Meet a Corn Farmer: Jamey & Jonathan Tosh
Brothers Jamey and Jonathan Tosh, of Tosh Farms in Henry County, grew up raising crops and pigs. Now, they farm alongside their father to produce feed, fuel, and food from the land.
Those are not just fields of corn
Driving through the back roads of beautiful rural Tennessee during the summer months, travelers will notice beautiful fields of corn growing in almost every county in the state.
A combine harvests field corn at Tosh Farms.
Those are not just fields of corn. As they grow, they harness the energy of the sun and sequester carbon to produce a crop with a broad set of potential end uses. To the farmers growing the dynamic crop, corn is a multi-use powerhouse of energy production, serving several valuable roles both on and off the farm.
“My great-grandparents started farming in 1913 after they moved from Carroll County to Henry County. My dad started farming in 1972. He was a row crop farmer with a few pigs,” Jonathan said. “Now me, my brother Jamey, and my dad are in the business raising hogs. We also grow yellow corn, white corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, and rape seed.”
Corn is feed
Yellow corn is, by far, the most commonly produced type of corn in the United States.
“We grow yellow corn to feed our pigs,” Jonathan said. “Yellow corn is the number one source of energy for livestock in the U.S. today.”
The yellow corn crop on Tosh Farms is planted in the spring and harvested in the fall once the plant dies and the kernels of corn on the ear dry down and harden.
Yellow corn is grown and harvested on Tosh Farms to feed their pigs.
“Harvesting corn is a unique process that we enjoy every year,” Jamey said. “We harvest it with the combine. As the combine is going through the field, it takes the ear off and separates the cobs, leaves and the stalks from the grain. The grain goes into the bin of the combine. The leaves, cobs, and stalks are chopped up and go out the back end of the combine and back into the field. That residue gets decomposed and puts nutrients and organic matter back into the soil. From the combine, the harvested grain gets put in a truck. And then from there it goes to a scale house where it gets weighed, gets tested to make sure there are no toxins that could affect the animals, and then after that, it goes through a drying process.”
Once dried, the yellow corn is stored in bins on the farm until it is ground into feed for the family’s hogs.
“When we need the corn for feed, we'll take it out of the bin, and we'll grind the corn down to the right size to meet our needs as far as animal feeding. The more fine the grind, the better the pig’s stomach can digest the corn,” Jamey said. “That ground corn goes into a ration for feeding the pigs where we look at the energy, the protein, and the amino acids of each ingredient, and then we put it into a formulation to make sure we have the correct nutrients to raise healthy pigs. The ground corn is mixed with the other products. Then we pelletize it and deliver it to the farm for the pigs.”
Along with feed, yellow corn is used in thousands of other industrial products.
Yellow corn is harvested on Tosh Farms to produce ethanol, a fuel made from corn.
Corn is fuel
Yellow corn on the farm is also sold for ethanol production.
“Ethanol is a fuel made from corn. Ethanol plants extract the oil from the corn and turn it into fuel. Once they extract the oil, they are left with a byproduct called dried distillers grains, also known as DDGS,” Jamey said. “We buy DDGS back from the ethanol plant to use that as a high protein animal feed ingredient in the ration we feed the pigs. There is a synergy with ethanol and livestock production because it produces both feed and fuel.”
Blended with gasoline, the ethanol then powers those cars driving by the fields of corn in Tennessee as an environmentally friendly, low cost and locally produced fuel source. Standard gasoline at the pump contains 10% ethanol. Higher ethanol blends are available at some gas stations as well. Unleaded 88 is 15% ethanol, and flex fuel vehicles can run on up to 85% ethanol blends.
Corn is food
White corn kernels harvested at Tosh Farms used to produce food-grade items like tortilla chips.
In addition to yellow corn, Tosh Farms also grows white corn, a specialty crop that produces a harder starch than other types of corn. White corn starch is well suited for the production of food items like tortilla chips.
“The white food-grade corn we grow is sold for a milling process that makes grits,” Jamey said. “The white corn gives us an extra premium price, versus the yellow corn, and it diversifies our production. And then we turn around and buy back the hominy that is left over from the processing of the starch from the white corn to mix into our ration to feed the pigs.”
Much more than just a field of corn, the crop fills important economic, environmental, and societal roles in the diversified Tosh family farm. Corn plays a crucial part in the sustainability of the local ecosystem and their family for generations to come.