2024 SUNBELT AG EXPO FARMER OF THE YEAR

Congratulations to Faylene Whitaker of North Carolina for being named the 2024 Sunbelt Ag Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year. Learn more about Whitaker’s farming operation in North Carolina.

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2024 SOUTHEASTERN FARMERS OF THE YEAR

Steve Cobb 2023 Farmer of the Year Southeastern Sunbelt Ag Expo

Faylene Whitaker, of Climax, North Carolina, has been selected as the overall winner of the Sunbelt Ag Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year Award for 2024.

Two years after they married, Faylene Whitaker and her late husband, Richard, started their own farm in 1975 on ten acres of rented land, using a 150 International tractor and a $40 tobacco setter. When the first crop was sold, they applied the proceeds to the purchase of 36.5 more acres. “That winter,” Faylene recalled, “my husband, who had a farming background, started a tree-planting business, and I was responsible for growing our plants and preparing the land for planting.”

Eventually the Whitaker’s bought a larger tractor and actually began working 24 hours a day—one taking the day shift and the other the night shift. They paid back their first hard-won bank loan in one year and overcame drought to begin irrigating their fields. In 1983, they were able to build their house on the original tract and began cultivating vegetables in addition to tobacco. Each year thereafter the couple added a few more acres and continued to diversify crops.

Today Whitaker Farms & Garden Nursery operates at three different locations in and around Climax, North Carolina, on 940 acres of owned and rented land that produces tobacco, garden plants (annuals, perennials, houseplants, trees, and shrubs), field tomatoes, strawberries, organic corn and wheat, and a variety of vegetables. It also features an agritourism business catering to all age groups.

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