A Bootstrapper’s Tale: Born to Farm Behind Family, Friends, and Fortitude
Faith of a child. Five-year-old Cody Parker stood in the scant shade of a yard burned brown by Mississippi sun, watching and waiting for a tractor or picker to roll into the bleached sea of white beside his home. At the first sound or site of machinery, a pair of tiny legs pumped the small boy through the dust of a turnrow and toward the nearest vehicle. All day and every day—planting, midseason fieldwork, or harvest—he rode and slept in a cab at every opportunity. Simply, Cody Parker was born to farm.
Fast forward 25 years. Despite starting without land, equipment, or deep pockets, Parker grows 1,500 acres of corn, cotton, and soybeans. His rags to rows tale reveals a humble bootstrapper willing to pay any price of labor for a seat at the farming table. However, Parker is insistent: Success is directly linked to the kindness of other farmers. “I don’t care who you are—nobody gets into farming from the cold without help on the inside. I’m here because key people took a chance on me and asked for nothing in return. I’ll never forget that. Never.”
“I Was Gone”
On a thread connecting Rankin, Scott, and Madison counties in central Mississippi, Parker, 32, is rumbling on blacktop, behind the wheel of a white, flatbed 2015 F350, with Nic Williams, his go-to farm operator, and Bentley, a seasoned black Lab and mainstay partner, riding shotgun. Another day on the farm and another day in Parker’s version of heaven on earth. “I look at my life and I know I’m blessed by the Lord to do this job, and I’ll tell anyone on the street: ‘The Lord has been so much better to me than I deserve.’”
Parker was once perpetually stuck at field’s edge. He could work on a farm, but he could not find a path into farming. Solution? “Humble yourself, start tiny, and go look for opportunity.”
At the absolute tail-end of cotton trailer days, Cody Parker, 32, grew up in Leesburg, a community in rural Rankin County. Farming was in his family tree, but mainly in the lower branches—a generation of disconnect to Parker. “I grew up with cotton all around me, but my direct family didn’t farm. A big highlight for me was a tag-along trip to the dealership and getting a toy tractor out of the deal.”
Rankin County producer Bernard King, 78, began farming in 1966 and grew cotton directly across from Parker’s childhood home. King vividly remembers Parker’s daily vigil. “When Cody got big enough to walk, and I’m talking less than five years old, we’d be picking cotton and I could see him cut out of the yard and make a beeline for my picker. He’d climb in the cab, sit on my water can, and stay right there until dinner. I’d never seen or heard of anything like it in my life from someone so young.”
“I’d take him back to his house and tell him, ‘Cody, go get you some lunch, son.’ He’d climb down and look back up at me every single time, ‘I’ll be back.’ Sure enough, 30 minutes later, he’d be back and he’d sit on the water can the rest of the day, except for when he was asleep.”
“I’ve farmed on my own since 1966 and I never saw a kid so enthused by farming,” King adds. “There wasn’t a time in his life when Cody didn’t want to farm.”
Parker echoes the precise details of King’s recollection. “I became so close to Mr. Bernard and his two sons. Whenever I saw them pull into the field, if momma let me, I was gone. It got to the point where Mr. Bernard would actually come right by the house just to pick me up directly if I was playing in the yard. I’d ride in his cab all day or sleep on the floorboard. Why would a boy want to be in the yard if he can be in a tractor cab?”
Wooly and Wet
At the ripe age of 10, Parker secured his first paying job in farming, packing and pulling cotton trailers for Roger Dale McKay on fall afternoons and weekends. After a school bus drop-off, Parker jetted out of his house for McKay’s farm.
“Mr. Roger had a bunch of trailers and a two-row picker, and those were some of the best days of my childhood,” Parker says. “Ohhhhh, I loved them and I never got tired. We’d get finished picking and get to disking, cutting stalks, and get ready to start again.”
Upon the retirement of McKay, Parker spent his late teens on multiple farms in the Rankin County area, but eventually settled on the farm of a father-and-son team, Gary and Lee Thrash. Parker, 18, farmed in mid-morning and early afternoon, bookended by school bus driving at the start and close of each day, in order to secure health insurance.
Fifteen years Parker’s senior, Lee became an extremely close friend and big brother. However, in February 2010, Lee died at 35 years young. Parker’s mentor and farming guide was suddenly gone.
“Lee was a true buddy and he made himself an inroad into farming for me, but when he died, I had some choices to make. Mr. Gary Thrash, and several other farmers in our community had already stepped up to give me work growing up, but now I was at a crossroads.”
