Q: Please tell me a little bit about the farm and where you're located.
A: Walters Farms is a multi-generational farm in middle Georgia. We now specialize in beef cattle, hay and forage feed, and wholesale wheat straw / hay production for sale to retail outlets.
Q: How did the farm get started?
A: This farm was relocated from Blissfield, Michigan to Barnesville, Georgia in 1953 by Morgan Walters (grandfather). In the 60s Morgan worked his five children on the farm producing milk (cows) and eggs (chickens). My father (John) and uncle (Jack) took ownership of the farm in 1976 and began expanding with pork (pigs) and beef (cattle) production. I worked on the farm all through my school years. After returning from college in 1991, I expanded the pork facilities again until Walters Farms was producing twenty thousand market pigs per year. This continued in some capacity until 2018 when we shipped the last group of pigs off the farm. Since 2015 we have expanded the cattle operation and hay production.
Q: To you, what is the importance of agriculture, and how do you see it progressing in the future?
A: The importance of agriculture is security. Whether it be your family, community, or nation, food is vital to the security of freedom. Without a solid domestic food supply we would all be subordinate to whoever provides the food. In my opinion, ag is the key to our national defense.
Q: How have you seen agriculture change through your years in the industry?
A: Agriculture has become more specialized and concentrated by items produced. Morgan Walters moved a farm from Michigan that had dairy cows, laying hens, a few hogs, and equipment to harvest a variety of crops. Then my father and uncle invested in a concentrated swine operation so we could produce pigs by the semi-load. Agriculture has always been labor intensive. Through the years innovation has allowed the same amount of labor to produce more agricultural products. With pigs it was a combination of genetics, nutrition, and housing that allowed us to produce more pork per labor hour.
Q: Could you please share one common misconception that people tend to have in your field of the agricultural industry and what your take on it is?
A: Farmers have long been stereotyped as not intelligent. In my opinion it is likely because it is not a glamorous or clean job. However, farmers/ranchers not only have to be intelligent to make a farm successful, they must have a tremendous amount of common sense or practical knowledge.
Q: What fields in agriculture do you see growing in the future, and what are their job outlooks?
A: Agri-tourism is a growing field. As urban people become less connected with agriculture I believe there is a desire to visit a see where and how their food is produced.
Q: Is there an area of agriculture that needs to be tackled and revived by the younger generations?
A: Technology applications are ripe for young people to become part of agriculture. It is very unlikely someone could make farming work when starting from zero. However, a young person could bring technical skills to an operating farm and find success through marketing, GPS, data management, etc.
Q: If you could give one piece of advice to younger generations that are interested in pursuing agriculture, what would it be?
A: Don’t get discouraged with failure. Farming is all about learning from failed experiments. Try to build measures to prevent identical failures.
Q: To wrap things up, I'd like to hear your thoughts on how to keep the agriculture industry thriving for years to come. How do we Keep Ag Alive?
A: Get government out of the way of agriculture. Small minority voices with hidden agendas continue to influence our government to say they know how to farm better than farmers. Rules and regulations are placed on farmers to appease these radical groups and hinder support to farmers and food production. Agriculture has to navigate issues such as immigration, climate change, and the economy all while taking on weather, market conditions, and government regulations. I fear Ag will not live at the current pace of piling on. Once the US agriculture community can not grow what the US consumes, we will all be subordinate to whoever provides our meal.