By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
Robin Starnes paused but a moment when someone asked the hours her husband, Jason, works.
“From sunup to 30 minutes after dark,” she said.
And then she and her husband both laughed.
Still, they admitted Robin wasn’t exaggerating. In fact, truth be told, the hours that Jason works are often quite a bit more than that.
Fourteen hours a day during the growing season is more the norm than the exception. Twelve hours isn’t unusual even in the midst of winter.
They farm hundreds of acres off Stoner Morgan Road in northern Rowan County. Take a drive down Long Ferry Road and you’ll come across hundreds of more acres that Jason and his father, Kim, farm.
Totaled, the family tends better than 700 acres, raising poultry and beef cattle, planting corn, soybean, wheat, fescue hay and wheat straw.
The job, while demanding, is also rewarding.
“Overall, it’s definitely a good life,” Jason said. “You’re not going to get rich, but what you don’t make monetarily, you make up for in quality of life.”
Last fall, Jason and Robin were honored with a North Carolina Farm Bureau Achievement Award. It was presented in Greensboro during Farm Bureau’s 73rd annual meeting.
The achievement recognizes farmers between 18 and 35 years old who are involved in Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers and Ranchers Program, and whose farm practices are judged to be the most outstanding in production efficiency, innovation, improvement and environmental stewardship.
Jason, 32, is a graduate of N.C. State, where he majored in agronomy, a fancy name for “crop science.” Robin, 24, is a graduate of King’s College and works for the law firm of Sherrill & Cameron.
Jason grew up off Long Ferry Road, in the middle of the North Rowan school district. But in high school, he transferred to West Rowan so he could take advantage of all the farming courses offered there.
From his earliest days, when he’d toddle along behind his father as he worked the land, Jason knew his future lay in farming.
“As soon as I was old enough to do anything, I was out here helping him,” Jason said.
He and Robin have expanded the farm since he graduated from State and since the couple married three years ago. They’ve bought more land and added four huge chicken houses ó capable of sheltering 52,000 birds ó where they raise poultry for Pilgrim’s Pride.
They raise 46 head of beef cattle and numerous calves.
Asked if he reminded his son early on of all the hard work that awaited him should he decide to pursue a career as a farmer, Kim chuckled.
“I didn’t have to tell him,” he said. “He’s always worked alongside me. He knew it firsthand.”
Kim is retired from Duke Energy’s Buck Steam Station and has worked part time as a farmer for the better part of 35 years. He started the family farm from scratch, a labor of love that can’t be described, only lived.
Kim said he’s proud of his son’s steps, and all he’s done to improve the farm and its operations. “He’s done good,” Kim said.
Jason and Robin said farming has become much more sophisticated in recent years, with computer-technology helping farmers predict crop yields and more.
The application for the Farm Bureau Achievement Award was thorough, totalling 15 pages. Applicants were asked numerous questions, including being asked to describe some of the problems they encountered early in their farming careers, and how they worked to overcome those obstacles.
Farm Bureau judges spent two hours with them, touring the land and being told how they worked to improve the farm.
“It’s not a lightly won award,” Robin said.
Jason and Robin were one of three young-couple finalists asked to be in Greensboro the night the award was presented. They didn’t know they’d won until their names were called.
Kevin Fisher is a former Rowan County agricultural extension agent who now works in agronomy field sales for Southern States. He said he’s known the Starnes family “forever, it seems.”
“No one works any harder than that family,” Fisher said.
He said he was pleased to see Jason and Robin receive the Farm Bureau Achievement Award.
“It’s always good to see young people get into farming, especially young married couples,” Fisher said. “Jason went to college, came back and expanded the family’s operation. He’s growing the business the right way.”
Fisher said Jason is the kind of trendsetter who brings much to farming. He said that after Jason got the family into the business of raising chickens, he had the forethought to take the manure the birds produced and turn it into fertilizer for his field crops.
Fisher said all farmers have to believe in the power of positive thinking, regardless of what Mother Nature might throw their way.
“Farming takes an eternal optimist,” Fisher said. “You put that seed in the ground and a lot can happen between April and October.”