Massey Ferguson congratulates Steve Cobb as the 2023 Sunbelt Ag Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year. This award is recognized as one of the most prestigious honors in American agriculture and earns Cobb 250 hours on a Massey Ferguson tractor, among other prizes.

Cobb Farms is a partnership enterprise that began over 50 years ago. Today, on a total of 4,500 acres (2,500 rented and 2,000 owned), it grows row crops and produce and breeds show pigs. Three entities make up the partnership: Steve Cobb and Family is a leading show pig operation that produces 1,000+ show pigs a year as well as breeding stock for club pig production; Cane Island Farms oversees the row crops of corn, cotton and peanuts; and the Cane Island Produce branch grows vegetables, specializing in year-round greenhouse tomatoes. 

In addition, Circle L Farms handles all of Cane Island Farms’ trucking needs as well as Steve Cobb and Family’s grain hauling. The company runs eight trucks daily and helps out local brokers as well.

The Cobb partnership crop yields are as follows: 1,800 acres of irrigated corn yielding 210 bushes/acre; 2,599 acres of irrigated cotton yielding 1,300 lbs/acre; 101 acres of irrigated peanuts yielding 2.5 tons/acre; and greenhouse tomatoes yielding 70 lbs/plant x 200 plants. In addition, the show pig business produces 1,000+ show pigs a year.

Steve Cobb and Family has set numerous records in its show pig and boar sales and has successfully marketed winning show pigs across more than 40 states through eight annual online auctions at showpig.com. Cobb said, “We host several preview days on our farm before each sale, where dozens of show pig customers view our show pig prospects. The pigs are also listed on stevecobbfamily.com. We occasionally offer elite breeding boar prospects for sale directly to boar stud businesses.”

Cane Island Farms’ cotton is ginned at Southland Gin in Lake City and is marketed through Olam Agri. They also grow non-GMO corn for Ozark Mountain Poultry of George’s Chicken. Peanuts are marketed through Birdsong Peanuts for cleaning, shelling and sizing before they’re shipped to food manufacturers. The farm has plans to build a feed warehouse to improve efficiency and quality of feed making. Designs are in the works for an off-site show pig fitting facility as well. 

Cane Island Produce, the newest endeavor in the partnership, sells through a local community network and on its Facebook page. The latter features pictures of a variety of mouth-watering sausage balls, baked beans with sausage, vegetable soup with sausage, half and whole hog packages, homemade jam, and green tomato chow-chow. Cane Island Produce has recently branched out from the initial greenhouse tomato operation into other vegetables, such as purple hull peas, okra, green beans, cucumbers, squash, bell peppers and jalapeno peppers. The company has plans to add more greenhouses and expand into flower production.

Cobb is the 33rd Sunbelt Ag Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year since the award’s inception in 1990. Massey Ferguson is proud to join Sunbelt Ag in honoring “excellence in agriculture.”

For more information about Cobb Farms’ family-run operation, visit their website. To find details about the Farmer of the Year award, past winners and the nomination process, visit https://sunbeltexpo.com/foty/.