Farm Journal Field Days Head to the Mississippi Delta
Silent Shade Planting Company is on a mission to “farm for the future.” Jeremy Jack, who heads the operation, says that means several things to the five family members employed by the farm.
“First and foremost, we are farming with the next generation of farmers in mind,” he says. “We want our business to be one that will successfully pass on from one generation to the next. Second, we want our business to be in a constant cycle of improvement, never stagnant. The agriculture industry is ever changing, and we make a point to anticipate and embrace new agriculture technology and practices.
“We always consider how our projects and property can better the future generation,” Jack told AgriTalk Host Chip Flory on Thursday. “That’s what my father did for me, and his father did for him, and it’s what we want to do, too.”
Farmers interested in seeing the inner workings of this dynamic, future-focused Mississippi Delta operation are invited to participate in the Farm Journal Field Days event, Aug. 25 in Belzoni, Miss. More information on the event and how to register is available here: www.farmjournalfielddays.com/
In 1979, Jack’s parents, Willard and Laura Lee Jack, moved from Ontario, Canada, to the Delta to start Silent Shade. Today, the farm employs Jack, his parents, sister, Stacie Koger, and wife, Elizabeth, along with 20 employees from the Belzoni area. The operation includes 12,000 acres of row crops – corn, cotton, soybeans and rice – and a commercial trucking business, Willard Trucking Company.
The Delta is known for its rich, fertile soils, and the Jack family uses a diverse crop mix and rotation practices to produce high yields while safeguarding the land.
“Soybeans are planted on our heavy clay soil in a rotation with our rice crop,” Jack says. “Typically, we aim to plant two years of soybeans followed by one year of rice. This crop rotation increases our sustainability by maintaining soil fertility. We grow our cotton and our corn on what we consider our sandy or loamy acres, and we grow them in a one-to-one rotation.”
Jack says the day-long event in August will be packed with a variety of things to see and experience on the farm.
“We’ll be harvesting soybeans and rice and defoliating cotton,” he says. “Corn harvest will be done, but we hope to be doing tillage, applying our fall fertilizer and putting our lime out.”
Along with the farming operation, event participants will have the opportunity to hear from Rabo AgriFinance on how to practice financial offense in the marketplace. In addition, seventh-generation farmer Mitchell Hora, owner of Continuum Ag, Washington, Iowa, will also be speaking at the event about how to profit from soil health.
Learn more about the Silent Shade Planting Company at https://silent-shade.com/ Listen to the entire AgriTalk discussion between Jeremy Jack and Chip Flory here:
Other Farm Journal Field Days in-person locations include:
- Aug. 23 in DeKalb, Ill., hosted by Whiskey Acres
- Aug. 26-27 in Colby, Kan., hosted by Frahm Farmland
The in-person registration cost of $49 includes online event access.
Learn more and register for Farm Journal Field Days!
