Tattnall County’s Paul Oliver is in the thick of competition for the 2024 FFA National Star Farmer Award as he is currently in the nationwide final four. Interestingly, Georgia has not had a final four candidate in 35 years, and that candidate was his father, Clint Oliver, who went on to be the FFA Star Farmer in 1989.
Paul’s success has been a seven-year process that began during his freshman year at Tattnall County High School when his father and grandfather gifted him with 15 York gilts from the Ricker family in Ohio. He raised show pigs from these sows and has worked to expand his operation from that point forward. Although he is focused on swine operation, he expanded into cattle by purchasing 14 bred Hereford cows and a bull in 2022.
Realizing the need for more space, he purchased 134 acres of farmland with 55 acres of pecan trees from the Cox family of Reidsville, which has a rich history of agriculture in Tattnall County. In fact, the family was looking for a purchaser who would keep the farm in agricultural production, and Paul fit that description perfectly. He went to work with his father and doubled the pecan production during the second year. But it wasn’t like he was inexperienced. He is the grandson of Jim Jordan of Jordan Farms, which is a well-known pecan farm operation in Tattnall County. He and his brother, Adam, help manage their late grandfather’s several hundred acres of pecan trees for their mother, Hope.
In the South we often hear the oft used comment that “It’s in his/her blood.” In his Star Farmer application, Paul states that he began following his father and grandfather around the farm at a very young age and learned the fundamentals of swine production first-hand. He also developed a strong affinity for farm life in general. Obviously, agriculture seems to be in Paul’s blood from both sides of his family tree.
Paul admits that he is a man of few words, but when he starts talking about his Berkshire-Duroc hybrids, the sentences come faster, and the paragraphs get longer. He is working on a composition of animals that focuses exclusively on meat quality. The line is derived from a combination of Berkshires and Durocs in which the offspring excels in tenderness and taste. With this line he has developed, he would like to focus on a branded product to carry on with the tradition of Oliver Farms. Oliver Farms is the oldest registered Duroc herd in the Southeastern United States with 55 years of continuous production of registered Durocs.
In November 2021, Paul was the Southern Regional swine production proficiency winner and a national finalist. COVID was driving the need for expansion as consumers were becoming concerned about where their meat was coming from. Some mega producers slowed production or shut down completely at crucial times due to COVID infections so he was able to get established in niche markets that have served him well. One of those niche markets involved the sale of roaster pigs, which became very popular with ethnic groups during the COVID days. Currently, he gets specific orders from the Lyons Georgia Livestock Market for sales on the first and third Saturdays, which is somewhat typical of his niche markets. He grins when he says that several high end restaurants prefer his ham.
But in 2021 judges apparently did not think the scope of his operation was possible. He is a third generation swine producer, and that provided experience, knowledge, and access to facilities that would allow him to expand to 500 sows, and that did not fit the prototypical high school FFA operation. He competed with students with much smaller operations that focused on show pigs with a few sows while he focused on meat hogs and much larger production. In short, his operation seemed a bit large for a high school FFA student.
Paul is preparing for his interview on August 27, 2024, at 3 p.m. “I wish I had my grandmother LaNell Oliver’s gift of gab,” he said. “I always wondered why my grandfather Cleon didn’t have much to say. Now I understand that he just never had much of a chance to say anything. But her ability to talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime would really come in good during this interview.”
Tattnall County High School FFA Advisor Leigha Kirkley has worked with Paul throughout the process of compiling and submitting the necessary documentation for the National FFA Star Farmer project. Her efforts stir memories of the late Mr. John N. Kunney, Sr., the celebrated and widely respected Agriculture Teacher at Reidsville High School who advised and steered Paul’s father, Clint, through the same National Star Farmer process 35 years ago. Mr. Kunney’s love and dedication to agriculture in general and swine production specifically was legendary. His wife often told the story about a trip to west Georgia to pick up a prized show pig for one of his students. Mrs. Kunney and the children went along for the ride, and they picked up a weaned pig in a small wood crate, which Mr. Kunney strapped in the front seat of the truck since the weather was bitterly cold outside. When telling the story Mrs. Kunney would roll her eyes and say with a hint of a smile, “Me and the children rode home in the back seat. I glad he didn’t pick up three or four pigs, we might have been riding home on the tailgate!”
That is a funny (but true) tale of dedication to the extreme when taking caring of one’s show stock. But after talking to Paul Oliver, it sounds very much like something he might do, and, in my mind, I can hear Mr. Kunney now. “Yes sir, we have ourselves a great competitor here. We’re gonna win this thing!”
Everyone who knows Paul and the Oliver family is hoping he will bring the top prize back to Tattnall County once again. However, the fact that he has made the final four competition against great contestants from Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Illinois is an accomplishment in itself. The positive attention that achievement will focus on Tattnall County High School, Tattnall County, and Georgia agriculture cannot be overemphasized.
The winner will be announced on October 26, 2024. Cross your fingers, folks.
