As a young man, Joe Mitcham, Jr. considered a career in medicine. But being a Ruston native, he naturally had to try his patience with peaches. This proved to be a wise business decision when Mitcham was named the 2004 Farmer of the Year at the Lod Cook Alumni Center in Baton Rouge.
The Farmer of the Year is honored at an annual banquet sponsored by the Louisiana Agri-News Network, Louisiana Dodge Dealers, Louisiana John Deere Agricultural Dealers and the LSU AgCenter. The Farmer of the Year is chosen from a field of three finalists. Also recognized for their significant contributions to Louisiana agriculture were Ricky Gonsoulin, a sugarcane farmer from New Iberia and Alton Lewing, a poultry producer from Florien in Sabine Parish.
Mitcham manages 115 acres of mature peach trees producing more than 15,000 bushels a year. In the middle of his orchard, Mitcham operates a specialty store featuring peach products and arts and crafts produced by local residents. The idea for the store came to him after some prodding from Mother Nature.
“We had a severe hail storm and thought ‘What could we do with all these damaged peaches?’ We started making a peach preserve and then a by-product of preserve was a lot of peach juice. Then we came up with unusual items such as a peach salsa which is half-tomato-half peach. A lot of people seem to like it,” says Mitcham.
Because of growing concerns about the depletion of the Sparta aquafier, Mitcham developed a series of catch ponds for irrigation. Pumps used to move water from smaller catch ponds to the large holding pond are solar-powered.
After losing his crop to freezes four times, Mitcham adapted wind machines that are used by apple growers in the Northwest to protect his peach trees. “They are quite expensive, about $16-18,000 apiece. But I have 11 of them now. That’s how much I believe in them. If conditions are right they will raise the temperature in the orchard about five degrees,” says Mitcham.
To extend his season from mid-May to mid-August, Mitcham grows 28 different peach varieties. His duties translate into long hot summer days, but it’s a prescription for success this once aspiring doctor gladly fills. According to Mitcham, “I like being in the outdoors. If I want to work 14-hour days that’s fine with me. It’s hard work lots of time, but it’s very rewarding.”
Gonsoulin has farmed sugarcane for 17 years and is an innovator in the sugarcane industry. He is in the second year of a no-tillage sugarcane test plot that could revolutionize the way sugarcane is grown in Louisiana. He is active in many ag commodities groups and is a recent graduate of the LSU AgCenter Ag Leadership Program.
Last year Gonsoulin grew 200 acres of soybeans as a summer cover crop and for additional production, but for Ricky Gonsoulin, home sweet home will always be the sugarcane fields of Iberia Parish. “I have no desire to leave this operation unless financially we are no longer able to make a profit. Until that day I’m going to be striving to increase ways to do that,” Gonsoulin says.
Lewing oversees three poultry farms just outside of Florien. He raised nearly 2 million broilers last year. His task is to produce a four-pound bird from one-day old chicks delivered to his farm—and to do so in 38 days or less. He has retrofitted his tunnel houses with the latest computer equipment to monitor temperature and air quality which are the two most crucial factors in determining growth rates.
Complimenting his poultry business is a successful cow-calf operation. While he does enjoy working with cattle, Lewing realizes the importance of his poultry enterprise. “I’ve always liked the chicken industry from the time I started with just two houses thirty years ago, through good times and bad. It’s always paid my bills and I’ve always been happy doing it.”
For being selected Farmer of the Year, Mitcham receives $1000, a one-year lease on a Dodge truck, and a 150-hour lease on a John Deere tractor. For being named finalists, Gonsoulin and Lewing each receive $500.