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‘Pride of place’
TFC’s newest director, Richard Jameson, says culture is Co-op’s differentiating factor
| Story and photos by Allison Morgan |
9/28/2012 |
With his farm sitting squarely in West Tennessee row-crop country — where cotton, corn, and soybeans reign — Richard Jameson never thought he’d take a keen interest in burley tobacco and dairy production.
But after nearly a year on Tennessee Farmers Cooperative’s board, the Haywood County farmer often finds himself immersed in information about the varied agricultural enterprises of his fellow directors from other areas of the state.
“I know nothing — zero — about tobacco or dairy, but I’m fascinated by it,” says Richard. “Since I’ve been on the TFC board, I often find myself on the Internet, reading about these subjects. Now, I’m not going to start growing tobacco or milking cows, but I at least want to be able to understand it and have a conversation about it. I’ve learned so much.”
Coming from a 25-plus-year background of serving on his local Mid-South Farmers Cooperative board and a lifetime of row-crop farming, Richard says his first year as a TFC director representing Zone 1 has widened his focus, allowing him to see the importance of all types of agricultural operations to the success of the Co-op system.
“I had pretty much been thinking about Co-op strictly as a row-crop farmer here in West Tennessee,” he says. “Now, I think about it more broadly — not just the price of corn but how the price of corn affects animal feed, which affects livestock farmers. As directors representing all of TFC, that’s what we have to do. You’ve got to bring the perspectives from around the state into the discussion because most of our decisions are ultimately going to affect everyone.”
Richard says his own “conservative” views on farming and business can be traced to his parents, Billy and Harriet Jameson, who grew up during the Depression. After returning from service in the Army Air Force during World War II, Billy began farming land that Harriett had inherited from her mother’s side of the family in the Belle Eagle Community near Brownsville and ran a small cotton gin until closing it in 1968. Richard continues to farm that same land today among his 2,300 acres of corn, cotton, soybeans, and wheat.
“I grew up working on the farm during the summers, and with some of the jobs Daddy gave me, I guess he wanted to make sure I really wanted to do this,” says Richard. “My parents lived through the Depression, so they knew what tough times really were, and all of their ideas were shaped by that. My thinking was shaped by them.”
When he entered the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, however, Richard wasn’t sure he wanted a full-time farming career and instead studied political science with intentions of attending law school. He didn’t take a single ag class. But after graduating in 1976, the lure of home was too great, so Richard came back to the family farm, married wife Jane in 1982, and had four daughters: Harriett, Mary, Martha Jane, and Patsy. Eventually, Richard also found a way to make good use of his political science degree.
“I’ve been on the county commission in Haywood County since 1990 — 24 years next election in 2014,” says Richard. “I’ve just always been very interested in politics.”
He has also served in leadership positions for the Tennessee Soybean Association, West Tennessee No-Till Farmers Association, Haywood County Soil and Conservation District Board, and American Soybean Association among others. Now, as a leader for TFC, Richard says he appreciates the chance to make decisions that affect not only him and his fellow row-crop producers but also other farmers across the Co-op system.
“There’s an innate challenge in our business because each Co-op can tailor its business to the customer base in the area,” says Richard. “The Co-op and board members must understand the different businesses in different parts of the state and how they need to change and adapt to service their customers.”
As an example, Richard points to the current evolution of his home Co-op, Mid-South Farmers, which is transitioning to an agronomy-centered business and working with TFC to open Stockdale’s retail stores in the area to serve livestock and rural lifestyle customers.
“The business is evolving, there’s no doubt about that, but we’ve got to remember that we’re doing this for the good of the whole,” he says. “Ultimately, we don’t want anyone to be shortchanged.”
Just as Co-op is changing, so are production practices, says Richard, citing precision agriculture and irrigation as two of the most significant technological improvements on his farm.
“Just like technology everywhere, it is really moving in agriculture these days,” says Richard. “Precision ag has been a huge help to us. It’s very cost-efficient in this day and time of expensive seed and chemicals. But I think the single biggest change has been irrigation. Farmers in this area have really embraced it, and there’s no telling how many center pivots have gone up in the last three or four years. It’s really helped this corn production. Now we can actually make as much money growing corn as we could growing cotton, but corn is such an easier crop to grow.”
With the adoption of irrigation as well as higher commodity prices for corn, soybeans, and wheat in recent years, Richard says he’s also seeing a shift from “King Cotton” to grain production in West Tennessee.
“In my time farming, cotton has always been the primary crop around here, but in the last five years, the acreage has declined,” says Richard. “We see more grains and more wheat. It’s a cultural change, and it’s a big deal for farmers and the Co-op.”
“Culture,” Richard says, is also the key word when it comes to separating Co-op from the competition. In his first year on the board, the newest TFC director says he’s realized that differentiating the business is an overarching challenge, but he insists that the secret is simply “never forgetting who we are.”
“Farmers and people who live in rural areas have a pride of place,” Richard explains. “It’s kind of like patriotism — almost a spiritual sense. It’s family and faith, small towns and Southern accents. These are common threads through all of us — from the dairyman to the tobacco producer to the row-crop farmer. Even though we’re different from East to West, we’re all Tennessee, and we’re all Co-op. That’s the thing, in my mind, that really sets us apart.
“Now, Co-op is a business, and we have to work hard and be efficient and profitable and all those things. But the culture and the business are inseparable. It’s in who we are — it’s right here in our hearts — and it’s something we can never forget.”
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