Start Date
2-25-1993 10:30 AM
Description
I was raised on a small dairy farm in Henry County, Kentucky. I'm the oldest of six children and wanted to leave the farm as soon as possible. Upon graduation from Transylvania College in 1956, I was quickly drafted into the U.S. Army. I was sent to El Paso, Texas, for training and remained in the southwest for 11 (eleven) years.
In 1958 I married Carolyn Billman. We have 4 (four) children: Rae Lynne, Janet, Keith, and Joy.
Upon returning home to Henry County to farm and teach school in 1967, I found a catastrophe had happened to the alfalfa I had known as a boy - the weevil. I found that we had reached a peak of one-half million acres of alfalfa in Kentucky in 1965. The acreage had dropped to 150,000 acres soon after the weevil arrived. In the 1980's, thanks to this conference, chemicals to control the weevil, and producer confidence, we have increased our acreage in Kentucky to the present 360,000 acres.
Included in
My Observations and Experiences with Alfalfa
I was raised on a small dairy farm in Henry County, Kentucky. I'm the oldest of six children and wanted to leave the farm as soon as possible. Upon graduation from Transylvania College in 1956, I was quickly drafted into the U.S. Army. I was sent to El Paso, Texas, for training and remained in the southwest for 11 (eleven) years.
In 1958 I married Carolyn Billman. We have 4 (four) children: Rae Lynne, Janet, Keith, and Joy.
Upon returning home to Henry County to farm and teach school in 1967, I found a catastrophe had happened to the alfalfa I had known as a boy - the weevil. I found that we had reached a peak of one-half million acres of alfalfa in Kentucky in 1965. The acreage had dropped to 150,000 acres soon after the weevil arrived. In the 1980's, thanks to this conference, chemicals to control the weevil, and producer confidence, we have increased our acreage in Kentucky to the present 360,000 acres.