Backed by a youth spent repairing farm machinery and diesel engines, Parker found employment at the Rankin County school district’s bus barn as a full-time mechanic. It was steady, solid work—but it threatened to douse the fire burning in Parker. “I was so grateful for what was a good job, surrounded by a great bunch of guys, but I wasn’t supposed to be there. I wasn’t happy in that shop and it wasn’t nobody’s fault but mine. I’d drive home and see my buddies working in the fields and it was like physical pain to watch.”
Parker craned his neck and began looking for a pinch of land that might offer a toehold to farm. Searching. Turning over rocks. Looking for an angle. And before putting a foot forward, he sought sage advice from seasoned farmers, gathering tips and direction from any grower who had the time.
Parker’s parents, Jerry and Gina, tried to steer their son away from farming. “They didn’t want to see me get hurt,” Parker says. “They said, ‘You have no money, no land, no equipment, and no means.’ I knew how much they loved me and I knew they were trying to protect me.”
Parker also knew he could never be content without taking his cuts at the plate. “I said, ‘I appreciate y’all so much, but I’ve got to do this and you can support me or not, but it’s gonna happen.’ That was it: They got behind me 100%.”
In 2012, with the help of his close friend, Seth Bilbro, Parker stumbled over a forgotten piece of farmland—or rather, 80 wooly and wet acres once in row crops, but long since reverted to a tangled jumble. “At the time,” he laughs, “it was beautiful ground to a desperate man.”
Stayin’ Alive
With an FSA loan in his pocket, Parker set out to prep the leased 80 acres—a tall order for a farmer with no equipment. “Guys in the area heard about me trying to get started and they hollered with more help than I ever dreamed,” Parker says.
The names roll off Parker’s tongue as he details assistance from numerous established farmers: Bernard, Chuck, and Tony King; Roger Dale Mckay; Ty and Tom Irby; Matthew and David Boyd; Roger Merchant; Herman Thompson; David, Paul, and Garner Irby; Michael Bilbro; Jimmy Thrash; Sidney Mclaurin; Larry and Rusty Cross; and so many more.
Parker bought an old 1486 International and a spray boom from Tony Chaffan, and borrowed a disk from Bilbro, multiple implements from Gary Thrash, and a chisel plow from Butch Lawrence. Further, Bilbro gave Parker a six-row John Deere planter in need of refurbishment.
Still employed at the bus barn, Parker scrambled every evening to work on the planter and disk, or haul away limbs from ground too wet to burn. Parker’s scramble was a stunner, but par for the course of his life, according to Bernard King. “He is the hardest go-getter I’ve seen in my life. When you’re talking about Cody Parker, then you’re talking about someone completely unique,” King describes.
However, no matter Parker’s effort, he couldn’t find enough time to satisfy the demands of the bus barn and tangled field. Enter Bilbro: “I was working on the planter one day and getting kinda discouraged,” Parker recalls, “when Michael Bilbro shows up and says, ‘Just get that ground ready and I’ll plant your beans.’ Don’t tell me farming is 100% competition because I can’t tell you how many times guys like Michael Bilbro and Jimmy Thrash have helped me and not been looking for a single advantage.”
Planting day 2012 was a symphony of chaos. Bilbro and Thrash arrived at the field, took a look at its questionable conditioning, and called an audible. They immediately drove away and returned with a tractor-disc, tractor-do-all, and tractor-planter. “We hit that field with all of that equipment in a big final push and I’m forever grateful to Mr. Jimmy, Michael Bilbro, and his son, Seth,” Parker says. “They wouldn’t take a dime in pay, but anytime they needed me, I was there and I always will be.” I took my tractor to their fields with them to help them get their crops planted, just like they done for me.”
“Beans shot way up that fall and my yields were strong, so things went pretty good that first year,” Parker adds, “but it’s one thing to start in farming from nothing, but it’s another to stay alive.”
Blessed
What was the next step in Parker’s slow walk? Find used equipment with the best bang for buck. And to help in the hunt, producer Matthew Boyd stepped front and center. “Matthew went with me to sale after sale, and he directed me on what to buy. To this day, I don’t have all the bells and whistles that some do, but we are updating a little every year. I do my own mechanic and picker work, and I have to stay real. I keep my eye on cost, cost, cost. I live off what I have need for the basics and the rest of my money goes back in the farm.”
“That’s one of many things Mr. Gary Thrash taught me: Don’t try to keep up with everyone else, buy what you can afford, and do your own work. Keep the cost down. Save, Save, Save. Every year isn’t always good.”
