Farmer Jordan’s roots firmly planted west of Rome

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A new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicates that family-owned farms remain the mainstay of the agriculture industry. Jamie Jordan, a fifth-generation farmer in Floyd County, is a classic example of what the USDA is talking about.

Jordan’s ancestor George Washington Jordan came to Centre, Alabama, from South Carolina in 1846. The Jordan family still operates farms in Alabama, but they also have a large spread on the Coosa River in western Floyd County and a tree farm on the Oostanaula River north of Rome.

Jordan traces his own farming career to the point when he was old enough to work around with his dad.

“Actually, that was 53 years ago as we speak, St. Patrick’s Day,” he said.

The USDA defines a family farm as one where the majority of the business is owned by the operator and his or her relatives, whether by blood, marriage or adoption. Hubert Hamer, director of the National Agricultural Statistics Services, said 97 percent of all U.S. farms are family-owned.

“What we found is that family-owned businesses, while very diverse, are at the core of the U.S. agriculture industry,” Hamer said in a press release from Washington.

Jordan’s 1,250-acre farm on the Coosa River was primarily a cotton farm two decades ago along with some soybeans. Now he grows corn.

“As years went on, a corn and soybean rotation looked more attractive to us and we phased out of cotton,” Jordan said. “We haven’t grown any cotton in eight years.”

He said that unless things change drastically, he intends to stick with the grains over cloth fiber, which isn’t in as much demand as it was in the past.

“Most of the textile mills have gone to third world countries because of cheaper labor,” he noted.

The corn he grows is mostly used for chicken feed. He has trucks running through the winter months down to a feed mill in Waco, Georgia, near Carrollton. Most of his soybeans are sold to a mill near Guntersville, Alabama.

“I’m sure they probably ship some whole, but mostly they crush them and get oil — and some soybean meal. A lot of that is used for feed,” Jordan said.

Corn planting will start in mid-April, while the 2015 soybean crop will go into the ground around the first of May.

The winter months on the Jordan family farm are somewhat different from the winters of decades past.

“I can remember when I was a kid back in the ’60s and ’70s that a lot of farmers would bird-hunt and just pretty much relax, maybe do a little equipment repair,” Jordan said. “Now we’re getting taxes ready, we’re getting reports ready for the National Soil Conservation Service, and we’re finishing up last year’s crop. We’re still selling soybeans out of the bin.”

Jordan also uses the winter months to take continuing education classes related to pesticide use and product licensing. He also has to keep up with his crop-dusting educational requirements. Jordan does his own aerial dusting, four times a year.

Jordan’s brother Phil Jordan and sister Becky McMichen are also involved in the family business. His son John Thomas “Jesse” Jordan works as an accountant with International Paper now, but he also has a love of the land.

“As far as actually working the land, I don’t know,” Jordan said of his son. “He’s definitely grown up learning how to take care of it.”

The 900-acre tree farm on the Oostanaula River is on land that came from Jordan’s mother’s family.

He said the tree farm is much more of a management type of thing, which is his son’s forte.

“We meet with timber buyers; we meet with tree planters; we meet with the Forestry Commission to do controlled burning; we meet with different vendors who do spraying to control undergrowth,” Jordan said. “That’s probably the way he’ll handle the row crop farm.”

Fewer acres,

more money

The USDA report — just out, but based on data from 2012 — indicates that 88 percent of the 2.1 million farms in the United States are small family farms.

The 2012 Census of Agriculture produced a broad range of data that shows just how the industry of agriculture is changing.

In Floyd County, there were 70,166 acres in farming in 2012, down from 84,605 acres in the 2007 census. The average size of a Floyd County farm also shrank, from 153 acres in 2007 to 126 acres in 2012.

On the other hand, the average market value of products sold per farm was up sharply — from $89,605 in 2007 to $137,8828 in 2012. Jordan attributes those numbers to significant improvements in education and equipment. Livestock sales accounted for 93 percent of the market value of agricultural products sold in Floyd County in 2012.

The report also states that government subsidies decreased from an average of $8,266 per Floyd County farm in 2007 to $5,597 per farm in 2012.

Jordan said he is extremely confident that the family farming operation will extend to his son, a sixth generation.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that he will take over one day,” Jordan said. Whether it’s in the seat of a tractor, or overseeing others from an office remains to be seen.

Source: Rome News

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