Hot Spring County 2018 Farm Family of Year announced
The Lanier family of the Lono Community has been chosen Hot Spring County’s Farm Family of the Year, representatives of Hot Spring County Farm Bureau and Hot Spring County Cooperative Extension Service have announced. The organizations are chief sponsors of the program in Hot Spring County.
Michael and Jenny Lanier raise commercial cattle, hay and poultry. The Laniers also raise meat rabbits and a fruit orchard. Jenny Lanier is the daughter of Jerry and Peggy Whatley and the Laniers are “very proud to carry on the family farming tradition,” states the press release.
Mike Lanier describes how they got started farming, “My wife has been raised working on the family farm and going to farmers market selling the vegetables as a child. Eight years ago, she started selling beef at farmers market and we have truck patched corn and purple hull peas. We purchased the cattle from Jerry over two years ago. Now it’s our turn to continue to improve the farm and make a living. We learn something new nearly every day.”
As the Hot Spring County Farm Family of the Year, the Lanier family will join 74 other county farm families in vying for district and state recognition as the Arkansas Farm Family of the Year. The Arkansas Farm Family of the Year will be announced in December at a banquet at the Wyndham Riverfront in North Little Rock.
First established in 1947, Arkansas’ Farm Family of the Year program is the longest running effort of its kind in the nation. The program sponsors are Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas, AgHeritage Farm Credit Services, Farm Credit Services of Western Arkansas, Farm Credit Midsouth and Arkansas Farm Bureau with the cooperation of the program partners Arkansas Press Association, University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency, USDA Rural Development, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Arkansas Department of Workforce Education and the Arkansas Agriculture Department.