Dark skies rumbled overhead and marked the passing of another Gulf Coast hurricane, and Chad and Gwen DeVine knew they had dodged the bullet again. While their cotton crop may have suffered some damage from nearly a foot of rain in late September, they are thankful the damage wasn’t worse. For now, the prospects of a good crop are still in sight.”It can get pretty scarry when hurricane season starts, especially when you have cotton that needs to be defoliated and peanuts that need to be picked,” Chad said. “It takes a lot of faith to farm any where, but especially when you live near the coast.”The Baldwin County couple is this year’s Outstanding Young Farm Family in the cotton division. They live near the town of Loxely with their three children Haden, 7, Sara, 3, and Camden, who was born Oct. 3.The DeVines rent all their farmland and have 381 acres of cotton, 314 acres of runner-type peanuts and 15 acres of sweet corn. They married nine years ago–just two years after Chad began farming. His grandfather farmed all his life, and his dad farmed part time while working a public job. The urge to plant and grow a crop was too strong for Chad to resist, he recalled.”We live one-half mile from my momma and daddy’s house where I grew up,” Chad said. “I’m farming land that three previous generations of DeVines have farmed. God has given me a desire to farm that I can’t explain. We have been through four hurricanes, a severe drought and just a lot of bad weather over the past seven years. That’s made it real tough to stay in business. But God has blessed me with a good wife who has never complained about the downsides of farming. She complements me well, and I don’t know what I would do without her.””I always said I’d never marry a farmer and that I’d never marry anybody from Loxley,” said Gwen who grew up in nearby Robertsdale. “The lesson there is never say never. I never had anything to do with farming while I was growing up, but that’s all changed. Once Sara was born, we decided it was more economical for me to stay home with the kids and help out on the farm than it was for me to work in the public sector. So I help out on the farm wherever I can, and I love it.”Chad credits much of his success in farming to his father who taught him how to work on all types of equipment. As a result, he can do most farm repairs himself, helping to keep costs down.”I planned to go to college and get an engineering degree,” Chad said. “I went two years at Faulkner State Community College (in Bay Minette) and then decided to try farming. I had been farming part time while I was in school and really enjoyed it. It is a job that you can look back on at the end of the day and see what you’ve accomplished. I like that about farming. I also like being my own boss, and if I want to take off early and be with the kids or take them to watch a ball game, then I can. Farming has been great for our family life.”Chad said his father helped him work on the farm, and he used his father’s equipment when he first got started. However, over the past seven years he’s been able to add to his own equipment inventory.In addition to helping out around the farm, Gwen is a part-time volleyball and softball coach at Central Christian School where Haden and Sara attend. And while she enjoys the different pace that being a coach brings, she said she loves living on a farm and watching their business grow.Chad’s farming career began with 40 acres of soybeans and corn. Now cotton and peanuts are his primary crops, but his sweet corn is by far the most profitable crop per acre.”We sell our corn at a roadside stand on (Alabama) Highway 59 and most of our business is repeat customers,” Chad said. “We kept our prices high this year, and we nearly doubled our sales over last year. We pick all the sweet corn by hand, and we hire several high school students to work during the summer. It’s a lot of fun for them and for us.”The DeVines’ production practices include strip tillage of all crops into a cover crop. They haven’t cultivated in four years, instead relying upon Roundup and a hooded sprayer to take care of the weeds.”My planter this year was hooked directly behind the strip-till rig, which allowed me to plant my crops with only one pass, with only one tractor,” Chad said. “My cotton picker burned up last year, so to help me be more timely in getting my crops out of the field this year, I will have my cotton custom picked. That will allow me to concentrate on harvesting my peanuts.”Chad said his goal for their farming operation isn’t to get bigger, but to maximize what they already have. “My goals for the farm are to increase roadside sales of DeVine Farms Silver King Sweet Corn, install at least 40 acres of drip irrigation and search for higher value rotational crops to fit in with the cotton and peanuts,” he said. Chad also would like to pay down his short-term debt and possibly add Christmas trees as a crop.”I’d like to keep the farm the same size at least for the next five years as far as the number of acres is concerned,” Chad said. “But I want to increase my gross and net incomes.”The DeVines are active members of the Lighthouse Baptist Church where Chad teaches the young adults Sunday school class and leads music at the Wednesday night service. Their faith in God, like farming, is close to their hearts.Chad describes farming as challenging, hard and frustrating, adding that there have been many times when he wanted to quit.”But farming is also exciting and rewarding, and I wouldn’t change anything,” he said. “I often have people ask me how I sleep at night knowing the risks of farming. We can do it because we have Jesus in our hearts, and He gives a peace through the storms of life that only He can give.”