Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Zelonis's named Farm Family of the Year part 1

Chickens and hay are what keep the 2002 Nevada County Farm Family of the Year in business.

Larry and Duwana Zelonis, who live in the Sutton area with their children, Heather, 10, and Jordan, 6, have 12 chicken houses and raise hay they sell to their neighbors.

Most of the improvements done on their 115-acre spread were done by Larry, who built the family a swimming pool to use when time permits.

The Zelonis's have seen both good times and bad during the 15 years they've been raising chickens.

Three years ago, Larry said, things got tight as Tyson's lost a major contract and the company's growers were cut back. Fortunately, a market was found in Mexico, but for smaller birds.

The chickens raised by Zelonis now top out around four pounds each when they're shipped out.

This, however, was followed by two of the worst winters in Arkansas's history. First came the blizzard of 2000 which dumped 16-inches of snow, followed by the ice storm of 2001.

Now, they grow about 1.3 million broilers annually for Tyson, though they began as growers for Hudson. The change was made after Hudson was sold to Tyson.

Along with the 12 chicken houses, with a capacity of 213,900 birds, they have 50 acres used strictly for raising hay.

The hay is primarily bermuda grass, Tifton 44 and a small patch of Tifton 88. They get about 400 round bales of hay per year, which is sold to local farmers.

Each spring they spray their fields with grazon to prevent weeds from growing. One year, they had to spray for army worms to protect their fields.

They have a sprigger and digger, using this equipment to sell sprigs of Tifton 44 to local farms, along with making some sales in Louisiana.

Zelonis also rents his equipment to area farmers to use in planting the sprigs they buy.

Normally, when he hauls a load of sprigs, the trailer has about 200 bushels.

In their chicken houses, the Zelonis's use cake litter and composted chickens for their pastures and hay, with the houses dusted every other batch to keep the insect population under control.

Dee, as she prefers to be called, keeps most of the records by hand and in a file.

Tax records are stored in the family computer, with Dalrymple Accounting handling the business records for the family.

Most of the farming records are maintained Farm Credit Services.

They pay their bills about two months in advance, as this is how the family is paid for growing the chickens. By doing this, the Zelonis's know they'll be current on their bills until the next flock is sold, when the cycle repeats itself.

In 1996 Larry built a pond on the farm. It covers one or two acres and is stocked with plenty of fish.

For his efforts, Larry received a plaque for Outstanding Accomplishments in Resource Conservation in Nevada County.

One thing Larry Zelonis can't do, though, is seek the office of President of the U.S. This is because he was born in Turkey in 1958, while his father was in the Army.

When he was four, the family moved to the Sutton area from New Orleans. Larry went to school at Laneburg, graduating in 1977.

From there he worked at building chicken houses for C&T Construction, working with the company for 19 years.

When time permits, he enjoys golfing and hunting deer.

At one point he and Dee went fishing, with the idea being he would teach her how to fish. The end result was her catching a bass, now mounted on the wall, and him reeling in a small bream. He hasn't taken her fishing since.

She was born in the Bodcaw area and raised on a farm. Dee is the youngest of four girls.

Her family had three poultry houses and several cows.