VALDOSTA — The James H. Rainwater Conference Center hosted the 2009

Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year Award

banquet Monday, Oct. 19. Several hundred people attended the event,

which honors the 10 state Farmer of the Year Award finalists from

across the Southeast. Music was provided by The Apostles of Bluegrass.

This year’s winner of the Georgia Farmer of the Year Award is Tifton

vegetable farmer Bill Brim. The overall winner will be announced at the

governor’s luncheon Tuesday in the Maule Hangar at Spence

Field, said Amy Willis, Communications Specialist with the Sunbelt Ag

Expo.

As the Georgia state winner, Brim will receive a $2,500 cash award

and expense paid trip to the Sunbelt Expo from Swisher International of

Jacksonville, Fla., a jacket and a $200 gift certificate from the

Williamson-Dickie Company, and a $500 gift certificate from Southern

States, one of the nation's largest farmer-owned cooperatives.

Brim is also now eligible for the $15,000 that will go the overall

winner. Other prizes for the overall winner include the use of a Massey

Ferguson tractor for a year from Massey Ferguson North America, a

custom made Canvasback gun safe from Misty Morn Safe Co., and another

$500 gift certificate from the Southern States cooperative. Also,

Williamson-Dickie will provide another jacket, a $500 gift certificate

and $500 in cash to the overall winner.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the award. Since its

inception in 1990 the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer

of the Year Award has evolved into the most prestigious honor in the

southeast and nation with 157 outstanding agri-business leaders being

honored for their “excellence in agriculture,” according to the

Sunbelt

Ag Expo Web site.

The 10 states participating in the program are: Alabama, Arkansas,

Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South

Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. In the previous 19 years of the

award, over 763,000 has been awarded to state and overall winners, the

Web site states.

All the farmers of the year vary in what and how they farm, but

they have one thing in common, i.e. a commitment to quality that begins

in the field, pasture, greenhouse and dairy and follows the product all

the way to the market, said Bob McAllister of the Williamson-Dickie

Company.

Every fall, thousands of farmers converge on Moultrie and the

surrounding area, including Valdosta, for the annual Sunbelt

Agricultural Exposition. The Expo runs from Tuesday, Oct. 20, through

Thursday, Oct. 22. Expo hours are 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesday and

Wednesday, and 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Thursday. Admission price is

$7 per person each day of the show. Children 12 and under are admitted

free with a parent.

The Ag Expo’s permanent home is Spence Field, a former airbase on

1,680 acres, located four miles southeast of U.S. Hwy. 319 (Veteran’s

Parkway) on Georgia Hwy. 133. Expo facilities include 100 acres of

exhibit space along with a 600-acre working farm where major crops such

as cotton, peanuts, corn, soybeans, turfgrass and hay are cultivated.

Visitors can check out state of the art field machinery, see field

demonstrations of cutting-edge research practices, and engage in

interactive educational exhibits.

Animal agriculture is prominently featured during the Ag Expo,

which includes poultry exhibits and seminars. Other animal agriculture

displays include beef cattle exhibits and beef management seminars,

dairy exhibits, special seminars on foot and hoof care of dairy cattle,

horse demonstrations and equine exhibits, and exhibits and seminars on

small farm animals like goats and alpacas.

For more information visit www.sunbeltexpo.com or call

229-985-1968.

Bill Brim named 2009 Georgia Farmer of the Year

Vegetable farmer Bill Brim of Tifton, Ga., has made a name for himself

in the produce business. An active farmer for 25 years, he currently

farms about 2,500 acres of owned land and 1,500 acres of rented land.

His crops include peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash,

cantaloupes, watermelons, broccoli, peanuts, greens and cole crops. He

raises vegetable transplants as well as pine tree seedlings in 42

greenhouses and maintains three modern facilities for packing and

shipping his produce.

As a result of his long record of success as a vegetable grower,

Brim has been selected as the 2009 Georgia winner of the Swisher

Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award. Brim now

joins nine other state winners from the Southeast as finalists for the

award. The overall winner will be announced on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at the

Sunbelt Ag Expo farm show in Moultrie, Ga.

