March and April in Alabama is my least favorite time of the year.
Why?
At the end of March Garrett starts spreading chicken litter on the fields and everything stinks.
Chicken litter is made up of chicken manure, poultry bedding, dirt, really anything found in a poultry house.
Chicken litter is made up of chicken manure, poultry bedding, dirt, really anything found in a poultry house.
Litter is basically a fine, disgusting dirt that gets everywhere. It gets in your hair, in your clothes, in your car, in your house, in your mouth and you can’t escape it.
My grandmother gets the worst of it with cotton fields surrounding her house and she is always extremely thankful when the first rain comes after Garrett spreads the litter because the rain washes away the dust and the smell.
So why do we use such a nasty and smelly fertilizer?
Simple.
Garrett spreading chicken litter on the cover crop, preparing the soil for planting.
Chicken litter is an excellent source of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium that adds much needed nutrients to the soil and to the cotton crop.
Litter smells and gets everywhere but the benefits make far outweigh the temporary odor.
This year I realized that the trials and rough times that we go through in our lives are a lot like chicken litter.
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. — John 16:33
For me, I’ve been searching for a full-time job for about a year and if you have ever been job hunting, you know it is an awful boat to be in. I wouldn’t wish this boat on my worst enemy.
For the past year I have been clinging to the peace that comes from knowing that Jesus said I would have trouble and trails in this world but that He has overcome the world.
Chicken litter has been flying around in my life for the past year but I am seeing how it is fertilizing my soul.
God is faithful and He is not slow about his promises. He has shown me, over the past year, how He has provided for me in the past, how He is providing for me now and how He will continue to provide for me in the future.
Life with God is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties. – C.S. Lewis
Spreading chicken litter on the farm is the worst time of the year.
Living in the midst of trails and difficulties are some of the worst chapters of your life.
But without the chicken litter, without the trials and difficulties, the soil for the cotton and our soul are not rejuvenated with the nutrients that are needed to bring about a plentiful harvest.
And I am reminded of that harvest every spring as I see the azaleas in full bloom in the midst of the nasty odor of litter.
“A farmer has to be an optimist or he won’t still be an farmer.”- Will Rogers
When it comes to farming I don’t believe any truer words have ever been spoken.
I remember when Garrett first planted soybeans, we were all so hopeful that it would be a success.
The soybean field
The crop was planted. It began to grow and it filled the field with the soybean plants. All through the summer it grew but as it grew the deer came to the all-you-can-eat buffet. It was the equivalent of the best dinner-on-the-ground at the Baptist church where everybody’s grandma brought her best dish and we all ate our fill.
That is what the soybeans fields turned into. Dinner-on-the-ground for the deer.
Even as the deer ate their fill we were still confident that Garrett would have a good crop even though the deer feasted on the crop even as he was picking soybeans.
He did have a decent crop but because of our wildlife friends, the crop wasn’t what we thought it would have been.
The next year Garrett decided not to plant soybeans and provide the deer with another year-long buffet, and planted sesame.
Once again we began the planting season full of hope for the season and it seemed like luck would be on our side.
Garrett was getting good reports on his crop from experts and because deer don’t eat sesame we weren’t worried about them. What we didn’t count on was too much rain at the end of the growing season.
The thing with crops is that you need just the right of rain at different points in the
Garrett in the sesame field
growing season and too much or too little at the wrong time isn’t good for your crop.
Well, this happened with the sesame. We got too much rain at the end when we needed none.
Too much rain at the end of the growing season caused the sesame to become acidic and can only be used for sesame seed oil. You still can sell your crop but you don’t get as much for your crop.
Optimism. You have to have it to farm. You can’t have any illusions that your life as a farmer will be perfect.
You are tied to the seasons.
You are tied to the weather.
You are tied to markets.
Paul Harvey said, “God said, “I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt, and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say, ‘Maybe next year.’”
Farmers are optimists or they wouldn’t be farmers.
No illusions that things will be perfect.
No illusions that the crop could fail.
No illusions that the markets could fall.
Simply, hope that next year will be a better year.
Approximately 35 million acres of farmland was rendered useless during the 1930s.
In 1930 Midwestern farmers faced drought and crop failures when the wheat market crashed and 1931 brought in massive dust storms, creating the Dust Bowl.
According to the History Channel, approximately 35 million acres of farmland was rendered useless and another 125 million acres rapidly lost its topsoil.
What caused this? Simple, over cultivation of the prairie.
Because of high wheat prices during World War I, farmers planted hundreds of acres of wheat, corn and other row crops. Once the market crashed, farmers planted more acres in the hopes of creating a bumper crop, instead, drought set in and crops failed, leaving the prairie bare of the grasses that were vital in holding the soil in place, causing the Dust Bowl.
This lead to the creation of the National Resources Conservation Services, NRCS, a New Deal program that works to implement new farming practices that fight soil erosion.
One of these practices is planting cover crops every year.
The cover crops help maintain the topsoil on the fields and it adds to the organic matter of the soil, improving the overall soil health.
