Mississippi

How One Mississippi Farmer Turned Data Into $330K in Fertilizer Savings

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 20:19:18 GMT

As the planter rolls across a Mississippi Delta field, row by row, it’s making split-second decisions on how much fertilizer to apply, where to apply it and where to apply nothing at all — a task that’s doesn’t require any second-guessing.

The decisions aren’t happening by instinct nor by habit. The planting and fertilizer decisions on this farm are all driven by data.

For Adron Belk, who farms in the Delta’s rich soils of Sunflower County, that shift — from gut feel to data-driven execution — isn’t just about efficiency. It’s about survival in a tight-margin environment, and ultimately, about profitability.

“This whole field, see how it’s calling for 8 gallons right there? It tells it the target. We’re looking for 8 gallons of fertilizer, and it’s putting out real close to 8 gallons,” Belk says as he’s making a planting pass through the field. “There’s areas in the field where it calls for none. So where it calls for none, it actually cuts it off on its own.”

On this farm, data doesn’t sit in a spreadsheet. It moves. It acts. It makes decisions in real time as equipment moves across the field.
That level of precision means decisions aren’t just guided by data, but automated with every pass.

“Where our phosphorus and zinc levels are low, the starter system turns on and it applies it. And where the phosphorus and zinc levels are adequate, it cuts it all and don’t put anything,” he says.

A Farm That Functions Like a Test Plot

Every acre Belk farms doubles as a testing ground. Every pass is an experiment. Every season is another opportunity to learn something new.

That mindset even extends to what he plants.

“I have never planted cotton on my own. My dad was a cotton farmer until 2007, when he quit growing cotton. We’re going to plant just a little bit this year though, about 130 acres. We’re going to get it custom picked. We’re just really planting the cotton to get a little bit of experience with it on a very, very small amount of acres. I believe it’s the tool I need to have in my toolbox for the future. And right now, I don’t have that tool,” he says.

At a time when many farmers are moving away from cotton, Belk is moving toward it.

“Some would say I’m just a glutton for punishment, I guess,” Belk says as he laughs.

A First Generation Farmer

Belk’s approach to farming didn’t come from following a playbook. In fact, it started with the opposite.

“I’m a first generation/second generation farmer,” he says. “My dad does farm, but we do not farm together.”

That decision for Belk to farm on his own was intentional from the start.

“My dad came through the 1980s. He just had a passion for it — worked really hard, started off with with almost nothing,” Belk explains. “And he did really well, and he knew all the lessons that he had to learn from being on his own, and mainly from messing stuff up on his own and learning. He knew how valuable that was. And he just really wanted us to always enjoy each other’s company and never have work come in between us or our family.”

So when Belk wanted to farm, his father gave him guidance — but not a safety net.

“He said, ‘I’ll give you all the advice you want,’ but he said it’s going to be beneficial if you do it on your own,” Belk remembers.

Belk took that to heart, starting his own farming operation by renting a few hundred acres while still in college. And like many young farmers, he learned by trial and error.

“I have made a lot of mistakes, and if I would have been farming with my dad, I probably wouldn’t have learned from those mistakes. I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to make them to learn on my own,” Belk says. “The mistakes I’ve made have taught me more than the things that I’ve done right, for sure.”

No Silver Bullet — Just Small Gains

While Belk admits he’s learned the hard way and made plenty of mistakes, in an industry often searching for big breakthroughs, Belk focuses on incremental wins.

“I think in farming, we’re all looking for that silver bullet that is going to get you 15, 20 bushels more per acre. But most of those big yield gains like that have already been discovered or have already been done, and so it’s very hard to find those silver bullets,” Belk says. “So, we are really tailoring our farm to finding the 2-, the 3-, the 5-bushel [per acre] differences,” he says.

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That mindset is what led him deeper into data.

“We started really trying to look at data. And when we first started, I thought we were doing it right. I thought were interpreting things the right way. And then realized that we really needed to be going a little deeper,” he says.

Data Into Decisions

That realization led Belk to work with Chad Swindoll, founder of J19 Agriculture, to bring a more advanced level of analysis to the farm.

“He is very honed in on how to analyze data. And working with him has really brought a whole new perspective to ‘Not only now that we have this data, how do we analyze it? And then once we analyze, what do we do with it?’” he says.

For Swindoll, that last question — What do you do with it? — is where many farms fall short.

