Farmweek | January 6, 2022 | Full Show
"CELEBRATING 45 SEASONS ON THE AIR, AWARD- WINNING FARMWEEK IS A PRODUCTION OF MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION." TODAY ON A FARMWEEK FEATURE SHOW, WE START WITH A STORY ON AGRITOURISM -- A FAMILY FAVORITE IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE. IN SOUTHERN GARDENING -- DEEP IN THE HEART OF WINTER -- THESE PLANTS CAN STILL ADD A SPLASH OF COLOR.
PLUS, THE REST OF THE STORY ON A BACTERIA THAT MIGHT BE MAKING A COMEBACK. SOME ARE CONCERNED. AND THE CONCLUSION OF OUR BEHIND THE SCENES STORY ON BULL BOTTOM FARMS. FARMWEEK STARTS RIGHT NOW! JIB MIKE HELLO, EVERYONE, I'M MIKE RUSSELL. GOOD TO HAVE YOU WITH US ONCE AGAIN HERE ON FARMWEEK. MIKE MIKE WE'VE GOT AN INTERESTING SHOW LINED UP FOR YOU -- AND WE'RE GOING TO START WITH A FUN LITTLE STORY ABOUT AGRITOURISM, A PLACE CALLED "BULL BOTTOM FARMS" IN DUCK HILL, MISSISSIPPI -- WEST OF STARKVILLE ABOUT 75 MILES.
AGRITOURISM IS A GROWING PART OF THE STATE'S ECONOMY -- AND THIS OPERATION STARTED WITH AN IDEA. PKG NIC ROBINSON: "We were young, just starting to have kids. And we're like, 'Hey, we've got to make this make a living for us.' It's not just, 'Let's go have some fun.'" KATIE ROBINSON: "Just kind of brainstorming and looking around online and trying to figure out ways that you can increase income on a farm.
And ag tourism was something that popped up. And I thought, 'We could do that. I know we could do that.'" MUSIC EARL ROBINSON: "People from all over come and they love it, you know. And it just makes us feel good to be able to provide something like this." VICKIE ROBINSON: "The parents are excited about being here. You can tell
that they love seeing their kids so excited. It's been more than what we ever expected it to be." NIC ROBINSON: "You know, we run into a family and just ask them where they come from and if they're enjoying it. And they're like, 'Well, somebody come from this area and another one came from this, and we just met here and just spent the day together.' That's
what we wanted to make happen out here." EARL ROBINSON: "We have the little kids come out here, four, five years old. Well, they bring their aunts and uncles, and it's just a, it's a family thing." KATIE ROBINSON: "You come out here and just, you get to be a kid again. It's so special and sweet to see parents out here playing, pushing them on a swing.
Yeah, it's special. It really is." MUSIC EARL ROBINSON: "My father bought this place back in 1943, bought it from a guy named Jim Bull, and that's where we get the Bull Bottom. And I started farming right out of high school, and have now been farming since 1975, so it's about 45 years. We went to high school at Grenada Lake Academy and she was the prettiest little girl there, so the rest is history."
VICKIE ROBINSON: "After we had the kids and all, I used to go to the field and take lunch and all with the kids and stuff, because I didn't work. I stayed at home, of course, four kids. But we used to go to the field where they was working and picnic.... MUSIC ...Well, they was raised on the farm, but none of them really were that interested in farming."
NIC ROBINSON: "Yeah, I mean, I grew up farming with him and helping and all of that, and was getting ready to go to college. And I thought, 'Okay, when I get through with college, that's the last thing I'm going to do is farm.'" EARL ROBINSON: "And I tried to get him involved in farming, and he farmed for a year and got to meet Katie. And once he met Katie, it was pretty much the end of him and the farming."
KATIE ROBINSON: "Nick and I met when I was a senior in high school and we started dating and just have been together ever since. That was in 1999." NIC ROBINSON: "But she had no idea about farming. I actually used to get her out here whenever we was dating, in college and stuff, and I'd get her on a tractor and everybody thinks they're so difficult to drive. So I'd get her
on there and have her disking a field or something. And I'd get off and I'd go get on another tractor so we could get through and get through early. And her dad's like, 'You don't need to let her drive one of those tractors, now.'"
