Outstanding Young Farm Family – Cotton Division
Stan Menefee grew up working on his family’s Limestone County cotton and soybean farm, but it wasn’t until he took over management of the operation in 1995 that he truly appreciated the risks and rewards associated with running a farming business.”I had always worked on the farm when I was growing up, and I spent a lot of summers working with my father and uncle,” Stan recalled. “But when I took over the farm, I had to go through the procedure to get a crop loan. When you are signing your name and putting up equity to make a crop, that’s when you really start counting dollars. I guess the biggest enlightenment was to go from being just an employee to being an owner/operator.”And if that wasn’t a big enough adjustment, Stan had to overcome a drought in 1995 and heavy rains in 1997 that forced him to destroy his entire cotton crop. “It was a roller coaster ride there for a while, but I couldn’t pick another job that I would like better than what I do now,” Stan said.Today, Stan, 31, and his wife, Shaviny, farm 1,000 acres of cotton, 250 acres of corn and about 150 acres of soybeans in the rapidly developing area between Huntsville and Athens. The Menefees still face challenges, but they are hoping to harvest their second good crop in a row, and earlier this year, they earned statewide recognition as the Alabama Farmers Federation’s Outstanding Young Farm Family in the Cotton Division.Stan admits, however, that he would not be farming today had it not been for the groundwork laid by his father, grandfather and great-grandfather.”If I had to start from scratch, it would take me a lifetime to get to where I am. There are just so many things to get established,” he said. “I am thankful that I had the opportunity to come back here and farm, and I would like to have a profitable business so I can give my children the opportunity that I was given.”For Stan, that opportunity came about nine years ago when his father, who served on the Limestone County Commission, decided to get out of farming. At the time, Stan was a student at Athens State University, but he decided to forego his last few classes in business administration and return to the business he had always loved: agriculture.Since returning to the farm, he has increased his cotton and soybean acreage and implemented management practices that allow him to operate the farm with just two full-time employees.”I think taking advantage of technology like no-till and Roundup Ready crops has made it easier for me to work more acres with less help. About 70-80 percent of my land is no-till, and I think that’s been the best thing I have done in the last few years,” Stan said.Meanwhile, Stan is constantly confronted with the possibility of losing the farmland he leases to development. “It’s amazing how many houses have been built in this part of the county even in the past three to five years,” he said. “I’ve lost some land to development, but you just can’t afford to buy the land to farm it.”The Menefees’ concern about urban sprawl is one of many common bonds Stan and Shaviny share with the friends they’ve made through the Limestone County Farmers Federation’s Young Farmers Committee.Shaviny, who works as an exercise physiologist at the Athens-Limestone Hospital Wellness Center, said the group has been especially good for her because she did not grow up on a farm.”We are a close-knit group. During the holidays, we all plan to go to Gatlinburg, and we usually have monthly meetings except during harvest season,” Shaviny said. “We have a lot in common. The women call each other when our husbands are working late, and we even had a picnic at the river at the first of the year. We always plan a Christmas party together, and on the weekends, the Young Farmers are who we go and do things with.”Although Shaviny works from 4:30 in the morning to 1:15 in the afternoon, she enjoys riding on the combine with Stan or spending time with him at the farm shop–on rainy days. She also takes Stan and the employees lunch on her days off, but Stan said what he appreciates most is how supportive she’s been of his desire to farm.”It really means a lot,” he said. “Farming is not a five-day-a-week, eight-hour-a-day job. Some days I might work 12-15 hours. It’s hard for us to make plans, and a lot of it depends on the weather.”