Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Dickersons Are Clark Co. Farm Family For 2000

Johnny and Cornelia Dickerson, of Okolona, have been named Farm Family of the Year in Clark County for 2000.

The Dickersons operate a chicken and cattle ranch, using one to assist the other.

Their son, Tim, is the service manager for John Hays Chevrolet in Hope. His wife, Beverly, manages Maurice's clothing store in Arkadelphia. They have three children, Brittney, 8, Christopher, 5, and granddad's baby, Katy, 2.

The Dickersons total operation covers 500 acres, with 375 acres in pastureland, 105 in crop land and 25 in woodland.

In his youth, Johnny always had a cow-calf operation. In 1957, he bought 160 acres, and has worked off the farm on a part-time basis until 1986, when he decided to farm full-time.

They have 105 acres of hay, 380 acres of pasture, while owning 275 acres and renting another 225 acres.

For the cow-calf operation, they plant wheat and rye grass for the backgrounded calves in the winter.

At one location the replacement heifers are kept from the Brangus cows.

Another site is where the Brangus are bred to Charlois and Angus bulls.

Johnny does the vaccinating and worming of the calves in the spring.

They expanded their operation in 1994, adding four broiler houses. These houses are 400 feet long with a total capacity of 80,000 birds. They raise the chickens for Tyson Foods of Hope.

The chicken litter is used as fertilizer on the pasture and hay land, and only applied once a year. Otherwise, he said, it will burn the land because it's so nitrogen rich.

A new pond was dug earlier this year, in fact in June when it rained so much. This made the digging easier with the pond getting filled in just a few days.

The pastures are cross fenced for rotation purposes, giving the cattle a different place to graze while other sections get a chance to regrow.

The pastures are also sprayed with a herbicide and bush hogged when time allows. But, he said, because of the June rains, he's running behind this year.

Cornelia owns and operates the Forget Me Knot Shop in Gurdon. She works at the florist and gift shop an average of 5.5 days a week, but has put in seven-day weeks when the demand warranted it.

Along with being a florist shop, the Forget Me Knot also does custom framing and has a line of gifts for all occasions. She is also a member of the Gurdon Chamber of Commerce and babysits grandchildren.

Cornelia worked in flower shops in Arkadelphia before opening the Forget Me Knot.

Johnny said the chickens are kept for six weeks, with the current batch nearing time for shipping.

Automated feeders are used to make sure the birds get all they can to eat, while foggers and fans are used inside the houses to keep them cool.

However, there are times when some of the chickens die. Those carcasses are tossed in an incinerator by the houses.

He said fire ants have been a problem in recent years, with it being doubly hard because not just any treatment can be used to fight the ants.

This is because chickens are susceptible to most toxins and die easily. To fight the fire ants, Dickerson uses an 80 percent Sevin dust treatment. This, he said, has been effective in getting rid of the ants and not harming the birds.

To protect the chickens in times of power outages, a 75-kilowatt three-phase generator is used. He said the Rural Electric Agency (REA) put in a three-phase line to help out.

The houses must be kept around 90 degrees year-round for the birds. At 100-105, he said, the chickens get in trouble and start dying.

With concrete floors in the houses, it is especially important to keep a relatively constant temperature. Dickerson said when the floors get hot the heat radiates throughout the houses and can kill birds quickly.

When the birds are ready for market, crews from Avery, Texas come in to catch them. Work on rounding up the chickens usually begins at 7:45 p.m. and is concluded as quickly as possible.

At six weeks, he said, the birds are eating 9,000 pounds of food daily at each house.On the cattle side of the operation, the Dickersons usually keep between 100-125 head, normally of mixed breed, except for Tim, who prefers the Angus variety.

But, Johnny said, the cattle have to take a back seat to the chickens, as the birds must come first.

This is because the chickens are more delicate and require a great deal of care and attention to insure their health and well being for market purposes.

He said they grow five or six batches of chickens a year, keeping them six weeks at a time. These birds normally weigh about 4.5 pounds and are grown for specific markets. Those raised by the Dickersons are currently being made into butterfly breasts and sold to Chilis.

On the cattle side, the calves are usually bought in the fall or spring and sold at the first of the year at the Hope livestock auction. Along with the hay, they are fed a combination of litter and grain to help them gain weight faster.

Johnny has been involved with livestock most of his life. He got an early start when his grandfather gave him a pig. It seems his grandfather gave a pig to every child named after him.

Johnny said it didn't take long for him to realize pig farming wasn't in his future, and soon thereafter went into raising cattle.

The Dickersons have four John Deere tractors on the farm, all purchased from Southwest Arkansas Equipment Company in Hope. Maintenance is done by Tim, who keeps all of the farm equipment up and running.

They have an all-terrain vehicle, but seldom use it on the farm. Instead, Johnny prefers the four-wheel drive pickup bought a couple of years ago. He said this truck came in handy during the January blizzard as he was able to tend to the chickens and cattle with no problem.

However, during the snow, he didn't enter any of the chicken houses. This was because if the roof had collapsed, it would have left him trapped inside with no way out, nor any way to get help.

The current homestead was purchased in 1957, and is a half-mile from where he grew up. The existing structure is built from concrete blocks, having been destroyed by fire once.

He said concrete block doesn't burn, and was easier to build with.

From this house on the hill Johnny and Cornelia have watched two tornadoes. One in 1996, which did little damage, and the other, the March 1, 1997, twister  an F4 monster that demolished much of downtown Arkadelphia.

Cornelia said they watched trees being pulled out of the ground with the '97 storm, but were left unaffected by it themselves.

Record keeping is done the old fashioned way  by hand, as the Dickerson's don't have a computer, but are looking into getting one soon.

Documents are kept in cubbyholes in a roll-top desk, while information on the cattle is done on a spread sheet.

Basically it's a one-man operation handled by Johnny, with help from Tim when he can.

Johnny also spent five years in the Army reserves, where he was a cook. He cooks at home when Cornelia works late, but, she said, all of his meals are centered around potatoes.

Talking about the old days, Johnny reminisced about how ranchers used to be able to buy corn and milo from their neighbors. Now, he said, no one in the area even grows corn or milo, and feed has to be bought elsewhere for the cattle.

"I always wanted to farm," he said. "We've had more acreage before, but had to cut back when I worked other jobs."

But, the Dickersons have always worked with cattle or poultry, never row crops. "I don't know how row crop farmers survive."

Success and survival, he said, mean changing with the times and adapting to new ways whether they are liked or not.

He is also a Sunday School teacher, a member of the parish/pastor relations committee, the Farm Service Agency  County Committee, and Center Ridge Cemetery Board.