Anderson County Farm Gets Boost from S.C. Agribusiness Grant
Jessica Holdman/S.C. Daily Gazette
When Iris Barham’s great-grandfather started in the dairy business, he milked cows by hand and delivered the bottles door-to-door in Cherokee County.
Today, robots milk the cows on an Anderson County farm Barham runs with her father and brother.
In the future, Milky Way Farm hopes to install a robotic manure system to clean the barns, as well as an automated system to bottle-feed calves, said Barham.
Developing more of these types of technologies that make business easier and more profitable for South Carolina farmers are what a one-time grant program hopes to accomplish.
“Each step is to improve the welfare of the animals on our farm, but also to improve the quality of life of the people that are working our farm,” Barham said Monday at the announcement of a new program for farmers.
The Cultivating Innovation in SC Agribusiness Program, funded by a $600,000 donation from the Wells Fargo Foundation, will award 14 grants worth $30,000 each to farmers or startup companies with ideas for using technology to sustain South Carolina’s nearly $52 billion agriculture industry.
Applications open Dec. 1 and close just before midnight Feb. 2, 2026. An information webinar is scheduled for 4 p.m. Dec. 4.
“Our funding reflects a clear belief that supporting small farmers and agribusiness is essential to South Carolina’s economy and our future,” said Pam Bryant, a vice president of philanthropy at the Wells Fargo Foundation.
The grants act similar to seed money or an angel investment to help get projects started.
Barham told the SC Daily Gazette she intends to apply for a grant to help buy a robot to feed calves.
Beyond the $30,000 grants to the award winners, Wells Fargo’s donation also funds a series of training sessions, covering subjects such as intellectual property and how to fundraise for next steps after the initial grant round is over. Or, as in Barham’s case, how to keep growing the farm’s customer base so her daughter can one day take over as a fifth-generation dairy farmer.
The program will be jointly operated by the South Carolina Research Authority, state Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Small Business Administration-supported Small Business Development Center, headquartered at the University of South Carolina.
South Carolina’s Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers said technology and agriculture have become synonymous.
“We have technology using optics to grade peaches,” he said. “One of our great peach farms over in Edgefield County uses a scanner that I think replace as many as 20 people to grade the peaches.”
Other farms, he said, are using drones and infrared technology to monitor the health of crops and spray for weeds.
That type of technology has helped farmers stay in business amid rising costs, labor shortages and environmental conditions such as drought, Weathers said.
“Because of the challenges for agriculture, we have to think smarter going forward than we have up until today,” he said.
The state’s agriculture agency has a history of helping farmers through its Agribusiness Center for Research and Entrepreneurship (ACRE), founded in 2018. Those grants are capped at $25,000 each.
The Milky Way Farm, which has 120 dairy cows, was among the recipients in 2021. Barham said that helped buy a $200,000 robotic milker.
“It’s a drop in the bucket but every little bit helps,” she told the Daily Gazette.
In the most recent round, announced in May, a dozen farms were collectively awarded $200,000 in state funding.
That includes Kindlewood Farms in Walterboro, which spent its share on a greenhouse to extend the growing season for tomatoes sold to Lowcountry restaurants. Harvest Moon Farm and Flower in Pelzer used its portion to convert a yurt on its property into a farm store for its pick-your-own flower operation. And Old McCaskill’s Farm in Rembert used its funds to develop a line of freeze-dried meals made from produce grown and processed on the farm.
