Woodruff County family honored for farm operation
AUGUSTA — Doing business as Wakefield Partners, Michael John Gray; his wife, Amy Gibson Gray; and his mother, Penny Stanley, share the honor of being named the 2014 Woodruff County Farm Family of the Year.
They farm approximately 5,000 acres of soybeans, corn, wheat, rice and peanuts. They own about 2,700 of those acres and lease the rest of the land.
Michael John’s father, the late David Stanley, and his grandfather the late Joe Stanley farmed some of the same land he farms today.
“We are not your typical farm family of the year,” Michael John said. “We are not a husband, wife and three children. We are a mother, son and his wife. We are partners.
“But I really work for mom,” he said with a smile. “She is very much involved. She has 60 years’ experience on the farm.”
Penny Stanley and her late husband, David, received the county’s farm family
of the year honor in 1984 when Michael John was just a young boy. At that time, the family raised wheat, soybeans, corn and milo on 2,900 acres.
Penny, the daughter of the late Mal and Florence Raymond of Augusta, was raised on a farm.
Michael John began growing peanuts a few years ago and is a charter member and secretary of the Arkansas Peanut Growers Association, which was established in 2013.
“Peanuts make a good crop,” he said. “They grow well in this ashtray sand [land] that we have here in Woodruff County. It’s a great rotational crop. It’s good for the crop you plant behind it. The only disadvantage to peanuts is that it is a slow-growing crop, so it’s hard to get a crop in behind it.”
Michael John said the farm is “almost 100 percent irrigated. We’re about 90 percent now,” he said. “We’re about as efficient as we can get with our irrigation right now.”
He said the family has leveled more ground to be able to irrigate it more efficiently and is changing from diesel-fueled irrigation equipment to electrically operated equipment.
“One of our long-term goals is to be all electric in our irrigation,” he said.
“My father and grandfather started irrigating in 1980 and were about 20 percent irrigated at that time,” he said.
Michael John, 38, attended Augusta public schools but graduated from Searcy High School. He started college at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, then transferred to Arkansas State University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in marketing with an emphasis in logistics. He graduated from the Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock but did not pass the bar examination.
He has one sister, Lee Augusta Stanley Phillips, who lives in Austin, Texas, and has two sons. Another sister, Mary Elizabeth “Emee” Stanley Youngman, is deceased.
Amy, 35, grew up in Judsonia, the only child of Linda McKeown. Amy graduated from Riverview High School in Searcy and attended ASU. She received her cosmetology license in 1999 and now owns and operates a beauty salon in Augusta.
The Grays, who were married in 2009, are expecting their first child, a boy, in October.
“I love Woodruff County,” Michael John said. “I love the rural life. I want my son’s son to be able to walk across the family farm. Your tie to the land is still strong if you’re working the land.”
Michael John said he has set aside 300 acres for fish ponds as a participant in the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Wetlands Reserve Program. “That’s so my kids and my nephews will be able to enjoy the land,” he said. “We are working on that now, and some of the land has already been cleared.”
As business owners, Michael John and Amy both belong to the Augusta Chamber of Commerce. They are members of the First United Methodist Church. They support the Augusta FFA chapter and local youth programs.
Amy participates in events for the Woodruff County Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society.
Michael John is secretary of the Woodruff County Farm Bureau Board of Directors and is serving his second term as a member of the Augusta City Council. A Democrat, Michael John is running unopposed for the Arkansas House of Representatives seat in District 47.