From Flying to Farming
Some people may think there is quite a difference between flying and farming, but the “difference” is relative to the individual's perspective. And to me, yes, there are many differences, but parallels are abundant. From 3+ miles above the earth's surface to 3 feet above the planet's surface. From 3 quarters, the speed of sound to 3 miles per hour. From 3 years of flight training to 3 generations of farm training. They both have their own spoken, unique language. They both require thinking 5+ steps ahead, not just 2 or 3. They both have a lot on the line and require many hours of sacrifice away from the family. They both yield a unique perspective of just how awesome God is in his design of all creation. But let me tell you what got me hooked on farming. They both demand….
Precision and Efficiency!
My name is Scott Deavers, and I was born in the “Peanut Capitol of the World” (Dothan, Alabama). I grew up and still reside in Dothan, even in the same house….
I do not still live with my parents - they moved out! I’m married to my best friend and forever crush Sara, and together, we have two exceptional children – Hadley (7) and Barrett (5). Dothan is where we will raise our children. We received our educations from Northview High and Auburn University, and Calvary Baptist Church is our home church and longtime place of worship!
So, how did I go from an aviation career to owning an agriculture business? I can sum it up in just one word….. COVID!! I was a pilot for a major US airline and was furloughed during the pandemic. Things have returned to normal for the airlines now, but my heart struggled to return to that role due to the repetitive time away from loved ones. The pandemic allowed me a unique opportunity to become a daily active participant in my family, and there is something special about being able to kiss your wife and children good night each night. As a word of advice – never take that for granted! I worked at the local airport during the pandemic after leaving, and during that job, God placed an unforeseen friend in my life who is a farmer. Together, we explored the realm of precision in aviation and how it can be applied to the future of agriculture.
Farming was utterly foreign to me back in 2020. I had watched it go through the seasons from above and enjoyed the fruits of its laborers, but until 2020, I had never participated actively. That year, I bought my first agriculturally focused drone after many intriguing conversations with my farmer friend about the future of ag-tech advancements entering the farming scene. This drone that I acquired took funny colored pictures (multispectral imaging) of crops, and I had no idea what to make of them, but I was determined to figure it out. I knew this specialized imaging could tell me something
about the crops, but what was it? The first couple of years, we had to learn what the information wasn’t telling us, and now, in the last couple of years, we started understanding much better what it is telling us and how to turn that information back into real-time problem-solving. Knowing what imaging does and does not tell us about a crop’s life cycle is equally essential to this puzzle. Thanks to the Auburn Extension folks (ACES), many exceptional farmers who have poured tons of their knowledge into me, and a sovereign God who had a different plan for my life than I thought, our team now gets a unique opportunity in agriculture. We get to work daily in combining aviation knowledge of precision technologies with the current and future precision technologies inundating the row crop and other agricultural industries through SouthGen Solutions. SouthGen is a company that integrates information from GPS-laced exceptional imaging of crops into boots-on-the-ground field scouting of crops. That layered information is then used to help a grower determine how better to steward those crops toward their harvest yield goals. It often presents solutions that can be converted to data compatible with tractors, spray drones, or other fix-it devices. It’s an ever-mind-blowing and evolving process with so much more still to come. SouthGen is eager to explore or even help develop advancing technologies that help farmers increase their efficiency and productivity.
Whatever it takes to help our farmers do better in what they already do – that’s what SouthGen will do!
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