I n 1985, he returned home and worked with his uncle, Joe Roberts, and his older brother, Kirk, to farm cotton, peanuts and tobacco on a small plot of land.
Kirk and Kent soon realized that if they wanted to succeed in farming, they needed to cultivate something with higher value than standard row crops.
“ So, we started growing some vegetables and carrying them to the farmer’ s market in Thomasville, where they had a live auction,” Kent said. There they met David Rogers, who helped the brothers establish a partnership with a distribution company.“ We struck up a deal and decided we would go in business together,” he explained.
In 1986 Southern Valley Fruit and Vegetable was born. Starting on just 80 acres of land, the brothers built a simple pack shed and sent their first truckloads of fresh produce to regional wholesalers. Things were going well for the brothers when tragedy struck in the fall of 1987. Kirk was electrocuted while servicing a pivot irrigation system. Kent, then only in his early 20s, suddenly inherited more than the farm— he faced the responsibility of an entire enterprise and the memory of his brother’ s dream.
OCTOBER 2025 MoultrieScene 21