TUCKERMAN — Andrew Rowlett grew up farming. His wife, Kayla, did not, but quickly adapted to the lifestyle. They have been farming together for five years and raise rice, wheat and soybeans on 2,900 acres they lease in and around Tuckerman.
The Rowletts, who are both 28, are the 2017 Jackson County Farm Family of the Year. They have three young children — 21-month-old twins, Rhett and Lorelei, and baby Magnolia, who was born May 8.
“We were excited and honored to be named Farm Family of the Year,” Andrew said. “I find it hard to put myself in that category. … It’s those people that I have looked up to my entire life that should be recognized. It’s hard to believe we’re in that position.”
Andrew grew up in Tuckerman and graduated from Tuckerman High School in 2007. He graduated from Arkansas State University at Jonesboro with a bachelor’s degree in biology/pre-med.
“My mother wanted me to be a doctor. … I wanted to farm,” Andrew said, smiling.
He is a son of Kathy and Steve Winemiller and Warren Rowlett, all of Swifton, and a grandson of the late Warren Rowlett Sr. and Virginia Rowlett. Andrew has two brothers, Chris Rowlett of Jonesboro and Jeff Rowlett of Swifton, and one sister, Katie Gilmore of Swifton.
Kayla is from Mountain Home, a daughter of Joe and Dianna Edmonds and Beth and Randy Tribble. Kayla has one brother, Kyle Edmonds of Jonesboro.
She graduated from Mountain Home High School in 2007 and from ASU, where she received a bachelor’s degree in biology. She received her nursing degree at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville. She is a registered nurse on the surgical unit at Northeast Arkansas Baptist Memorial Hospital in Jonesboro.
“I didn’t know anything at all about farming when we first started dating,” Kyla said of Andrew, smiling. “He had been farming with his family all his life. I didn’t know how hard it could be. We had a tough few years, … but they were good years; we did well.”
Andrew said Kayla is very involved in the farming operation.
“She helps with the decision-making when we have a big decision at hand,” he said. “She keeps me fed and keeps the morale up when things seem down. She works with finances, ensuring the bills are paid on time and the records kept in order.
“Before we had kids, she could be found out on the farm daily with me, completing tasks, such as driving the tractor,” Andrew said. “She planted beans, she disked, … checked on the irrigation on beans, shuffled people from one place to the next, chased after seed chemicals and parts and, just like me, did whatever it took to keep the farm running.”
Andrew began farming as a child growing up on his dad’s farm.
“I’ve always had a connection with the land. When I was about 7 or 8, my granddad and I planted a garden on the old homestead at my dad’s farm, and I was hooked,” Andrew said.
“More recently, though, was my current row-crop endeavor. In 2012, I had just graduated from Arkansas State University with a degree in biology with an emphasis on preprofessional studies. My mother wanted me to go to medical school, but I had other dreams,” he said.
“I was working at my stepdad’s farm, and the opportunity arose to rent 130 acres. He helped me get it, and I was ecstatic,” Andrew said. “I planted about 60 acres of rice that year and 70 acres of beans.
“The rice did exceptionally well for the sand ground that it was planted on and yielded about 185 bushels per acre. The 60 acres of irrigated beans made 46 bushels per acre, and the 10 acres of dry-land beans burned up.”
Andrew said 2012 was a success for him and his wife-to-be at that time. The couple were married in October 2013.
“We worked hard for it,” Andrew said. “Although I was very thankful for the help, I longed to farm on my own. That winter, I got the break I needed. My brother [Jeff] helped me secure about 800 more acres, and at the end of the year, I officially went off the payroll at my stepdad’s farm.”
Andrew said 2013 was a “big year.”
“We got [U.S. Department of Agriculture]-guaranteed loans for operating and USDA-funded equipment loans to buy our own start-up equipment,” he said. “That spring, we received another blessing in the form of around 700 more acres to rent. It was mid to late April when we rented the land, but we were proud to have it. We pushed ourselves to the limit that year to make it work, and we’ve kept pushing each year since toward our goal.”
Today, the Rowletts raise 600 acres of rice, 450 acres of wheat, 2,000 acres of irrigated soybeans and 250 acres of nonirrigated soybeans.
“While we are just getting started on our farming career, we have hit many milestones,” Andrew said. “We have updated equipment many times, bought GPS for tractors and sprayers, bought an air planter that is very accurate and equipped precision plates to provide precise spacing.
“We have employed poly-pipe row watering on fields previously only watered with levees. We have moved some dirt on farms to bring previously nonirrigated land to be irrigated, installed underground pipe to bring irrigation to nonirrigated fields. We have also addressed many fertility and weed problems on farms we have picked up.”
Andrew said the most major problem he has encountered was the struggle of getting started farming at all.
“When we started, the biggest battle was renting land,” he said. “We had to prove ourselves to the landlords, prove that we were trustworthy of making a good crop and being good stewards of the land.
“I care about every acre that I farm and every individual landlord that I farm for. I want to make a good crop for my family and for theirs.”
Andrew said another problem associated with being a new farmer was the downturn of the farm economy in 2014.
“It’s tough to survive in this economy, and being a farmer who was just recently established makes things even harder,” he said. “A very smart man that plays a big role in agriculture here told me when I wanted to start farming that sometimes the mountain to climb to get in is too steep to climb, suggesting that it was impossible. … I told him that I was determined, willing to work for it and that God had meant for me to me a farmer. So far, we have been blessed and are still hanging on, climbing that mountain.”
Andrew said that although the family has accomplished a lot in a short time, he still believes they “are on the ground level” of what they could become.
“I would love to expand more and streamline the farm to be more productive. I don’t have a magic number of acres to stop at; wherever God leads us is where we will go,” he said.
“By far, the biggest development, change and improvement coming to our farm in the future will be my children becoming involved. I can’t wait to pass on the love and passion that I have for farming. I hope that they, too, will love to farm and be good stewards of the land,” Andrew said.
“We would also like to buy farmland of our own in the future, somewhere our kids could carry on the legacy that runs through their blood,” he said. “If they so choose to farm, they would be the sixth-generation farmers from our family in Jackson County.”