Bob’s Market”). These include
baked goods, mixes, butter,
candy, cider, cookies, drinks,
honey, jams and jellies, gift
boxes, dressings, pecans, pickles,
preserves, relish and salsa.”
At 91, “Mr. Bob” is chief cheer-
leader, mentor, overseer, and
encourager, arriving first in the
morning with a list of instructions
for everyone. Son Robert L. “Lee”
Dickey helps manage the entire
enterprise. He’s also in charge of
the farm’s food safety program
and the planting of new peach
trees and crops. Lee’s wife, Stacy,
lends assistance in sales and
marketing through social media, employee
training, and advertising. Lee and Stacy also
have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter to
represent the next generation. Marjie, the
Dickeys’ daughter, is the Ag Water Project
Manager for Georgia Environmental Protec-
tion Division and a graduate of the Univer-
sity of Georgia College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences. An avid cook, she
creates exciting recipes for the farm’s bakery
and initiated the paperwork for their entry
into the H-2A program.
H-2A labor is a federal program operating
for the last 25 to 30 years that allows agricultural enterprises to bring in legal (with passports and visas) seasonal labor. For Dickey
Farms they pick and pack peaches and do
pruning on the vast orchards. The laborers
are transported, housed, and fed throughout the harvest period, and many have been
coming for years from the same small town
in Mexico to work for the Dickey’s.
“They know us and we know them after
so many years of working together,” says
Dickey. “Two of our crew leaders who orga-
nize the labor pickers originally came to the
U.S. with nothing. Today they have their
citizenship and have raised children who
are going to college. We’re a family here of
twelve full-time employees and up to 112
seasonal full-timers.”
In terms of meeting the ever-present
challenge of weather events, particularly
periodic drought over the years, Dickey has
bought irrigation equipment and added
lakes, wells, and piping that helped miti-
gate the effects of dry conditions. He has
also transitioned to low-volume drip irri-
gation without sacrificing quality or yield
amounts. Areas between the peach tree
rows are planted with sod, preventing soil
erosion, giving improved traction for equip-
ment, providing a habitat for helpful insects,
and adding soil moisture.
Dickey follows EQIP (USDA’s Environmen-
tal Quality Incentives Program) recommen-
dations for reducing scale on peach trees
by applying oil instead of chemicals. Fallow
field and crop rotations also improve soil fer-
tility and structure. Dickey notes that tim-
berland is now going to be professionally
managed, adding, “Harvesting and thinning
of the timber has become and will continue
to be more strategic.” The farm staff has
planted wildlife habitats in their forest and
timber areas and makes concerted efforts to
ensure protection of hardwoods.
With regard to ongoing improvements,
Dickey has purchased a new condenser,
added cold room space, and remodeled
the packing line with a new Autoline sizer.
He plans to expand strawberry and fresh
vegetable production for the farm’s retail
operation and to provide Georgia Grown
produce to area schools.
On top of all this dizzying activity, Robert
L. Dickey III is a Georgia state legislator,
having been elected
and returned to the
state’s House of Rep-
resentatives for Dis-
trict 140 four times.
About this aspect of
his career, Dickey says,
“I thought we needed
more agriculture and
business people in the
House with conserva-
tive philosophy. I’d
been involved locally
in the Chamber of
Commerce and Eco-
nomic Development
Board but wanted to
do more. Fortunately,
I’m blessed with a sup-
portive family who’ve
made sacrifices in
time and energy so
that I could be away
at the capitol peri-
odically. It’s worked
out well, especially
with the fortunate
balance between me
being the big-picture
planner and Cynde
being the absolute
best implementer.”
From the state
House Dickey has been successful
in promoting the Georgia Grown
movement, one that receives
tremendous support from Gary
Black, the Commissioner of Agri-
culture. Dickey comments, “Since
being elected eight years ago, he
has done a great job on branding
and expanding the program. He’s
taken it to a whole new level.”
Dickey has also been a long-
term member of the Georgia
Peach Council and National
Peach Council, founder and past
board member of Georgia Agri-
Leaders Forum, board member
of SunTrust Bank of Middle
Georgia, Flint Energies, and Gordon College
Foundation, as well as a long-standing,
active member of Musella Baptist Church.
On vacations, the Dickey family likes to go
hiking in state parks. They especially enjoy
taking trips to the north Georgia mountains,
kicking back on the beaches of the Barrier
Islands, and just generally enjoying the vast
and varied beauty of their home state.
Dickey’s ambition is to carry on the farm’s
legacy and take care of the land for the gen-
erations to follow. He notes, “As my forebears
always said, ‘ Take care of the trees, and they
will take care of you.’ Seeing the big picture
— incorporating the lessons of the past
Nominator Sarah Greer and Robert Dickey.
See DICKEY, Page 80
Congratulations
to Robert Dickey on being selected as
2019 Georgia Farmer of the Year!
