by North Carolina’s Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler from his November column “From the Tractor” for the department’s monthly newsletter the Agricultural Review:

As I am writing this, we have wrapped up the 2024 N.C. State Fair with 998,926 in attendance.

An early highlight for me was the Century Farm Family Reunion that drew an estimated 2,400 attendees to the State Fair. It was so good to see so many farm families gathered together, especially this year in the face of so much adversity for so many people.

Once again, we held it in the Hunt Horse Complex to accommodate all the guests. Chip Carter, the host of RFD TV’s Where the Food Comes From was the keynote speaker.

We have 42 Century Farms that are part of our farmland conservation program and six of them attended the event on Oct. 21. You can read more about the Century Farm Reunion and see photos from the event on Page 5.

If you are planning to take soil samples this year, you have until Nov. 26 to submit them for free testing. The peak-season fee goes into effect after that and will be in place until March 31, 2025. The fee is $4 per sample during peak season.

The Agronomic Services Soil Testing Lab processes 300,000 samples annually.

I also want to mention Faylene Whitaker being named the 2024 Sunbelt Ag Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year. She is the first woman ever to receive this recognition in the Expo’s 34-year history!

I am proud to call Faylene a longtime friend, who is also a fierce advocate for NC agriculture and represents our state and industry so well.

She exemplifies the very best in North Carolina agriculture and agriculture in the southeast.

Faylene is proof that you don’t have to grow up on a farm to be successful in agriculture. Faylene’s willingness to learn, perseverance, and positive attitude helped grow the 10-acre farm she started with her late husband, Richard, into Whitaker Farms & Garden Nursery, operating on 940 acres and 3 locations in and around Climax with her sons.

Faylene has been an integral part of local and statewide agriculture through her active roles in the N.C. Farm Bureau, the Randolph County Soil and Water Conservation Board of Supervisors and as a member of the NC Board of Agriculture. Additionally, she has held leadership roles in the N.C. Greenhouse Vegetable Growers Association, Tobacco Growers Association of N.C., N.C. Strawberry Association, and has served on the USDA FSA State Committee.

This is a tremendous accomplishment for a such a well-deserving woman in agriculture! I hope you will join me in celebrating this achievement with her.

Finally, I want to mention that tourism and agritourism, especially in the fall and around the holiday season, are big economic drivers in Western NC.

As we approach the holiday season, I want to call on North Carolinians to support our farmers and farms by buying local. That includes supporting our Christmas tree growers by buying a real N.C. Christmas tree this year.

Supporting Western NC farms and businesses will help this area recover and ensure that these business can continue to thrive and contribute to the community.

Photo above courtesy of Legacy Farms & Ranches of NC.