Each November during Farm-City Week, the Statesboro-Bulloch Chamber of Commerce salutes either an Ag Partner of the Year or a Farmer of the Year. About 140 people had lunch Tuesday in the county Ag Arena and saw Matt Conner named 2023 Farmer of the Year.

Lisa Hodges, a Brooklet-based community banker for Morris Bank, presenting sponsor for the Farm-City Week Luncheon, announced that this year’s honoree is a fifth-generation farmer active in the Stilson, Leefield and Brooklet area. She noted that he has farmed with his father and brothers and now calls his own farming operation Third Conner Farms.

Conner came to the stage, received the award and spoke only briefly. Really, the first thing he did was to thank all of his family members present and ask them to stand.

“I’ve had a lot of good teachers in my life, but I couldn’t ask for a better one,” he said after mentioning that he had first farmed with his father.

Noting that farming is sometimes tough, the younger Conner said one thing he learned from his parents, Charles and Sherry Conner, is perseverance, “just keep on going … do what’s right, have faith in the Lord.”

After the presentation, Matt Conner, his wife Shelby and their daughters – Hally, 12, and twins Eden and Andi, 7 – stood for photos with the award plaque.

“It’s a great honor,” he said. “I know there’s a lot of people out there that probably deserve it, but I’m proud of it.”

Now 33, Conner has been working on the farm since he was a child. A 2009 graduate of Southeast Bulloch High School, he attained an agribusiness degree from Ogeechee Technical College in 2011. He worked for neighboring farmers Ted Davis and Ray Davis for some years before returning to farming full-time on his own in 2019, and they were two of his other good teachers, he said after the ceremony.

Conner grows about 450 acres of cotton, about 350 acres of peanuts and a little corn on irrigated and some dryland fields.

“This year was up and down,” he said. “We were very, very wet early on and it turned off kind of dry, then we had a hurricane come through. It’s been up and down, but it could be worse.”

He works in cooperation with his brother Toby Conner and their father, who have their own farming operations. His other brother, Clay Conner, has an agriculture-related trucking business.

Matt and Shelby Conner are active members of Leefield Baptist Church. He volunteers with the STEM (experiential learning in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) class at Stilson Elementary School, who visited his farm last week to see a cotton picker in action and learn about the crop.

For the Farmer of the Year Award, the Statesboro-Bulloch Chamber of Commerce invites nominations from its members and other people in the community, and a committee makes the selection. Criteria include that honorees must farm in Bulloch County and derive at least two-thirds of their income from farming.

Cromley’s keynote

Another award-winning farmer active in the Brooklet area, David Cromley, was keynote speaker for Tuesday’s luncheon. Cromley, a sixth-generation Bulloch County farmer, is co-owner with his father, Chap Cromley, of Kairos Farms, producing cotton, peanuts and beef cattle. “Kairos” is a Greek word meaning “the opportune time.”

David Cromley is also current president of the Bulloch County Farm Bureau, and just last March was named Young Farmer of the Year at Bulloch County’s “Blessing of the Crops,” another annual event organized by the chamber’s Agribusiness Committee. 

He surprised the crowd Tuesday by singing a few lines from “Where Corn Don’t Grow” – a song recorded at different times by Waylon Jennings and Travis Tritt, among other country artists – to open his remarks.

Titling his speech “Decisions,” Cromley talked about his own history of personal and family decision making, from earning a degree in animal science at the University of Georgia and completing an internship in Atlanta and deciding to return to farming with his father and uncle and then to stay on the farm through changes in crops and farming practices. Now he and his wife Jamie are raising a another generation on the farm, with daughter Libby and son Luke.

Deep into his half-hour speech, Cromley talked about “the Four Rs,” of “right source,” “right place,” “right time” and “right amount.”  First he explained these as a rule of thumb for applying fertilizer to crops.

Then by analogy he applied the Four Rs to thoughts about economic and  population  growth in Bulloch County as the Hyundai Metaplant America complex is built in Bryan County with effects extending into Bulloch.

While acknowledging that the electric vehicle plant will be completed and that related growth is coming, Cromley called on local leaders to preserve prime cropland and prevent “leapfrog development,” under the rubric of “the right place.” In regard to “the right amount” of growth, he asked “How much is enough?”

He listed Bulloch County businesses that exist to supply farmers or process crops and noted that farm exports constitute 50% of the trade volume out of the port of Savannah.

“I hope that one day if Libby or Luke or any future child of mine wants to come back to the farm and grow peanuts or cotton, cattle, sheep, cut flowers, or whatever the time calls for as an agricultural business that they’ll have an opportunity to do so and do it well,” Cromley said.

Chad Wiggins, chairman of the Statesboro-Bulloch Chamber of Commerce board, gave concluding remarks, congratulating Conner and thanking the county government for the use of the Ag Arena and sponsors for their support.

Besides Morris Bank as presenting sponsor, the chamber listed Bulloch First, Bulloch Fertilizer, Core Credit Union and Dabbs, Hickman, Hill & Cannon CPAs as “silver” sponsors for the luncheon.