Farm Bureau hosts annual tour
For the past four years Walker County Extension and Walker County Farm Bureau have worked together to host an annual “Farm/City Tour.” Over this time period a fairly large group of local business people have spent an afternoon touring various Walker County farms to get a firsthand view of the type and amount of agriculture that is still a part of Walker County.
This year the local extension and farm bureau offices partnered with Leadership Walker County to offer the farm tour as a portion of the training the program’s participants receive.
Tour participants visited Pigeon Mountain Simmental, Scoggins Farm and Smith Poultry this year. At Pigeon Mountain Simmental, John Howard spoke to the group about raising beef cattle and the impact they have on the local economy.
As the group toured Scoggins Farm, Sonny, Alan, and Phillip Scoggins explained the process of growing winter rye and soybeans as row crops and the severe effects the drought has had on this year’s crop. The last stop was Smith Poultry, where Justin Smith discussed the new technology involved in operating a modern poultry house.
The Leadership Walker County group learned that agriculture is “big business” in the county as it generates an annual Farm Gate value of just under $90 million dollars each year in Walker County. The farm gate value is the value of products/crops as they are sold off the farm before processing and other value-adding processes.
For more information about farming and agriculture in Walker County contact the Extension Office 706-638-2548 or Walker County Farm Bureau 706-638-3237.