat out at night since it would be pollinating a lot later than our full season corn and in the hottest time of the year
Pretty proud and excited to have played a small part in this one. Caleb Traugh and all the guys have got this thing looking jam up and have put a ton of work into it this year. We got folks from all over the country and even a few from across the globe gonna be there. Dr Eric Winans, David Hula, Cody Goins along with several other speakers will be there presenting and will be hands on with us in the field all day. Y鈥檃ll come on out August 6th and join us! Message me or Caleb if you need more details 馃尳 馃珱 馃尡
If anybody is qualified and interested in moving to South Ga shoot me a direct message. Be glad to speak with you
Long time comin & a long way to go. Flint River Farm Supply, Inc is officially underway. I look forward to helping fellow farmers with fertility & chemical needs. This along with Flint River Irrigation will help us stay diversified in a tough ag economy. Blessed beyond measure
As a farmer there鈥檚 2 days I look forward every year more than anything else. The day we start planting and the day we start harvesting. The excitement of starting over fresh every spring and putting seeds in the dirt, tweaking from the year before, making changes for what is hopefully the better, seeing how much improvement we can make from the year before, it鈥檚 what drives me to get up every morning. The day before we start harvest I鈥檓 like a kid on Christmas Eve. Can鈥檛 sleep, mind racing, just excited to get our annual report card to see how we did all throughout the year and if it pays off enough to be able to go again the next year. What worked, what didn鈥檛 work, and then immediately start planning on what we will do and change the next year. The last 2 years have been financially tough on farmers in the southeast, this year in 2024 was shaping up to be worse than those 2 combined and possibly the worst in history. Definitely the worst of my lifetime. All this was BEFORE a major hurricane at harvest time came into the picture. Depressed commodity prices and sky high inputs have made it impossible for anyone to turn a profit this year, now a hurricane wiping a crop out on top of all this will be detrimental for all of south Ga farmers. In 2018 when Hurricane Michael hit we didn鈥檛 know what to expect and it was a gut punch to everyone on how bad it was. But everyone overcame it and came through it. But then the inputs shot up and markets came down and all the equity everyone had has been burn up to cover the losses the last 2 years. This year was already going to be tough to come out of for a lot of farmers but now it will be all but impossible. The worst part is after Michael 6 years ago mnow we know what to expect and we just have to sit here and watch it come in and take everything away. I鈥檓 not a worrying person but I鈥檓 worried now. I鈥檓 not worried about world records, or high yields, or any of the success we鈥檝e been fortunate enough to have recently. Im worried if soybeans still in the field will even still be there Friday. Im worried for the pecan farmers with the biggest crop in years on the limbs of their trees will survive. I鈥檓 worried about cotton farmers that have 95% of the crop still in the field that will be completely stripped in the next 24 hours. Im worried for the peanut farmers that have dug peanuts for the last 48 hours without any sleep that are about to get 10 inches of rain on them. I鈥檓 worried about my friends and neighbors that I know work harder than any other industry on the planet just to watch it all blow away in a couple of hours and not be able to pay loans at the bank back and will have nowhere to turn. I鈥檓 worried that more farmers than not won鈥檛 ever get to have that excitement of planting and then harvesting a crop again all because of a storm taking it all away and making it financially impossible to start over. I鈥檓 not a very cultured person but I鈥檝e been blessed with opportunities to travel a lot of places and have met a lot of people in the Ag industry from all over the world and without a shadow of a doubt the toughest ones on the planet is a farmer in the southeast United States. The resiliency and determination they have is unmatched. It looks inevitable that鈥檚 this storms coming dead at us so if you see a farmer in South Ga in the coming days and weeks give em a pat on the back because what they鈥檙e going through right now is unimaginable for most anyone else to even comprehend. Stay safe out there!
As we鈥檙e starting up soybean harvest this year it鈥檚 got me thinking back on the past 12 months. A year ago my farming world completely changed when we were fortunate enough to break the world record for soybeans. I鈥檝e been able to travel places and meet people that I never could have before. It鈥檚 opened doors and opportunities for me and has taught me a ton. I鈥檝e been able to speak at different field days and ag shows all over the country and South America sharing what I鈥檝e learned and have met some awesome farmers and other people in the ag industry along the way. The high input costs and low commodity prices this year have got the entire ag industry in a dark haze, especially in the southeast. Going forward this year I feel like we have a very good chance at breaking our own record if the last bit of weather would cooperate through harvest. But if we don鈥檛, that鈥檒l be just fine too. I know that I鈥檝e done everything in my power that I can, as well as everyone that works with me day in day out has. We put together a plan, we implemented it, we carried it to the end as best as I know how. This has been one of the toughest growing seasons that I鈥檝e been a part of in my farming career. In the end it鈥檚 all up to the good Lord and Mother Nature. Breaking records is cool and it鈥檚 sure fun seeing those massive numbers but at the end of the day the ROI on every acre across the farm is what keeps us going and I鈥檓 sure hoping there鈥檚 some drastic changes coming in the future or there鈥檚 gonna be a lot less farmers in a year or 2 than there are today. So to all my fellow farmers across this great country out there. Keep your heads up through these tough times, keep the combines rollin, and stay safe through harvest to make it home to all your families at the end of the day. 馃珱 馃尡
