In the Mileston community about 800 farmers had built up an independent way of living: their own crops, their own land, their own ideal world. There were three men who saw beyond that.

Farmers drive record farmland values as supply shortages and commodity prices push agricultural real estate to new highs.

What began as a hobby in Bill Odom's backyard has evolved into one of America's premier quail operations. Manchester Farms, now a second-generation family business led by Brittney Miller in Columbia, ...