HOGEYE -- In a quiet valley between rolling, tree-covered hills, past the mailbox painted with the black and white milk cow pattern, the Weaver family practices the increasingly rare livelihood of dairy farming.
Michael Weaver, 36, gets up hours before first light each day to milk more than 100 cows, then milks them again 12 hours later. His parents made a living the same way, as did his grandparents. Rita Weaver, his mother, still helps. His 10-year-old son, Levi, hopes to take on the job when he grows up.
Fast Facts
Arkansas Farm Family of the Year Program
• Started in 1947
• Sponsored by the Farm Bureau of Arkansas
• Aims to give recognition to farm families doing outstanding work, gain recognition of the importance of agriculture and spread information on improved farm practices
• Names families of the year at county, district and state level
Source: Farm Bureau of Arkansas
"You make choices throughout the day; you might not do this or that," Rita Weaver said Tuesday. "But you will milk the cows."
The Weavers were named the Washington County Farm Family of the Year on Tuesday for their farm operation about 12 miles south of Fayetteville. The honor puts them in the running for the same honor at the district and state level. The Arkansas Farm Bureau sponsors the 68-year-old program.
Their cows, mostly splotched black and white in the familiar Holstein pattern, graze on 100 acres of clover and grass until being herded to milk pumps. Each animal produces about 7 gallons a day that are sold to Fayetteville-based Hiland Dairy, the Weavers said.
Michael Weaver's wife, Kristi Weaver, helps Levi raise prize-winning sheep, cows and pigs for county fairs and other competitions around the country. She was a school teacher and 4-H Club leader in her home state of Oklahoma and hopes to start lamb-raising camps for Northwest Arkansas kids. Michael and Kristi Weaver married last year.
"It just allows us to be closer as a family," Kristi Weaver said. "We couldn't do anything without God and our family and friends. We're just enjoying doing what we do."
What the Weavers do is more and more uncommon with each passing year. Arkansas was home to more than 850 dairy farms in 1989, according to The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. Today there are about 70 in the state, Michael Weaver said. Arkansas now ranks near the bottom of the country in milk production, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The industry has tightened nationwide as well, with farms becoming both fewer and larger. Roughly 90 percent of dairy farms closed between 1970 and 2006, according to USDA.
Falling per-capita demand and competition from other drinks played a role in the decline, according to a 2013 report in Forbes and other reports. Higher costs are also to blame, said Berni Kurz, staff chairman for Washington County's University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension office.
"Today's dairy producer has to be very skilled in managing details," such as nutrition for the cows and waste from their farms, he said. "One little detail can throw the whole shebang off."
The Weavers have been managing those details for six decades and have no plans to stop.
"It's in your blood," said Michael Weaver, a tall man with a shaved head and piercingly blue eyes who said he'd never planned on a career outside agriculture.
The lower number of farmers "encourages me to keep it going," he said, adding he wants the farm to be around for Levi. "It's a legacy."
The work includes getting creative with resources. For example, the family worked with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to dig a well for water that's stored in 500-gallon tanks stocked with goldfish to prevent algae buildup.
Levi, a member of the Bethel Grove 4-H Club, also takes animals to his school in Prairie Grove to teach his peers about raising animals. The key is to keep the animals comfortable, said Levi, who wore a shiny Washington County Fair champion belt buckle.
The children "have got to be calm with it, because animals can smell fear," he said.
Levi said he enjoys the constant, varied tasks of the work and hopes to pass the farm on to his own children.
Michael Weaver said gratitude was another important ingredient for the job. He thanked God and his parents for support; his father, Ronald, died two years ago. He also thanked the Farm Bureau, USDA's Farm Service Agency, the extension, Farm Credit Services and the natural resources service; all had members on the committee that selected the family, Kurz said.
NW News on 06/17/2015