Rogers Family Farm: A Brief History

By Jane Russell

RetailAdv@theeveningtimes.com

“Farming is the only business where you buy retail, sell wholesale and get to pay the freight on both” said Matt Rogers sitting in his farm office on Monday, June 27th.

Sitting among several friends and talking about his selection as Crittenden County Farm Family of 2022. It was actually a beautful day.

Temps had been over a hundred degrees for several days in a row the previous week, with not a drop of rain on over two weeks. The mood was jovial as Earle had experienced a good rain on Sunday night.

On the desk counter of the old bank building was taped an article from the Commercial Appeal on rainfall totals from 1980, a benchmark year the Rogers use as a “sort of gauge.” for rainfall totals by months.

“We had a little bit of luck yesterday, a perfect rain.” commented his father and business partner Ricky Rogers. Not a stranger to farming, Matt joined the corporation formed by his father and his Uncle, Bill Rogers in 1972. Matt showed us a copy of his first official paycheck for $82.43 from 2011.

Matt graduated from Arkansas State University with a degree in Ag Business in 2009. He considered several other lines of employment but always came back to farming as his vocation.

“I never found anything I was better at than farming”. Matt said.

He’s a fourth generation farmer on family land in Earle that dates back into the early 1920’s.

His grandfather Billy Rogers, a 1940 graduate of Earle High School, tried his hand at farming for 11 seasons before obtaining his Real Estate Brokers License in the mid 1950’s.

Billy’s sons Bill resumed farming in 1972 after serving in the United States Marine, later joined by his younger brother Ricky in 1976. Ricky and his wife Kay were honored as Crittenden County’s Farm Family in 2003.

They have helped me break the Evening Times Farm Family curse. Rumor had it that if you were chosen Farm Family you would go broke within two years. The Rogers have plowed forth now over 20 years since that time… just saying.

Joined by 40 years plus farm hands Tyrone Nelson, Jonathen Bowers and until the fall of 2021 Ira Leverson who passed away,the Rogers farm 3900 acres in Crittenden County focused mainly in Earle. They have 3000 acres in soybeans, 660 acres in rice and 120 acres in wheat.

Matt and his wife Lauren, who hails from Wynne, have been married since 2012 and have 3 beautiful children. The children were real troopers in a long afternoon of on the farm photos. You can see the love exhibited in the antics of the two brothers William age 5 and Graham age 2 (who is almost 3). The newest addition to the family is baby sister Eleanor Jane who is 5 months old.

Lauren is a nurse who works at LeBonheur Children’s Hospital. Her father LD is an airplane mechanic who works on turbine engines used in ag planes. Her mother Lynne is a realtor. I asked Matt if he thought William and Graham would follow the family tradition and become farmers.

He said, “anything is possible.” Matt was a teenager when I was doing his father’s Farm Family Tab. I don’t expect to still be around if these young men continue the tradition… but as Matt said ‘anything is possible’… just saying.

The group was joined by family, cousin Acy Humphries and friends Johnny Waldo, who’s been at Osborne Seed Company about as long as I have been with The Times, Jeff Masengale and his daughter Sydney of Masengale Ag Service , and Grant Bennett Crittenden County Extension agent. The conversation evolved into tall tales from Earle past, baseball games and Ole Miss atheletes and the history of Earle and the Rogers family place in that history. Matt’s great grandfather Bull Rogers came to Earle around 1900 and farmed. His son and Matt’s grandfather, Mr.

Billy Rogers born in 1919 was one of my mentors when a young 25 year old green kid fresh out of college cut her teeth doing a weekly paper starting in 1982 in Earle. He was a terribly kind and Christian man who helped so many through the years. He married many over the years including my good friends Mike and Betty Coulter in 1986. The years have flown past and farming and technology have progressed at lightening speed since those years.

The Ag Buisness continues on and so does Earle and will continue to survive these rapidly changing times. I asked Matt if he had any words of advice for future farmers? My Uncle Bill used to always say “keep your powder dry.” My grandfather Billy wrote a book entitled “There’s Always Enough”. I think that’s a good philosophy to live by” Matt said. My mother, Kay has a quote from Ghandi clipped from a newspaper and taped to her refridgerator. “Nothing wastes the body like worry and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.” “I have reflected on this many times in my life”, Matt said. “So far in my career, every single time I am worried, whether its needing a rain or needing rain to stop or the market falling or equipment breaking, God will always step in. He and I may have different thoughts on what the farm needs right now, but in the end we always make a crop.”

“I would not be where I am today without the love and caring of my mother and the years of mentoring from my father and uncle,” Matt said. “I have learned everything I know from them.”