In 1985, Brim and his partner Ed Walker bought Lewis Taylor Farms.

Prior to that, Brim started working on the farm in 1972 when it was

owned by his father-in-law and Walker’s father. Today, Walker manages

the greenhouses and a hydrocooling facility, while Brim focuses on

vegetable production.

When Brim first bought the farm, it was growing tomato transplants

in fields along with traditional row crops. However, a new carousel

vegetable planter was introduced in 1987 that essentially eliminated

the need for bare-root transplants. “So we built our first greenhouses

to grow containerized transplants and take advantage of the new

planting technology,” says Brim. “By 1989, we were out of the

bare-root

transplant business, and we had to re-build our company.” He

eliminated

most of the field crops the farm had grown and started expanding

vegetable production. He added his first packing plant in 1995.

“We have been in a growth mode since 1985, and it hasn’t

stopped,”

says Brim. The farm’s next expansion will include the construction of

ten new greenhouses. The greenhouses currently produce 115 million

vegetable transplants each year. Some of these are grown out on Lewis

Taylor Farms. The rest are raised on contract for sale to vegetable

farms throughout the Southeast. In addition, the greenhouses produce

about 18 million pine tree seedlings that are sold to individual

customers and timber companies.

Brim markets his produce through chain stores, wholesale warehouses

and direct sale contracts. His produce has gained a good reputation for

top quality and most is sold through contract sales.

Hydrocooling is the newest technology Brim and Walker adopted to

enhance marketing. In this process, watermelons, cantaloupes and

broccoli are floated in a pool. The crops are cooled by water chilled

to 31 degrees and flowing at a rate of 9,000 gallons per minute. “This

water brings down the temperature of the produce from 95 degrees to 45

degrees within about 20 minutes,” explains Brim, “and this extends

the

shelf life of our crops by about 15 days.”

Brim has invested heavily in food safety measures for the farm. “We

manufacture our own chlorine dioxide solution to disinfect the water

that cleans our crops,” he says. He has also invested in technology

that allows end users to trace back produce packages to individual

fields should a problem be detected. Brim says, “It costs a lot to

invest in food safety, but it enhances our reputation as a provider of

quality produce.”

His packing plants are monitored by cameras, and from his office

computers, he receives real-time views of the activities in the

packinghouses by using Internet links.

Brim devotes much of his time to farm labor issues. He currently

has about 500 employees, and uses the H-2A labor program that allows

foreign nationals to legally work in the U.S. “H-2A is a good program,

and it provides us with reliable, hard-working employees, but it can be

confusing until you’ve used it for a few years,” he says. “The

program

involves a lot of paperwork, and we also provide lodging and

transportation to and from their home countries for our guest workers.”

He has also installed an ATM machine on the farm for his workers to use

in securely depositing their paychecks.

He installed his first water-efficient drip irrigation in 1989, and

currently uses drip on about 1,500 acres. The drip lines are located

within pre-formed beds covered with plastic mulch. He also plants rye

between rows of plastic to minimize soil erosion.

Brim has been in the forefront in seeking a replacement for methyl

bromide. This widely used fumigant controls weeds, insects, nematodes

and plant diseases, but its use is being phased out. He spent several

years testing compost, but found compost expensive to make and apply,

and it increased plant diseases. Now, he’s looking at a three-way

treatment of Vapam, chloropicrin and Telone, and another combination of

dimethyl disulfide and chloropicrin. He’ll work with University of

Georgia scientists to test other alternatives this fall.

Brim constantly evaluates new crops. Four years ago, he planted 25

acres of broccoli. He’s now growing 600 acres and other South Georgia

farmers started growing the crop after hearing of Brim’s success.

He’s now assessing potential ethanol crops. One is called

Miscanthus. “We have some in a greenhouse and in a field,” says

Brim.

Illinois studies suggest this perennial grass can grow 15 feet tall,

produce 17 tons per acre, and each ton could yield 80 gallons of

ethanol. “After it’s made into ethanol, the pulp could replace coal

in

fueling power plants,” he says. Next spring, he hopes to plant other

potential energy crops such as switchgrass.

