Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88Between Turnrows • 33 Chapter 3 • Cullum Seeds Like any new business, the early days of Cullum Seeds were long and hectic. Sherman Cullum remembers that the first thing he did after buying the seed com- pany was call Northrup King to see if he could grow wheat seed for them. Sherman says, “I had known Northrup King from garden seed when I was a kid, and I wanted somebody different, some other brand (different) from Dekalb, Pioneer and all of them. We had bought the company in the fall and we needed something, so I asked if we could grow wheat seed for them and they said ‘Yes.’ Later on we got to growing beans for them and we got the contract to grow their seed beans, because we could produce a lot better quality seed bean here.” Don Henderson, a longtime Cullum employee, remembers the hectic pace of a small staff in the growing company. “Back then we all worked about as much outside as we did inside,” he says. “Even though we didn’t sell as much then as we do now, we didn’t have all the conveniences we do now. All the bagging had to be done by hand, and there were no poly-bags. Farmers either bought the seed in bulk or by the sack. We did a lot of custom cleaning too, so in addition to keeping our seed separated, farmers would bring us their seed, and we would dry it, clean it and bag it for them. “There were only about ten people that worked here back then. Nobody really had a set job. Carl was manager and did the majority of all the sales, but he was over there bagging seed just as much as the rest of us were. If someone came in before we got here, Sherman would come over and help us get the load out.” Becky Mitchell started working at Cullum Seeds in March of 1985. Becky’s husband worked for a local farmer who grew seed beans for Cullum, and one day Sherman came out to look at some of the fields. Becky spoke up and got a job “walk- In 1985, Sherman Cullum during a video shoot for commercials to promote Cullum Seeds to farmers across Northeast Arkansas.