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Langston Brothers Top Notch Houston Farmers
By Maxine Thompson
Fred and Steve Langston
of Henderson agree that
hoeing peanuts and hand
picking cotton stand out in
their memories as the two
worst jobs on a farm.
“I wasn’t having to hoe
peanuts,” Steve recalled
“but one day our Dad had
one of the hands sharpening
hoes. As I watched I made
the remark that a hoe handle
«
Steve and Fred Langston divide up most of the
farm jobs, but whenever one needs help the other
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Fred and Steve Langston discuss their 16-stall
hog farrowing house with Emmet Whelchel,
didn’t fit my hand, and Dad
just happened to walk up in
time to hear me. Well, he
showed me one of them fit,
for he put me in the field with
it!”
For Steve, the best part
now is picking peanuts,
mechanically, of course.
Fred prefers to work with
hogs, and the funny thing
about that is the fact that
Steve had to argue with him
for quite a while to get back
into the hog business.
They never got completely
out, but for about a year and
a half prices went down to 14-
17 cents a pound and they
couldn't make anything
selling. So they culled their
sows, replentished their
brood stock with cheap good
stock, and toughed it out.
pitches in with him. Both are winners of the
Outstanding Young Farmer of Houston County
awards.
Agricultural Extension Agent for Houston County.
Now they have 43 brood
sows and two males. They
have a modern farrowing
house with 16 stalls where
sows deliver and stay until
their pigs are six weeks old.
Then pigs are weaned and
taken out to start feeding out
for sale at 5 to 54 months.
They try to average them out
at around 215 pounds and sell
at the Cordele Livestock
Market
liaised on a farm, the
brothers started operating
together in 1963. Part of their
1,500 cultivated acres,
pasture and woodlands is
part of their old home place -
they took over operation of it
from their father - and they
purchased more in 1964.
Besides their hogs, they
have 83 brood cattle and four
bulls.
"Oh, and Fred has a goat,"
Steve laughed.
Fred shrugged. “Don’t ask
me where it came from. It
was in the yard Christmas
morning and 1 don’t know if
somebody left it there on
purpose or if it just wan
dered up."
The brothers are
growing cotton, corn,
peanuts, soybeans, oats,
wheat, watermelons, can
taloupes, squash, and okra.
Where do they market these
varied farm products?
They explained that
peanuts go to Unadilla,
where there are four
warehouses to buy them;
cotton is also ginned and sold
there. Soybeans are stored
on the farm and they get a
government loan on them
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No more two-row spraying with the modern
equipment used on the Langston farm. Here Steve
...
With County Agent Emmet Whelchel, right, the
Langston brothers admire the fine brood sows on
PKHRY, HOUSTON COUNTY, GEORGIA, 31069, THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1972
until prices are good. Some
corn is used for feed and the
rest is stored on government
loan the same as soybeans.
Melons are sold at the
Atlanta State Farmers
Market. They have a con
tract with Southern Frozen
Foods in Montezuma for the
sale of their squash. Okra is
sold to someone who wants to
buy it for resale.
They shop around for
highest prices for sale of
their pecans. They have 80
acres of Stuarts and
Desirables, all hand-picked.
“We usually hire 10 to 15
people, mostly women and
children, to pick them,"
Steve said. “About 60 acres
of them are 10-11 years old."
"My choice is the
Desirable," Fred said. "You
get some pecans every year
from them, even when other
varieties have none. We had
pecans on five-year-old
trees, unusually early, and
they’ve had pecans every
year since.”
The Langstons plant 9
trees to the acre, spacing
them 70 feet apart in all
directions.
The farm operation is
roughly divided between the
brothers. Fred gets the land
prepared and herbicides out,
does some planting and looks
after the rest. Steve plants,
spreads fertilizer, and look
after the spray program.
Kach helps the other
whenever he is needed, and
they actually do some of all
the work together except
picking cotton, Steve’s job. It
is picked mechanically.
Some things on the farm
are funny later but not so
funny at the time they
happened. When Fred was
fifteen years old, their Dad
bought some melons before
his were ripe and sent Fred
and one of the men on the
farm to the Farmers Market
in Atlanta with the in
structions to sell them for
SI.OO each.
They took him so litterally
that they refushed 85 cents
each for them.
“Ten days later we came
home from the market - with
the melons," Fred laughed.
FARM SAFETY WEEK JULY 25-31,1972^
covers many rows each time he sweeps across the
field.
their farm at Henderson.
Fred is married to the
former Ann Corn and they
have two sons, Chip and
Dwayne. He is a member of
the Houston County Young
Farmer Association;
chairman of the county
A.S.C.S. Committee; and a
member of Masonic
No. 35, F. & A.M. in Perry.
He was named Houston
County’s Outstanding Young
Farmer two separate years
during the 1960’5.
Steve is married to the
former Bobbie Batts and
they have two daughters,
Rhonda and Pam. He is a
member of the Houston
County Young Farmer
Association and a member of
Masonic Lodge No. 35, F. &
A.M. in Perry.
He was Houston County's
Outstanding Young Farmer
for the 1970-71 year, and at
that time placed third in
state competition.
Both brothers are deacons
at Henderson Baptist
Church.