Planting a brand new crop

Marianna household wins state Farm Family of Year

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/BRIAN FANNEY - 01/21/2015  - Nathan and Kristin Reed stand with their three children, 1-year-old Katherine and 2-year-old twins Jane-Anne and Stanley “Eldon,” behind their home in Marianna.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/BRIAN FANNEY - 01/21/2015 - Nathan and Kristin Reed stand with their three children, 1-year-old Katherine and 2-year-old twins Jane-Anne and Stanley “Eldon,” behind their home in Marianna.

MARIANNA -- Together they survived a flood, took over the family farm and had three children.

And they've only been married four years and eight months.

Nathan and Kristin Reed, plus 1-year-old Katherine and 2-year-old twins Jane-Anne and Stanley, are the Arkansas Farm Family of the Year -- after facing several challenging years together.

"We were married in 2010," Nathan said. "In 2011, we had the big flood. Three months after that, my dad passed away. About seven months after that, we had the two twins."

"Like my dad used to say, every year is a fresh start," he said.

The award, perhaps the oldest such honor in the country, recognizes a family that exemplifies sound farm management and community involvement. The Reeds competed against families from all 75 Arkansas counties.

Greg Patterson, who organizes the competition at the Arkansas Farm Bureau, said he was struck by the family's willingness to experiment. The Reeds often grow what the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service wants to test.

"Farmers are the ultimate gamblers. They're always saying they're betting the farm -- and that's what they do every year," Patterson said. "It's their culture. It's their lifeblood. They love to grow things and see how it plays out."

Nathan considers himself a cotton farmer. He has the right equipment and wears a cotton pin on his jacket. But with prices down, he leases part of his 6,000 acres to a rice farmer and grows a mix of crops on the rest.

He uses technology to fertilize just the right amount on each acre of land. Military-grade GPS helps guide his equipment. And his land is never quite level enough.

An obsession with maximizing productivity on every acre -- while minimizing fertilizer and water use -- lowers costs and helps the environment, Nathan said.

"We're third-generation farmers. We're not going to abuse the land and use up all the water," he said. "We want to be environmentally friendly. That's how we make our living -- the environment."

It wasn't inevitable that Nathan and Kristin, both 34 years old, would end up on the farm.

The pair went to the University of Arkansas. Nathan received a degree in agriculture business, graduated from law school and passed the bar exam.

"I enjoyed it and I'm really glad I did it, but I kind of knew going in that I wasn't planning on being an attorney," he said. "I took the bar and the next day I was on the farm, so I guess the rest is history."

Kristin received a degree in accounting and worked as a certified public accountant in Texas and Arkansas. There aren't any farmers in her immediate family, although her father is an agribusiness lawyer in Little Rock.

"As far as I know, most people have some farming in their ancestors' background," she said. "The closest that I know is my mom's grandparents. They were from Morrilton and farmed cotton."

The couple had spoken a few words to each other in college, but became better acquainted years later after running into each other in Little Rock. They eventually married. Nathan was farming with his father, Stanley, by that time and had mastered most of the work.

When Stanley unexpectedly died in 2011, Nathan and Kristin quickly moved to take over his operations -- but going from seed to harvest became more challenging in his absence.

"My dad used to change my diapers on the tractor," Nathan said. "Most farming operations are father-son, father and two sons or even a grandfather, some uncles and three grandkids. It's hard when you're by yourself because you don't have anyone to bounce ideas off of."

Kristin was key in taking over the book work -- she pays the bills, records transactions, processes payroll, workers' compensation and taxes.

It has been hard work, but she says it's worthwhile.

"It's getting more and more fun," Kristin said. "This year, we took the kids to ride the cotton pickers and play in the fields. They really like it."

Pictures of their children playing in cotton fields hang in the couple's house. Nathan hopes his land eventually becomes a fourth-generation farm.

"Every father hopes that their child comes back and joins the family business with them," Nathan said. "There's the fulfillment of planting a little seed this size and nourishing it and caring for it. You harvest that seed and you're making something from nothing."

In October, the Reeds will compete for the Farmer of the Year honor against families from 10 other states at the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Georgia. Judges will visit two farms a day to select the top family, which will represent agriculture throughout the South.

"Part of the reason why it was started was to let people know how important ag [agriculture] is -- not only to the local community but to the state," Patterson said. "The families become great ambassadors and people really get to know them."

SundayMonday Business on 01/25/2015

Upcoming Events