Farm Family 2022: ‘The Tradition of Agriculture’
By Ralph Hardin
Evening Times Editor
Farming, the act of growing things from seed and using them to feed and clothe one’s family or one’s community, is one of the oldest occupations known to man. It goes back, well, to the beginning, as farming is right there in the Book of Genesis.
Archeologist have found evidence of farming dating back more than 10,000 years to the earliest civilizations. It’s a noble pursuit, working the ground to produce the food that we need to survive.
While early man scattered seed and toiled with simple tools and beasts of burden, farming has evolved over the years into a scientific, mechanical and advanced process, but the principles are still the same: sunshine, water, good soil and hard work. It is those same ideas that go into the efforts that the modernday farmer undertake each year to grow and cultivate.
This is my 12th year of working on the Times’ annual Farm Family of the Year special edition.
Each year, I get to learn a little more about farming and all of the work that goes into making a farm work. Whether it’s a small family farm or a massive agricultural operation, each farm is unique and each farm family has a story to share.
Crittenden County, even now in 2022, at its roots is a farming community.
Many of the fields of soybeans or cotton or rice that were here 50 or even 20 years ago are gone, replaced by folks who “grow” houses and subdivisions along new paved roads instead of milo and corn along perfectly planted rows. And that’s great! As the population has grown over the years and the need for more homes has outpaced the need for more farmland, area farmers have adapted to changing needs in an always changing market.
Today, Crittenden County is home to dozens of farming operations, each employing workers, doing business with local equipment, implements, seeds and financial institutions, creating a thriving agriculture- based economy.
Crittenden County has a history of farming families going back nearly as far as the county itself.
The Arkansas Department of Agriculture recognizes no less than four Century Farms, that is farms owned by the same family for more than 100 years. The oldest of these is The Fogleman Family Farm, founded in 1849, just 13 years after Arkansas achieved statehood. Dating back nearly as far is Lake Rest Farm, founded in 1859 near the Mississippi River.
The Gammon Farm, established in 1906, and McCreary Farm LLC, established in 1914 are the other two.
One need look no further than this year’s Crittenden County Farm Family of the Year to see that generational farming precept still goes on. Matt Rogers, who runs Rogers Farms out in Earle with his dad Ricky, is a fourth-generation Crittenden County farmer. He and wife Lauren have kids of their own, so it’s not out of the question that the Rogers farming legacy could stretch into a fifth generation and beyond, as the tradition of agriculture continues.
