THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511170764
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JODY R. SNIDER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 149 lines
JAMES EURE NEVER told sons George and Robbie that there was a future in farming.
In fact, when he bought his first farm in the 1930s, he regarded it as an investment that would enable him to live the simple life while providing for his family.
As time passed, though, James Eure's love of farming grew. So did his acreage. He eventually bought two more farms and began farming for four other landowners.
Today, Eure's investment savvy and farming skills are legacy.
The Eures, owners of Eure Brothers Corporation, are this year's Farm Family of the Year, an honor bestowed by the Suffolk division of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
``They've always been a good farming family,'' said C.R. ``Randy'' Davis, executive director of the Suffolk chamber. They've been Suffolk's top-yielding peanut growers numerous years.
In 1972, when James retired, the Eures formed a corporation that now works 13 farms owned by others and three farms owned by the Eures - 1,264 acres of cotton, peanuts and soybeans. Seventy percent of the acreage is in North Carolina, the rest in the Pittmantown and Somerton areas of Suffolk.
All the land holds certain beauty for the Eures. Each spring, Robbie and George make a pilgrimage to gaze at young sprouts in their field.
``It's beautiful, just beautiful,'' Robbie said. ``We like to think of our land as some of the best land in the world - a paradise.''
The best land is devoted to peanuts, the Eure's cash crop. It's also the crop that poses the biggest risk: The narrow planting window sometimes closes early because of weather. And if the crop doesn't get the right number of growing days, yields drop.
``The whole process of farming is one big miracle,'' Robbie said. ``You see the peanut vines growing on top of the land, but 2 inches below is where the peanut grows.
``The miracle about that is, sometimes we don't think we have much of a crop, but when we start harvesting, there's more there.''
This year, dry weather from July to August caused peanut yields to drop to 2,482 pounds an acre - $500 an acre less than last year, Robbie said. Still, ``I think it's a miracle that we've received as much as we have,'' he said.
With the peanut harvest gone, every hand turned to cotton.
The Eures' farmhand, Ray Riddick, recalls picking cotton by hand as boy. An experienced picker could harvest 100 pounds of lint a day.
Today, Riddick operates a $180,000, four-row cotton picker that shaves 30 to 35 acres a day. In a good year, 1 acre could produce 900 pounds.
``It's a bumpy ride,'' Riddick said as he lined up the picker with the rows of cotton, ``but you get used to it.''
Robbie said: ``We're down 400 pounds an acre from last year. Last year, it took 6 acres to make one of these big modulars of cotton you see along side the road. This year, we need nine.''
Once the work starts, it goes into the night. Lunch is a pack of crackers or a can of pork and beans in the field. Dinner comes at 9 p.m.
``You don't quit working,'' George said. ``And if something breaks down, you don't sleep at night because you have to figure out how you're going to get it fixed.''
When the Eures' new picker stalled in a field, the harvest halted until repairs were made, 3:30 p.m. the next day. ``We were lucky,'' George said. ``When one piece of equipment breaks down, it can shut down the whole operation.''
But, Robbie added, ``it doesn't shut down the payroll.''
Other bills have to be paid as well. In 1994, the corporation paid $179,089 for farm chemicals; $43,243 in repairs to farm equipment; $25,204 for fuel and oil; $15,713 in corporation taxes; and $12,710 in interest for bank loans.
Salaries for four full-time employees also were deducted from the corporation's income. And then, the Eures were paid.
``If the corporation can do all that, we consider that a break even year,'' Robbie said. ``Beyond that, we have something called `return to management.' That's when we return a portion of our gain to the farm. That won't happen this year.''
This is a year of cost-efficiency decisions, usually done standing between pickup trucks in fields.
``We might talk a little one day, a little the next, but it's not a board meeting room atmosphere,'' Robbie said. ``This is the type of thing that's grown into you. It takes a very small amount of conversation.''
Robbie's wife, Faye, secretary at Hillcrest Baptist Church in Suffolk for 27 years, said: ``When it comes to the harvest, you just got to have faith. We don't sit back and wring our hands during a poor harvest. If the finances don't come one way, they come another.''
The shelves of Faye's kitchen are lined with canned vegetables and fruits, the freezer full of corn, butter beans, string beans and peas - all harvested from a home garden.
``We go to the garden and cook it all from scratch,'' she said. ``The average person goes to the store. If we don't have an apple or pear tree in our yard, we have a neighbor who does.''
Just a stone's throw away, George's wife, Paulette, runs a beauty salon from her home.
``I'm a country girl at heart,'' Paulette said. ``My father was a farmer, and all the kids worked in the fields. We chopped peanuts, tobacco and corn.
``There's enjoyment in seeing what you've sowed and knowing that it's going to feed people. We've always had plenty. We've always had what we needed.''
But this farm life is not expected to be handed down to the Eures' five children. None is interested in continuing the legacy of farm life.
When the Eures can't farm anymore, tenants will likely farm the land, and the children will draw an income.
``I am tied to the farm,'' Robbie said, ``but I realize we have to be flexible.''
James Eure, on the other hand, never really retired from the farm. He worked the land until two months before his death in 1991, at age 84.
For him, like his sons, the farm was his life. MEMO: ROBBIE EURE
Age: 61.
Wife: Faye, 59.
Education: Studied accounting for two years at East Carolina
University.
Children: Robbie Jr., 37, Richmond, food and beverage industry;
daughter, Shelbie Palermo, 33, owns Just Eure Style salon, Suffolk.
Community activities: Deacon and Sunday school director, Hillcrest
Baptist Church; has served as chairman of the board for the Virginia
Pork Commission.
GEORGE EURE
Age: 57.
Wife: Paulette, 53.
Education: High school
Children: Katrina, 30, physical therapist aide in Rock Hill, S.C.;
Wendy Huffman, 26, beautician and nail technician, Suffolk; James, 19,
attending Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond.
Community activities: Member, Reynoldson Baptist Church, Gates
County, N.C.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover and inside staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY
II
George and Paulette Eure's farmhouse is just a stone's throw away
from the home of George's brother, Robbie.
Robbie and Faye Eure work together to cut flowers in their backyard
home. ``The whole process of farming is one big miracle,'' Robbie
Eure says.
George Eure enjoys a rare moment to just sit and read while his wife
Paulette washes combs and brushes in the beauty salon that she runs
in their home.
Robbie Eure
George Eure
by CNB