Chris Bennett

October 30, 2013

31 Slides

Hugh Campbell is looking at a strong rice crop — possibly the best average yields on big acres that he’s ever had.

Hugh, brother Larry Campbell, and Paul Harrison, partners in Campbell Brothers Farms, Clarksdale, Miss., planted approximately 3,000 acres of rice in 2013 — all hybrids: Clearfield 723, 729, and 745. “I think we’ve got an above-average crop and I’m really pleased so far with yields around 200,” says Hugh.

 

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Danny Campbell, Hugh’s son, echoes his father: “It’s been a good year for our rice and it’s hard to know why, but we planted early in May and ended up with a little over 3,000 acres. We always rotate and next year most of this rice acreage will be in beans.”

 

(For related, see No levees, no diesel: How one Arkansas farmer grows rice)

 

Hugh’s roots go deep in agriculture: “Larry and I started farm managing for C.P. Owens in Tunica when we were about 18 years old and did it for 15 years. He was a big farmer and really taught us a lot about how to work big acreage and how to work labor, and I really enjoyed working for him.”

Campbell Brothers Farms cultivates approximately 8,000 acres and works land in Quitman, Bolivar, Tallahatchie, and Coahoma counties. “We were raised on a farm and we chopped cotton as boys and picked cotton with sacks. I can’t imagine doing anything else. I once worked at a John Deere dealership as a welder and mechanic for two years. Larry and I both had full-time jobs in 1986 and farmed 1,000 acres on the side. In 1987, we went full-time into farming with 3,000 acres and I was so grateful to get back on the land. Farming is just something inside us.”

 

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For more, see

Delta farmland reveals secrets of Indian history

Photos: Farmer in the belly of a cotton picker beast

Photos: Legendary combine driver — Jesse Small

Photos: Meet one of America's youngest farmers

Photos: At Lively farms, wild hogs digging in for long-haul

Photos: Hunting season on, beware the cottonmouth

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

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