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‘Jones boys’ ride into retirement with honors
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The largest used equipment inventory in the Mid-Atlantic is only a click away. Visit our website by clicking here or visit us at one of our 11 locations throughout MD, DE, VA and PA.
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‘Jones boys’ ride into retirement with honors
1.01.2008
By BRUCE HOTCHKISS
Senior Editor
SALISBURY, Md. — The “Jones boys” are retiring, but before they bow out of farming, they thought they’d cop a couple of corn production honors.
L.C. Jones and his cousin, Billy Jones of Powellville in Wicomico County, Md., (Billy says he’s “just the hired hand”) harvested enough corn this fall to claim two plaques at the 2007 Tri-County Corn Improvement Program awards luncheon at the Wicomico County Extension Center on Dec. 20.
The Jones Farm Inc. captured third place in the non-irrigated conventional till category with a yield — and this was a dry year — of 184 bushels an acre.
More importantly, at least from the point of view of Wicomico County ag agent Eddie Johnson, was the fact that L.C. produced that harvest at a cost of only $1.97 per bushel.
Then, L.C., with cousin Billy, also captured second place in the non-irrigated no-till category with a yield of 166 bushels at a per bushel cost of $2.33. L.C. said that 2007 was his last harvest.
Involved in agriculture in one way or another for all of his life, he has rented out his 1,200 acres and is looking forward to retirement.
The contest covers growers in the three lower Eastern Shore counties of Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset.
There were 13 entries in this year’s competition. The average yield was 169 bushels per acre at an average cost of $2.26 per bushel.
Johnson was very complimentary of his growers.
“You are watching your costs,” he said. “You are doing a good job. I hope you keep it up.”
Colbourne Swift of Swift Farms Inc., in Marion, in Somerset County, captured what ag agent Johnson calls the “Best Manager Award.”
Swift harvested a yield of 207 bushels an acre at a cost of only $1.78 a bushel.
Swift, ag agent Johnson said, has won the Best Manager Award twice in the last three years.
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Here are the other winners of contest plaques:
Non-Irrigated Conventional
• Randy Hastings, Berlin, 257 bushels an acre at a cost of $1.83 a bushel.
• Wimberly Farms (the Anderson family), Princess Anne, 216 bushels an acre at $1.79 a bushel.
Non-Irrigated No-Till
• Dakota Farms (Gary King), Princess Anne, 223 bushels an acre at $2.14 a bushel.
Irrigated
• Calloway Farms, Hebron, 219 bushels an acre at $2.03 a bushel, no-till.
• Cornerstone Farms, Hebron, 219 bushels an ace at $2.13 a bushel, conventional.
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For the first time in the annual contest, Johnson noted, four of the farmers had netted more than they spent, a combination, no doubt, of improved management and elevated corn prices.