Each winter Garrett plants cover crops of wheat, oats and rapeseed on his cotton fields.
Last year’s cover crop. Garrett plants a cover crop each year to protect the soil and to keep the topsoil from eroding away.
Each spring he plows them up and plants his cotton and his fields have been replenished with nutrients for the harvest to come.
Right now our church is doing the Bible study MasterLife. Dad, Garrett, Robin and I are all going through it. The whole point of MasterLife is spending time with the Master, Jesus Christ, every day. It stresses the importance of being in the Word every day and the importance of diligently spending time in prayer.
The focus a week or so ago was about the importance of daily finding time to spend time in the Word.
As I was driving to visit family last weekend I got to thinking about how spending time in the Word every day was similar to planting cover crops.
I know, what? How are cover crops and spending time in the Word of God every day even remotely similar?
Give me a minute.
Our faith in Christ is like the soil in the field. It has the potential to be fertile and to bring forth life, just as the soil in Garrett’s cotton fields have the potential to produce a fruitful cotton harvest.
But if we leave our faith, if we leave our fields, open to the trials of life, open to the weather, we have left ourselves vulnerable.
Just as Garrett’s fields need a cover crop each winter to protect the soil, our fields of faith need a cover crop which comes from daily time spend in the Word of God.
When we spend time in scripture every day we are learning about who God is and we are learning His promises so that when the droughts come and the markets fail, our faith is protected because we have rooted ourselves in the Truth.
This year’s cover crop. Just as Garrett’s fields need a cover crop each winter to protect the soil, our fields of faith need a cover crop which comes from daily time spend in the Word of God.
But if we go through life with no protection, our fields of faith will become like the fields of the Midwestern farmers in the 1930s, barren, dry and blown away.
“We can be tired, weary and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that He injects into our bodies energy, power and strength.” Charles Stanley
Cover crops don’t just protect the soil by keeping it in place, it also makes the soil richer by adding organic matter and nutrients to the soil. The same thing happens when you spend time in the Word.
John 8:31-32 says: If you hold to my teaching you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
Daily reading the Word and meditating on scripture nourishes our weary soul which thirsts for Truth that will help us in the trials of life.
Everyone needs a cover crop in their walk with the Lord. Sometimes we don’t cover our field of faith with daily time spent in the Word, I know I sure don’t. But if we ever want our fields to produce fruit then we have to ensure that we are covering our field with the right cover crop in the winter so that it is ready for the planting and the harvest.
Diversification is an important farm management practice, any farmer worth anything will tell you that. You can’t rely on just one crop or one herd of cattle to make it.
Crops fail.
Cattle prices fall.
Relying on just one commodity opens you up to the possibility of loosing it all when prices fall. Diversification helps protect you when the market falls, and we all know that they will.
But that’s not why I like diversification.
I like diversification because it opens up new opportunities- new opportunities for people to be involved.
For the past few years Garrett’s primary focus has been row crops. He went from growing corn with our uncle in high school, to soybeans by himself and now cotton.
Caylor helping Garrett on the module builder.
The row crops, that is his thing. I’ll go out and take pictures and help on the module builder but that’s it. Dad will help him during pickin’ time and Robin helps him all the time. But row crops are Garrett’s thing.
That is why I love diversification.
The row crops are the way Garrett specifically contributes to the farm.
While Garrett’s busy with row crops, Dad is focusing on the cattle.
Dad comes home from work and he spends his time, until supper, outside feeding cows, checking fences and fixing things that need to be fixed.
The cattle are the way Dad specifically contributes to the farm.
One of our first calves.
We all contribute together when we need to. We all work cows together. We all pitch in during pickin’ time to help get the cotton in.
The agritourism segment is the newest avenue for involvement.
Mom, Robin and I get to be involved in a more hands-on, creative way, and as someone who struggles with wondering where they fit in on the farm, I love it!
Us gals get to make the cows and row crops beautiful. Mom and Robin get together and make cotton wreathes and I use pictures and words.
I love that we have opened up the farm for people to come and take pictures in the sunflower fields in the summer and in the cotton in the fall. We have the opportunity to open up our gates and show people what we do.
Robin in the sunflower fields, the newest segment on the farm.
I went to Auburn and got a degree in agricultural communications. I spent 5 years learning how to use journalism, mass media and public relations with agriculture. This is how I contribute to the farm.
I love designing graphics for print and the web. I love using words to share with others about the farm. I love designing and building our website, coming at you soon. I love taking pictures of what we do. I don’t want be tied to the seasons like Garrett is and that is the main reason I love doing communications.
With people wanting to know about where their food comes from, communications has never been more important.
On family farms, with multiple people, with multiple different personalities and talents, diversification is important, more than just by providing financial security. It helps keep each other connected to the farm and it helps each family member feel needed.
I love my family but they don’t all have an eye for design or for the written word, but I do. I don’t have the talent or interest in making cotton wreathes, but Mom and Robin do. I don’t have a passion for sitting in the tractor and planting cotton, but Garrett does. I don’t want to spend freezing, cold winter days being outside checking and working with the cows, but Dad does.
