Cameron native and St. Matthews resident Monty Rast is no stranger to the world of farming. His first move into farming came when he was in high school and then he went full time around 1980 with his father and his uncle. In 1981 he embarked on his own.
“That’s a long time,” the 68-year-old said. “Yeah, I’ve been in the business that long.”
Rast, who farms in Calhoun and Orangeburg counties, on this particularly sunny March 16 was out busily preparing land on Redmond Mill Road in North for corn planting. He is planning to plant about 500 acres of the crop, an increase from last year.
Corn, he says, is a perennial favorite locally.
“We’re a net-deficit state,” he said. “That means that we don’t grow enough corn that we consume mainly through the chicken business. That would be Amick Farms up here in Monetta and Columbia Farms. Those are two big chicken operations. They buy most of the corn.”
Rast said the companies often have to resort to imported corn but prefer to buy locally.
“We end up having a good additional price because we’re close,” Rast said. “They don’t have to rail. So irrigated corn is a big choice.”
The other crop attractive to Rast this year: peanuts.
Rast is planning to plant about 500 acres, also an increase from last year.
Peanut contract prices are “attractive,” said Rast, noting most farmers have already signed up under contracts that are around $550 (per ton) of winter and Virginia-type peanuts. Virginia peanuts are considered the “gourmet” peanut variety and are the peanuts you get in the shell at ballpark stadiums.
Rast also said peanuts are not publicly traded like other commodities and thus not subject to global market manipulation.
“A lot of times it’s not necessarily supply and demand, it’s whatever the public’s perception of what their crop’s doing,” Rast said. “In peanuts, we’re not subjected to that because it’s not traded publicly. But corn and soybeans and rice and everything else is traded that way.”
The odd commodity out in 2023?
Cotton.
Rast is looking to cut back on cotton acreage. Last year, he grew about 1,000 acres of cotton to take advantage of $1.20 (per pound), $1.30 a pound price. This year he is growing about 500 acres.
Today cotton is about 84 cents a pound.
“Cotton is not as attractive because the price is low,” he said. “The price doesn’t meet input costs.”
“That price has deteriorated now,” Rast said. “If you can get $6 (per bushel) or $7 for corn, or you can get $500-plus (per ton), $550 or so for peanuts, those numbers work better for us.
Cotton has always been king in Calhoun County but when the 2003 farm bill deregulated peanuts, making growing the crop more profitable, things shifted somewhat.
“The whole reason for growing peanuts was to make our cotton better,” Rast said. “Now we realize peanuts are more profitable than cotton. So it’s more focused on what we’re going to do with peanuts first, and then cotton fills in.”