• Hometown: Hagarville, Ark.
• Family: Husband Theron; and two children, 4-year-old Mae and 2-year-old Tate
In Town: Jeanie has been the 4-H Agent for Johnson County, Ark., since 2007.
She coordinates all county 4-H activities and traditional clubs, and provides enrichment programs for the local elementary students. She is also a certified drone pilot and leads the Rockets to the Rescue program for junior high students.
Her mission as a 4-H agent is to prepare kids to be advocates of agriculture.
In the Country: Jeanie and her husband Theron own and operate Infinity Ranch in Hagarville, Ark. In 2017, they built four commercial turkey houses contracted with Butterball. She said they had always assumed they would eventually build broiler houses, but timing was an issue. They had heard through a friend that Butterball was looking for growers, and after they got clearance, they started construction. They produce mainly standard size turkeys, but have also grown heavy turkeys and some specialty flocks. They also have a commercial cow/calf operation and sell about 100 calves per year in the spring and fall.
The Future: “I always say the most important thing you raise on your farm are your kids. We are hoping to continue to build the farm so it will sustain two families if they decide to come back and farm.”
Her goals for 4-H include increased outreach and focusing on recruiting with social media to rebuild and restructure the program in order to offer as good an experience for youth as possible.
“COVID, in some ways, improved our program. We learned the positive impact using social media and video programs could have. Before, we focused so heavily on face-to-face that we didn’t look into other ways to serve people. Now we do a lot more videos and more social media marketing. Moving forward we will continue to do those. It has been neat to see the impact of social media and how much further we can reach,” she said.
In addition to work and farm Jeanie has submitted a children’s book for publication about commercial turkey farming.
