Tate Farms

About:

The farm, located in the red clay soils of the Tennessee Valley, consists of 6,000 acres of family owned and leased land. While the farm produces several different crops, including corn, wheat, soybeans and pumpkins, the principal crop has always been cotton.  The family also manages around a 50 head of beef cows.  Homer began farming with around 50 acres that he plowed with a mule.  Today, this huge amount of acreage is managed with 200 horse power tractors pulling modern equipment.  Homer and his workers picked cotton by hand back in 1948 and carried the cotton on their backs in a tow sack.  Today, the cotton is harvested with a cotton picker that picks 6 rows at a time, doing the work of 100 men.

Other changes on the farm include the addition of irrigation in 1988, which provides essential water in dry weather. Watered plants can produce up to one and a half times more yield than those plants receiving only rainwater. There are currently 19 center pivot irrigation systems in operation, watering approximately 1,800 acres. In 2004, sub surface drip irrigation was introduced to water an additional 200 acres of row crops.