“There’s lack of implementation on the farm,” Swindoll explains. “There’s a lot of technology that’s available. I mean, we’re with the United States. We’re a very sophisticated production agriculture, but the execution and implementation piece on taking the information that the technology will provide — and then using it to really make a decision beyond just something that looks cool or sounds cool — but really driving change on the farm, that’s very lacking,” he says.

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When Swindoll started working with Belk, he quickly realized Belk is different in not only the way he farms, but how he thinks about farming. What sets Belk apart, Swindoll says, is his willingness to act.

“He does a very good job of collecting the things that we need to make those decisions, and then if if the information is telling us we need this or that, he does,” Swindoll says.

Swindoll says Belk is a good executive, and that ability to not only know what needs to be done, but then implement it, is something that’s fueling Belk’s success.

“That’s something that I try to emphasize and talk about a lot in our industry and with my customers and non-customers. The farmer is the CEO, and an executive’s job is to make decisions,” Swindoll says. “And so we can get hung on a fence and make no progress. At some point, you have to move. And to be a good executive, it goes back to having the right pieces of information and the willingness to act.”

Swindoll says it also takes courage to do something different than what everybody else is doing.

“It’s not easy, because some of the things that we’ve found over the years are contrary to what we have been taught or told,” he says.

A $330,000 Turning Point

That willingness to trust the data — and act on it — led to one of the biggest financial shifts on the farm.

“About three or four years ago, we started really letting the data, we started analyzing the data and looking at it. And what we started seeing is, we were spending a lot of this money on fertilizer, and we didn’t really know if we’re getting a return out of it,” Belk says.

The result was a major change in how fertilizer was applied and how much was used.

“Three years ago, we cut about $330,000 out of our fertilizer budget that I would not have done without good sound data that we trusted,” Belk says. “Now, it took me a little while to get to that, to understand it. Then having J19 really run statistical data and showing us what was real and what was not. When you realize you cut $330,000 out of a fertilizer budget, and you still made the equivalent yields, that’s pretty eye-opening,” he says.

Finding Yield in the Details

While something like fertilizer savings have added major cost-savings to their farm, sometimes, the biggest gains come from the smallest adjustments. That includes what the data told them about tire pressure.

“Because we grow everything in the Delta on a raised bed, in between the tires it really pinches that row. We started noticing where we would run 20 lb. of air where the tire would kind of squat, it was pinching the row more, and we were getting more compaction under the tractor,” Belk says. “In some cases, it was costing anywhere from 10 to 17 bushels of yield on the rows just up under the tractor,” he says.

That prompted Belk to boost tire pressure to 30 lb. or air.

Rethinking the Playbook

On Belk’s farm, the field itself has become the ultimate teacher.

“That field is our textbook,” Swindoll says. “That’s kind of how we do this. If you read something in a book and it doesn’t line up, I think it was William Albrecht who said, ‘If you observe nature, and the textbook doesn’t agree, then you throw the textbook away.’ And we’ve had to do that in some cases.”

That philosophy carries through every decision Belk makes.

“Actually, my dad always told me, ‘Never tell somebody who asks you why you’re doing something, to tell them because your daddy did it.’ You know times change. I mean, we’re in a whole different world right now than we were even 5 years ago, especially 10 years ago. And so I feel like agriculture is changing very fast. I feel like we’ve got to learn to adapt and adopt really fast. Doing all this stuff has allowed us to stay kind of current with the changes in agriculture. It’s allowed us stay current with new products, with new things,” he says.

The New Equation for Farming

Farming has always involved risk. Whether it’s weather, markets or input costs, none of it is guaranteed.

But on this Mississippi Delta farm, the approach to risk is changing. It’s no longer just about taking chances. It’s about measuring them. Testing them. Understanding them. And ultimately, deciding which ones are worth it.

Because in today’s agriculture, that difference between guessing and knowing, may be what separates farmers who keep up from those who get ahead.

Warm, Dry Spring Speeds Mississippi Planting Pace as March Freeze Forces Some Replanting

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 14:07:16 GMT

An unusually warm and dry spring is accelerating planting progress across parts of Mississippi, allowing farmers to move ahead of their typical schedule while also raising concerns about crop resilience and shifting acreage decisions.

On his farm in Sunflower County, Adron Belk’s planters are already running at full speed as conditions remain favorable.