KATIE ROBINSON: "Looking back now, he was just flirting with me. I know that, but it was fun though. I mean really fun. And I got to know his family and just fell in love with them. And my parents said, 'You're going to college. We
don't care where you go, but you're going,' so I chose Ole Miss. And he was already farming with his dad and going to school at that time. And he decided he might want a career change, so he came on to Ole Miss too. So we were both there. We graduated from Ole Miss on the same day." EARL ROBINSON: "And they moved to Suffolk, Virginia. He
wanted to get as far away from this farm as he could." NIC ROBINSON: "Virginia was a little far from home. So Nashville and we enjoyed it, but we was getting ready to have kids. And that's
when it was like, "Okay, we want to be close to family." EARL ROBINSON: "I had previously been working a job and with the economy being what it was in 2008, I was laid off. And I talked with my county agent to see what we could do here at the farm to generate some income." KATIE ROBINSON: "And we had decided that we really wanted to get back home.
And Nick had done row crop with his dad before. And so we knew that the way that the row crops stood, that it wasn't going to support two families." EARL ROBINSON: "And he said, 'Have you ever thought about ag tourism?' I said, 'I don't have any idea what you're talking about.'" KATIE ROBINSON: "We just started doing a lot of research and checking out other farms that already did it." NIC ROBINSON: "She got out and was like, had pictures of eight school buses in the parking lot.
And this is all in Tennessee, outside of Nashville, plenty of populated area. And she was saying, 'I think we can do it down there.' And I was like, 'I don't know. I seen Duck
Hill -- I don't know about that.'" KATIE ROBINSON: "When we put our heads together, we just decided, 'We're going to try this.'" EARL ROBINSON: "When I made the decision to try and do this, I was telling my wife, Vickie, I said, 'I think I'm going to do this, Vickie.'"
EARL ROBINSON: "She said, 'Earl, you have no idea what you're getting into.' And she was exactly right. I had no idea that this thing was going to do as well." VICKIE ROBINSON: "And I thought, 'It's going to be a lot of cleaning up to do back there,' because it had been a farming place since Earl was born. So I just knew we had a lot of cleaning up and I said, 'We've got a lot of work to do if that's what y'all want to do.' And I was
skeptical about it. I felt like it was more work than we were going to be able to do." NIC ROBINSON: "Whenever he got ready to start doing it one summer, we were like, 'Okay, let's plan to move back and help him with this.' And it took us a year to get moved back."
KATIE ROBINSON: "The first year, we drove from Nashville to Grenada every weekend, four and a half hour drive every weekend after working all week on the road, because we were both in outside sales at the time. But I mean, it was totally worth it. We knew after the first time we came and did it, we were like, "This is it." MIKE CUTE STORY -- SO WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? HOW DID THE AGRITOURISM SIDE OF BULL BOTTOM FARMS ACTUALLY GET OFF THE GROUND? WELL, STICK AROUND -- WE'LL HAVE THE REST OF THAT STORY LATER IN THE SHOW. BUT
TRUST ME, KATIE ROBINSON'S IDEA OF HOW TO BLOSSOM THE OPERATION TURNED OUT TO BE A GOOD ONE. MIKE MIKE MIKE ON THE LIGHTER SIDE, IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR THAT ELUSIVE SPLASH OF WINTER COLOR IN YOUR LANDSCAPE THIS TIME OF YEAR, LOOK NO FURTHER. IN SOUTHERN GARDENING THIS WEEK, HORTICULTURIST GARY BACHMAN HAS THE PERFECT PLANT TO LIVEN THINGS UP IN A DARK AND DREARY SEASON -- AND IT RHYMES WITH "JOLLY." HERE'S
GARY. PACKAGE DR. GARY BACHMAN: "I look forward every winter to those landscape plants that are beautifully decorated with their brilliant red berries. Let's take a look at a couple of my favorites."
SAVANNAH HOLLY IS A HYBRID OF THE NATIVE AMERICAN HOLLY, AND HAS A NATURAL PYRAMIDAL GROWTH HABIT WHICH IS LOOSE AND OPEN. THIS HOLLY IS VERSATILE IN THE LANDSCAPE, AND IS USED FOR SPECIMENS. THESE PLANTS ARE MODERATELY-FAST GROWING SHRUBS, AND ARE ACTUALLY SMALL TREES, REACHING UP TO 35 FEET TALL.
SAVANNAH HOLLY FOLIAGE IS DULL LIGHT GREEN, WITH SOFT SPINES ON THE LEAF EDGES. THE REAL SHOWSTOPPERS ARE THE BERRIES FROM NOVEMBER THROUGH MARCH. THE TIGHT CLUSTERS OF BERRIES ARE FORMED TOWARDS THE ENDS OF THE BRANCHES.
