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 • 49 Chapter 5 • Next Generation Kelly Phipps was born into the seed business. When his father Carl first worked for Taylor Seed Farms, the Phipps family lived in a house just a stone’s throw from the seed plant. “Back then no one worried about anyone getting hurt, so me and my sister and my dad’s assistant manager’s two sons were at the seed plant all the time,” Kelly says. “The result was I got to understand the seed business and how it worked at an early age. My dad went to work every day and came home for lunch every day, and he walked back and forth. We lived on what was probably the biggest rice farm in the state at the time. We loved it there. “When my dad went to work for Sherman I was fourteen years old. They always needed extra help around the seed plant. I’d already been around the seed business my whole life, so I just started showing up with my dad and if they needed help hanging bags or cleaning out a pit or sweeping the warehouses I’d do it. My experience there from the time I was fourteen until the time I was eighteen was absolutely the most influential in my career. Sherman and my dad are huge influences on my whole train of thought. Sherman never thought there was anything he couldn’t do! If you called and asked, ‘Can we get those trucks loaded by six o’clock tonight?’ he’d say ‘Yes sir, we can get it done!’ then he and my dad would figure it out and get it done as promised. He could say that because he had confidence that the people who worked for him weren’t afraid to get things done.” Kelly graduated from Cross County High School, where the families of most Kelly Phipps, left, helping spread chicken litter on a research plot in 1992 while working for Dr. Lanny Ashlock.