Generations Have Made Tull Hill Farm a Sweet Potato Success
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At a time when family-owned farms are on the wane and thousands of acres are being lost to development, Tull Hill Farm is bucking the trend.
“My dad started this farm in about 1939 as a young tenant farmer, and today we farm a total of 5,000 acres,” says Jimmy Hill, president of the family-owned business named after the founder and incorporated in 1972.
And when fewer than 30 percent of family farms pass from the first to the second generation, Tull Hill Farm is breaking another mold – a third generation is now involved in the operation, with two of Jimmy’s nephews partnering with Jimmy and his brother, Rob.
The farm, which employs about 120 during peak season, produces a mix of tobacco and sweet potatoes, cotton, corn, soybeans, fresh market lettuce and cabbage.
Regulars at KFC restaurants might be eating cabbage grown on the Tull Hill Farm. “All of our cabbage and some of our lettuce is grown for processing, where it is sold to a company that processes it into shredded, fresh-cut or ready-made salads. Those are sold to restaurants,” says Hill, a North Carolina State alum with degrees in animal husbandry and agricultural economics.
Successful farmers are educated risk-takers. “The opportunities are there because we are in a situation right now where there is a high demand for agricultural commodities,” Hill says. “If you can produce efficiently, there’s a world of opportunity. But the risks are greater because the cost of input is greater. The cost of producing an acre of corn or soybeans has skyrocketed. And then there’s the weather. You just have to keep hanging in there and have faith.”
Story by Betsy Williams
