Moores picked as Washington County Farm Family of the Year

LINCOLN — Kipton Moore, 6, sat on the back of the family’s farm all-terrain vehicle and pointed out newly planted rows of corn. He helped his father replant the crop after it was damaged by severe flooding in April. Farming takes work, Kipton said. “Challenge is good,” said Allen Moore, Kipton’s father. Allen and Cindy Moore, who farm about 1,000 acres near Lincoln and Prairie Grove, were named the Washington County Farm Family of the Year on Tuesday. District judges toured Moore Valley Farms to see if it will be in the running for districtwide recognition. The Moores have a chance to become the state Farm Family of the Year. “We’re promoting agriculture when we’re doing this,” Moore said about the recognition. The Moores farm soy on 515 acres, hay on 130 acres, field corn on 50 acres and

Bermuda grass on another 30. They also plan to work 300 acres of leased property this year.

The farm family program is meant to encourage and recognize farm families statewide. A committee of members of the farming community in each county select the families. Moore said the recognition makes him proud of the work he does, but he said he wants people who aren’t in the agriculture business to notice local farmers are doing things right.

For example, Moore’s farm uses conservation practices that include planting without tilling the soil on the sides of hills, a process that prevents erosion. He grows without irrigation, too. More and more local farmers are looking for sustainable ways to grow food, he said.

Moore said he and other farmers want to make sure the land is still here for his children and grandchildren.

“We’ve got to take care of our environment,” Moore said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Large farming companies operate in Northwest Arkansas, but family operations are still going strong, Moore said. Washington County had 2,502 farms listed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service in 2012, the most recent year available.

The Moores are one of the few focusing on row crops, Moore said. Only about 2 percent of the market value products sold out of Washington County are row crops, according to the census. Soy is also not a top crop item either, and most farmers concentrate on livestock.

Moore said he left livestock so he could take his family on vacations more often. For the Moores, farming is a family affair.

Moore is a third-generation farmer who lives near his brother’s and father’s chicken farm. The two farms share resources. His mom and dad, Ralph and Reba Moore, won Washington County Farm Family of the Year in 2001.

The Moores also are involved in local farming organizations.

Moore is on the boards for the county Farm Bureau, county fair and county farmers cooperative. He’s superintendent for the county Fair Swine Division. Cindy Moore is a county Farm Bureau Women’s Committee member and the Hogeye 4-H co-leader. Cameron is a West Fork FFA member and Hogeye 4-H club president. Kipton also is a member of 4-H. And, Hudson is showing signs of wanting to join in.

During a tour of the family farm, the 2-year-old boy in cowboy boots pointed out his favorite rabbit — a Champagne D’Argent rabbit — and named farming equipment. All the boys talked about what to name the pigs the family recently bought.

“We all work together,” Moore said.

NWA Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK Hudson Moore (from left), 2, watches as his brother Cameron, 15, assists his other brother Kipton, 6, down from a stack of square hay bails Tuesday inside one of the barns on the his families’ 500 acre Moore Valley Farms near Lincoln. The Moore family...

NWA Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK Allen and Cindy Moore stand Tuesday with their sons Hudson (from left), 2, Kipton, 6, and Cameron, 15, on at the more than 500 acre Moore Valley Farms near Lincoln. The family was named the 2017 Washington County Farm Family of the Year.