MY OTHER FAVORITE IS PYRACANTHA WITH ITS COLORFUL BERRIES THAT ADD BEAUTY TO ANY WINTER LANDSCAPE. THE BOTANICAL NAME FOR PYRACANTHA LITERALLY MEANS FIRETHORN, FOR WHICH IT IS COMMONLY KNOWN. THIS PLANT CERTAINLY LIVES UP TO THIS NAME WITH THE SHARP AND PAINFUL THORNS ON ALMOST ALL OF THE BRANCHES. THE ARCHING BRANCHING HABIT IS ACCENTUATED BY THE PRODUCTION OF RED-ORANGE BERRIES TOWARDS THE ENDS. THE HEAVY FRUIT CLUSTERS SEEM TO DRIP OFF THE BRANCHES. THE FRUIT CLUSTERS ARE PROMINENT FROM THE LATE FALL ALL THE WAY THROUGH TO THE SPRING SEASON.
PYRACANTHA IS SUITABLE ALL ACROSS MISSISSIPPI. BOTH OF THESE PLANTS WILL SUPPLY COLORFUL SNACKS FOR THE BIRDS ALL WINTER. DR. GARY BACHMAN: "I hope you enjoy nature's landscape decorations as much as I do. I'm horticulturist Gary Bachman, and I'll see you next time on WE'LL TAKE A BREAK RIGHT HERE, BUT DON'T GO AWAY. COMING UP IN OUR FINAL FARMWEEK FEATURE...
VO ...THE CONCLUSION OF OUR STORY ABOUT BULL BOTTOM FARMS. THE FARMLAND HAS BELONGED TO THE ROBINSON FAMILY SINCE THE EARLY 1940's. BUT ALL THESE YEARS LATER, A NEW IDEA FOR HOW TO WORK THE FARM AND MAKE IT BOTH PROFITABLE AND APPEALING TO THE PUBLIC IS GROWING IN THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE ROBINSONS -- IT'S AN IDEA CALLED AGRITOURISM. THE REST OF THE STORY, COMING UP ON FARMWEEK.
DON'T GO AWAY. JONAH: Hi, I'm JONAH: Hi, I'm Jonah Holland, and I'm a communication major at Mississippi State University. As a college student, I'm young and generally pretty healthy. I try to take care of myself. But the coronavirus, especially the Delta variant, doesn't care about that. It's
putting both young and healthy people alike in the hospital-- not just older, sicker people. The best defense we have is the COVID-19 vaccine -- and the first one has just received full approval from the FDA. Billions of people around the world have received it, and the science shows it is safe and effective. Right now,
in Mississippi, more than 85% of the people in the hospital with COVID are un-vaccinated. 85%! Think about that! So don't wait. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist. Get the
facts you need, and get the vaccine. You'll be a hero. MUSIC AS EXTENSION PROFESSIONALS, WE HAVE A CREED, WORDS THAT MEAN A LOT TO US. IT
AS EXTENSION PROFESSIONALS, WE HAVE A CREED, WORDS THAT MEAN A LOT TO US. IT SAYS WE BELIEVE IN PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS. AND WE DO. IT ALSO SAYS WE BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE, WHEN GIVEN FACTS THEY UNDERSTAND, WILL ACT NOT ONLY IN THEIR SELF- INTEREST, BUT ALSO IN THE INTEREST OF OTHERS. THAT'S WHY WE WANT TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE FACTS ABOUT THE COVID VACCINE.
FACT: THE DELTA VARIANT IS DANGEROUS. IT'S MORE THAN TWICE AS CONTAGIOUS AS THE ORIGINAL CORONAVIRUS. FACT: IN MISSISSIPPI, MORE THAN 85 PERCENT OF THE DEATHS FROM COVID-19 HAVE BEEN AMONG UNVACCINATED PEOPLE.
THE VACCINE IS NOT 100-PERCENT EFFECTIVE AT PREVENTING ALL INFECTION--NO VACCINES ARE. BUT IT CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE. AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS A FACT.
SO, GET THE FACTS YOU NEED PEOPLE ARE SOLVING PROBLEMS, LEARNING SKILLS, AND ACHIEVING GOALS THROUGH EXTENSION EDUCATION. WE CARE ABOUT THEIR SUCCESS -- AND YOURS, EXTENDING KNOWLEDGE, CHANGING LIVES. THE MSU EXTENSION SERVICE. Gardening." MIKE NEXT UP, AN EXTENDED VERSION OF A SHORTER NEWS STORY WE BROUGHT YOU A WHILE BACK. IT'S ABOUT A BACTERIA CALLED "BRUCELLOSIS" THAT MOST EXPERTS THOUGHT HAD BEEN VIRTUALLY ERADICATED LONG AGO.
