Henry’s mission is to teach others about opportunities in agriculture and provide access to healthy food.

By Dana Rogge, Public Affairs Specialist

After retiring in 2008, Henry and Ardis Crews returned to their hometown of Henderson, North Carolina, with a plan to rebuild their community as they remembered it from their childhood. They organized the Green Rural Redevelopment Organization to transform abandoned or vacant property into farms and to develop entrepreneurs in their community, form cooperatives, and educate others interested in micro-market farming.

“This is my hometown and I wanted to make it like it was when I was growing up – a real nice community,” Henry said.

Creating a Micro-Market

It was Henry’s trip to the local grocery store, and an encounter with a neighbor, that set him and Ardis down the path of micro-market farming. Continue reading →

ECP helped Joe and Diana clean up and reboot their operation after the devastating storm.

By Lillian Stout, West Virginia FSA Program Technician

Thirty-five years ago, Joe and Diana Sparks traded in their home in Ohio for the ridgetop views of Braxton County, West Virginia. Located in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains, the couple’s dreams took root in the shape of a four-acre orchard, dispersed with apple trees, peach trees and honeybee hives.

For many years their orchard operation was enough to sustain the farm.

Like many producers in West Virginia, the couple saw their hard work disappear in the blink of an eye when a catastrophic flood hit in 2016. The ensuing wind wiped out many of the trees they had nurtured for thirty-five years. Continue reading →

By Michelle Thomas, farmers.gov

The vision of farmers.gov is to provide farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners with online self-service applications, educational materials, engagement opportunities, and business tools.

Many of these self-service features are available through the secure farmers.gov portal, where you can log in to your dashboard to apply for programs, process transactions, and manage accounts.

If you work with USDA, we encourage you to get an USDA eAuthentication account, providing you access to the farmers.gov dashboard and enabling you to better manage your USDA business online.

We know you’re busy! You can access the farmers.gov dashboard and manage USDA business from your desktop, tablet, or smartphone.

Continue reading →

By Dana Rogge, USDA

This year’s adverse weather and increased cotton acres may mean it’s taking you a little longer to get your cotton ginned. USDA’s Farm Service Agency offers seed cotton recourse loans to provide interim financing while you wait.

“While the rain we received this fall in Texas was a welcome relief for our drought-stricken areas, it also slowed down harvest,” said Gary Six, FSA state executive director in Texas. “Here in Texas and elsewhere across the country, we’re making sure producers know about seed cotton recourse loans, which can help meet our producers’ financial needs.”

If you’re experiencing similar delays in getting your cotton ginned, visit with your local FSA staff about seed cotton recourse loans. Continue reading →

Emery was introduced to agriculture on her grandfather’s cattle operation.

By Janlyn Hannah, Oklahoma Farm Service Agency

Emery Fox is a 26-year-old rancher in Checotah, Oklahoma, who, with the support and encouragement of her family, got in the cattle business two years ago.

“I had some money at the time, and we talked about different ways to invest,” she said. “I thought it would be a good way to invest and provide a supplemental income. I don’t get in over my head. This is all really new to me and it’s a lot of learning.”

Ranching Roots

Prior to purchasing her own herd of 12 Charolais-Red Angus cattle, Emery was introduced to agriculture on her grandfather’s cattle operation. Her grandfather, Jack Pugh, has been a cattleman for 30 years and has been a source of constant support and advice for Emery.

“It’s been a family thing for us,” she said. “I run my cows on my grandpa’s land. We get together on the weekend to go over what we’ve seen throughout the week. He’s been a huge support and has really played a major role in me being able to survive and grow as much as I have.”

She says she’s been fortunate to have the support of her family and her tribe, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The cattle business is tough, and it takes a lot of work to be successful.

“We’ve faced challenges, with not having enough hay to make it through winter, feral hogs, flies and ticks, managing land needs, and most important for me, time,” said Emery. Continue reading →

Lori Dabbs grew up on her family’s farm in Arkansas County, Arkansas

By Lorri Sloate, Arkansas County Executive Director

Despite her love for agriculture, Lori Dabbs never dreamed she would one day become the fourth generation to operate the family farm in Arkansas County, Arkansas.

Taking the Reins

Hargrove Farms Inc. was incorporated by Lori’s grandfather in the 1960s. When her father developed health issues in 1987, she and her mother became more involved in the operation. Her father retired in 1998, leaving Lori and her husband, Terry, as the operators of Hargrove Farms.

They now farm 3,000 acres of soybeans, corn, rice, oats and wheat.

USDA Assistance

Lori is actively involved in agriculture in her community. She is serving her eighth year as the minority advisor for the Arkansas County USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) county committee.

The farm is enrolled in FSA’s Agriculture Risk Coverage/Price Loss Coverage Program (ARC/PLC), which is a safety net program that provides revenue and price loss coverage for eligible commodities. Continue reading →

Leslie and Jarrod raise cattle and grow a variety of vegetables on their Henry County farm.

By Cassondra Searight, Alabama FSA Public Affairs Specialist

Jarrod and Leslie Dozier, owners of 3D Farms in Henry County, Alabama, work diligently to grow and sustain their family farm, which has been in Leslie’s family for over 100 years. What started as a cattle operation and pine trees, grown as part of the USDA Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), has now evolved into a thriving and diversified operation to include the production and sale of fresh produce.

Leslie and Jarrod became the co-operators of the family farm in 2009, after Leslie’s father passed away. Keeping up the 45-head cattle operation was no small task for them since they both work full time jobs off the farm, but they knew they wanted to do more. Continue reading →

The Schneider family worked with FSA and NRCS to improve wildlife habitat and conserve water on their 2,000 acre farm in Ovid, Colorado.

By Petra Popiel, Natural Resources Conservation Service

Donny Schneider is a second-generation corn farmer from Ovid, Colorado, whose 20-year partnership with USDA has provided him with resources and expertise to grow his farm from just 300 acres to nearly 2,000 acres of land.

A Strategic Start

“My wife and I had the chance to purchase the home and land where we were living and farming,” Donny said. “That was our first 160 acres, a quarter section of the entire property and as we could, we slowly purchased more and more.”

Today, Donny has been farming with his family for 30 years. He grows corn on 1,000 acres, with most of it going to a cattle feed operation. He also sells sweet corn locally and contributes to ethanol production to help meet the rising demand for biofuels. Continue reading →