Amy Burchfield
Family: Husband, Travis Burchfield; daughter, Scout 14; and sons, Sam, 20, and Lee, 25
Hometown: Wooster, Ark.
Town Life: “I have worked for the Greenbrier (Ark.) School District for 23 years and am currently teaching 11th grade English. Because I work in Greenbrier, I split our shopping between Greenbrier and Conway, Ark. I like supporting our community and sometimes Greenbrier is handier, but all our doctors and dentists are in Conway and that’s where we usually go out to eat. We used to go to Little Rock, Ark., often, but in the last five years Conway has grown and now meets all of our needs.”
Country Life: “According to a long-standing agreement, Travis will tell me when it’s time to worry so that I can listen to him discuss what he’s doing and what’s going on without getting overly concerned. We own 11 acres, but we farm my father-in-law’s 2,500-acre farm between Wooster and Conway, on which we raise rice and soybeans, as well as commercial cattle. One of our challenges is that we lose a part or all of a crop every three or four years to floodwaters because our farm is in Cadron Bottom, which makes crop insurance a necessity. Our herd is Angus/Hereford cross, serviced by a Hereford bull. We now have 50 mommas, 25 of which we bought bred last winter. When we want to work cattle, all we have to do is put feed in the corral. We used to have wild cows, which we have culled and are replacing with more even tempered ones, an important consideration when we purchased cows last winter. During the winter, we support pasture grazing with hay and bulk feed treated with mineral, but in the summer we depend upon pastures and mineral blocks. Like all farmers, we have a plan on file and test and follow the results. We have used chicken litter several times and use commercial fertilizer on the cropland.”
Future: “I am a town girl and haven’t been as involved as I want. We are partners, and I plan to shoulder a lot more responsibility once I retire. At that time, I also want to spend more time with friends and family, including Travis because our busy times are currently opposite. Traveling in the off-season months of October and November is something both Travis and I look forward to. Finally, I would like to restore the original family rock house and live there because it’s farther off the road and would suit our needs then.”
