Mentors who will serve the farming tangent of SCORE in the Moultrie are, from left, Stan Savage, Thomas Coleman and Harry Thompson. All three have strong farming backgrounds with a wide range of expertise. P.L. Jowers, whose background is in farm finance, joined the team later.

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles reflecting on positive change in Moultrie and Colquitt County in 2017. See the column at left for links to other stories in the series.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — Two years ago a project called SCORE — Service Corporation of Retired Executives — was kicked off here in Colquitt County. As the local chapter of a national organization, its concept is to mentor those who might be going into business or seeking to expand business but need advice from people who have already walked this trail.

In the summer of 2017, that project got bigger with the addition of an agricultural component.

“Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has decided that the USDA will turn over its mentoring activities to SCORE,” said Bob Montgomery, director of the Moultrie SCORE project. The farming aspect of this project involves seven states — including Georgia, where Colquitt County is the pilot site.

“It’s fitting that it’s launched here for Georgia because we’re the largest farming community in the state,” said Montgomery.

On board as mentors are Stan Savage, a retired poultry scientist who is now a cattle farmer here in Colquitt County; Thomas Coleman, a veteran Colquitt County farmer; Harry Thompson, a former vocational agriculture instructor, timber consultant and farmer; and P.L. Jowers, who has many years experience in agricultural finance.

Not only is this a new tangent to SCORE, but it’s a large one. Primarily, SCORE’s scope has been small business. Farming, on the other hand, is quite a different proposition. Montgomery said this aspect of SCORE could be applied to a young farmer taking over a family operation, or it could be a retired person who wants to farm just few acres. Either way, acquiring farm land, buying or leasing machinery and having adequate storage facilities can run into very large sums of money that require tremendous expertise to manage.

In November, SCORE called a meeting of people who might give the mentors directions on reaching those who need these services. Invited were representatives from USDA, UGA Extension from Athens, Colquitt County Extension, Economic Development Authority, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, local ag instructors and Fort Valley State College.

As of late 2017, SCORE was mentoring 15 area projects. Half of them are in Colquitt County. Others are in surrounding communities.

SCORE is a national non-profit entity with chapters around the country.