GENTRY — Mark Weathers didn’t hesitate when asked if he’d ever wanted to be anything other than a farmer.

“I never did,” he said.

Weathers acknowledged farming isn’t for everyone, and even people raised in a farm family may turn to other ways of life. But Weathers never seriously debated his future.

“I think there’s folks out there who did that, but I never did,” he said. “I’ve always had a love for the land. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”

Weathers’ love for the land and dedication to family was recognized Friday when he and wife Jerri and their daughters, Olivia and Audra, were named the 2011 Benton County Farm Family of the Year.

Jim Singleton, chairman of the selection committee for Benton County, said this is the 63rd year the program has honored farm families for their hard work and service to the land and their communities.

Dan Douglas, a Benton County justice of the peace and president of the Benton County Farm Bureau, said the selection is an event he looks forward to every year.

“It gives us a chance to spotlight the hard work and community involvement our farmers put in,”Douglas said, adding that Weathers is an outstanding example of those qualities.

“He’s passionate about farming,” Douglas said of Weathers.“He’s concerned about the environment. He cares about community and his family. I can’t think of anybody more deserving.”

Singleton said Weathers learnedthe virtues of hard work early in life, helping his grandfather on his farm in central Arkansas. Later in life, Weathers attended college and lived and worked inother states before coming to Northwest Arkansas to pursue his dream of owning his own farm,Singleton said. Weathers’ dedication to the farming life is obvious in many ways, he added.

Weathers said he grew up a farm boy and neverchanged much. His grandfather had a row crop and poultry farm near the Pangburn community in White County.

Weathers said he attended college at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro before earning a degree in agricultural business from College of the Ozarks in PointLookout, Mo. After landing a job with Tyson Foods, he traveled some before deciding where he wanted to settle down, he said.

“I started out in Green Forest, then I was in Alabama and then in Tennessee,” he said. “We left Arkansas in 1994 and moved back in 2000. The kids were growing up, getting a little bigger, and we wanted to come back here.”

Weathers bought his farm west of Gentry in 2001. He has about 80 acres in two parcels, with one being a broiler farm and the other for breeder hens. Both of his operations are under contract with Tyson Foods.

Weathers smiled when asked how the family divides the workload.

“Jerri does a big part of it,” he said.

Weathers said he feeds the chickens on the hen side of the farm in the mornings before going to work at his job with Tyson at the company’s Noel, Mo., complex. Jerri starts the first egg gathering about 9 a.m., he said, with the job taking about three hours. The evening gather begins about 4 p.m. Thecouple has hired help and both girls also have jobs to do, jobs they are paid for, Weathers said.

“Then, when I get home, I’m the maintenance man,” Weathers said. “It’s a 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. job, seven days a week.”

Jerri Weathers said she also grew up in a farm family, being from Madison County where her parents had a chicken farm near Hindsville. She worked at J.B. Hunt before she married Weathers and the couple went into farming as a family operation. She said the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

“It’s really hard work,” she said, “and some days I don’t like it that much. But I get to go to everything my kids do at school. I’m really involved in their lives. And I’m not tied down to a desk.”

Mark Weathers said the long hours and hard work weren’t negatives when considering his choice of farming as a livelihood.

“It sounds crazy to some folks, I guess, but I like to work,” he said. “I don’t like to go on vacations and go places. Working, for me, is fun.”

News, Pages 1 on 06/15/2011