Chris Bennett

September 26, 2013

29 Slides

On the heels of a good rain, farm manager Bob Gordon took his Triple H crew into the fields and began harvesting grain sorghum.

“For me, farming is the only way of life and I believe it’s got to be in your blood. This time of year is your reward — harvest. You get to reap the effort you’ve put out all year.”

Gordon has been with Triple H Planting Co., Clarksdale, Miss., for 22 years, and before that, worked part-time at Triple H for almost as long.

“Milo works well on land that needs building up and it puts a lot of residuals back in the ground. If we plant it one year in a particular spot, we don’t plant it there the next year. Milo is a great rotation crop because at harvest only the heads come off and everything else goes back into the ground.”

This year, Triple H (owned by producer Tripp Hayes) has approximately 5,500 acres of crops: 150 in milo; 800 in corn; 800 in wheat, and the remainder in soybeans. Gordon uses milo as a rotation crop with beans, corn and cotton: “Milo used to be a lot bigger in the Delta, but it’s gotten to where you mainly see it in small plots. It’s just a price thing. But it’s still a low-maintenance crop, with the biggest expense in fertilizer. Once you plant, it’s mainly atrazine over the top to hit weeds and then you’re pretty much through.”

With decent weather, the overall Triple H harvest could be completed by the end of October.

And when the all the 2013 farm work is truly done, what will Gordon do?

“I’ll do what I always do; I’ll deer hunt — every single day I can.”

 

Want the latest in ag news delivered daily to your inbox? Subscribe to Delta Farm Press Daily.

 

For more, see

Photos: Grain bags lining up for Longino Planting Co.

Photos: Pigweed is the ‘Satan’ of resistant weeds

Photos: Lonesome Dove begins cutting corn

Photos: Shifting farmland with Robert Precht

Photos: Vernon Jackson fires irrigation gun at cotton crop

Photos: High school cotton choppers hit Delta rows

Subscribe to receive top agriculture news
Be informed daily with these free e-newsletters

You May Also Like