Growing up in the Mississippi River Delta, Willis Nelson says his family’s 800 acres was the biggest farm he’d ever seen. When he and his brothers took over the operation, he dreamed of growing the operation to 1,000 acres, but he didn’t know how to start.
“I went to a field day hosted by Harper Armstrong and he had 2,500 acres and he was a black guy,” Nelson says. “Then I got involved with the National Black Growers Council and saw all the big growers and I thought 1,000 was not enough. It gave us a role model we hadn’t seen before.”
Today, Nelson, alongside his three brothers, farms 4,000 acres of corn, cotton, soybeans, rice and milo that spans over 100 miles in Louisiana.
Recently, Nelson and Sons Farm hosted a Model Farm Field Day for the National Black Growers Council that catered to the next generation with in-field experience and customized youth programming.
“We want to make sure these young kids understand where their food comes from,” says PJ Haynie, chairman of the National Black Growers Council and owner of Haynie Farms in Virginia. “When we look over our shoulders, we want these young kids to be coming up the field behind us. We know every one of these young kids might not be a farmer, but we want them to understand the value of agriculture and the opportunities that lie in agriculture.”
The next generations of Nelson and Sons Farm is filled with “too many cousins to count.” Most days, those kids are on the farm right alongside their family, lending a hand. Wil’Laddyn Nelson, Joel’Quavion Steward and Wil’Zaylan Nelson all like to drive tractors and help out where they can, but when they go to school, their peers don’t understand the lifestyle.
“They don’t know where their food comes from or what we do,” Joel’Quavion says. “They play video games on their phones a lot.”
The boys admit they play video games, too, but only when it rains or is too muddy to work outside. As soon as it is dry, they have to get back to work.
Nelson and his brothers have settled into their own niches and management roles on the farm. He says he wouldn’t trade his family operation, and he is cultivating that attitude with the next generation.
“I just started Nelson Next-Generation Farm where I am starting all the nieces and nephews farming,” he says. They are beginning with chickens, sheep, a cow and with their own muscadine crop.
Wil’Laddyn is already reaping the benefits: “I clean my eggs and sell them cheaper than the stores and I make money.”
“I want them to see another side of farming other than just big ag,” Nelson says. “I want them to come take over big ag, but first I want them to grow up into farming.”
“I’m glad to be in this family,” Joel’Quavion adds. “It’s a blessing. If it weren’t for my uncles, my aunties and my cousins, I don’t know what I’d be doing right now.”
Nelson says being part of the National Black Growers Council gave him role models to look up to as well as a sense of community within an industry that can sometimes foster competition and isolation.
Breaking down those walls between farms was precisely how National Black Growers Council cultivates the next generation across the nation, Haynie says.
“We are a non-profit whose mission is to improve the efficiency, productivity and sustainability of black row crop farmers, period,” he explains. “Black row crop farmers are the smallest herd of all black farmers in the country, and we figured if we could protect this small herd and create opportunities, the herd can grow.”
America’s Conservation Ag Movement joined the National Black Growers Council field day to learn how Willis Nelson is working with the organization to grow the next generation of row crop farmers. America’s Conservation Ag Movement is a public/private collaborative that meets growers where they are on their conservation journey and empowers their next step with technical assistance from USDA-NRCS and innovation solutions and resources from agriculture’s leading providers.
