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We travel to farms multiple times each year, and we are humbled and grateful to growers who welcome us and share their valuable time and knowledge.

Brad Haire, Executive Editor

July 8, 2022

2 Min Read
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Left to right, Greg Hobbs; Phillip Edwards, UGA Extension coordinator in Irwin County; and Wayne Hobbs.Brad Haire

Trucks crowded the country store’s parking lot, a good sign it’s the right place for lunchtime. I squeezed my truck between two others. Got out.

Wayne Hobbs stood outside the store’s door. His brother, Greg, was there, too, and so was Wayne’s son, Tommy, and grandsons Turner and Waylon. One of the country’s best county Extension agents was there, too.

We shook hands and spoke briefly outside the store, then went inside to stand in line for lunch, still talking and joking a bit. The food was spot on and one of the best lunches I’ve had in a while, and I have good lunches on a regular basis, blessed to travel the country roads I do for my job, watching for the number of trucks in eatery parking lots.

I was there to spend some time with Wayne Hobbs, who is the 2022 Farm Press Peanut Efficiency winner for the Lower Southeastern States. T.M. Hobbs was Wayne’s and Greg’s father and family farming patriarch. He was well-known for achieving peanut yields decades ago that would impress growers and the industry today. Wayne continues the family tradition.

After the good lunch and fellowship, we drove out to Wayne’s farm. Enjoyed more time in the field, talking and joking a bit more. Wayne, Greg, one of the country’s best county Extension agents and I ended up sitting and talking and joking a bit more, under the shade of a pecan tree, a cool breeze blew through the hot, south Georgia day.

Related:On Hobbs Farm, groundbreaking peanut legacy continues

Finally, we shook hands again, said our good-byes and shared some appreciation. I drove home, returning to my wife and kids that evening. And that is a good day at the office, my favorite kind of day. Like the good folks we talk to, our office is inside our trucks, wherever we hold our phones or conversations under the shade, in a store or in a field. That's a good thing.

My Farm Press colleagues all say the same thing: We travel to farms multiple times each year, and we are humbled and grateful to growers who welcome us and share their valuable time and knowledge. Every farm is familiar but each is also very much unique.

Congratulations to all our PEA winners this year and thank you much to our industry partners that help support the program.

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