Newspaper Page Text
James Johnson Runs Sprawling
Family Farming Operation Here
James Johnson used to
farm a shopping center. That
is, he farmed the shopping
center when it was still open
land. Now it’s Williams
Plaza at Warner Robins.
Johnson used to farm
Miller Hills and Green
Acres, too. But progress -
both in shopping centers and
in farming - has him moving
on. Now he is working 1,200
acres - six hundred acres
which he owns and 600 which
he rents in partnership - at
Route 1, Kathleen.
Johnson started looking
for his new place about ten
years ago when the area
around Warner Robins
stopped being a pleasant
serene farm scene and
joined “the rat race.”
James Johnson, a farmer all his life, reflects
over the years and accomplishments he has
contibuted to farming in Houston County.
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James Johnson, County Agent Whelchel, Larry and Harry look over the
good job of weed control Johnson has done with a stand of corn on his farm.
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From left, James Johnson, Harry, Larry and Emmet
Whelchel discuss harrowing. In the right background is a
“I used to drive my tractor
up and down those roads
over there and never see a
car,” Johnson recalls. “Then
one day I had my pickup
backed up to a bank and was
unloading some cows I had
bought. This lady topped the
hill in a brand new
automobile and nearly ran
over me and my cows. She
came to a screeching half
and yelled, ‘Look what you
nearly made me do’.”
Johnson says he addressed
the lady in some unlady like
language and started looking
for land out in the country He
found it about 12 miles out of
Ferry, but doubts he will
ever be able to pull onto a
paved road again before
stopping and looking for a
brand new automobile.
Johnson is typical of
what’s happening to farmers
and farming - not only in
Houston County but
throughout the state and
nation.
He works from sunup to
sundown; cultivates more
land in a day than he once
could in a week; raises small
grains, soybeans, corn,
peanuts and Angus cattle;
and doesn’t like it a bit when
he and his fellow farmers get
blamed for high food prices.
“If that lady would just
separate her groceries when
she gets home, put the food
“I Used To Farm A
Shopping Center,”
Said James Johnson
items in one stack and the
nonfood items in another,
she would probably learn she
had spent as much on soap,
toothpaste, hair spray, paper
towels and such as she had
spent on food,” he declared.
But James Johnson and
this rich Houston County soil
are wed to each other, and he
isn’t about to let shopping
centers and angry
housewives drive him off the
land. He has lived in Houston
County most of his life and
says, “Yes, I’ve plowed a
mule -about the first half of
my life.”
Johnson not only works full
tractor-mounted herbicide applicator.
time trying to increase crop
yields and reduce production
costs; he also has the nearly
full time job of president of
the Houston County Farm
Bureau. This is about the
third time he has served in
this position, and he doesn’t
know why he agreed to take
the office this time “unless
they got to me when I was
sick and not in my right
mind.”
But Emmett Whelchel,
Houston County agent with
the Cooperative Extension
Service, has a different view
of what makes James
Johnson tick. “He has
dedicated his life to the land
and those who work it, and
he could no more help doing
his best than he could live
without eating,” according
to Whelchel.
Although Johnson may not
realize it, he has made about
as many changes in crop
production as wholesalers
and retailers have made in
product merchandizing.
Instead of the mule he used
to plow, he now drives a 1456
International Tractor (130
horse power) to pull a 22-foot
wide disc harrow that plows
the land, incorporates
herbicides and leaves a
smooth bed ready for
planting - all in one
operation.
“We cover about 140 acres
a day with this equipment,”
said Johnson. “But keep in
mind that’s early to late,”
And during the course of the
day that huge tractor burns
120 gallons of fuel.
He has a planter to match
the tractor and plow. It is 20
feet wide and plants eight
rows at a time. “When you
are putting in 1,200 acres of
crops and have to do it within
a limited period of time, you
just can’t get by with a mule
and a one-row planter
anymore,” he stated.
Johnson and his fellow
Houston County farmers are
doing a few things which are
old hat to them but which are
considered fairly new
developments in other parts
of the state. For example,
growers here have been
planting soybeans behind
small grains for thirty years.
This double cropping system
caught on only recently in
most areas of the state. And
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From left, County Agent Emmet Whelchel,
James Johnson, Larry Johnson and Harry
Johnson, talk things over beside one of the many
soybeans were a major
crop here when they were
unknown in most of Georgia.
