NEW HOPE — Dennis Broadwater said he has been farming for 60 years — that’s all of his life.
“I was born into a multigenerational farming family,” said Broadwater, 60. “My grandparents farmed the White River bottoms with mules. They raised corn and cotton and had some cattle on the side.
“My parents owned Broadwater Trucking and hauled chickens for J.K. Southerland,” he said. “They also had chicken houses and raised cattle. I was the youngest of five children. Growing up, my [four] sisters and I worked in the chicken houses carrying feed by hand and hauling square bales during the hay season. We also planted a big garden.
“The bloodlines of the cattle we own now trace back to my grandparents’ herd. In 1984, my wife, Tracy, and I built our house here … and began farming together.”
The Broadwater family is the North Central District winner in the 74th annual Arkansas Farm Family program. They will compete with the other seven district winners for the state title, which will be announced Dec. 9 at the Farm Family of the Year Luncheon.
The Broadwaters competed for the district title as the Independence County Farm Family of the Year. They raise hay and cattle on 470 acres in the New Hope community, not far from Batesville; at one time, they also raised chickens and hogs.
“It’s a great honor for my family to be selected as the 2021 North Central Arkansas District Farm Family of the Year,” Dennis Broadwater said.
“This honor is due to my late parents, Dale and Margaret Broadwater, who worked tirelessly for years to make this farm a place that our family loves and is so proud of.”
Dennis is a grandson of the late John Robert Broadwater and Mabel Hodges Broadwater and a great-grandson of the late John T. Broadwater and Annie Holmes Broadwater.
After the Broadwaters received the county honor, Dennis said, “I don’t deserve it. … It is a great honor, one I am not sure I am worthy of.”
Tracy Broadwater, 58, said, she was “totally surprised” about the county honor.
“We have seen other farmers receive the award, but never in a million years did I think we would ever receive it,” she said.
Rich Hillman, president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau, one of the main sponsors of the program, said the eight district families represent the “diversity of Arkansas agriculture, the state’s largest industry.”
“What a great reflection of Arkansas agriculture,” Hillman said. “The impact of our farm families is immeasurable. The contributions made to our communities, state and economy by our state’s farm families is astounding.”
The Broadwaters have two adult daughters.
Their older daughter, Laura Keller, 36, lives on the family farm with her husband, Rusty, and their children, Lainey, 10, and Rhett, 9. Laura played basketball at Batesville High School and Harding University in Searcy, where she graduated in 2003 with a degree in speech therapy. She is a speech therapist for the Cedar Ridge School District. Rusty is employed at Greenway Equipment in Batesville.
The Broadwaters’ younger daughter, Sally Shewmaker, 33, lives in Bentonville with her husband, Phillip, and their children, Emma, 6, and Amelia, 3. Sally was valedictorian of her class at Batesville High School and was a member of the band. She graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway in 2006 with a degree in music education. She is now a stay-at-home mom. Phillip is the assistant band director at Bentonville High School.
Laura and Sally were both involved in 4-H activities during their youth; Tracy was the 4-H leader. Laura and her children, as well as Dennis, have shown cattle in various competitions in Arkansas and out of state.
Dennis has four older sisters — Diane Arnold, Linda Wade and Jane Brown, all of Batesville, and Karen Lamber of Floral.
Dennis graduated from Batesville High School in 1979 and from UCA in 1983 with a degree in sociology and psychology. He received a master’s degree in education from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He taught on the high school level, then on the college level at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville.
Dennis worked for 20 years at Conagra, hauling chickens using his own trucking business. He worked for 13 years at UACCB, retiring three years ago as director of the Student Success Center.
Tracy, a daughter of Darrel and Freeda Nichols of Clinton, was born in Maine while her father was in the Air Force. She has three siblings — Greg Nichols, who lives in Texas; Tammy Mykel, who lives in Kansas; and Steve Nichols of Clinton.
Tracy graduated from Clinton High School in 1980 and from UCA in 1984, where she majored in accounting — she also met Dennis at UCA. She received a Master of Business Administration degree from UACCB and taught full time there for a while. She still works at UACCB as a member of the business faculty, teaching accounting and general business.
“I was not raised on a farm,” Tracy said. “I have learned to help with the hay and with the cows, and I helped pick up eggs when we had chickens. I worked off the farm for a little while but then stayed home and worked with the trucking business. I now do all the bookwork for the farm.”
Dennis said he is “pretty well satisfied” with his current farming operation.
“I’ve got just about all I can handle,” he said, smiling. “The most rewarding part of farming is that you get to be with your family. The hardest part is when an animal gets sick and dies.
“If it were not for Laura and Rusty helping us day to day, it would be hard for us to keep up with it and we all work the cattle when needed, even Sally and Phillip.”
Dennis said the family has about 160 head of commercial beef cattle.
“All of our calves are ear-tagged with individual numbers, sprayed for flies, and 99 percent of bull calves are castrated at birth,” he said. Each year, we leave two to three bull calves with moderate birth weight as bulls out of our most gentle, maternal and high- growth-rate polled females to serve as our future herd bulls or to sell to friends and neighbors. We are very selective in the calves that are left bulls.
“At 3 months of age and again at weaning, we vaccinate all our calves,” he said. “Annually, we save approximately 20 to 30 heifers as replacements. Our goal is to breed them at approximately 18 months of age via artificial insemination to low birth weights.”
Dennis said the family currently has fall and spring calving seasons. They market the steers and remaining heifers at the Cleburne County Livestock Auction as “preconditioned, market-ready stock.”
The Broadwaters’ daughter Laura maintains a Broadwater Farms Facebook page, where she shares calf-crop photographs and gives updates on the farm’s activities.
Dennis said the couple have left approximately 40 acres of native timber on their farm as a way to protect the environment and promote the conservation of soil, water and energy.
“This is home to many types of wildlife,” he said. “We have controlled nonnative, invasive weeds through the use of herbicides. We have recently purchased a tractor that has eco-mode and is more fuel efficient. We have had dirt work done in our pastures where erosion was present and sowed grass seed to improve pasture ground. The cattle are maintained with a pasture-rotation system to prevent overgrazing and soil erosion.”
Laura and Dennis both have gardens, and Laura cans the produce.
Laura enjoys photography. She recently painted four barn quilt blocks, which are registered on the Arkansas Quilt Trail and can be viewed on the farm and the Kellers’ house.
Dennis is a member of the Independence County Cattlemen’s Association, the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association and the Independence County Farm Bureau. Dennis and Tracy attend Fellowship Bible Church of Batesville.