“If everything goes well, the weather keeps on like it’s going, by the end of this week we should have all of our corn in the ground and probably all of our grain sorghum or milo,” Belk says.

Farmers Hit by March Freeze

Belk notes this year’s planting pace is slightly ahead of normal for his operation, though not unprecedented.

“It depends on who you ask… for us, this is about on time. Typically we’re a little bit later. I’d say maybe we’re a week earlier than normal,” he says. “A bit south of here, some guys planted a couple weeks ago and then we got an unexpected freeze.”

Corn in Mississippi hit by the freeze earlier this month.

(Chris, Mississippi )

That freeze is now creating challenges for some producers. Reports from nearby fields suggest damage to early-emerged corn, with some needing to be replanted.

“There’s a lot of talk going around right now of some of the corn looking like about 20% has got to be replanted, which was kind of a surprise,” Belk says. “Most of the time when you get freezes like that, the corn comes out of it.”

Buggy-whipping often occurs as corn recovers from freeze. This happens as new growth temporarily hangs on dead vegetation. They should soon pull free with little adverse effects.

For reference, the corn in the last photo still made over 250 bu/a despite severe hail damage. 🌽 pic.twitter.com/ptAO0nxYst
— Erick Larson (@MStateCorn) March 26, 2026

Focus on Fertilizer

Despite broader concerns about rising input costs across the U.S., Belk says his operation has avoided major supply issues so far.

“We book fertilizer early, and we’re very much in the South, and so we have not had any problems so far with getting supply,” he says.

While Belk is maintaining a relatively steady crop rotation — roughly a 50/50 split between corn and soybeans — other parts of the Mississippi Delta are seeing more dramatic changes.

Cotton Acreage Changes

Just north in Clarksdale, crop consultant Andy Graves says cotton acreage is expected to drop sharply this season.

“In this area, this is cotton country… it’s supposed to be,” Graves says. “We’re going to be about 50% off of what we planted in 2024.”

Graves says the reduction is significant, especially considering many growers typically plant thousands of acres of cotton each year.

“I’ve got guys that have been growing cotton — my average customer is going to grow three to four thousand acres of cotton every year — and a lot of these guys are going down to 500 to 1,500 acres,” he says.

He points to a combination of economic pressures behind the shift.

“The only reason they’re doing that is because they’re tied into a gin or they have a million-dollar cotton picker sitting there that they can’t park,” Graves says. “With what’s going on with fertilizer and fuel prices right now, it makes it even more unattractive to plant the stuff. The market isn’t there.”

Dry Conditions Aid Planting Progress

84% of the South is seeing dry conditions as of March 26, 2026

(U.S. Drought Monitor )

It’s not just the dry spring causing many farmers in the region to make strong progress and run slightly ahead of their typical planting window, it’s also how dry it’s been. According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor, 84% of the South is seeing dry conditions as of March 26, 2026. If you look just at Mississippi, 68% of the state is seeing some level of drought.

Farmers say there’s enough topsoil moisture to plant the crop, but the drought picture this early in the year is a concern.

Cotton Acres Projected to Slide Again in 2026 as Economic Pressures Mount

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 21:02:53 GMT

The U.S. cotton industry is bracing for another year of contraction as a “perfect storm” of high production costs, sluggish global demand, and stiff competition from alternative crops pushes producers to rethink their acreage.

According to the National Cotton Council’s (NCC) 45th Annual Early Season Planting Intentions Survey , U.S. cotton producers intend to plant 9.0 million cotton acres this spring, a 3.2% decline from 2025. While a 3% dip might seem modest in isolation, it follows a massive 17% reduction in acreage last year, signaling a sustained and sobering period of tough economic times for the industry.

And considering cotton producers lost, on average, more than $300 per acre last year, another year of declining acreage comes as little surprise to those in the industry, as some fear if the economist situation doesn’t change for cotton, more producers could exit farming in 2026.

The Economic Squeeze: Why the Shift?

In a recent interview on AgriTalk with host Chip Flory, NCC President and CEO Dr. Gary Adams highlighted the mounting pressure on farm balance sheets.

“Times are tough,” Adams says. “Prices have been declining and costs of production have continued to stay at high levels. It really is starting to mount up on producers in terms of the balance sheet for their farming operations.”

