Near Ocilla is the home of Tyler Harper, Georgia’s commissioner of agriculture, who is more than an established politician. He is a businessman and a farmer who picks and sings country music along with a few gospel favorites at Satilla Baptist Church, where his family has been members for generations.
The week of the annual Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville, Tyler hosts a gathering that brings about a grand ole time, “Pig pickin’ and politickin,’” a campaign fundraiser that’s been going on for years.
It’s easy to understand why Tyler has been so successful at so many ventures and activities. He has a down-home, easygoing style that enables him to relate to people in all walks of life.
He plays the piano with a captivating flair, picks a guitar with harmonizing aplomb, and is at home on a tractor, at board meetings, the Grand Ole Opry, Rock Eagle, and along the hedges of Georgia’s Sanford Stadium. He can outwit a wizened Tom turkey with the best turkey callers in South Georgia, and if a 12-point buck or a mallard duck comes into view in November, Tyler will collect another trophy and stock his freezer.
Recently, I visited Tyler’s South Georgia farm, where he was a genial and informative host as we rode around his property of cotton fields, peanut patches, woodlands, and pastures. He is an expert at raising beef cattle, with Angus and Brahman cattle dominating his herd.
Forever the good neighbor, it is ingrained in him to extend a helping hand. That has been a way of life in these parts for six generations since Tyler’s ancestors settled here. Learning such values began with his grandparents and was handed down by his parents, Elecia and D. W. Harper, who are also wed to the land and well-known and highly regarded around the state. Tyler can tell you what the hot topics are for the farmers in Georgia, from fluctuating markets to soil erosion to labor shortages to water scarcity. It’s his job to address the needs of farmers across the state and provide leadership in helping his fellow farmers succeed economically.
As a farmer, Tyler benefits from programs that enhance the bottom line of those who make a living from the soil, but there is more to his agricultural bent. He is also a good neighbor who wants to help bring about good things for the state and those who tend its soil. Nobody has promoted the concept of “Georgia Grown” more enthusiastically.
With contacts and friendships across Georgia, Tyler is always on the move. He might jump down from his tractor and drive his Ford pickup truck 20 miles west to Tifton for a meeting on short notice.
When he has business in Atlanta, where he maintains an office, he will stop along the way and counsel a farmer with a problem, or congratulate them on producing the highest yield per acre of some crop, then share the tenets of success with other farmers across the state.
He is always tuned in to the needs and interests of farmers and agribusinessmen and women along the way. And yes, there are women farmers — in fact, 35 percent of Georgia farmers are women. Just four percent of the state’s farmers are Black, though, which is a relatively low number, but still ranks Georgia fifth nationwide.
It’s obvious Tyler wears many hats, though he is most at home with a “John Deere” baseball cap or a cowboy hat. When the Botanical Gardens of Georgia invited Tyler and other officials, representing Georgia Grown products, to its annual ball in 2024, the commissioner of agriculture was dressed in a black tie and a black cowboy hat.
That is the essence of this versatile man, at home with the rich and famous, but also with the everyday man who brings food to our table.
When he was in high school, Tyler was a 4-H Clubber and an FFA member (Future Farmers of America). He played baseball and was the pitcher for Ocilla’s slow-pitch softball team, “The Misfits,” that won national and world championships.
Tyler also remains fond of his days in Athens when he was a member of the agricultural fraternity, Alpha Gamma Rho, on South Milledge Avenue.
He could walk to UGA football, basketball, and baseball games, and he did. He said he gets excited any time he “goes back to Athenstown.”
It is important, too, that when UGA has a championship on the line, Tyler makes every effort to attend. Seeing Kirby Smart win his first national championship at Indianapolis remains a highlight of his life, Tyler said.
Maintaining a relationship with the University’s College of Agriculture and the Cooperative Extension Service comes natural for a person with his role as the leading agricultural statesman in the state.
The one constant in Tyler’s “official” life is touting the remarkable reputation of Georgia Grown products.
The view of this country boy is that he lives in the “best state” in the country and that he ran for office to support initiatives that keep Georgia a leader with its products, that give farmers bragging rights, and that provide a horn of plenty that makes Georgians the best fed of any state in the nation.