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A Tale of Two Families
MDAC’s Centennial Farm Family Program Spotlights Unique Farms
[By: Hannah East, Assistant Editor of the Mississippi Market Bulletin]
In Poplarville, Mississippi, sits an unassuming homestead at the end of a winding road that eventually turns into a dirt driveway. This homestead is one of the state’s best kept secrets as one of our oldest working farms, and a heritage farm that can trace their livestock’s lineage back to 1699.
Carlos Ladner made the original claim to the land office, which consisted of 974,000 acres east of Wolf River, in 1811. His family raised livestock, built their own blacksmith shop and homesteaded the heavily wooded land. Incredibly, Ladner’s descendants remain today and continue the legacy of farming on a portion of the very land their ancestors settled so many years ago.
Billy Frank, President of the Pineywoods Cattle Registry and Breeders Association, and wife Julie are the proud owners of this working farm. Once known as the Sebron Ladner Place, Cowpen Creek Farm will be passed down to their son, Jess Brown. Together the trio manage the farm, which is home to three State Heritage breeds of livestock. In 2017, Billy led the movement to have Pineywoods cattle, Pine Tacky horses and Native Gulf Coast sheep named Mississippi heritage breeds, or the original breed of animal found in the state, by the Legislature.
Walking across the property is like stepping back in time. The Browns have made intentional efforts to keep the place as close to its original appearance as possible. Every wooden beam, branding iron and landrace animal pays homage to this farm family’s history, over 200 years in the making.
Mr. Billy works a pair of oxen, True and Trim, in the pen as we converse. He demonstrates the skills used by his dad, grandpa and great grandpa before him. His low, steady commands provide a sort of background melody that blends in with the natural noises found on a farm. Jess explains that the key to developing a good, working pair of oxen is to start at a young age. When the steers are young, they are paired up, jointly yoked and kept together. They’re taught to lay down at the same time, eat at the same time and drink at the same time. Then, when they’re fully grown, most pairs will be so used to each other, and even the side of the yoke they usually stand on, that they’ll stay next to each other in their designated order. “It’s funny because they’ll walk up, side by side, even when they’re not yoked up. They’re just so used to it by then,” said Jess.
The oxen pair listening to every command spoken are Pineywoods cattle. For as long as the family farm has been there, there have also been Pineywoods cows. These cattle were appropriately named for their ability to thrive in heavily wooded areas. Locals also know this breed as “rakestraws,” a nickname derived from using their horns and mouths to rake away pine straw that’s fallen to the ground to reach the grass underneath. Pineywoods cattle have horns that point upward rather than outward, like Longhorns, and can be multiple colors and patterns.
The Browns currently raise several strains, or family lines, of Pineywoods cattle such as Yellow Griffin, Hickman, Dedeaux and Ladnier. True and Trim are both from the Hickman strain, with a brindle and white speckled coloring.
Though now the pair serves only as a demonstration of how things were done in the past, the Ladner family originally used their cattle to work the land and haul logs. Billy recalls his grandpa, Sebron Ladner, contracting with Hines Lumber Company to haul logs to dummy railroad lines in the early 1920s. He used 50 head of oxen to pull the wagons loaded down with logs. Billy and Jess explained how oxen were better suited for the task than horses because they wouldn’t get easily bogged down in the lower, swampy areas of Pearl River County. An ox’s split hooves act as a sort of “four-wheel drive” they said.
That’s when our attention was drawn to the small herd of Pine Tacky horses in the opposite corral. These rare animals, also known as Choctaw horses, derive from the Colonial Spanish mustangs brought to the new world by Spanish conquistadors and later tamed and bred by the Choctaw Indians. The smaller framed horses stand in a group of diverse and pretty colors. Billy explains that their build, specifically their narrow chests, make them better for endurance rather than speed. “Those are good, working horses. They’ll go all day and won’t quit on you,” he said.
But what’s most interesting about these heritage horses is, fittingly, their history. Billy’s Mississippi horses have had their DNA matched to the wild mustangs, or Choctaw horses, of Oklahoma. Today, those horses can be found near the Blackjack mountains. They are the last remaining descendants of the horses used to relocate Native Americans who made the long, fateful trek that came to be known as the “Trail of Tears.”
As the sun started to sink in the distance, we visited the farm’s Native Gulf Coast sheep. I could hear their bleating and the constant ringing of bells well before seeing the herd. Several baby lambs pranced around on shaky legs as the older sheep eyed us newcomers warily. However, they soon warmed to us when Mrs. Julie entered the pen. Calling them her “babies,” she said caring for the sheep was her favorite thing to do on the farm. Currently, the Browns run about 70 to 80 head of sheep. However, in the farm’s heyday, the family owned approximately 4,000 sheep. Mr. Billy showed me a newspaper clipping from an article in the Biloxi Herald reporting 5,000 pounds of wool produced by the Sebron Ladner Place in 1914. The 8-foot-tall burlap sacks of wool were loaded onto wagons bound for Perkinston to be sold. He described the unappealing task of having to stand inside the sack and stomp on the wool to pack it tightly down as it was being added.