James' cropping plan of
peanuts, corn, soybeans,
small grains and cattle is not
a haphazard arrangement he
"ame up with “off the top of
his head.” It is a well
thoughtout system which
utilizes his time and
equipment as efficiently as
possible throughout the year.
“Farmers don’t have those
slack times like they used
to,” he says. “Ndw it’s a day
in and day out operation.”
For example, he begins
land preparation early in the
year, and, come March, is
planting corn. Then in April
he is busy putting peanut
seed in the ground. Single
crop soybean planting gets
underway around May 10. In
June and July small grains
are harvested and late
soybeans are planted behind
the grain combines. Come
October and November, a
new crop of small grains is
seeded.
“Oh, we do have a little
slack time in August,”
James admitted.
He says farming would be
an easy life “if all I had to do
was plant and harvest." But
those are simple steps these
days. Problems of soil
fertility, insect and disease
control, and what to do about
weeds and the weather are
among the things that make
modern day farming com
plicated. Nevertheless, the
modern grower is applying
modern tools and technology
to these problems and is
doing a pretty good job of
solving all of them - except
the weather. “Yes, 1 would
say the weather is still the
farmer’s biggest hazard,”
according to Johnson.
Os course, every farmer is
his own kind of weatherman,
and keeping track of the
temperature, both in the
atmosphere and in the soil,
and when it’s expected to
rain and not rain, are as
PERRY, HOUSTON COUNTY. GEORGIA, 31069, THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1972
natural as eating and
breathing for him. In ad
dition, Johnson has to be an
agronomist, a soil fertility
expert, a geneticist who
keeps up with new varieties
and hybrids, a mechanical
engineer and maintenance
man - and a chemist,
Especially a chemist. He and
County Agent Whelchel
estimate that each of the
crops he grows has at least
five different compounds -
fertilizers, insecticides,
fungicides, herbicides,
growth regulators, etc. -
which can determine success
or failure.
Just as his cropping
methods have changed, so
have some of his crops. He
quit cotton ten years ago,
and also had to give up sweet
potatoes and hybrid seed
corn. A shortage of labor
brought about these
changes.
New and better varieties,
along with new machinery
and chemicals, have helped
Johnson and other farmers
increase efficiency more
than the owners, managers
and employees of any other
industry in America. Ten
years ago, when Johnson
first started working his
farm near Kathleen, he
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James Johnson (left) and county agent Emmet Whelchel look over a good
stand of corn on Johnson’s farm near here.
types of equipment used in the Johnson farming
operation.
averaged 1 ,(>OO pounds of
peanuts per acre. Now he
gets 2,500 pounds per acre
with the Spanish variety, and
with Florunner has produced
up to 2,800 pounds per acre.
Soybean yields have
averaged from 8 to 33
bushels per acre, but this
was due more to the weather
than any lack of knowledge
about how to grow beans.
Houston County farmers, the
pioneer soybean growers in
Georgia, were making
today's average yield three
decades ago when most
farmers didn’t know a
soybean from a velvet bean.
Os course, when a new tool
or chemical solves a
problem on the farm, it often
creates a problem. This is
especially true in weed
control. For example, a
chemical might control a
specific weed problem but
makes it possible for another
weed to come in and take its
place. So the search con
tinues for new and better
chemicals.
Johnson’s purebred Angus
cattle, which include about
50 brood cows, make it
through the spring and
summer more or less on
their own, “Through the
winter we have some time to
work with them,” he said,
“but we are busy with crops
the rest of the year.” The
cattle make it through the
summer in good shape on
lush Coastal Bermuda
pasture. The pastures also
produce a surplus which is
cut for hay and used to
supplement winter feeding.
He plan is rye for his cattle to
graze during the winter
months.
Johnson’s wife died about
three years ago. Alone, he
has watched his five children
grow to maturity as he has
watched and been a part of
the tremendous changes in
Houston County agriculture.
The youngest daughter,
Susan, is a junior in West
field School. Carol is
married and lives in Tifton.
Billy is a freshman at ABAC.
Harry, a December
graduate of the University of
Georgia, is going to work for
the Farm Credit Banks in
Columbia, S.C. Son is
at home pushing that big
International 1456 and
dragging those big plows and
planters for all they are
worth.
Asked what he thought it
would be like ten years from
now, Johnson said, “I don’t
know. I wonder.”