SOME ARE CONCERNED THAT IT MAY BE MAKING A COMEBACK OF SORTS. COLLEEN BRADFORD KRANTZ HAS THE WHOLE STORY. PKG THE NEAR ERADICATION OF BRUCELLOSIS, A COSTLY BACTERIAL DISEASE THAT AFFECTED A LARGE NUMBER OF U.S. CATTLE HERDS IN THE EARLY PART OF THE LAST CENTURY, IS ONE OF THE NATION'S MAJOR LIVESTOCK- AND PUBLIC- HEALTH TRIUMPHS. RYAN CLARKE, VETERINARY SERVICES, USDA: "It was very prevalent in 1934, when our Brucellosis program began, when they figure maybe 50 percent of the herds were infected. The
program began -- they started testing for the disease, removing those animals that were removing those animals that were infected. By 1957, they reckoned about 13 percent of the herds were infected in the United States, like 234,000 herds. And then in the early '40s, they did develop the vaccine. In 2008, for the first time, there were no infected herds in the United States."
EXPERTS WORRY, HOWEVER, THAT INFECTED WILDLIFE PARTICULARLY ELK AND BISON IN THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK AREA - ARE SLOWLY REVERSING SOME OF THAT PROGRESS IN CATTLE. THE DISEASE CAN CAUSE COWS TO ABORT THEIR CALVES AND HAVE MILK PRODUCTION FALL OFF DRAMATICALLY. THERE IS ADDITIONAL CONCERN THAT ANOTHER STRAIN OF BRUCELLA BACTERIA -- THAT PARTICULARLY AFFECTS HOGS -- IS BEING SPREAD BY WILD BOAR IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES. RYAN CLARKE: "Now, since 2008, of course, we've had a number of herds that have been infected, but they've been infected by wildlife.
Back in the '30s, it was people buying cattle that were infected and those cattle infected their cattle. That's all gone, but now it's wildlife coming into farm yards and ranches -- and aborting and passing the disease to cattle." DR. CLARKE, ONE OF USDA VETERINARY SERVICES' TOP EXPERTS ON BRUCELLOSIS, SAYS LIVESTOCK WILL SNIFF OR LICK THE ABORTED MATERIALS AND EASILY BECOME INFECTED WITH THE RESILIENT BACTERIA.
BRUCELLA, THE BACTERIA THAT CAUSES THE DISEASE, CAN ALSO BE PASSED TO HUMANS - OFTEN THROUGH UNPASTEURIZED MILK AND CAUSES FEVERS AND OTHER SYMPTOMS THAT, LEFT UNTREATED, CAN BECOME CHRONIC. WITH BRUCELLA, WHICH COST THE LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY ABOUT $400 MILLION ANNUALLY IN THE MID-1900S, NOW NEARLY ELIMINATED FROM U.S. PASTURES AND FEEDLOTS, HUMAN INFECTIONS HAVE ALSO FALLEN. RYAN CLARKE: "They've proven in a number of countries that if you can control it in animals, it's controlled in humans also." BECAUSE THE VACCINE CURRENTLY USED ON CATTLE AND BISON ISN'T AS EFFECTIVE ON WILDLIFE LIKE ELK, SCIENTISTS ARE WORKING ON A NEW VERSION. THERE'S ONE PROBLEM: SEVERAL TYPES OF BRUCELLA BACTERIA ARE INCLUDED ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S LIST OF POSSIBLE BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM AGENTS. AS A
RESULT, THE BACTERIA FALLS UNDER STRICT REGULATORY CONTROLS, LIMITING STUDY TO THE NATION'S MOST SECURE SCIENTIFIC LABORATORIES, LIKE THE NATIONAL ANIMAL DISEASE CENTER IN AMES, IOWA. STEVEN OLSEN, NATIONAL ANIMAL DISEASE CENTER, AMES, IOWA: "That meant bio-level 3 containment for both laboratory and animal work -- and that's expensive and most places do not have that capability. And so for that reason, you saw the number of laboratories and scientists actually working in the large- animal hosts go down."
