Tag Archives: rural Georgia

From Dairy to Sod: Georgia Farm Bureau’s Bernard Sims Reflects on a Lifetime of Farming

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Ringgold, GA |

Around here, the day still starts with a ride across the farm. There are pastures to check, land to look over, and work that never really goes away. For Bernard Sims, this has been home for decades. And while one leadership chapter is coming to a close, he says the timing was right.

“My mind’s good, but my body’s beginning to fail me. It was time to get out of the way and let somebody younger come on and take care of it,” Sims said.

STILL ON THE FARM — JUST IN A DIFFERENT ROLE

But stepping away from a board position doesn’t mean Bernard is stepping away from agriculture. The farm is still very much a part of his daily life — even if these days, he’s quick to point out, he’s more or less an onlooker.

“I have a son that actually runs the operation now. I just work with them wherever they need me. If they need me to drive something, that’s what I do,” Sims said. “Physically, I’m not able to do as much as I used to — by far.”

BUILT ON THE FARM, NOT IN A BOARDROOM

That work ethic was forged early. After a couple years of college and a stint working in a foundry, Sims decided there was a better way to live — and came back to start dairying. That decision shaped nearly four decades of his life, defined by early mornings, long hours, and work that doesn’t take days off.

“When I started, we were raising about sixty-five calves. And as time went on, you either had to get bigger or get out — and now the dairies are huge. The mechanization’s come along to help them too,” Sims said.

While many know Bernard Sims for his years of service with Georgia Farm Bureau, his foundation was never built in a meeting room or around a board table. It was built here — through early mornings, long days, and a life spent doing the work himself.

A PIVOT TO SOD

Eventually, Bernard and his family made the move out of dairy and into sod farming. Part of that decision was business, part of it was timing, and part of it was watching the world around his farm slowly start to change.

“We began to get so many neighbors. We had never had any problems, but it seemed like it was coming,” Sims said. “And I felt like it was time for us to get into something else while we still could manage it ourselves — without being forced or told what to do with it. I had two sons with me, and to support three families, I didn’t think we had enough land at the time to do it with traditional farming. The only thing I could see was sod farming — and it has worked out well for us.”

STILL PRODUCTIVE, STILL PASSIONATE

Still, Bernard worries about what farming is becoming — not because agriculture isn’t moving forward, but because the farming life he knew is getting harder to find. Even so, the work itself remains a source of deep satisfaction.

“I just love being out here on the farm. I see so many young men coming in here to talk, and they look at me and say, ‘You still working?’ And I say, ‘Yeah — the good Lord said be productive. And that’s what I’m trying to do,'” Sims said with a laugh.

For Bernard Sims, the chapter titles may be changing, but the story — the one written in early mornings, long days, and a lifetime of love for the land — is far from over.

By: Ray D’Alessio

Warren County 4-H Garden Connects Rural Students to Where Their Food Comes From

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Warrenton, GA |

Tucked just outside the front of a school in Warren County sits a garden that’s become a centerpiece for agricultural education in this small, rural community. Known as the 4-H Farm and School Garden, the project started with a simple idea: bring kids outside and connect them to the land that feeds them.

“Warren County is absolutely rural, but even though it’s rural, that doesn’t mean our kids know where their food comes from. It doesn’t mean they know how to produce it, and we want to teach them — just like we teach farmers every day in the office — sustainability,” said Tammy Cheely. “We hope they never have to feed themselves, but we want them to know how if they have to. And we want them to understand and appreciate Warren County’s tax base and our lifestyle, because it is a farming community. So we wanted to build a bridge between farmers and the school.”

STARTING THEM YOUNG

That bridge has certainly taken shape over the last couple of years, as the garden has been upgraded, expanded, and poured into by the community — success that organizers say can be attributed to getting kids involved as early as possible.

“Typically, 4-H starts in fourth grade, but we decided to go back and pick up those early learners. We found the younger we get them started, the more they love it and the longer they stay with it,” said Amanda Wilkerson. “They’ve eaten things that I would have never touched when I was their age, and my boys did not eat when they were their age. But we found that when they get out in the garden and are working it, they’re a lot more likely to try.”

A CHANGE AT THE DINNER TABLE

To their surprise, that willingness to try new things doesn’t stop at the garden gate. Wilkerson says parents across the county have noticed a real change at home — and that ripple effect is exactly what the program is built for.

