New ideas, generations keep family farm going
MORO, Ark. – Jan. 12, 2011 – Mark Waldrip, Arkansas alumnus, is always looking for a good idea to try. You’ll have to excuse him. It’s in his blood. His grandfather, he says, was a jack-of-all-trades: a farmer, started a trucking company, and ran a commissary to provide locals with groceries and household needs. His father, Eugene, then built up the trucking company and the farming business, buying more land. Mark grew up on that Lee County farm in Moro and “always loved life on the farm.”
He went to the University of Arkansas and majored in agriculture economics and minored in business, earning his degree in 1977. He joined Farm Bureau that year and eventually became county president.
Fresh out of the university, he jumped on an idea developed by Dr. Fred Collins, convincing his older brother Lowell, who was running the family farm, to try double-cropping wheat. “It was kind of unique at the time,” he said.
A few years later, Waldrip says he was looking to add value to the farming operation. This time, the idea was growing seed stock. He began by selling rice seed to neighbors. The idea caught on. Next, a liquidation sale in Tennessee got him enough equipment to expand and set up a small seed processing plant on the farm. This birthed East Arkansas Seed.
Soon after, the seed business changed dramatically. Genetic research, new technology and proprietary information all required that anyone wanting to remain in the seed business had to partner with a large company. Waldrip went with the changes and gave up farming to go full time into selling seed.
His next expansion included partnering with Carl Phipps who managed Cullum Seed in Fisher, Ark., and his son Kelly. Owner Sherman Cullum wanted to retire, so the three partnered and bought the business. The Phippses manage the day-to-day operations. The plant contracts with farmers to grow seed. Waldrip says he primarily markets seed in the Mid-South, but has customers as far east as Florida and west into Texas.
Through it all, Waldrip was active in his county Farm Bureau. This included serving as its president in the early 1980s.
“I’ve always been appreciative of the representation the farming community receives from the united voice that Farm Bureau is able to put forward. I don’t know anybody else that does the representative grassroots consensus building that Farm Bureau does,” Waldrip said. “Farm Bureau has taken the right approach. If you have a position and believe strongly enough about it, it’ll be heard.”
His son Nathan may continue the family agriculture legacy. After graduating last year from the University of Arkansas, he returned to Fayetteville to pursue a master’s degree in business administration. Waldrip also has three daughters. The oldest, Allison, is finishing a LLM in Agricultural law at the University of Arkansas.
“We want our children to pursue their interests, but if they want to be involved in the business, we’ll find a place for them,” Waldrip said. Just like his grandfather did. Just like his father did. New blood. New ideas. “I like the family aspect of farm life.”
information courtesy of Front Porch Magazine of the Arkansas Farm Bureau