Locally, he has been active in the Farm Bureau, Chamber of

Commerce, Northside Baptist Church, Tift County School Board and an

Extension advisory committee. On the state level, he was recently

appointed to a regional water planning council. He helped organize the

Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Association, served as its president and

chaired its Labor Committee. He’s an advisor to the University of

Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and was

recognized by the College for his service.

This past year, American Vegetable Grower magazine presented Lewis

Taylor Farms with its Grower Achievement award. Brim is an agricultural

advisor to Georgia’s two U.S. senators. He’s on the United Fresh

Produce Association’s Government Relations Council and served as an

advisor to USDA and the Secretary of Agriculture.

Brim and his wife Deborah have two married daughters, Jennifer and

Jessica, and three granddaughters. Deborah has served on boards of the

Tift County United Way and the Tift County Foundation for Educational

Excellence.

Beverly Sparks, University of Georgia associate dean for Extension,

is state coordinator of the Farmer of the Year award. “I cannot

imagine

a stronger candidate to represent Georgia,” she says. Brian

Tankersley,

Tift County Extension coordinator, nominated Brim for the award. “Bill

has been successful in his farming, his commitment to agriculture, his

community service and his participation in the legislative process,”

says Tankersley.

“My partner Ed Walker allows me to be the public face of our

industry and business,” Brim says. “We have great team running our

farms, greenhouses, packinghouses, our shop and our food safety

program.”

As the Georgia state winner, Brim will now receive a $2,500 cash

award and an expense paid trip to the Sunbelt Expo from Swisher

International of Jacksonville, Fla., a jacket and a $200 gift

certificate from the Williamson-Dickie Company, and a $500 gift

certificate from Southern States.

He is also now eligible for the $15,000 that will go the overall

winner. Other prizes for the overall winner include the use of a Massey

Ferguson tractor for a year from Massey Ferguson North America, a

custom made Canvasback gun safe from Misty Morn Safe Co., and another

$500 gift certificate from the Southern States cooperative. Also,

Williamson-Dickie will provide another jacket, a $500 gift certificate

and $500 in cash to the overall winner.

Swisher International, through its Swisher Sweets cigar brand, and

the Sunbelt Expo are sponsoring the Southeastern Farmer of the Year

Award for the 20th consecutive year. Swisher has contributed some

$764,000 in cash awards and other honors to southeastern farmers since

the award was initiated in 1990.

Previous state winners from Georgia include: Timothy McMillian of

Enigma, 1990; Bud Butcher of Senoia, 1991; James Lee Adams of Camilla,

1992; John Morgan of Mystic, 1993; Alan Verner of Rutlege, 1994; Donnie

Smith of Willacoochee, 1995; Armond Morris of Ocilla, 1996; Thomas

Coleman, Jr. of Hartsfield, 1997; Glenn Heard of Bainbridge, 1998; Bob

McLendon of Leary, 1999; James Lee Adams of Camilla, 2000; Daniel

Johnson of Alma, 2001; Armond Morris of Ocilla, 2002; Jim Donaldson of

Metter, 2003; Joe Boddiford of Sylvania, 2004; Jimmy Webb of Leary,

2005; Gary Paulk of Wray, 2006; Daniel Johnson of Alma, 2007; and Wayne

McKinnon of Douglas, 2008.

Georgia has had two overall winners with James Lee Adams of Camilla

in 2000 and Armond Morris of Ocilla in 2002.

Brim’s farm, along with the farms of the other nine state

finalists, was visited by a distinguished panel of judges during the

week of Aug. 10-14. The judges this year included Elwyn Deal, a

retired Clemson University Extension leader from Anderson, S.C.; James

Lee Adams, a farmer from Camilla, and the overall winner of the

award in 2000; and Jim Bone, manager of field development for DuPont

Crop Protection from Valdosta.

For more information, check the Expo Web site: www.sunbeltexpo.com

, or contact Sunbelt Expo by e-mail at: info@sunbeltexpo.com, by phone

at 229-985-1968, by fax at 229-890-8518, or by writing to: 290-G Harper

Blvd., Moultrie, Ga. 31788.