Kendall “Kent” Wannamaker of St. Matthews, S.C., is proof that a farmer can get a strong start in farming by renting land for growing crops, even with little in the way of initial financial resources.

“I farm rented land, and started from scratch,” he said. “It was hard because at first I couldn’t get a loan.”

Eventually, he was able to get his first loan, and has since built his operation into some 2,800 acres. He’s growing about 900 acres of cotton, 800 acres of peanuts, 750 acres of corn, 300 acres of soybeans and 200 acres of wheat. He says he’s proud to carry on a Wannamaker family tradition of growing cotton that goes back many generations.

As a result of his accomplishments as a row crop farmer, Wannamaker has been selected as the 2008 South Carolina winner of the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award. Wannamaker now joins nine other state winners from the Southeast as finalists for the award. The overall winner will be announced on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at the Sunbelt Ag Expo farm show in Moultrie, Ga.

Wannamaker’s yields are 1,300 pounds of cotton per acre on irrigated land and 750 pounds per acre on non-irrigated land, 180 bushels per acre of corn on irrigated land and 110 bushels per acre on non-irrigated land, and 4,700 pounds of peanuts on irrigated land and 3,500 pounds per acre on non-irrigated land.

“I grew up on a farm,” says Wannamaker. “My father and uncle farmed, as did previous generations of my family. I worked for my father and uncle on their operation for five years after I graduated from Clemson University. Then, they put their farm land into the Conservation Reserve Program, and I decided to try and start farming on my own.”

He primarily raised hogs from 1984 until 2000, and has been raising row crops since 1995. He was able to get access to 30 acres of his grandmother’s land, and used that land base to launch his initial farming venture raising hogs.

At one point, Wannamaker had a 500-sow farrow-to-finish swine operation.

“When I got into the hog business, I had three to four buyers who wanted to bid on my hogs,” he says. “When I got out of swine farming, there was only one buyer and I almost had to beg him to come and get them.”

Now, almost all of the hog production in South Carolina is marketed through contracting. He leases out his swine facilities to a farmer who raises hogs on contract. Once out of swine farming, Wannamaker turned his attention to row crop farming.

“I’d have to say that cotton has been a mainstay on my farm,” he says. He has reduced labor and equipment costs in growing cotton by replacing two four-row pickers with one six-row picker.

For the past several years, he has subscribed to a market advisory service. He receives daily reports on market trends and suggestions on when to price crops.

“I do a limited amount of crop hedging, and I have tried marketing my crops through co-ops, but I really prefer to price the crops myself,” he explains.

Much of his cotton is forward contracted or sold after ginning. He is also able to store the grain he produces on the farm for delivery to market during the winter months when crop prices tend to strengthen. He contracts his peanuts prior to planting.

“We had no peanuts here until about five years ago,” he recalls. “When the 2002 farm bill abolished the peanut quota program, it opened peanut farming up to us, and we’ve grown them ever since. Peanuts are a great rotation crop for cotton.”