Billy’s earliest memory on the farm involves their Native sheep. He says they were always penning sheep. His eyes went misty as he described his grandpa Sebron grabbing him by the back of his shirt collar and pulling him up to sit behind him on the horse. They’d ride out every day like that to tend the sheep. And extended family members would visit every summer to help during sheep shearing time. Jess recounts stories he’s heard from relatives over the years. He said the women would set the table with six places. They’d feed the menfolk, six at a time, wash the dishes, reset the table and do it all over again. They would repeat this process four times to feed everyone that helped during the shearing.
Today, Billy, Julie and Jess travel to local festivals and host Heritage Days at the farm to provide educational demos of farm life before our modern technological advances. One major part of that is shearing sheep. And who better to teach future generations than someone who placed Top 10 in sheep shearing at the 1960 National 4-H Championship? Billy remembers every detail of his competing days and that championship held in Indianapolis. To him, it was second nature. He was simply doing something he’d grown up doing. Now, he enjoys showing others how to shear a sheep and watching their enthralled gazes. In today’s fast-moving world it is quite a feat to hold the public’s attention, but Billy manages to do just that, all while educating people in agricultural practices.
When asked what advice he would give to young farmers or those just starting out in the field, Billy pondered a moment before answering. Finally, as his gaze moved over the horse he was stroking, he said, “Don’t overdo it to start with. Pay for what you can get. Don’t worry with new pickups and nice things. If you can get by with less, that’s the way to do it. It takes discipline, but you never want to get overloaded.”
Billy and Julie registered their farm with the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce’s (MDAC) Centennial Farm Family Program in 2015. This program was established in 1976 under Commissioner Jim Buck Ross to honor the families who have continuously operated a farm or ranch for 100 years or more.
Billy Frank and Julie have since passed the torch to their son Jess. Also a veterinarian technician, Jess manages the majority of the farm’s day-to-day operations. He says he’s proud of the legacy his family has left him and their unique history going back more than seven generations. “I hope to keep this place continuing just like it is as much as possible for years to come.”
Learn more about Cowpen Creek Farm by visiting www.cowpencreekfarm.com.
In comparison, the farm situated in Tunica County, not far from the Crossroads where Robert Johnson famously sold his soul to the devil to master the guitar blues, may seem quite young. But in 2024, having remained in operation by the same family for 100 years, Moon Lake Pecans qualified and registered with MDAC’s Centennial Farm Family Program.
It was an usually cool day in the Mississippi Delta when I first visited the Mohead-Callahan family. I was greeted by a calloused hand that was stained a pale green, which I later learned was caused by handling unshelled pecans on a regular basis. It was harvest time for the native tree nuts loved by so many.
Though not always a pecan producer, James Callahan describes the process from growing tiny tree nuts to shipping thousands of pounds of ripe pecans with ease. James, manager of Moon Lakes Pecans and president of the Mississippi Pecan Growers Association, is a third-generation farmer who oversees production of the 160-acre pecan orchard in Dundee. The orchard, once part of the Texas Island Plantation, was originally purchased by G.T. Mohead in 1924. The Moheads farmed their extensive land for years before selling in 2021. However, the pecan orchard continues to be worked by members of the Mohead family to this day. James and his wife, Nancy Mohead Callahan, lease and farm the property’s abundant, specialty crop. But they don’t do it alone…
Moon Lake Pecans is a true family affair thanks to the dedication of three separate generations working together, and they are all the richer for it. James said what he enjoys most about their way of life is working with their grandchildren on the farm. On any given day, particularly in the summer months, you’ll find cousins John Braxton and Abby helping out on the farm. Abby prefers to assist with sorting the pecans, but John Braxton says he does basically everything James, or “Bud” as the grandkids call him, does on the farm. “I do whatever Bud needs help with, whether it’s harvesting, running the cleaner, sowing, shelling, cracking or sorting. I do everything he does, pretty much.”
Abby and John Braxton are both in college where they’ve grown to realize how rare their experiences on a working farm are. John Braxton, a student at Ole Miss, says, “It’s a totally different experience than what everybody else around me has. None of my classmates get to drive a tractor or harvest pecans and have fun like this out on a farm. They’re all working in retail and stuff like that. Most of them have no clue what we’re saying when we talk about working out here.”
In addition to their parents, who also help with the farm, Abby and John Braxton are being taught practical skills, work ethic and agricultural knowledge by the Callahans. Nancy beams with pride as the two demonstrate how to sort through unshelled pecans as they pass on the conveyer belt set up in the middle of the orchard. While they discard all twigs, leaves and other debris, Nancy explains how to tell a rotten pecan by its coloring and weight. Generally, when a pecan is dark and feels lightweight, or hollow inside, it’s rotten and should be discarded.
