Southern Orchards Management: How to hit the ground running

Quick Facts

Operation: Southern Orchards Management LLC is a combination of Taylor Orchards from Reynolds, and Lane Southern Orchards out of Fort Valley. Taylor Orchards - owned and operated by the Wainwright Family. Lane Southern Orchards, once ran by the Lane family and has been Southern Orchards Management since 2016.

Location: Offices in Fort Valley and Reynolds Georgia - farm locations in the counties of: Bleckley, Taylor, Macon, Peach, Shley, Washington, Houston.

Crops: Peaches and pecans, with an on-site packing shed

Workforce: Around 400 H-2A workers a season, plus a domestic and year-round crew

Customer since: 2025

Seso products used: H-2A filing & compliance software, H-2A worker services, digital worker onboarding along with the E-Verify integration and pay cards

Problem. Southern Orchards carries a back office most farms its size would need a full staff for. Every season it moves close to 400 H-2A workers from Mexico to four Georgia orchards, files multiple contracts through its association, and guesses headcount on a peach and pecan crop that a single frost can change overnight. The company used to coordinate the consular pipeline itself, records lived in filing cabinets, and the first day or two on the farm went to onboarding paperwork before anyone could pick.

Solution. Seso runs the pipeline end to end. The team in Monterrey handles the consular logistics, the H-2A filing and worker groups run through Seso's software, and onboarding and training happen before workers reach Georgia. Every worker's file sits in one system with automated E-Verify, workers are paid on a Seso pay card, and they carry their documents in the Seso worker app. 

Result. Crews arrive ready to work, records are off the HR team's plate, and the operation passed an E-Verify desk audit. Turnover has stayed remarkably low, and Wainwright says the season ran smooth enough that he doesn't plan to change much heading into next year.

“It's handled by the time they get here, which allows me to hit the ground running." - Tyler Wainwright, Operations Farm Manager

A peach operation that keeps growing

Southern Orchards grows peaches and pecans around the middle Georgia area, south of Macon, and runs as a management company too, operating Taylor Orchards, Lane's, Reynolds and Fort Valley and picking up more nearby. In a normal year it brings around 400 H-2A workers from Mexico through the Monterrey consulate, plus a domestic and year-round crew. 2026 is its second full season on Seso.

The season used to start with paperwork

Ask Tyler Wainwright, the operations farm manager, what changed and he starts at the front end. “The big takeaways are the ability for you guys to help with the training and some of the onboarding paperwork,” he said. “In the past, we'd have to spend the first day or two doing that.” For a crew this size, that is real time gone before the first peach comes off the tree, on top of the larger job of moving hundreds of workers through the consulate and onto buses to four orchards.

Moving the work to the border, and to Monterrey

Now the onboarding happens before the crew reaches Georgia. “You guys are doing it at the border on the way,” Wainwright said. “It's handled by the time they get here, which allows me to hit the ground running.” Behind that sits a Seso team in Monterrey running the full consular pipeline, from visa scheduling to hotels, meals, and transport to the orchards.

One hub, and a lighter HR load

The deciding factor for switching, Wainwright said, was the recordkeeping. “The ability for Seso to organize the files electronically and to have everybody's folder online. I think it made the HR department's life a lot easier,” with proof of training and payment “all of it being in one hub.”

Tammi doesn't pretend the switch was instant. “Once we learned how to use the system, it was great,” she said. The crew stays, too. “We've had one termination in probably three years,” she said. “It's just something that doesn't happen a lot,” crediting a long-tenured workforce and a close relationship with the operation's inspectors and Georgia's Department of Labor.

“For Southern Orchards, we've been really pleased with Seso. It was so smooth this past year, I don't think we're gonna change much.” - Taylor Wainwright, Operations Farm Manager

Where they're headed

Wainwright isn't looking to overhaul anything. “I think it was so smooth this past year, I don't think we're going to change much.” For 2026 the operation is folding its April contract into the main one and staggering arrivals as the packing shed starts in May, giving a frost-prone crop room to move. As Tammi put it, “a peach farmer can't do that. We're going to work that 60 hours a week, but we can't have 60 hours because we never know from one morning to the next where the frost is going to take.”

Wainwright is open to more technology, but judges it on one thing. “It would be nice if it was all with the company you're already using,” he said, “but from our side, it's all going to be how functional it is.”

Photos courtesy of Southern Orchard Management