The survey reflects a strategic shift across the Cotton Belt. With cotton prices struggling to compete with the current markets for corn and soybeans, many growers are opting for crops with lower overhead.

“In a lot of cases, they’re looking at soybeans as an alternative, in part because of its lower cost of production than what you see in cotton,” Adams notes. This “flight to safety” is a direct response to the high-risk, high-reward nature of cotton in an era of volatile input prices.

Farmers Are Walking Away From Cotton

For Charles Williams, a farmer in Crawfordsville, Ark., he’s seen what multiple years of losses can do to an industry. Cotton is a cornerstone crop in his area, with the infrastructure reliant upon that single crop. But growing cotton also comes with specialized, expensive equipment that’s become almost too costly to own, especially with today’s cotton prices.

“We’ll continue to plant some cotton, at least as much as we did last year,” he says. “Our production last year is half of what it historically is, so we’ll be 50% to 60%, maybe 65% of what we historically plant with cotton,” he says.

Because these farmers have cotton equipment to pay for, equipment that can only do one thing, which is pick cotton, walking away isn’t an easy choice. Williams also is an owner of a gin. So, he says he’s only planting enough cotton to justify the equipment and the gin, but not any more than that. Why? He simply can’t afford to.

Inside the Survey: A Coast-to-Coast Breakdown of 2026 Intentions

The NCC’s annual survey, a massive data-collection effort mailed to producers across the 17-state Cotton Belt in January, provides a granular look at how farmers are shifting their strategies. And when you break it down by region, it shows where the most severe economic pressures could be.

Mid-South: The Sharpest Decline

The Mid-South is bracing for the most dramatic shift, with total intentions down 20.6% to 1.2 million acres.

Arkansas & Missouri: These states are seeing the steepest cuts, with Arkansas down 30.3% and Missouri down 25.0%.
The Outlier: Louisiana stands against the trend, with growers expecting to plant 17.1% more cotton.

Southeast: A Broad Pullback

Respondents in the Southeast indicated a 4.9% decline in total acreage, falling to 1.6 million acres, with more of a shift toward corn and soybeans.

Georgia: Growers expect to reduce acreage by 3.6% to 805,000 acres—a historic low. This marks only the fourth time in 30 years that Georgia has dipped below the 1.1-million-acre threshold.
Significant Drops: Virginia leads the decline at 17.9%, followed by South Carolina (10.5%) and North Carolina (6.0%).

Southwest: A Patchwork of Growth

Bucking the national trend, Southwest growers intend to plant 1.6% more cotton.

Kansas & Oklahoma: Kansas is looking at a 9.6% increase at the expense of wheat and soybeans, while Oklahoma is charging ahead with a 15.7% increase.
Texas: The nation’s largest producer remains relatively flat with a 0.4% increase. However, internal shifts are happening: West Texas is reporting a slight uptick, while the Blacklands region intends to pivot toward sorghum.

The West: Upland Down, ELS Up

In the West, the story is a tale of two cottons. While Upland cotton acreage is expected to decline by 7.2%, with New Mexico seeing a sharp 17.6% drop. Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton is seeing a resurgence.

Looking Ahead: A New Safety Net With Long-Term Gains vs. Short-Term Pain

Despite the projected acreage drop, Adams points to several reasons for long-term optimism rooted in the latest Farm Bill provisions. The industry is just beginning to see the “heavy lifting” done by recent legislative wins, though the timing of the relief remains a challenge for growers facing immediate bills.

Key improvements to the safety net, according to Adams, include:

Reference Price Hikes: A 14% increase in reference prices for seed cotton under Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) programs.
Enhanced Insurance: Significant improvements to the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO), including an increase in the premium subsidy to 80%.
Program Synergy: For the first time, growers can utilize these area-wide insurance products alongside PLC enrollment, providing a multi-layered defense against market drops.

“The combination of those two programs for 2026 and beyond will give growers better risk management, better price support, and a better safety net under them,” Adams explains.

However, there is a catch: the lag in payment distribution. Growers must navigate the 2026 planting season and its associated expenses before the support from the 2025 crop arrives this October.

Reclaiming the Market: “Plant, Not Plastic”

To combat the acreage slide and sagging prices, the NCC is aggressively pursuing new legislative and promotional avenues to bolster domestic and global demand.

The first is the “Buy American Cotton Act,” a proposal to offer tax credits to brands and retailers that document the use of U.S.-grown cotton.