She also reminisces upon all the harvests she’s seen over the years, from when her grandaddy G.T. was on the farm, to present day. The Schley pecan is her favorite because her “daddy always said it was the best,” and because it has a lot of oil in it, which makes for a richer flavor. Currently, Moon Lake Pecans grows about 8 to 10 varieties of pecan trees, but none grow better in the Delta than the Owens and Native pecan trees. According to local legend, Mr. F.M. Owens planted the first, or mother tree, of an improved, grafted pecan tree variety near the center of Moon Lake. The place where the mother tree can still be seen today is known to locals as Alcorn or Cuba Island since the area is often completely surrounded by water after heavy rainfall. All Owens trees propagated since, have come from that single mother tree.
James tells me that pecan trees continue to grow so well in the Mississippi Delta because they are native, or natural, to river bottoms and they thrive in the rich, Delta soil. Several trees within the orchard are over 100 years old, their mighty branches reaching well over 100 feet. Though he’s unsure of the exact age, James points out the Native pecan tree believed to be the biggest and oldest tree in the orchard. It towers above its surroundings and is not in line with the order of trees carefully planted in straight rows over the years. This leads James to think that this tree was here years before Mr. Mohead established the orchard in 1924.
That’s when I notice the smaller size of the tree nuts littering the ground below the massive, Native tree. According to James, it takes approximately 150 to 175 of the smaller, Native pecans to equal a pound, versus the other varieties, which only take about 56 nuts to make a pound.
With 1,100 producing pecan trees, the Callahans harvested roughly 60,000 pounds of pecans in 2024. However, because pecan trees are alternate bearing, overall harvest production fluctuates from year to year. In just the previous year, Moon Lake Pecans experienced a bumper crop, producing 130,000 pounds of pecans! Once the unshelled pecans have been picked up and sorted by the harvester, they are transferred to super sacks. Each super sack holds 2,000 pounds of pecans. From there, sacks are loaded onto trailers and shipped to a nearby accumulator, Tri Delta Pecans in Greenville.
Not all the pecans are sent off, though. Recently, James and Nancy have embraced the diverse business opportunities of farming. The pecans they keep are shelled and turned into delicious products available in several different sizes and flavors. They sell their pecans at local farmers markets and through their new website developed by Nancy’s sons. “I’m a people person, we both are, so we really enjoy selling at farmers markets and getting to talk with folks. And these days, people prefer local, fresh foods like this. We’ve found in college towns, like Oxford, visitors from out-of-state often want to take something back home to remember their time here. So, our Mississippi-grown pecan products have done very well,” said Nancy.
However, as any farmer will tell you, this way of life is not always easy. James says the hardest part about farming today is not having control over the input costs of farming nor the price of your own commodities. “You farm because you enjoy it, not because of the income. Farming is the only profession that you don’t have any control over how much you pay for something, and you don’t have any control on how much you’re going to sell your product for. So, unless you’re going to retail it, you have to take what someone else is going to give you. That makes things difficult.”
Yet, even with the hardships of uncontrollable weather, rising costs and constant maintenance, James and Nancy take pride in the work they do. They hold their ancestors’ hard work and history with the farm in high regard, and by embracing both old traditions and new advances available to them, the Callahans hope to continue the legacy that is Moon Lake Pecans.
James and Nancy were recently awarded a Centennial Farm Family certificate, signed by Governor Tate Reeves, Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson, and Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation President Mike McCormick, in recognition of their contributions the State of Mississippi and its agricultural heritage. MDAC’s Centennial Farm Family Program is dedicated to identifying and saluting Mississippi families who have worked and sacrificed to build the legacy of owning and/or working their farms for a century.
“I want to continue repopulating and replanting the orchard for future generations, like those who came before us. We want to leave this place in better shape than we got it, and I hope it continues another hundred years,” says James.
To learn more about Moon Lake Pecans and their products, visit www.moonlakepecans.com and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
MDAC has recently made efforts to revamp its Centennial Farm Family Program, and the Callahans of Moon Lake Pecans are the latest farm family to register for the program.
MDAC established the Centennial Farm Family Program in 1976 in cooperation with the U.S. Bicentennial Commission, the Governor’s Office and the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation. So, while America was celebrating 200 years of independence, former Commissioner of Agriculture Jim Buck Ross was inspired to create this unique program as a way to recognize Mississippi’s rich agricultural heritage while spotlighting those families who contributed to that legacy. The purpose of this program is to honor the families who have continuously operated a farm or ranch for 100 years or more. And since its creation in 1976, 269 farms have registered with the Centennial Farm Family Program.
This program is free to register. Families must simply fill out the application and provide the necessary documentation. Once applications have been received, the contact person will be notified by MDAC if the farm or ranch qualifies. Further information and guidelines, as well as the application, can be found now on our website at www.mdac.ms.gov/cff.
If you qualify and are interested in registering, for MDAC’s Centennial Farm Family Program, contact Hannah East at 601-359-1179 or visit www.mdac.ms.gov/cff.
Today, the Callahans continue to work the 160-acre pecan orchard, located in the Mississippi Delta and originally purchased by G.T. Mohead in 1924. Pictured L-R: James Callahan, John Braxton Daughdrill, Abby Daughdrill and Nancy Mohead Callahan.
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