BENTONVILLE — Kent and Carol Swinney of Gentry were named BentonCounty Farm Family of the Year on June 15.
“This is an honor,” Kent Swinney said just after accepting a plaque.
Swinney runs a soybean, green bean, cattle and Bermuda hay farm with the help of his wife, Carol, and their three children, Troy, 30, Dwayne, 22, and Brandon, 8.
“I help plant the beans. It’s fun,” Brandon said, adding he likes to help his father.
Kent Swinney said on his Farm Family of the Year questionnaire he has been farming since he was younger than Brandon.
“I helped my dad and granddad from the time I could sit on a tractor. At the age of 13, I was proficient enough to be allowed to drive a tractor by myself and did so until age 18. Then I worked full time for my grandparents for the next 13 years. In 1994, we bought out my grandparents and started on our own,” Swinney said.
Dan Douglas, vice president of the board of directors for Benton County Farm Bureau, said the award is given to the family that has done an exemplary job in farm operations and community involvement.
The winner is selected by a committee of local businessmen, bankers, farmers and representatives of the Benton County Cooperative Extension Service, Douglas said.
The award “helps educate citizens that farmers are not just dumb dirt farmers anymore. They play a vital role in every community,” Douglas said.
Of the 539,718 acres of land in Benton County, 312,640 acres are farms. There are 58,000 beef cattle,more than 18 million broiler chickens and 59,000 hogs on county farms, according to the 2008 agricultural census.
More than 1 million hens lay 81,433 dozen eggs each day and 3,900 cows provide 15,000 gallons of milk daily in the county, according to the 2008 agricultural census.
“People do not think of Benton County as an agriculture county but it is,” Douglas said. “Agriculture is a huge part of our economy.”
Bill Haak of Gentry and his family were the 2009 county Farm Family of the Year and also won the state Farm Family of the Year award.
Haak said he was glad to see the Swinneys win the award.
The Swinneys “are a great family who embodies the spirit of farming in Benton County. They are the epitome of what a farm family looks like,” Haak said.
The Swinneys are entered into the district Farm Family competition as well. Judging for that competition will be this week, said Savannah Dickinson, assistant vice president of Farm Credit of Western Arkansas. Farm Credit of Western Arkansas is one of the Farm Family competition’s sponsors.
If the Swinneys win the district competition, they will be entered into the state competition this fall, Dickinson said.
“We cannot have a better family representing Benton County than the Swinneys,” Haak said.
Family and Friends, Pages 12 on 06/23/2010