Thompson Legacy Farms LLC.
Thomas Thomposn 806-201-7906
Our Mission
Our Mission
Thompson Legacy Farms is an extension of our family farms business for over a hundred years. My grandfather, Tommy Adams and grandmother, Donna Adams, raised me to be a farmer. They put us on tractors and trucks at a very early age.
We moved pipe and sprayed weeds for summer work. In the winter we work on our equipment and prepare everything for the upcoming season. Greasing a picker can take a week sometimes. Clean and greased machines seem to be the key to successfully planting a crop on time.
Pappa taught us the safe way to use chemicals and how to spray weeds without killing cotton, My sister and I spent of our teenage summers spraying weeds and learning the importance of hard work.
I have found myself in the fields learning and preparing to farm our land, not only because I'm the only boy in our family, but more because there is no other job on Earth that is more rewarding and satisfying than farming at home for my family. We learned how to irrigate and how to observe the season as well as the importance of how to manage money and sell our products. We were taught how to farm so that you could successfully do it the following year.
Our mission as a farm family will always be to insure that the farm is always managed and productive. Keeping up with EPA standards along with new technology will be the key to success in the future of all farming.
I became a commercial electrician and a commercial plumber with the intention of managing our farm one day. Being liceinsed in both fields allows to work on a pivot the correct and safe way.
I also worked at PCCA as a supervisor where I also learned how the cotton market really works. Every year brings something new to farm. Being prepared for weather and disaster is of the upmost importance.
Today we use GPS to plant the rows up to 0.5 inches. , and have drones spraying our fields. With all of my experience and background, learning that hard work and focus is what truly pays off at the end of the day when farming.
Our mission is to provide the best spraying availability when spraying is impossible for a land machiene to spray.
The Farm Cycle
323 Acres
01
Crop Protection and Conservation
Winter wheat is used as a cover crop that provides the soil a retainer for water. Its planted directly after the harvest of the main crop. The wheat is either planted directly into rows using a drill seed planter, or buy broadcasting the seed using a spreader or a drone. After the wheat is about 10 inches tall, we spray and kill the plant, allowing it to lock the soil in place, provide extra wind protection, and allow the soil to be permiable, or soak in water faster while retaining the water in place. The cotton stocks from the previous year are left in place as well for wind protection. As the new cotton grows the old stock will rot and help provide nutrients for the soil.
02
Spraying can be needed as many as six times a year with a variety of chemicals. The average price per acer is $5.00. And at 310 acres, the average overall price for chemical is $15,500.00. We are planning on doing a custom spray for the local area farmers that can not spray because of wet fields. The drone can spray on average 45 acers an hour. This also allows us to spray low lakes for insects. The drone will save in fuel and mechanical issues. It also allows us to spot spray or target small areas, saving money and time. We are going to offer $10.00 per acer for chemical or the customer can provide the chemical. We will set the price at $1,200 per 160 acers. This new way of spraying will soon change the way we apply chemicals to the land. And of course over all, it is friendly to the environment. If you are interested, email us at thompsonlegacyfarmsllc.com.
Our farm is not as big as many farms in the area, however has a high yeild rate due to our water we recieve from the City of Lubbock. The water is very salty and full of sediment and requires alot of attention to clogging. The average output for our pivots is 500 gpm, and 25psi. When the pivot is operated correctly, 4 bales an acre has been made in 2016. The work is extremly dirty and its never fun to spend all day in sewer water, howerver i have done it for many years, and love every day I'm out there.
03
Harvest: I have found several machines that would work for a one person operation on farm that is only 310 acres. Under 50K, a used picker would be more benaficial than a stripper because of the high yield. Knowing the mechien and how to fix any problem on the spot is important with a cotton picker. It has several thousand more moving parts than a stripper has. I personaly used one to harvested over 4,000 acres in 2016 pulling over 4.5 bales an acer without clogging and ran smooth. This machine is one of the most intricate inventions I've ever come across. It is designed so that the cotton boll is extracted from the hull without disrupting the hull or the rest of the plant. This process allows the cotton to be harvested with very little to no bark and no trash in the cotton. Also in comparing the picker to the stripper, the cotton stripper is not capable of stripping tall and thick cotton as the picker will.