“We purchase roughly 20 million bale equivalents of cotton textile products... but only about 4 million bales of that is actually U.S. cotton,” Adams says. The act aims to incentivize “dirt to shirt” production within the U.S., potentially reshoring a textile industry that has largely moved overseas.

The industry is also leaning into the sustainability movement with its “Plant, Not Plastic” campaign. This initiative targets the growing consumer concern over microplastics found in synthetic fibers like polyester.

“Cotton is a healthy alternative,” Adams says. He noted that the industry’s message is gaining traction at the highest levels, even reaching the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) commission, which recently highlighted the need for more study on the health impacts of synthetic microfibers.

Looking Ahead: The Path to Recovery for Cotton

While the 2026 outlook remains cautious, the industry is betting on a combination of legislative support and consumer education to turn the tide. By focusing on “nearshoring” opportunities in the Western Hemisphere and emphasizing cotton’s natural advantages over synthetics, the NCC hopes to create a more resilient market for the years to come.

The goal is to build demand at hone while changing behavior of brands and retailers. If they start using U.S. cotton instead of polyester or cotton from another country, there is hope for the future of cotton demand.

First Look: Fendt’s New Autonomy Ready Vario Tractors, Split Fold Optimum Planter

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 17:51:57 GMT

AGCO is not sitting idly by waiting out the new farm equipment sales downturn. The manufacturer is launching new Fendt-branded machines with integrated technology for row crop farmers.

That means new for Model Year 2026 is a massive 1000 Vario Gen4 high horsepower tractor series featuring four models (426 hp to 550 hp) already setup for autonomous tasking via factory-integrated PTx OutRun autonomy kits. And its Optimum 12-row, Precision Planting tech-packed planter represents a significant milestone for the German brand: It’s the first Fendt stack-fold planter to hit the U.S. market.

(AGCO/Fendt)

We’ll start with the new 1000 Vario Series tractor (shown above), which Fendt says is powered by a 12.4-liter MAN engine featuring DynamicPerformance. The new adaptive power feature reportedly optimizes the engine’s horsepower output and improves fuel efficiency.

Fendt is also saying its Gen4 tractor “raises the bar” with new cab improvements and smart farming tech integrations that help operators feel less fatigue and get more work done.

Most notable overall though is factory integrated autonomous tillage and grain cart robotics. The technology was previously marketed by PTx Trimble as a retrofit-only kit, but now it’s available from the factory on select Fendt 2026 tractor series.

“For farmers that are struggling with labor, efficiency or just trying to do timely operations on their farm to enhance their agronomic outcomes, we’re announcing both Fendt tractor integration and tillage,” says Bryce Baker, North America tactical marketing lead, PTx. “So with that, OutRun becomes a retrofit, mixed fleet, multitask autonomy system with more to come in the future.”

(AGCO/Fendt)

Arthur Santos, marketing manager, Fendt, says the top takeaway he is excited to share about the new Optimum stack-folding planter (shown above) is how it enables ultra-precise seed placement in raised bed farming.

Stack-fold planters, Santos adds, are popular with farmers in the Mississippi Delta, across the southwest in Oklahoma and Texas, as well as in different pockets of Nebraska.

“Everything revolves around seed placement, right? And farmers understand that. Farmers can see how the row unit technology is important, but sometimes farmers don’t focus that much on where the row unit is, that environment that you create for the row unit technology,” Santos says. “This is what the Optimum planter will bring. That tool bar flex placing the row unit where it needs to be, and that adjusting hitch placing the row unit where it needs to be. That row unit technology can’t do its job if it’s not placed where it needs to be.”

Santos also points to the row units themselves on the new 12-row, split fold planter offering. He says the units are equipped with a full-suite of PTx-Precision Planting row unit technology.

“We’re taking the best of the best of the Precision Planting row unit technology — V-Set 2 meters, V-Drive, DeltaForce hydraulic downforce, Speed Tubes, and the latest FurrowForce and Reveal tech — and we’re putting it on a planter right onto the frame,” he says. “This is what will distinguish Fendt planters from any other planter, we’re taking that amazing row unit technology that all the brands are chasing and we’re bringing it right to the frame.”

Order writing for the 1000 Vario Gen4 tractor will open up later this year with first deliveries taking place sometime in 2026, AGCO reps state. And Optimum will be rolled out for interested buyers with an initial presale offering in spring 2026.

