Sunbelt - Sunbelt Expo Program 2019

SINCE 1897, DICKEY Farms has been producing high quality peaches. Today, Robert Lee Dickey II (“Mr. Bob”), Robert Lee Dickey III (“Robert”), and Robert L. Dickey IV (“Lee”) combine their skills to carry on the farming legacy of growing the tastiest peaches in the south. Calling on deep family experience, they are planting year-round, inspecting every detail. This multi-generational experience makes them some of the most knowledgeable and skilled growers in the industry. And they love what they do.

All during his growing up years, Robert worked on the farm part-time. After graduating from high school, his father urged him to pursue a business degree, saying that he could always teach him more about the land, but that mastering the economics of agriculture would be of key importance to the future. So Robert earned his degree in 1977 in Finance from the University of Georgia, thinking perhaps he might enter the banking industry. Fortunately, for the long-term prospects of Dickey Farms, those jobs were scarce, and Dickey returned home, armed with educational tools that would prove to be innovative and expansive.

One profitable initiative was Robert’s idea to offer packing services to neighboring farmers, a decision that not only met their needs but utilized in a maximum way their packinghouse facility and generated additional income. “We’ve since more than quadrupled our volume,” he notes. “Forty years ago we were packing about 75,000

packages a year and this year we expect to pack around

400,000 half-bushel boxes.”
Thirty different varieties of
peaches are grown on Dickey
Farms from early May through
late August. The primary types
are Clingstone, Semi-Free, and
Freestone. The Clingstone are
the first peaches of the season
to be harvested, typically
ripening around the second week of May.

Semi-Free peaches, a newer variety, are the second peaches of the season to be harvested and typically ripen around the first week of June and finish by June 20. They are a hybrid peach fused between the Clingstone and the Freestone. Freestone peaches are the last and most widely anticipated of the season, characterized by their hallmark juiciness and sweet flavor. Freestone peaches have the longest run, spanning from early to mid-June through August.

Dickey Farms sells primarily to Genuine Georgia Group, a sales and marketing firm with a solid foundation in the peach growing industry. Dickey Farms yields are: 218 bushels/acre of peaches on 890 acres; 10,000 pounds/acre of strawberries on two acres, and has 2,200 acres of varied timber as well as 100 pecan trees. Their orchards are spread out over 1,000 acres of land in several counties with over 100,000 peach trees — all to ensure that they’re growing the very best fruit.

Over the last five to ten years, Dickey
Farms has expanded into the agritourism
business, applying great ideas from all
members of the family. They use the space
of a generations-old wooden packinghouse
and a general store where ripe peaches and
peach ice cream can be savored by tourists,
local school groups, and general passersby.
Many visitors also come to pick strawber-
ries and vegetables when they’re in season.
“It’s brought in consistent return for us, but
beyond that, we’ve enjoyed some wonder-
ful, meaningful interaction with people from
far and wide, particularly church, senior, and
hobby groups,” says Dickey.

Dickey is quick to acknowledge the immense contribution his wife of forty-one years makes to their enterprise. “Cynde is the farm’s chief financial officer and started the retail and mail-order business a couple of decades ago. Now, with the expertise of our children and daughter-in-law and the website they’ve developed, the online sales are booming. And people come from all over Georgia and many other states to tour our farm, sample our peaches, and purchase our homemade general store products (“Mr.