The Cross family of Magnolia has been selected as this year’s Farm Family of the Year by the Columbia County Cooperative Extension Service.
“The chicken farm is called D&L Farms and that’s for David and Laura, Dustin and Lauren (who goes by Ashley),” David Cross, owner of the farm, said Wednesday.
“That’s where I came up with the farm name. The big part and the land have been called Oak Ridge Farms for years,” David said. “When my dad was a kid, there was a bunch of big oak trees on the place. They are all gone now, but that is where the farm got its name.”
The Oak Ridge Farm spans 500 acres. The farm operates six chicken houses.
“There are probably about 250 cattle-calf pairs,” Dustin Cross, son of David and Laura, said.
“We generally throughout the year run a couple hundred stockers. This year, we will have upwards to 140 replacement heifers to bred.”
“Tyson is under a contract so that is actually their chickens, so we grow them for (Tyson),” Dustin said.
“The cows are ours, so they will go to sale.”
“I’ve been working with the extension agent, Jerri Lephiew, and I guess she liked what was going on so she nominated us,” Dustin said.
“She and I have done a lot over the last couple of years. Working with her on pesticides, insecticides and winter annual type stuff, which is outside the realm of many of the older farmers’ thinking.”
The farm has the first irrigation system in Columbia County. Dustin installed it as a way to water 80 acres of Bermuda grass.
They also grow hay for their own use.
“This is pretty much all I’ve ever done,” David said. “Dustin had other interests until I had a wreck three and a half years ago.”
“My dad won Farm Family of the Year. My brother won Farm Family several years back as well,” David said. “There wouldn’t any of this be here if it wasn’t for my dad, Charles Cross. He started with 40 acres.”
Charles’s father passed away when he was around the age 3. He inherited the farm from his mother at around the age of 8, after his mother passed away. After that, he kept it going.
The farm spans four generations.
“I’m the only sibling left here,” David said.
“Everyone else found other interests.”
David and Laura are Magnolia natives and have owned chicken houses for 20 years.
