The Howard County Farm Family of the Year for 2023 are headed by Mark and Sarah Myers. In this picture, from far left are Sarah's father Kenneth Knoll, Avery Myers, Sarah's mother Linda Knoll, Sarah Myers, Claire Myers and Mark Myers.

The 2023 Howard County Farm Family of the Year, the Myers family, has a mix of horses, cattle and chickens on their 510-acre property south of Nashville and their 480-acre property near Columbus. Their children take care of the rabbits, goats and dogs.

Mark and Sarah started their farm with land leased from Mark’s father in 2011 with 11 cows. “We knew we wanted to make it bigger and make that our main deal,” Mark said. Now there look to be hundreds of healthy cows on the Myers farm gathered around the shades of pecan trees.

Both Mark and Sarah grew up around farms. Asked about when horses came into the picture, Mark said, “When we were born.” Sarah added that she and Mark “grew up around each other. And our dads both ranched, but they also roped and went to rodeos so that was in our blood, to do the same thing.” They both still rope calves and now their daughters Claire and Avery barrel race.

The skill of roping comes in handy, Sarah said, when calves need to be caught and medicated. The horses are used to pen herds.

While Mark now works full time at the farm, Sarah maintains a full-time position as an Agricultural Loan Officer at Farmers Bank & Trust in Nashville. “But I help him if I'm if I'm home for the weekend or the evenings.  He's pretty much always done this. He used to weld a lot before,” Sarah said.  That skill has come in handy for equipment repairs at the farm.

Asked whether they faced any major obstacles in running their farm, the Myers boiled it down to one word. “Not other than what everybody else faces every year,” Mark said.  “Drought,” Sarah said.  “But everybody goes through that,” Mark added.

“Weather plays a big part, being too dry, not having enough hay to cut or enough grass for your cattle. That's a serious matter. Ponds drying up, and you don't have any water.” Sarah said.

Both Myers and their kids testify to enjoying the country lifestyle, and it is a lifestyle, Mark said. “Neither of us know the difference, because we grew up with it.” The couple has had an uninterrupted existence in farming with the only think different being their turning toward doing it for themselves.

Claire and Avery take part, too. As well as learning to barrel race, they also show rabbits at county fairs. Claire has also shown a goat at the fair. She’ll be receiving a new one to raise this week. She also has a pet turtle.

Is there any off time for the Myers crew? “Certain times of the year are slower than others,” Mark said. “You've always got certain times the year you can take off and do something if you need to.” Most recently that was a trip to Yellowstone National Park.

The Myers do attend their Cattlemans Association meetings and are involved in the leadership of their county chapter while benefiting from courses from the state organization. “We're both on our local Howard County board,” Sarah said.  “I'm in the Arkansas Cattlemans leadership course. And we meet in four or five different sessions this year. He went through it in 2015 and graduated from that program as well.” Sarah added that the course allowed her to see how other farmers manage things.

Asked what motivates them on those hot days, both Myers pointed to their two elementary school age girls who themselves help feed the animals around the house. They feed their rabbits and goats, but also a blue heeler dog and Welsh Corgis who stay in the house. The Myers also benefit from help from their respective parents, and help their parents on their farms as well.

This past Monday, the Myers’ held a Media Day on their property. Judges were also in attendance to tour the land and do interviews. Any visitor or viewer of photos of the Myers’ place would conclude the Myers have a good chance of winning the Farm Family of the Year Award for the state.

The Myers were announced as the Howard County 2023 Farm Family of the Year by Arkansas Farm Bureau on May 2nd. Eight district Farm Families of the Year will be announced June 13th. The Bureau said in that day's news release "the state Farm Family of the Year will be announced in December at the Farm Family of the Year luncheon, who then represent Arkansas at the Southeastern Expo Farmer of the Year event in Georgia."