Parker clawed for another tiny piece of leased ground, connecting the dots on a slight acreage increase—a pattern he followed each year. However, he made certain not to get over his skis. “My attitude on land when I started is the same attitude I carry today. If I take on a place, I’ll work my tail off to treat it and take care of it as if it’s my own. That kind of reputation is only built by showing people, but if you’ll respect the land and respect the landowner, that goes a long way.”
“My ag shop and FFA advisor, Brent Hammons, told me in high school, ‘Son, always work hard. Always give it 110% and don’t quit, and most important, always do what is right. You do that, and you’ll make it in this world. “
Parker’s family, once gun-shy, became a constant presence in the field, all hands on deck. His father, Jerry, is a constant shadow. Kristen, Parker’s sister, is a key hand: “My sis can run the hell out of a tractor or module builder. She is just wonderful.” My mother and grandparents, Jimmy and Shirley Mcdill, were always there to help moving equipment field to field or with whatever. Close friends Chad Gaar and Rory Garcia have always been there when it was time to get started. Man, I’m blessed.”
Grandmother and matriarch of the clan, Venie Parker, was all in, often delivering dinner to the field or driving to town for parts. Venie, a vital influence in shaping Parker’s fortitude, passed away in February 2022: “She fed us. She drove a truck or a tractor. She did anything she could to help in any tiny or big way.”
Baptism by Fire
Despite family help and a toehold of leased ground, gaining momentum was an uphill slog, Parker explains. “How do you get a bank to believe in you? What about a seed company? I didn’t have bad credit, just not any credit at all. I looked across the table and understood their predicament: They were gambling on me and I didn’t blame them for being skeptical. I convinced them to give me a chance, but I never acted like they owed me a chance. You have to do everything in your power to act, but then follow that by praying and believing the Lord to do the rest.”
“I took over farming some family land in 2013. The same land that my great-grandfather, Jeff Irby, and his brother, Woodrow Irby, farmed. My family tells me my love for farming must have come from my great-grandfather, Jeff Irby, who passed in 1994. He didn’t get to see it, but my great-grandmother, Eva Dee Irby, got to see me farm cotton before her passing in 2015, at 94.”
In 2013, Parker bought his first piece of farmland and left the bus barn for fulltime focus on the farm, and continued to move from strength to strength, rolling at a steady pace—until 2015. Baptism by fire. No rain. No cotton. No farm?
In My Corner
In the space of a few months, Parker tumbled from mountaintop to valley with a total crop loss. “In 2015, I truly believed I was done. I was discouraged and thought I’d seen the end.”
However, by 2015, Parker’s reputation walked in a room before he did. “I hit bottom, but once again, the folks dealing with me gave me breathing room. Matthew and Mr. David Boyd gave me mechanic work on their farm all winter so I could make some money. It was a blessing beyond what I can tell.”
Parker was back in the saddle for 2016, sticking to his game plan. Buy only as needed. Perform all machinery upkeep. Never cut fertility costs. Pump every penny of profit back into the farm. Keep an eye out for another field.
In 2017, he rented ground in adjacent Madison County. “Farmers in the area welcomed me with open arms, helping us any way they could.”
In 2016, out of curiosity, but with minimal expectation, Parker no tilled a cotton field for the first time. “I was sure surprised. It did as good as my other cotton. The next year, I added no till corn, and the next thing I knew, I was headed toward serious no till.”
The savings, he notes, were dramatic. “Every farmer out there is tight in his own way, just trying to save dollars. I no longer have to run a disk and hipper over every acre I’m on, and that is major money on fuel and equipment. I’ve also gone to a bigger sprayer—one machine—instead of an older Hi-Boy and a tractor.”
Roughly a decade after clearing limbs off 80 acres of clutter, Parker has reached 1,500 acres, but his perspective remains the same. “Farming by yourself is just words. The truth is I need solid ground around me, and that means I need trustworthy people in my corner. A farmer must have a real relationship with a banker, accountant, seed guy, and crop consultant. Let me be clear: Chase King, Simplot Grower Solutions; Lee Withers, Local Seed Company; Clark Cook, Cook Ag Consulting; John Greenlee and Lawanna Ozborne, Bankplus; and Larry Coleman, Coleman and associates, fill those roles for me and I don’t farm without them.”
I can’t forget the guys I trust to market crops. They are awesome. I market my cotton with Chris Mclain at Staplcotn and Andrew Steinle at PJS, Inc. I market corn and soybeans with Les Penn at Grain Marketing Services and Bart Carter with Consolidated Grain.
Fall of 2022 will be Parker’s 11th solo crop, but “solo” is a misleading term, according to Parker. “The more I farm on my own, the more I realize how lucky I am to have to have so much help. I’d like to think I’m the first one now to help somebody else because of the goodness I’ve received.”