RECENTLY, SOME USDA OFFICIALS HAVE AGREED WITH ANIMAL SCIENTISTS THAT IT MAY BE TIME TO CONSIDER REMOVING THE DISEASE FROM THAT LIST SO RESEARCHERS CAN WORK OUTSIDE THE LAB. AT A MINIMUM, THEY HOPE RESEARCH WILL BE ALLOWED NEAR YELLOWSTONE. STEVEN OLSEN: "It's still kind of a work in progress as I understand it. The agent is already running loose in those wildlife populations out there so you're not introducing anything into that environment that's not already there." DR. OLSEN POINTS
OUT THAT EVEN WITH AN EFFECTIVE VACCINE FOR WILDLIFE, FINDING A WAY TO ADMINISTER IT TO FREE-RANGING ANIMALS SUCH AS ELK WOULD BE PROBLEMATIC. IN MONTANA, STATE VETERINARIAN DR. MARTY ZALUSKI -- WHO HAS SEEN AREA CATTLE PRODUCERS HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE RETURN OF THE DISEASE -- HAS BEEN ENCOURAGING FEDERAL OFFICIALS TO MOVE AHEAD WITH A POLICY CHANGE. IF APPROVED, TWO TYPES OF BRUCELLA BACTERIA COULD BE REMOVED FROM THE SELECT AGENTS LIST. NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIALS, HOWEVER, ARE STILL WEIGHING THE PROS AND CONS. DR. MARTY
ZALUSKI, MONTANA STATE VETERINARIAN: "There's a fairly long history of nations wanting to weaponize Brucellosis and use it as a bioterrorist weapon. I believe that certainly the USSR - the prior Russia - had a program. I believe this country looked at it as well... NATS ...I believe that historical record is really the primary reason why this agent was included in this list. But I
would argue that that's actually -- you know, it's misplaced." ZALUSKI SAYS TREATMENT AND PREVENTION OF THE DISEASE HAS COME A LONG WAY. DR. MARTY ZALUSKI: "If you're a terrorist, and you choose your weapon of choice as Brucella Abortus, you are not the brightest crayon in the box. This
disease is -- we have a ready test for this disease. The incubation period -- so the time from exposure until illness -- can be several weeks. We have a very inexpensive and effective treatment for this disease. Contrast this type of an agent to Ebola or Anthrax -- it just doesn't make sense to me."
ZALUSKI WORRIES THAT FEDERAL OFFICIALS COULD, IN TRYING TO PROTECT HUMAN HEALTH BY KEEPING BRUCELLA ON THE LIST, INADVERTENTLY INCREASE HUMAN CASES BY NOT ALLOWING THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY A SIMPLER WAY TO STUDY BRUCELLOSIS IN WILDLIFE. DR. MARTY ZALUSKI, MONTANA STATE VETERINARIAN: "My concern is that without interventions that are effective, Brucellosis is going to spread throughout the entire contiguous range of elk in the Rockies and the Northwest. You know, based on a map that I saw from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, that includes anywhere between 10 to 12 states. And so I don't know whether that's going to happen in 20 years, 30 or 40 years, but I think the outcome -- if we don't develop better tools -- is somewhat bleak." MIKE BACK NOW TO THE REST OF OUR STORY ON BULL BOTTOM FARMS IN DUCK HILL, MISSISSIPPI -- A CHARMING STORY ABOUT AGRITOURISM.
KATIE ROBINSON, THE DAUGHTER IN LAW OF LANDOWNER EARL ROBINSON, HAS THE PERFECT IDEA FOR HOW TO PRESENT THE FARM TO THE PUBLIC. FROM PRODUCER JONATHAN PARRISH, HERE'S THAT STORY. PKG KATIE ROBINSON: "I remember calling him one morning and we had already been talking about all this. And I said, 'Earl, I have thought of what we're going to put on everything.' And he
said, 'What?' And I said, 'We're going to say Bull Bottom Farms, bringing families together since 1944.' And so anyway, he's like, 'I love it.' And I said, 'Because, Earl, that's what it's doing. It's bringing us back together.' And I said, 'And people are going to be coming out there with their kids and spending family time together.' And it's been about family since the get-go."