That is why diversification is so important. That is why I love it.
Our family in 2016, the first year we added cotton pictures.
Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful and most noble employment of man. – George Washington
I think my ancestors, on both sides of my family, read this years and years ago and decided to live by it.
My dad grew up on a row crop farm in Northwest Florida and my mom grew up on a cattle and row crop farm in Alabama where we farm today. Even though my parents both grew up on a farm and were involved in production agriculture they decided not to continue that tradition in the traditional sense.
I grew up half a mile from the house my mom grew up in, where my grandmother still lives today. Even though my parents weren’t farming, my mom was a school teacher and my dad worked for an international company, they made sure that my brothers, Garrett and Caylor, and I were exposed to it.
When you grow up a literal half mile from your grandparents who have been farming ever since your grandfather came home from Korea you can’t help but have farming be a part of your life.
My grandfather and uncle would cut the hay in the hay fields surrounding our house, my mom would drop Garrett and me off in the cotton fields after school so we could play in the loaded cotton wagons, my grandfather and then my uncle would take Garrett and me to check pastures on weekends and during school holidays, and anytime there was an orphaned calf it came to my parents’ house for Garrett and me to feed.
In all honesty, I didn’t want to be in production agriculture when I grew up, but thankfully Garrett did and that was how our family of 5 got back into production.
While I was playing school and Barbies in my room, Garrett was farming hundreds of thousands of acres of cotton, soybeans and wheat and raising thousands of head of cattle in his room.
When he was in high school Garrett decided he wanted to try his hand at real production, and he and our uncle planted 15 acres of corn and a love for production agriculture was planted.
Garrett and our dad started our herd back in 2010.
That love was cultivated and grew, but with the high costs that come with a beginning farmer Garrett decided that he would go to pharmacy school and farm part-time by raising registered Angus cows.
In 2010, when I was in 10th grade Dad and Garrett went to Cullman, Alabama to the Alabama Angus Association Sale and bought 5 brood cows.
I am so glad Garrett decided to raise cows because otherwise I don’t know how I would have ever been involved in the farm (my idea of a good time is not sitting in the hot, stuffy tractor in the middle of July and I hate the idea of being completely dependent on the seasons).
Since my dad works off the farm, raising the cows has given him the opportunity to get back to his roots. Everyday when he gets home from work he feeds and checks on the cows.
Even though we’ve been raising cows for almost 8 years, the herd hasn’t really grown in size and that’s okay. We have grown in other directions. Garrett decided not to go to pharmacy school. Instead he graduated with a degree in animal science from Auburn and now he is a full-time row crop farmer and we’ve taken that and grown it into a small agritourism venture.
So who are we today? Who is Dixon Farms today?
Well, there’s my dad, Ken. Since Garrett and I don’t live on the farm any more, he and my
Dad, Caylor and I at an Auburn University football game.
mom, Ann, are really responsible for a lot of the day-to-day things. Dad makes sure the cows are feed at night because Garrett is usually in the field.
Lord only knows where we would be without Mom. She’s the one that makes sure we are organized with any and all paperwork. She is always writing things into her planner so we don’t forget when it’s time to weigh or wean calves. I do think the most important job she has on the farm is that of the Peacemaker.
Garrett is the driving force behind the farm. All of us love the farm but he’s the one who is farming it full time. Usually you can find him in one of his fields either getting it ready for spring planting or harvesting the cotton in the fall.
The whole family at Garrett and Robin’s wedding.
The newest addition, Robin, has ignited a spark of creativity in the place. Garrett and Robin met at Auburn and got married November 2017. I love both my brothers and my dad, but they don’t have a creative bone in their body. Mom and Robin have brought a beauty to the place with an eye for using the cotton Garrett grows in creative ways. Thanks to Robin, we now create and sell cotton wreathes.
Caylor, well Caylor is the best of all us Dixons. Caylor was born with cerebal palsey and has some muscle and developmental delays, but that doesn’t slow him down. He is always game for a ride in the tractor or cotton picker with Garrett. He loves to ride in the gator and help feed the cows. Caylor is the sunshine on the farm.
And me, well, I’m still figuring out my place on the farm. I do most of the communications for the farm. I write for the blog and I create all the graphics that we use. I’m also responsible, much to my dismay, for registering the calves and I’m the gopher for the place. Garrett jokes about getting a sign for my car that says, “Official Part Car for Dixon Farms.” I just graduated from Auburn, and I’m still just trying to figure out where I fit in this whole thing.
We have come a long way in just a few short years. I am excited to see how God is going to use our farm to not only share with others our love for agriculture but also His gospel. We keep our goals at the farm pretty simple, always be improving, but the apostle Paul shares our most important goal.
Philippians 1:27 says, “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
When we forget that goal, we have forgotten our purpose in life. It’s not to not simply feed and clothe the world. Our purpose is to live a life worthy of the gospel.
Dixon Farms 