Fish Outta Water
As Parker’s operation grew, he learned expansion requires discomfort and a step beyond the perimeter of cropland. Initially, he became involved with Mississippi Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers & Ranchers at the influence of David and Matthew Boyd, a step that put Parker on eggshells. “I didn’t know a soul and I had to go to some meetings and conferences, and I was a fish outta water. Guess what? That was one of the best decisions of my life.”
Parker now serves on the board of Rankin County Farm Bureau. “I’d hate to know I’d have said no to Mr. David and Matthew, because I now have buddies in farming all over the place. We check on each other. I call them with farm questions. I’ll tell anyone: If you ain’t uncomfortable in some area of your life, then you can’t grow. I’ve got farm friends for life beyond my county and state. It just proves, if you think you can barge through farming alone with a big head, good luck.”
“My Farming Family”
Over the next decade, Parker hopes to pick up more acres. He carries to two fulltime employees, Chuck Edwards and Nic Williams, both vital cogs in the operation. “I love having them both. It’s a balance of the older, Chuck, and the younger, Nic, and they are fantastic.”
“Nic has been with me since the fall of 2015. He is a blessing, and helps keep it all moving. Mr. Chuck started with us fall of 2021, and has a knowledgeable background in farming. I have seven part time employees and they are wonderful: Chad Gaar; Rory Garcia; Scott Power; John Halbrook; David Meyer; my sister, Kristen; and father, Jerry. I can say, there are several more that always lend a hand when its needed, and we are also looking forward to Mr. Danny Murphy helping us.”
Parker remains a farmer overwhelmed by the backing of “countless friends” during all weathers—feast or famine. “I could talk all day about Mr. Danny Murphy, one of my landlords and a true blessing to me. I could tell you about Uncle Larry or my cousin Rusty—we talk almost daily and help each other as much as we can. Other farmers know exactly what I’m talking about. Nobody had to help me; the people who helped made a choice and got nothing back in that moment. But I promise you, I’m there for them now and I will never forget.”
However, Parker leaves out a key detail in his success, says Bernard King. “Cody ain’t gonna say it, so I will: The Lord gave Cody an engine like nobody has ever seen. I don’t know what he puts in the engine, but I’ve always wanted some. He’ll never tell you hard he works, because Cody’s not cut like that, but he won’t be outworked.”
Gratitude. Appreciation. Recognition. “I’m a farmer; I’m here,” Parker concludes. “I can’t express my thanks enough to so many people because it would take days. I know I have a mighty big family wanting me to do good—and I’m not only talking blood family. I’m talking about my farming family.”
To read more stories from Chris Bennett (cbennett@farmjournal.com), see:
Tractorcade: How an Epic Convoy and Legendary Farmer Army Shook Washington, D.C.
Bagging the Tomato King: The Insane Hunt for Agriculture’s Wildest Con Man
How a Texas Farmer Killed Agriculture’s Debt Dragon
While America Slept, China Stole the Farm
Bizarre Mystery of Mummified Coon Dog Solved After 40 Years
The Arrowhead whisperer: Stunning Indian Artifact Collection Found on Farmland
Where's the Beef: Con Artist Turns Texas Cattle Industry Into $100M Playground
Fleecing the Farm: How a Fake Crop Fueled a Bizarre $25 Million Ag Scam
Skeleton In the Walls: Mysterious Arkansas Farmhouse Hides Civil War History
US Farming Loses the King of Combines
Ghost in the House: A Forgotten American Farming Tragedy
Rat Hunting with the Dogs of War, Farming's Greatest Show on Legs
Misfit Tractors a Money Saver for Arkansas Farmer
Government Cameras Hidden on Private Property? Welcome to Open Fields
Farmland Detective Finds Youngest Civil War Soldier’s Grave?
Descent Into Hell: Farmer Escapes Corn Tomb Death
Evil Grain: The Wild Tale of History’s Biggest Crop Insurance Scam
Grizzly Hell: USDA Worker Survives Epic Bear Attack
Farmer Refuses to Roll, Rips Lid Off IRS Behavior
Killing Hogzilla: Hunting a Monster Wild Pig
Shattered Taboo: Death of a Farm and Resurrection of a Farmer
Frozen Dinosaur: Farmer Finds Huge Alligator Snapping Turtle Under Ice
Breaking Bad: Chasing the Wildest Con Artist in Farming History
In the Blood: Hunting Deer Antlers with a Legendary Shed Whisperer
Corn Maverick: Cracking the Mystery of 60-Inch Rows
