Nichols man earns farmer of the year honor

— It’s been a tough summer for farmers. Heat waves and a lack of rain have cost many all or  part of their crop.

But even in the roughest of farm seasons there is always a farmer of the year.

This year that farmer is Kevin Elliott of Nichols.

Last week he was named South Carolina Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year.

Elliott and his wife, along with their two sons and Elliott’s brother, farm 600 acres of land in and around Nichols. The family owns 450 acres. The rest is rented.

In 2010, Elliott and his family grew flue cured tobacco on 60 acres yielding 2,500 pounds per acre, corn on 200 acres yielding 150 bushels per acre, soybeans on 300 acres yielding 42 bushels per acre and wheat on 150 acres yielding, 75 bushels per acre.

“I was really honored to even be a candidate,” Elliott said. “I know there’s a lot of farmers out in the area that are just as good and better.”

Elliott, a farmer for nearly 30 years, said it’s never been his goal as a farmer to be given the title of farmer of the year, but he is very humbled by the title.

“Myself, I didn’t strive to be a farmer of the year,” he said. “I mean I’ve been recognized and it is a big honor, a real big honor, and I accept it with pride, but you don’t farm for farmer of the year, you farm to hopefully make a good crop.

“You don’t set out to be a show, to be a figure, you know, you want everybody to look at and see. You just mind your own business and your farming operation and try to make the best crop you can, because that’s what feeds your family.”

Elliott said even though he was given the title of farmer of the year, he feels as if his whole family deserves the title.

“We’re equally shared,” he said.

Bruce Johnson, a family friend and former employee at the Clemson Extension Service (In S.C. the application for farmer of the year is managed by the Clemson Extension Service), nominated Elliott for the award.

“He’s a very good and excellent farmer,” Johnson said.

Elliott began farming when he was just a child working with his father in the fields. Farming is just something that’s always run in his family, he said.

“It goes back to my grandfather farming and he had several ‘youngins,’ several kids, that farm,” he said.  “He passed it on to my daddy and they bought several pieces of land and got him started. Then my brother and I took over and now I am starting to funnel some of my responsibilities to my children.”

Elliott’s son Brad said he can’t remember when he was not working on the farm.

“I’ve been working out here since I was about this tall,” Brad Elliott said, holding his hand about three feet from the ground.  He said he hoped his sons would follow in line.

Now that Elliott has won the 2011 South Carolina Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award, he is automatically entered into the running for Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year. He  will compete with eight other Southeastern state winners for the title.

The Sunbelt Expo, an agricultural trade show out of Moultrie, Ga., is in its 34 year and this is the 22nd year they have offered a Southeastern Farmer of the Year award.

The last time a farmer from S.C. won the award was in 1994 when Ron Stephenson of Chester earned the regional honor.

Elliott said if he won the award he would be extremely excited and feel very privileged.