After losing her husband of almost 50 years, Faylene Whitaker is still farming, and winning awards while she does it. 

Through the years, it is a tradition of Sunbelt Southeastern Farmer of the Year winners to credit their families first. It’s almost as consistent as the award presentation itself, now in its 35th year.

When the very first female to ever win the prize takes the stage, though, you might expect further trendsetting, especially since the milestone might inspire the kind of fire that would lead to other female winners. 

But Faylene Whitaker, who is indeed the first woman to win the award overall (there have been female farmers who won the state-level award), upholds tradition, even as she’s breaking the glass ceiling. “I couldn't have done it without my employees, my family, and all the people backing me,” she says. “I don't think in anything you move to the top without somebody giving you those steps up.”

Faylene had to take the last few steps to the top without a hand that had steadied every step for nearly five decades. “The person who would be my greatest cheer person today passed away last year,” she said in her acceptance speech. 

Later, back on the farm they built together in Climax, North Carolina, she reflects: “It was a love affair,” she says, and while that aptly describes a long marriage to her high school sweetheart, she could just as easily be talking about the farm itself. “For 50 years, we had the same dreams, we had the same goals for our life and we worked together,” she says. “If you're lucky, you get that one chance in a lifetime and you take it and you be thankful for it,” she says.

It’s a love story that starts in 1975 on 10 acres of rented land. “We started with tobacco because ... tobacco was something (Richard) knew, so it was something easy to start with and we knew what we could make on it,” she says. Faylene, who grew up in the city, went with it, but also was determined to be a good farming partner. “I always had a book in my hand, reading from NC State, from Clemson, from the University of Florida,” she says. “I was just trying to obtain knowledge. And so I got the name ‘book farmer in the neighborhood,’” she laughs.

The “book learnin’” helped in the mid-80s, when she says the farm was enduring drought and the farm economy in general was in crisis. “And so when you have to go to the banker and you're wondering how you're going to pay those bills,,” she says, “we decided we had to diversify, so that when one crop failed, we had another crop to fall back on.”

Today, she rattles off a litany of crops and businesses that occupy the family’s time and some 1,000 acres of land. “We progressed into doing tomatoes on plastic, and then strawberries, and then agritourism, and then landscaping, and then garden centers, and the bakery...” she trails off, with a laugh and a proud smile. “I think for us that diversity keeps us solvent, but it also helps us so that if the next generation wants to do something else, we have other options for them.”

Faylene’s oldest son, Shane, joined the operation after college. Shane’s wife, Kelly, is a minor partner and a licensed environmental engineer who serves on the NC Farm Bureau’s Agritourism Advisory Committee. A nephew and grandson also join the family business. Whitaker Farms & Garden Nursery operates at three different locations in and around Climax, and still produces tobacco, along with 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. “one of the reasons for that is to educate people on where their food comes from,” says Shane, “and what a farm means to this state and country for that matter,” he says. 

Faylene is surprised by how, even in a rural area, there is little knowledge about how food gets from farm to table, especially the labor involved. “If we can't keep a legal workforce here, we will not see food grow in the United States,” she says. “To me, that is the number one thing that we have to have... We are an H2A employer, have been for 30 years, and some of our guys have been with us that long!” she says, and she takes pride in taking care of those employees. “We are paying them good wages... I think the consumer does not know that. It's also a fun place to visit. But behind the scenes is the work that goes on,” she insists.

A Winning Effort 

The work has been fruitful. The two garden centers cover 5 acres, producing around 170,000 plants each year. Tobacco spans 200 acres, with an average yield of 2,420 pounds per acre. In the fields, 32 acres of tomatoes produce about 16 tons per acre, while 9 acres of strawberries yield roughly 18,000 pounds per acre. Organic grain production includes 230 acres of corn at 160 bushels per acre and 180 acres of wheat at 35 bushels per acre. The farm also dedicates 25 acres to assorted vegetables for retail sales, and 5 acres to agritourism—welcoming approximately 25,000 visitors annually.

That’s the kind of success that wins awards, and while Faylene is happy to be the first female to win, she says that’s not the headline. “It does lay the groundwork for another woman,” she says, “but I hope that I won this award based on being a good farmer. To say ‘female farmer’ is great, but to say it is the Farmer of the Year is greater ... When you know have competed against your peers and they realize that you have done what you need to do.”

“My mother's response to being the first female winning the award is... Maybe it's not just a female thing, it's just a farm thing,” says Shane. “It is a team effort. And I would say for people looking up to her for winning that award, it's just hard work determination... just perseverance,” he says.

Estate Planning Is Key

Faylene agrees that the farm is a “team dream”: “Shane’s just like me and his dad, he dreams big, so he adds more and he adds more,” she says, including helping convert tobacco acres to organic. 

“Been pretty lucky throughout life as far as being able to work with my family,” says Shane, but they don’t leave continuance to luck. Faylene says she and the whole family are frank and intentional about estate planning, and that was true even before Richard passed.

“Richard and I decided at 50 that we would start our estate planning,” she says, and though the details for every farm will be vastly different, the common element is to actually plan, and be honest with each other—not just about the details, but about the reality of mortality. “We do things by being proactive and knowing that at any time, life changes,” she says. “A lot of people do not want to admit they're going to die. I mean, but unfortunately we all will. A lot of people just don't want to talk about the inevitable, and some people just don't have the vision to want to see things continue on.”

Faylene wants that even more now, and is positive it’s what Richard would want. “He would want me to live celebrating each day and knowing that life goes on,” she says, “and that we created this dream together... and the dream will keep going.”

The Prize: A Massey Ferguson 7S Series

The Southeastern Farmer of the Year gets to pick a Massey Ferguson product to use on the farm for up to a year. Faylene knew exactly what she wanted, especially since the family has run Massey red for decades.

“Our farm has a legacy with Massey Ferguson,” she says. “Our first one was 1100 Series back from the 70s, and then we have some that we bought later that are smaller, and now we've got to use the nice Massey Ferguson for the year,” she says.

The “nice” Massey Ferguson is the MF 7S, which she says surprised supplier Barnes Equipment. “When I went down to get it, the guy was showing me what I could choose from,” she recalls. “I said, 'I need one with a creeper gear, that's at least 130 horsepower.’ And he looked at me like, are you for serious?” she laughs. “He wasn't expecting that, but Barnes Equipment came through for us, and brought us what we needed.”

Jordan Williford of Barnes Equipment in Wilson, North Carolina, says the 7S is ideal for the Whitaker operation. Besides handling the workload of a diverse operation, “You can put anybody in the seat to operate,” he says, and that ease of use makes transitions with on-farm labor easier, as well. Plus, there’s tremendous return on investment. “With the AGCO Power and the Dyna6 transmission, you get fuel efficiency that is unmatched,” he says.

Faylene says the 7S fits in well with the rest of their fleet, which includes utility tractors in the 4600 and 4700 series, as well as the 1100, which is still in use. “The 7S bedded all of our tobacco land... We could space our tires out and use it for our tobacco. It's cultivated tobacco. We have used it to put our plastic down for our vegetables this year,” she says.

“We've done a little bit of mowing with this tractor,” says Shane. “We've put this tractor in our squash operation at times to pull our squash wagon through the field. It's a good size, all-around tractor for us.”