As Mark Nemec looked across Jay Wilder’s Snook, Texas, cotton on a dry, November evening, he said, “This is the best cotton ever grown on this farm.” Mark would know. He’s been walking those fields for the last 50 years.  

It’s a farm where he cut his teeth, learning to scout cotton for insects and diseases under the tutelage of his late father and prominent crop consultant, Stanley Nemec.

His dad scouted for “Mr. Porter,” Wilder’s grandfather, “who started this farm,” Mark said.

Mark Nemec, MJN Consulting Service, Hewitt, Texas, is TPPA's 2024 Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement recipient. (Photo by Shelley E. Huguley)

As a 6- to 7-year-old, Mark was swimming in Mr. Porter’s irrigation ditches. By age 12, he was scouting his crops, traveling from field to field, often on a mini motorcycle kickstarted by his dad.

50 years later, he’s still walking those fields. But this day, it’s during a late harvest graced with clear weather after a rain-drenched and delayed planting season. Thanks to a hot summer and intense management, he’s watching Mr. Porter’s grandson and great-grandson pick what may be a record crop. 

Crop protection

For half a century, crop protection has fueled Mark’s passion. And today, the Texas Plant Protection Association is recognizing him, not only for his expertise, assisting growers from Waco to Navasota, but his leadership within the industry and the association.

Related:Mark Nemec receives TPPA’s Norman Borlaug award

TPPA has named Mark, MJN Consulting Service, the 2024 Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. His wife Carol and daughter Cassidy Nemec of College Station, were on hand as he was recognized with the association’s highest honor during TPPA’s 36^th annual meeting and awards luncheon in Bryan-College Station.

Research

Early on, Mark’s dad introduced him to research. In the 70s, as Stanley shifted to less consulting with a greater emphasis on efficacy research, the two began assessing products. “The pyrethroids we have now, we tested those when they were numbered compounds,” Mark recalled.

They examined plant protection chemicals like fusilade and Post, “a lot of the herbicides,” before they had a name. “I tell people I was one of the first people to smell Orthene,” Mark joked. “We didn’t even know what it was.” (Orthene is the active ingredient in the insecticide acephate.)

Mark Nemec consults farmers on a variety of crops, including cotton, corn, wheat, grain sorghum, sunflowers, and watermelons. "Just about anything," Nemec said. (Photo by Shelley E. Huguley)

Ten- to 12-acre research plots were leased from various farmers, including Mr. Porter. “We had plots all up and down here. A lot of spraying and counting,” Mark recalled.

As his dad was winding down his research in 1991 and only scouting for the Porters, Mark began to work for the city of College Station where he initiated a spray program.

“They were out there with weed eaters and mowers trying to mow ditches. I said ‘Wait a minute. We can spray this easier.’” He built a sprayer for a tractor and started a vegetative management program.

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Then in the mid-90s, a tragic event led him back to his roots. John Vahalik, a Waco area consultant and his dad’s best friend, suddenly passed away mid-season. Initially, Stanley took over Vahalik’s acres, but he eventually asked Mark if he wanted to finish the job.

“I wasn’t happy working for a boss, or 8 to 5,” Mark said. It was time for a change.

He spent the last three months of that season helping producers in Mart and Moody, Texas, make a crop. “I asked them if they wanted me to stay. They said yes. And to this day, I’m still working for some of those original farmers.”

It’s been 30 years and for those who have retired or passed on, he’s now consulting the second generation.

Reflecting

Mark spent countless hours learning from his dad. Father and son are both recipients of the Consultant of the Year award, Mark in 2010 and Stanley in 1987— the only generational recipients. Mark not only credits his dad for instilling scouting knowledge but some of life’s “Golden Rules.”

Related:Norman Borlaug Award winner announced

Mark isn’t the only Nemec who embraced his father’s legacy. Two of his sisters are crop consultants in Australia and his other sister is married to a consultant. “We all grew up saying we couldn’t wait to get out this cotton patch and then all of a sudden it stuck with us,” Mark said.

Transition

As he reflects on his career, Mark noted significant crop protection breakthroughs such as boll weevil eradication. “We never would have been able to grow cotton like this with the boll weevil,” he said of Wilder’s cotton.

In 1998, during Stanley’s last year of consulting in the U.S. before moving to Australia, Mark said he calculated that he had sprayed 13 times for boll weevils.

“At the end of the year, we were spraying every three days, and they were still coming in. An airplane couldn’t get back to it fast enough. We had a lot of sticks sticking up with nothing on them,” Mark said.

Nemec family, from left, daughter Cassidy, College Station, Texas, and Mark and Carol, Hewitt, gather in Jay Wilder's cotton field. Wilder told Farm Press, “We’ve always had a Nemec on this farm.” Mark, as did his father before him, has been walking these fields for the last 50 years. (Photo by Shelley E. Huguley)

He also noted technology such as Roundup Ready herbicide traits. “That has really made a difference.”

The Porter/Wilder farm had a history of morning glories. “The worst around,” Mark said. “A lot of places in the Brazos Bottom did. And now with the new technology, we’ve been able to control our morning glories.”

His dad created the “Nemec concoction,” a secret sauce of four different products, which Mark still uses on the Wilder’s farm today. “A little bit of this and a little bit of that. He found the right combination to make a mesh, and he cleaned this farm up.”

Economics

As producers face economic challenges, Mark attests it forces consultants to sharpen their pencils as well.

“You’ve got to find the best thing you can, but it’s also got to be the cheapest. Sometimes it’s getting by versus getting it done,” he said. “It’s been challenging the last couple of years penciling out what you can do to make a crop.”

What he loves

As for what fuels his passion, Mark pointed to Wilder’s field. “It’s that right there. I like to be out here late in the evenings, early in the mornings. I come out and watch the sunrise in the peace and quiet.”

Generational success: Mark Nemec is a second-generation crop consultant and Crop Consultant of the Year recipient. Mark received the award in 2010, while is father, Stanley Nemec, was the 1987 recipient. (Photo by Shelley E. Huguley)

He often walks his farmers’ fields, some of which are a mile long. “I think, pray and that’s how I like to start my day. That’s my favorite thing to do. But then to come back and make this at the end of the year, makes you feel good.”

But he admitted that until the last boll has been picked, he remains on pins and needles. “It’s some of the best they’ve ever made, and I want it out.”

Learn what Nemec's farmers and colleagues had to say about his knowledge, character and expertise: Mark Nemec receives TPPA’s Norman Borlaug award