“We want to make this a family affair, not just for our students. We’re hoping that by impacting our 4-H’ers, we can impact their families as well — and I know that we have,” Wilkerson said. “I can go to a store here in town and hear someone say, ‘Hey, Miss Amanda,’ and I’ll wave. It’ll be one of my 4-H’ers, and then I’ll go meet their parents and they’ll say, ‘You’re the reason they want me to buy a head of lettuce to make lettuce wraps,’ or ‘You’re the reason my child wants chickens,’ because we have a big poultry team and we expose them to poultry as early as we can.”

OPENING THE DOOR TO A BIGGER INDUSTRY

With agriculture being Warren County’s number one industry, Wilkerson says the garden serves a bigger purpose beyond growing vegetables — it’s about exposing students to the many different facets of the field.

“It’s more than just growing things or raising animals. There are so many facets of agriculture. Because our county is so big in agriculture, we want to expose our students to as many components of ag as we can — to raise their awareness, but also to help them find their passion,” Wilkerson said. “Some of these students have no clue. We walked in and I pointed at the very first crop and asked, ‘What’s that?’ If you’ve ever seen it before, you know that’s corn. They don’t always know that. The simple reason is they haven’t been exposed, and we want to give them as much exposure to agriculture as we can.”

For a county built on farming, the 4-H Farm and School Garden is doing exactly what it was designed to do — planting the seeds of curiosity in a new generation, one lettuce wrap and one curious question at a time.

By: John Holcomb

GFB Young Farmers Chair Garrett Hurley Has Never Strayed Far From Home — or the Farm

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Lyerly, GA |

For most people, life takes them far from where they started — a different town, a different career, a different path. For Garrett Hurley, home has never been very far away at all.

“My house is actually on my childhood farm. The farm I live on has been in our family for five or six generations. I’ve actually moved once, and it was across a cow pasture,” said Hurley, Chair of Georgia Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee. “I’ve been within about 200 yards of the same place my entire life.”

A DREAM THAT STARTED IN THE LIVING ROOM

Northwest Georgia may not look like the sprawling row crop country of South Georgia, but to Hurley, the patchwork of fields and tree lines that make up his corner of the state has always been exactly where he wanted to be.

“Riding down some back roads up here in Northwest Georgia, it might look a little different. We may not be wall-to-wall fields — we’ve got plenty of trees packed in and we’ve got little patches, as we like to call them,” Hurley said. “But I can never really remember a time where I wasn’t a farm kid. If I wasn’t out on the farm with my dad, I was in the yard playing with farm toys and tractors. Having my own farm was always the goal — to come back and farm for my career.”

That goal never wavered, even when other opportunities came knocking.

“There was one point in my life that I was going to go to trade school. I ended up talking myself out of that and came straight back to the farm,” Hurley said. “Now that I’m doing it, it’s the greatest blessing ever.”

CHALLENGES FACING THE NEXT GENERATION

As Chair of GFB’s Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee, Hurley has a front-row seat to the obstacles facing young producers across the state — and two themes come up over and over again: capital and land access.

“One thing that just keeps coming up is the availability of capital. Things just cost so much — trying to buy equipment to get started, or trying to buy cattle now that prices are at all-time highs,” Hurley said. “But also the availability of land. A lot of times a piece of land comes up for rent and the younger person gets overlooked. The younger generation may not do things the way the older generation did back in the eighties, but a lot of times new ideas aren’t a terrible thing. I would encourage the older generation to give some of the younger guys a chance.”

BUILDING SOMETHING TO PASS ON

When Hurley talks about the future, he isn’t just talking about his own farm. He’s thinking about what comes next — and whether the life he’s built can be passed down the same way it was passed to him.

“I hope that in twenty years I can be farming full-time with one or both of my kids. The end goal is to have a sustainable business that my children can come back into,” Hurley said. “I want them to know that if they don’t want to come back, we’ll still have the land and they’ll always have somewhere to call home. But if they do want to come back, I hope I’m in a position to help them — with financial resources as well as years of knowledge — and just present them with the opportunity.”

In the end, Hurley’s story isn’t really about cotton or cattle or even farming. It’s about home — and a dream that never took him far from it.

By: Ray D’Alessio

A Life Rooted in Forestry and Purpose – Meet Bob Izlar

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Danielsville, GA |

For Bob Izlar, the outdoors has always been more than just a place—it’s been a way of life. Growing up in Ware County in the 1950s and 60s, much of his time was spent hunting, fishing, and exploring the Okefenokee Swamp—a place that still holds a special place in his heart.

