Sixteen-year-old Waylon NeSmith, Sycamore, Ga., farms his first crop of peanuts without his father, Isaac, in 2025.
Farming has been part of the NeSmith family’s story in Turner County, Georgia, for generations. But in 2025, that legacy faced one of its greatest tests.
At just 16 years old, Waylon NeSmith stepped into the cab of a tractor and planted his first peanut crop only weeks after losing his father, Isaac. It wasn’t the season he had planned. But it became one that shaped his future.
A Family Tradition
The NeSmith family has farmed in Turner County since the late 1800s. Through the decades, the farm evolved alongside the peanut industry itself.
Waylon’s great-grandfather, Jimmy NeSmith, began planting peanuts in 1954 and still lives on the farm today at 90 years old.
Farming looked very different when Jimmy started. Earlier generations shelled peanut seed by hand on the porch before planting, and harvested peanuts in sacks loaded onto wagons and trucks.
Over time, the farm adapted to new technology including peanut combines and the use of crop protectant products.
Like many South Georgia farms, the operation diversified over the years with crops including peanuts, cotton, grain sorghum, soybeans, wheat and melons. Today the operation is known as NeSmith Farms.
In 2025, the next generation unexpectedly stepped forward.
A Sudden Loss
On March 28, 2025, Isaac NeSmith passed away at the age of 41. The loss was devastating for the family and especially for Waylon, who was home when his father suffered a seizure. Waylon attempted CPR to save him.
In the weeks that followed, the family worked together to keep the farm moving forward. Isaac had already planted 150 to 200 acres of watermelons before his passing, and Waylon helped relatives finish harvesting the crop.
At first, Waylon had not planned to farm in 2025.
“I wasn’t initially planning to farm this year,” Waylon says. “But my uncle encouraged me to do it, so now I’m here.”
Planting His First Peanut Crop
For his first season farming on his own, Waylon planted peanuts on family land he rented. He grew 45 acres of Georgia-12Y peanuts under irrigation and another 25 to 30 acres of Georgia-16HO dryland.
Like many farmers, he quickly learned the challenges that come with raising a crop. Soon after planting, heavy rains crusted the soil and made it difficult for the peanuts to emerge.
“They had a hard time coming up out the dirt,” Waylon says. “It had rained just after I planted them, and I had to run a rotary hoe across them to get them to come up.”
Weed pressure and unpredictable weather created more challenges throughout the season.
“It was affecting me both ways,” he says. “The rain was holding me up, and so was the dry weather.”
Learning Without His Dad
Waylon NeSmith and his father, Isaac NeSmith, harvest peanuts together in 2020.
One of the hardest parts of the season had nothing to do with weather. Waylon had spent years helping his father on the farm, but he realized quickly how much knowledge his dad carried about equipment and fieldwork.
“I really wish I could have asked my dad about fine-tuning a bunch of equipment,” he says. “He had it all memorized.”
Before, those details didn’t seem important to remember since he could ask his dad. Instead, Waylon had to learn by asking others for help — something that didn’t always come easily.
“Don’t be afraid to ask questions,” he says. “That was one of my biggest problems.”
But he soon discovered that farmers in the community were willing to help.
“Nobody out here wants you to fail,” he says. “Most of them know you anyway, and they’ll help if you ask.”
A Full Schedule
Farming is only part of Waylon’s daily routine.
He is an 11th-grade student at Tiftarea Academy, where he attends school full time before leaving at 1 p.m. each day for work study and farm work.
Twice a week he attends welding classes at Southern Regional Technical College. Until recently, he also worked at South Georgia Oil Distributors in the afternoons before coming home to farm in the evenings.
“He works more than some grown people do,” his mother Amanda says. “And he still has good grades.”
Lessons From His Father
Family members help support Waylon during his first year of farming. Pictured left to right are Waylon’s great grandparents, Jimmy and LaRue NeSmith; grandfather, Ken NeSmith, Waylon and his mom, Amanda Smith.
Throughout the season, one lesson from Isaac stayed with him.
“If you’re going to do something, give it 110 percent,” Waylon says.
That advice pushed him through long nights in the field and the challenges of his first crop.
“You can’t do it halfway,” he says. “You’ve got to give it everything you’ve got.”
Waylon plans to keep farming while finishing high school and hopes agriculture will remain part of his future. His family is proud of the way he stepped forward during a difficult year.
“I’m very proud of him,” Amanda says. “And I know his daddy would be so proud of him too.”
For Waylon, the 2025 peanut crop was about more than raising a crop. It was about honoring his father — and carrying the family’s farming legacy into the next generation.
By Joy Crosby
Southeastern Peanut Farmer