Rogers Family Farm: Four Generations Strong

Matt Rogers and family are your 2022 Crittenden County Farm Famliy of the Year

By Ralph Hardin

Evening Times Editor

Even with a family tradition steeped in agriculture, it wasn’t necessarily Matt Rogers goal to become a fourthgeneration farmer. “I took a look at different majors when it came time to go to college,” Matt said.

After graduating from West Memphis Christian, he headed to Arkansas State University with a few options on the table.

“I started out looking at engineering,” says Matt.

“I ended up moving over to agricultural science and that’s where I stayed.”

The move made sense, Matt said, because he had already been working on the family farm, dating back to his teenage years.

“I started at 15,” he said. “At the time, it was my dad and my uncle. They were Rogers Brothers Farm and I worked while going to school and that’s how I got started.”

The Rogers brothers were third-generation farmers out in Earle, like their father and his father before him, making Matt the fourth generation of Rogers to farm in Crittenden County.

Dad Richard Rogers was Crittenden County Farm Family of the Year in 2003, bringing it back full circle for the Rogers Family nearly 20 years later.

Matt said he’s “been fortunate” in his years of farming, having been able to turn “at least a little” bit of profit each year, with some better than others. It’s that uncertainty, he says, that is probably the thing he least enjoys about the farming business.

“You know, you just never know,” he said.

“You don’t know what the weather is going to do or what the market is going to be like from year to year. You might plant rice and find out, oh, you should have planted beans.”

As for his favorite part of farming?

“Oh, the winter,” he quipped. “Getting to have some time off to spend with family or to go hunting. In the winter, you get to unwind and relax a little.”

Once the harvest is in, you can find Matt with his wife and kids or out in the woods.

But in the springtime, it’s back to fields. Each year beings new challenges and new rewards and that’s just fine with Matt.

“You know, this is what I plan on doing,” he said. “I’m in this for the long haul. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

Matt and Lauren will represent Crittenden County at the State Farm Family of the Year banquet in Little Rock in December where the 2022 State Farm Family of the year will be named.

Congratulations to Matt and the rest of the Rogers family for being our 2022 Farm Family of the Year. I’m sure you’ll do us proud!

Photos by Jane Russell