Limestone County was officially created in 1818. Agriculture was the main source of jobs in the area at the time, and even 200 years later the importance of row cropping cannot be understated for the area.
According to Jeff Peek, the head of the Limestone County chapter of the Alabama Farmers Federation, many jobs in the area are in some way related to agriculture to this day.
He said Limestone County often leads the state when it comes to annual cotton production and is typically in the top five for corn, soybeans or wheat as well.
“We look at all these new plants coming in, and sometimes we forget just how important agriculture really is,” Peek said. “Agriculture is terribly important to our local economy, especially row crops.”
Peek said Limestone County is losing farming acreage every day to other development, meaning farmers must become more efficient with what they have.
“Row cropping is taking the brunt of that hit,” Peek said. “Farmers are losing land, and whether we like it or not, that’s progress.”
History
Peek said Limestone County was a thriving agricultural hub even before the American Civil War was fought. He said the county’s economy even up to the 1950s was largely based around agriculture, and even Huntsville was much the same until NASA came to town around the 1960s.
“It was a cotton mill town,” Peek said. “So was Athens. Just about our entire economy revolved around some form of agriculture. Limestone County has always been a huge cotton producer. Things have changed a lot around here.”
Family farm
Peek said when he was farming he put “every acre I had” in cotton, but most farms have diversified their portfolios these days. He was a fourth generation farmer, and now his son Brady represents the fifth generation working at Peek Family Farms.
Brady Peek said his family farms approximately 1,600 acres between western Limestone and eastern Lauderdale counties. On that land they primarily grow corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton, the four major row crops found in Limestone County.
Brady said his dad retired from farming in the early 2000s, and the family business went on hiatus. Brady said he started things back up in 2010.
“I couldn’t give you an exact reason why, but farming is something I’ve always wanted to do,” he said. It’s something that’s always been inside me that I couldn’t shake. For a long time I didn’t think I’d have the opportunity to farm, so when I did it was a dream come true.”
While cotton mainly goes into fabrics, the other three major either go into food for people or livestock feed that eventually produces food for human consumption.
“I feel like I’ve got the most important job in the world,” Brady Peek said. “Every day people eat three times a day. If not for a farmer growing it, they wouldn’t have it. I think people have lost sight of that. They think they go to the grocery store and food just magically appears.”
National security
Most people might not think about it on a daily basis, but Brady Peek said farming is a matter of national importance. He said it takes a lot of steps to get from planting a crop to feeding someone at the dinner table, and farmers take a lot of pride in their contribution to that endeavor.
“We don’t truly know crazy until people get hungry,” he said. “If you don’t eat, you can’t sustain. Food is a matter of national security, because a nation that cannot feed itself is very vulnerable. Farmers take that very seriously.”
Even though farming acres are dwindling, Jeff Peek said modern farmers have become more productive and efficient. He said row cropping has changed in several ways over that past 20 years, from diversification of crops to better breeding that helps give crops resistance to things like insects and drought.
“Farmers are doing a much better job, even for the environment,” Jeff Peek said. “They are taking into consideration the impact they are making. In the past 20 years we have seen precision farming come into the equation.”
According to the Peeks, the importance of row crops in Limestone County and nationally simply cannot be understated. Farmers like them are continuing to work hard in the modern era to make sure their families and their neighbors have food to put on the table.