Fendt is also adding dry fertilizer spreading to its Momentum 30' planter for model year 2026, and the AGCO/Fendt RoGator 900 Series sprayer is also getting a suite of upgrades.

And last but not least, Fendt’s FarmEngage FMIS machinery data platform is now included with all new machinery purchases for three years at no additional cost. The program costs $600 per farm license if purchased a la carte and offers API compatibility with John Deere’s Operations Center and CNH’s FieldOps platform, along with other popular farm management digital tools from Raven, Topcon, and AgLeader.

PTx will also offer a Starlink mini connectivity bundle through its dealer network in the coming months, PTx representatives add.

To learn more about AGCO/Fendt’s 2026 Model Year updates and releases, reach out to your local Fendt dealer.

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In Tribute to Mississippi Farmer Willard Jack

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 17:23:15 GMT

A farmer’s yearly harvest is in the crops they grow, and their lifetime legacy lives on in the family they raise.

That sentiment is embodied in the life of Willard Jack, who died over the weekend after a courageous battle with cancer.

Jack is the patriarch of Silent Shade Planting Company , the 2023 Top Producer of the Year.

Shoulder to shoulder with his family across the rows of their Mississippi crops — cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat — Jack built a farming business after immigrating from Canada in the early 1980s.

He found not just farming prosperity but also a calling to advocate for American agriculture.

Jack was a strong proponent of embracing technology and new practices, using sustainable farming methods, expanding U.S. soy markets and advocating for sound ag policy on Capitol Hill.

During his time on the American Soybean Association board of directors with ASA (2015 to 2022), he was committed to promoting the quality and uses of U.S. soybeans in foreign markets, traveling to Morocco, Nepal, China, France and Belgium to speak with customers abroad. Among his efforts to support soy domestically, Jack led the Biofuels and Infrastructure Advocacy Team and enthusiastically charged Capitol Hill to visit members of Congress during ASA fly-ins, with the list going on.

Willard Jack with his son Jeremy.

(Sarah Green Photography)

ASA CEO Stephen Censky says, “There’s a reason ASA honored Willard in 2023 with its top honor, The Pinnacle Award, which recognizes a lifetime of work and leadership of the highest level and dedication to soy. And, there’s a reason we all loved him: It includes not only the respect and appreciation of a farmer devoted to bettering his industry, but also that distinct twinkle in his eye when he was preparing to tell you a funny and enjoy a shared laugh. All of us, both farmers and staff of ASA, will remember Willard fondly and are exceptionally thankful to him and his family for all they have done, and will continue to do in his legacy, for agriculture.”

Jack was a cheerleader for the ASA SoyPAC, encouraging his fellow farmers to get involved by giving, which he did readily in addition to volunteering at the annual ASA SoyPAC auction and spending hours planning for SoyPAC meetings.

He served as the president of the Mississippi Soybean Association and the Mississippi director of the American Soybean Association. He was appointed by three different commissioners of the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce to serve on the Bureau of Plant Industry advisory board.

Jack also served as the vice president of Holmes Gin and was an active member of the Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board, the Mississippi Rice Promotion Board, the Rice Council, and the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation.

In addition to the 2023 recipient of the ASA Pinnacle Award, his contributions to agriculture were recognized in 2000 when he was chosen as the Mississippi Farm Bureau Farmer of the Year and in 2001 as the Sunbelt Ag Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year.

Farm Journal reporter Chris Bennett said: “There are millions of U.S. farmers, past and present. There was one Willard Jack: honorable, humble and kindhearted in all weathers. A top-drawer gentleman, first-class in every respect, Jack was a champion of agriculture. He cared nothing of station or status and treated all as equal. Simply, to know him was to love him. RIP.”

As his living farm legacy, his wife, Laura Lee; son, Jeremy; daughter, Stacie; and daughter-in-law Elizabeth, continue to lead Silent Shade Planting Company. He is also survived by his son, Gregory; daughter-in-law, Michelle; son-in-law, Trey, and his seven grandchildren: Emma Grace Koger, Audrey Koger, Andrew Jack, Rebecca Claire Jack, Lydia Jack, Thomas Jack, and Laura Elizabeth “Ellie” Jack; his sister, Marianne Johnstone (Bruce), and brother, Dennis Jack (Judy).

(Silent Shade Planting Company)