Louie Bodenhamer had an opportunity to buy a 580-acre farm in Robeson County, N.C., near Rowland. He sold his home and moved his family from his hometown of Kernersville to pursue his longtime dream of being a farmer. 

Bodenhamer had farmed on the side while selling trucks for Modern Chevrolet in Winston-Salem, but he knew the potential for growth and opportunity to acquire more land was greater in a more rural area, so he made the move South. He started with 150 acres of tobacco, but soon expanded the operation to 1,800 acres, where he grew wheat, corn, soybeans, and cotton, in addition to tobacco, which was his first love. 

After allotment cuts in 1999 to his tobacco quota, he needed to find a new crop. He first considered growing produce, but that was tough work and not always profitable.  

Then, Wayne Bell from International Forest Company approached Bodenhamer with a proposal to grow longleaf pine seedlings. And as they say, the rest is history. 

“Wayne Bell was looking for a satellite nursery,” Bodenhamer said. “They wanted a nursery in this area. It was a match made in heaven. We had what they wanted, location and ability, and they had what we wanted, seed and equipment. It just came together perfectly.” 

Beginnings

Bodenhamer and his son Aaron, a partner in the family farm, planted their first pine seedlings in 2000. That first year, the Bodenhamers hired someone from the North Carolina Forest Service in Goldsboro to help them grow pine seedlings. International Forest Company also actively helped them get started. 

“That first year we were strictly under the guidance of International Forest Company. They had a man here every week. They were here to sew the trays that first year in 2000. By watching you learn a lot. We worked with International Forest Company for five years, before we went out on our own,” Aaron said. 

For 24 years now, Bodenhamer Farms and Nursery has successfully grown and marketed pine seedlings. Louie said it has been a blessing every day, while Aaron said they plan to stay in a business that has been good to them for many years. 

The pine seedlings are grown on just five acres. The seedlings are grown above the ground in trays in a peat medium in a t-rail system. Center-pivot irrigation is a must to give the seedlings much needed moisture. 

“If every seedling would live, we could produce eight million trees on five acres,” Louie said. “But they don’t all live. About 75% to 80% survive, so as long as we have 6 million to 7 million survive, we do ok.” 

The seedlings are planted in the spring, starting around April 1, and are ready to be harvested by Oct. 1. “We won’t pull a seedling until a customer orders them. When the customer is ready, we will pull seedlings for them,” Aaron said. 

Aaron Bodenhamer shows a pine seedling that is ready to go to a customer. (John Hart)

Seedling care

The Bodenhamers get their seed for the seedlings from orchards.  

“We go to the orchard, shake the trees and the cones will fall down. We gather the cones while they are green, dry them in a converted tobacco barn and process and clean them before we plant them in the trays,” Aaron explained. 

The seedlings are then watered every day, and Aaron said they must be spoon fed with liquid fertilizer the whole season. “That way, the seedlings are never suffering. The peat they are grown in also contains timed-release fertilizer.” 

Phosphorous is a must to build roots with a spay regiment of fungicides and insecticides. Aaron hires a crew to plant the seedlings and to help them get off to a good start. It’s a busy job, in addition to his tasks of growing wheat, corn and soybeans on the farm. 

“I try to plant my corn first. Whenever I get done planting my corn, I do the pine trees. I can’t handle both of them at the same time. It’s too much,” Aaron said.  

The Bodenhamers have a broad range of customers for their longleaf pine seedlings. Most of their customers are forestry consultants who order the seedlings and plant them for forest landowners. They reach out to the consultants through forestry conventions throughout the year as well as advertising in forestry publications. 

The Southern Farm Show is important to the Bodenhamer family. They have exhibited at the show every year since 2006 (with the exception of 2021 when the show was cancelled due to the pandemic), in the same spot, at the rear of the Graham Building. They say they look forward to greeting customers and friends once again in 2024. 

The Southern Farm Show is set for Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 at the NC State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.