EARL ROBINSON: "One of the things that has really made me proud is I'll see a family that lives in Columbus, one in Greenville, one in Hernando, and they meet here for the day. And that's what goes on." NIC ROBINSON: "Kids come out here and letting them experience agriculture and, letting them have fun and just families together." VICKIE ROBINSON: "It's just nice to see the parents bringing the kids and moms and dads and grandparents and all -- and everybody just loves it and tells us all the time how nice it is. And then you see the little ones going home crying after they've been here most all day. And they cry because they do not want to leave. They
just want to keep going. Yeah, I love it." NIC ROBINSON: "She was all in whenever it got to us moving back and being back home and working with us and we all work good together. Most of the time." EARL ROBINSON: "The first weekend we opened, we probably didn't have 30 people out here. The next day on Saturday, we probably had 50 or 60 people out. And
on Sunday it was the same way. The next weekend, she comes out with cowboy boots, new jeans, she's on board. You can tell if she went and spent some money to get to looking like a cowgirl, she's all ready to go then." VICKIE ROBINSON: "Once we started clearing up and had all our ideas in our head and what we were going to do and all, I was excited about it. We all
were." KATIE ROBINSON: "This is her backyard. She said from day one. And if we're fixing to invite a bunch of people over here, it's going to look good now. We tell her -- we say she's the president of the beautification community."
VICKIE ROBINSON: "The little kids come for the things to play on, but the adults, you know that they the ones that love outdoors and gardening and all like that. So yeah, you want the grounds to be pretty." KATIE ROBINSON: "She and I, we just play off of each other and we both enjoy a lot of the same things. We like to decorate and that kind of stuff. And so
that kind of goes hand in hand with making the farm look pretty and the gift shop look cute and just all those kinds of things she and I worked really good together on." NIC ROBINSON: "We couldn't do it without her because as many phone calls she gets and handling the booking reservations and all of that. We'll get a school group out here and I'll be getting them and I'm like, 'Where y'all from? What school is it?' And I don't have a clue what school that is. She handles all of that." KATIE ROBINSON: "I want every group to feel like they're an only child. So when
they're here, they know who their group leader is. She knows where she's taken them. We don't like them to run into each other. When you're at the slide you're the only class at the slide."
EARL ROBINSON: "As Katie started working, we do school groups during the week, and she being the age she is, she was able to communicate with the teachers, which were her age." KATIE ROBINSON: "Me and Vicki, we hit the road and we went to all the schools that we could get to and started just dropping flowers off and just telling them about, 'Hey, tell your teachers to give us a call if they're interested in field trips.' And turns out there's nowhere to go to a field trip around here. So they all started calling." VICKIE ROBINSON: "We went and did things together because she's more of the business person -- and she's got the ideas, and she knows how to spread the word and so it was nice when they were back."
NIC ROBINSON: "You know, it's a lot of moms that are bringing their kids, wanting to find something for their family to go do. And so her opinion and ideas of what we ought to do or what we should add or, you know, ways to improve it and make it better and make it a better experience for our customers, you know, that's -- couldn't ask for anything better." KATIE ROBINSON: "It is hard work and it can be stressful, but it's totally worth it. I mean -- if you have a job where you get to be around your kids and your family, as much as I do, you've got it made." EARL ROBINSON: "On Saturday morning when the people are lining up to come in, they're the ones that's going to take care of all of that. I may be in the cotton field picking, but you don't have to worry about it.
They're going to take care of it. And so they are Bull Bottom Farms." KATIE ROBINSON: "We take just as much pride in it as Nic and Earl do really, even though this is Earl's family's land and she, and I just kind of married into it, you know. But
I mean, now my kids are growing up out here. So a piece of my heart is going to hopefully be here for the long run. So yeah, she and I are just as proud of it as they are." MUSIC MIKE BULL BOTTOM FARMS IN DUCK FARMS IN DUCK HILL, MISSISSIPPI.
HILL, MISSISSIPPI. WELL NEXT WEEK, AN UPDATE ON THE LAMB MARKET... VO PRE-COVID, THE INDUSTRY WAS GEARED UP FOR WHAT IT THOUGHT WOULD BE A BANNER YEAR. BUT THE VIRUS HIT, OF COURSE, AND SALES PLUMMETED.
ON THE OTHER HAND, THANKS TO BOLD MOVES BY PRODUCERS -- AND WITH HELP FROM THE GOVERNMENT, THE INDUSTRY LOOKS TO OPEN TWO NEW PROCESSING PLANTS. MORE THAN ONE COMPANY WAS SPARED BANKRUPTCY. NEW LIFE IN AN ALTERNATIVE MARKET -- NEXT TIME ON FARMWEEK. MIKE REMEMBER IF YOU MISSED A STORY, LOOK FOR PAST EPISODES OF FARMWEEK ON OUR WEBSITE AT FARMWEEK DOT TV. AND DON'T FORGET TO FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER, AND YOUTUBE AS WELL.
WE'LL SEE YOU NEXT WEEK. THANKS FOR WATCHING.
2022-01-08 05:46