“I’m from Ware County. Grew up down there in the fifties and sixties, hunting and fishing a lot in the Okefenokee Swamp, so I got to know the Okefenokee really well,” Izlar says. “Always has had a special place in my heart.”

After high school, Izlar enrolled at the University of Georgia, where the ROTC program and the Vietnam War would shape his path, leading him into military service overseas until 1974. Following his return, Izlar began a long and impactful career in forestry, eventually spending more than a decade at the Georgia Forestry Association. There, he helped lead a decades-long fight to fairly tax agricultural and forest land.

“The Farm Bureau and Georgia Forestry Association had worked hand in hand for twenty-six years to get current use treatment of ag land and forest land,” says Izlar. “And for twenty-six years, we got kicked in the teeth, could not get it passed—couldn’t even get it on the ballot. And in the twenty-seventh year, the conditions finally got right that we were able to get the resolution passed.”

But for Izlar, forestry has never just been a job—it’s been a passion and a purpose. In 1997, he became the founding director of the Harley Langdale Jr. Center for Forest Business at UGA, creating a first-of-its-kind program designed to prepare future forestry leaders.

“Forestry, at its very basic, is agriculture,” he explains. “The forest brings us so many benefits—clean air, clean water, wildlife. You know, forestry is a calling. It’s a profession, but to me, it’s also a cause, and it’s extremely important that future generations learn about the benefits of forests so they don’t all get converted to something else through time.”

Izlar’s life and work are deeply intertwined with Georgia Farm Bureau’s mission, and he says he’s proud to be recognized by an organization that shares his values.

“It’s just a deep respect that I have because it’s a farmer organization. They have my values as I think I have theirs—because we love the land, we love the United States of America, we love private property rights, and we want to see rural life continue in Georgia,” Izlar says. “I think all of us understand that rural lifestyle is certainly under threat, so Farm Bureau is one of the last guardians of the rural lifestyle.”

By: John Holcomb

Hurricane Helene’s Devastation and Recovery: Improving Rural Power

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Waynesboro, GA |

Hurricane Helene is a storm that certainly will not be forgotten, as it was a storm that caused more devastation than ever seen as it ripped through the heart of rural Georgia, destroying anything in its path, including critical infrastructure such as the power grid.

“Hurricane Helene was the most devastating storm to hit Georgia Power ever. Many people remember the damage that was caused by Hurricane Michael, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Matthew. Hurricane Helene actually did much more damage than those three storms combined. Hurricane Matthew took down about 2000 power poles – Hurricane Helene took down twelve thousand,” says Kim Greene, Georgia Power CEO.

Though the destruction was no doubt overwhelming, Kim says they immediately went to work restoring the more than one million customers without power, but says they didn’t just work to restore the grid, they worked to restore it better than it was before.

“In many cases in this storm, we weren’t just restoring power, we were rebuilding the grid. The grid had been so terribly damaged that we actually had to start all over, and when you do that, you have the opportunity in some cases, for example, instead of using a wooden pole, you might be able to use a concrete or a steel pole. So you have a more resilient system. We also have upgraded much of our equipment and are in the process of doing that across the state. It really does give us an opportunity to make improvements to our grid that we would normally have been planning to do anyway and we’ll just do it while we’re out there restoring after the storm damage,” says Greene.

Though most will never notice the improvements on a day-to-day basis, the technology can have a big impact by increasing efficiency when nature strikes.

“You see transformers everywhere. A lot of people know what transformer is, but there’s other devices, like sectionializers and re-closures, trip savers. Those type devices are what allows us to keep the power on in a more timely manner, opposed to where you may have just a fuse blow in and your power stays out until somebody can come fix it; a re-closer and a trip saver device that’s on these poles; these automatically restore power,” says Denver Barrett, Georgia Power Engineering Rep.

According to Barrett, these improvements and investments are essential for everyone, but especially those in rural parts of the state that tend to be at the edge of service areas.

“What we do is we go around our areas, rural areas, where in the past, you just don’t see equipment like that. Usually you see that in kind of technology in your more populated areas. We’re trying to focus on our more rural areas. Those customers matter, they’re just as important as everybody else. A lot of our farmers, with their pivots and irrigation systems, they’re at the end of these lines in these rural areas. That’s where we’re trying to get a lot of this system implemented, so we can have quicker restoration time and just provide them with a more reliable system,” says Barrett.

By: John Holcomb