Proud to be a Farmer: Nevil family

BULLOCH COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - You can say farming is in the blood of one young man in Bulloch County. He grew up with his father, grandfather, and great grandfather working the family’s land.

These farm fields feel like a second home to 21-year-old Lehman Nevil.

“Ever since I was 10 or 12, I’ve been driving a tractor and working on the farm,” said Nevil.

His family has grown peanuts and cotton for generations and ridden the weather extremes. Last week, ten inches of rain in as many days took them from near-drought to soggy conditions that have slowed them down.

This wet weather leaves them stuck at two stages in two crops. They can’t get tractors out here to spray young cotton just coming out of the ground, and they can’t get in here to harvest their oats. But summer heat will dry up that moisture quickly.

“We’re optimistic that this could be a good year, even with the extreme weather we’ve seen lately. We think it could be a good crop.”

The Nevils have about a third of their cotton and peanuts already sold under contract with a locked-down price. The rest they’ll take to market at harvest and hope for a good price. Despite roller-coaster weather, uncertain prices, and endless days of work in the heat, he says he’s doing what he loves.

“Nothing else we would want to be doing. I’d rather be here, wishing it would dry out, than somewhere sitting behind a desk.”

That feeling of independence is one reason he’s Proud to Be a Farmer.

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