WV Farm Bureau Magazine March 2014 | Page 15

I come from a long line of Georgia farmers who faced both ups and downs throughout the generations, but that’s par for the course with farming. It takes a special breed of person to farm thanks to the many challenges that Mother Nature, the markets and public opinion throw our way. It’s how we navigate those bumps in the road that show what farmers are made of. It’s how we adapt to change. As the old cliché goes, we took lemons and made lemonade. I am the fifth generation of my family to farm our land. We started out as a dairy, which lasted for four generations. But, right around the time that I returned home from college to take over the family farm, urban sprawl began taking over our neck of the woods. Our farm, which had been in our family since 1938, was on the verge of being taken for development. I wholeheartedly believe that farmers need to put a face on farming and show people what we do, how we do what we do, and also why we do certain things. I consider myself lucky that I can make that connection in person with the people who visit our farm. I also realize that in-person farm visits are not