Never Too Old To Farm in Geneva County

By Janie Howell, District Administrative Coordinator, Geneva County Soil and Water Conservation District, Geneva, AL

Matthew L. Long can tell you about a century of farming…from farming by hand, to farming with an ox, to farming with a tractor.

Mr. Matthew, as he is known in the community, was born April 25, 1913, in the Midland City/Pinckard Area in southeast Alabama. He began farming at 13 years of age with his father and 9 brothers and sisters.

At age 24, Long married and started a family of his own. He and his wife, Ida Mae, had 9 children; only 7 survived and grew up on the farm.

He started his farming operation at age 26 with a rented ox. Matthew share-cropped in the Midland City/Pinckard Area and south of Slocomb. In 1951, he purchased 40 acres and an old house on a county road south of Slocomb. He and Ida Mae later built a small, 960 sq. ft. house on their farm, where they raised their 7 children.

Mr. Long has been working with NRCS and FSA since 1951 developing good conservation practices. He still makes decisions about his farm.

It took Matthew and his 7 children 2 to 3 years of pulling up Bermuda grass on their new land to get it in shape to farm. The Long farm later produced corn, peanuts, soybeans, vegetable crops, beef cattle, and hogs until 1989.

The most land Mr. Long ever farmed at one time was 85 acres. During these years, he served on the Geneva County Extension Service Vegetable Crops Planning Committee and worked closely with the County Agent’s Office, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) (formerly the Soil Conservation Service) and the Farm Services Agency (FSA) (formerly the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service). He was instrumental in helping develop good solid vegetable crop programs in Geneva County.

In 1989, Mr. Long made a decision to lease a large part of his farm, but in 2006, Matthew, along with 4 sons and 3 daughters, agreed to take back control of the land and put their farm back into production.

Mr. Matthew is now 96 and continues to work daily on the farm. The family manages 24 acres of pasture/hay land, 4 acres of corn, 1 acre of vegetables under plastic with drip irrigation, 15 pecan trees, and 5 acres of wildlife habitat.

You may ask, "Is it profitable to farm?" Mr. Matthew and Ida Mae can declare it is! They raised 7 children, all who have at least a 4-year college degree, a beautiful farm everyone can visit, and a love for the land that can only be instilled by living on it and reaping the fruits of good management.

The Longs will all agree, you have to love farming to be a part of it. But look at the lifetime of rewards!

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