Down on the Farm with... Taylor Brett

This ongoing series on local farms aims to highlight one of Emanuel County’s biggest industries—agriculture. In this installment, The Chronicle’s Lauren Canady catches up with Taylor Brett. The stories published throughout this calendar year are to connect consumer and farmer in a more personal way with a look inside what it takes to produce goods, the successes and struggles of farming, and how consumers can help.

Taylor Brett, local Emanuel County farmer, is having a plentiful harvest season and is looking forward to the future.

He and his team are cutting and gathering soybeans now. Even after a rain delay, Brett says the beans are turning out well and have been good in yield. They’re cutting anywhere from 50 to 70 bushels an acre.

According to Brett, the second half of the season has been great compared to a dry first half. He was able to get all of his corn out with no problems in just three weeks, and they have around 700 acres of beans to gather this month and in November.

Currently, he and his crew are setting out broccoli and have already made some progress setting out Brussel sprouts. They plan to rotate corn and beans in the spring, try some early beans, and “shoot for high yield in a place or two.”

In late October, they will be planting cover crops, winter grazing for cattle, and plan for wheat to harvest by Thanksgiving.

Looking into the future, Brett says there is a bit of uncertainty as prices rise on all inputs going into 2022.

“Fertilizer is at record prices and continuing to rise. Seed and chemicals are following suit. We will have 40 to 60 percent more in our crop next year,” he said.

While he explains that it is nearly impossible to prepare for this, Brett plans to use alternatives to commercial fertilizers.

“We are buying up a lot of chicken litter because it is cheaper, easier, and actually a better fertilizer, so we are trying to use that in lieu of the original fertilizer to free up some that incoming extra cost.”