No-till since the mid-1990s
We leave the soil structure intact, protecting biology, moisture, and the carbon we've built up over the decades.
The Martin Family has farmed land around Courtland, Alabama for eight generations.
Leaders in living memory include Sykes Martin, who took over farming responsibility from his grandmother in the early 1960's after attending Auburn University and serving in the Air Force. He embraced his family's legacy and propelled it into the modern farming era. He gave credit to longtime farm manager Andrew McGregor and many others for assisting him. He established modern business practices, was an astute businessman and grew the footprint of the operation via land investment and leasing. He was an innovator and leader who spent his career not just building the farm but also serving the wider cotton industry and the Alabama business community. He was a founder and longtime Chairman of Servico Gin. He served in multiple leadership positions in the cotton industry, including chairing the Cotton Foundation, the American Cotton Producers, was an officer in Cotton Incorporated at the time of his death. Among many other honors he was named National Cotton Farmer of the Year by Cotton Farming Magazine in 1987, Alabama's Farmer of the Year in 1993, and was posthumously inducted into the Cotton Hall of Fame in 2017.
His daughter, Larkin Martin, returned to the farm in 1990 and worked alongside her father until his death in 1993. Larkin is a Vanderbilt graduate who began her career with The US Treasury Department and Arthur Andersen in Washington, D.C. She had scouted cotton and driven tractors as summer jobs but inherited responsibilities for the whole operation unexpectedly due to Sykes' untimely death. Larkin transitioned the operation from a conventional tillage cotton farm to a diversified farm with four crops in rotation while adopting minimum tillage and intensive cover cropping. She kept the operation at the forefront of technology through the digital revolution. Like her father, Larkin has held leadership roles off the farm including serving on the boards of several businesses, public and private, the Alabama Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, Leadership Alabama and the Soil Health Institute. She is a past Chairman of the Cotton Board, The Farm Foundation, The Public Affairs Council of Alabama and The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. She currently serves on the board of the American Farmland Trust and 3 private companies.
Dwight Smith, farm manager from 1977 until his death in 2017 was instrumental to the success of the farm. He oversaw all farming operations for both Sykes and Larkin. His commitment to hard work, lifelong learning, careful planning, operational efficiency and care for the people and the machines in his charge live on in company culture.
Stuart Thornton, Larkin's son, returned to the farm in 2025 after earning an Agricultural Business degree with honors from Cornell and spending three years working nationally in farmland investments for an institutional investor. He is the 8th generation and brings new energy and talent to the operation.
Stuart partners in managing farm operations today with Robbie Nicholson, who joined in 1991, and Curt Burton, who joined in 2014. Robbie and Curt both joined as farm workers and showed extraordinary abilities and dedication which led to promotions to management.
We are proud of the family legacy and the longstanding relationships, complimentary talents and teamwork culture that Turnrow inherits and plans to build into the future.
In 2026, the business formerly known as Martin Farm became Turnrow, with no change to its daily operations. Turnrow carries forward eight generations of farming heritage while positioning itself for the evolving world of modern agriculture.