 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Down by the riverside
Perry Dykes’ determination restores life to dormant Hawkins County farmland
| Story and photos by Chris Villines |
9/28/2012 |
Strikingly beautiful with its bold, bright colors, a wood duck glides effortlessly across the Holston River next to Perry Dykes’ farm in Surgoinsville. As the waterfowl makes its way northwest, Perry’s eyes are fixed in admiration.
“Right there goes my passion,” he says, standing on the river’s bank. “The Holston has one of the largest populations of wood ducks in America, and I love to duck hunt. There’s a colony of 2,000 that migrate each year from this river to one in Mexico. They go there, breed, and come back. Wood ducks are just fascinating to me.”
Five years ago, Perry was involved with another kind of hunting that led him to this very piece of acreage along Millers Bluff Road just a couple of miles from the home he shares with wife Regina and their daughters, Riley, 14, and Hayden, 16. After serving since 1989 as a U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA) director with stints in Polk, Sullivan, and Washington counties, in 2007 the opportunity came for Perry to oversee the FSA office in his native Hawkins County.
“I was so thrilled that after almost 18 years I got to come back and work in my home county,” he says. “Once I got situated, I became serious about looking for a farm to buy. Fortunately, this one came available only a couple of months after I started looking, and I was in a position to buy part of it. There aren’t many river-bottom farms in Hawkins County, and certainly not many of them come up for sale. I always drove by this farm and said, ‘Man, if I had the chance, I’d love to farm something like that!’”
At the time of the purchase, however, what Perry remembered as “one of the best farms in the county” when he was growing up was now void of activity and bore a much different appearance.
“It was just a lot of ragweeds,” he says.
But Perry had a personal connection to the farm that motivated him to make it productive again. A close uncle — the late Chester McLain, who died last year — worked on the farm befoe serving in World War II.
“I heard stories about how he would go into the corn and chop the weeds out of the bottoms for 25 cents a day,” says Perry, who graduated from nearby Volunteer High School in 1982 and went on to earn a business management degree at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. “Every day after I bought the farm, I thought about the hard work that was done here with mules and manual labor, and just as my uncle and others were doing back then, my intent was to take this land and make it better. With today’s advancements, there was no reason that I couldn’t.”
All Perry had to do next was decide how to utilize his new acquisition. He grew up around tobacco and beef cattle, but after consulting with peers and his hometown Hawkins Farmers Cooperative, the choice was clear: This river bottom was made for growing corn. He’s in his second year of growing several Croplan corn hybrids.
“I started working with [Hawkins Farmers outside salesman] Hal [Thurman], who turned me on to the Croplan corn,” says Perry. “What farming I had done was in burley [tobacco], so I had no knowledge about how to raise corn. None. I went to Hal at the Co-op and [Tennessee Farmers Cooperative agronomy specialist] Tom Bible, who advised me on what varieties to plant. I can’t say enough about their help. It’s nice to know that I can always call on them.”
Perry’s efforts to breathe new life into this riverside property haven’t gone unnoticed, says Hal.
“Instead of seeing these fields all grown up, he’s been out there trying to do something with the land,” says Hal. “It’s turned a lot of people’s heads in this county and hopefully is inspiring some of them to think, ‘I can take land that used to have tobacco growing on it and raise corn.’ That brings more income to their farm and into the county.”
Also aiding Perry’s cause has been Surgoinsville farmer and Hawkins Farmers director Randall Collier, who leases a portion of Perry’s farm and has a long history of growing some of the area’s best corn.
“I have a great relationship with Randall,” Perry says. “He does a lot of custom harvesting for me, and he has such a vast knowledge of corn that he’s shared with me. It’s great to have neighbors like that.”
It’s the classic “neighbor helping neighbor” scenario for Perry, who spends his work days at the FSA office assisting farmers with loans, payments, and various other programs and then immediately heads to his own farm. And while he’s excited about the potential that the corn crop holds and the revenue it can generate, there are other elements — ones on which monetary value can’t be placed — that make the farm a special place for him, his family, and their friends.
“On most Sunday evenings, you’ll find us down here enjoying family time or inviting other folks to enjoy the peace and quiet of the river,” says Perry, who on Sunday mornings attends Long’s Bend Missionary Baptist Church in Surgoinsville with Regina, Hayden, and Riley. “We grill out and play cornhole, and we have two orange posts put up between cornfields where people play volleyball. The girls will have a bonfire a couple of times a year, and some of their friends who come have never been on a farm.
“In addition to the wood duck-hunting, I like to sit out here and catch a few smallmouth bass. A few of my buddies and I enjoy target-shooting out here, too. I feel blessed to have a place like this.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|