For Dustin McMahan, farming is more than a livelihood. It is a legacy planted by his grandfather more than three generations ago, nurtured by his father and uncle, and now entrusted to him to carry into the future.
That legacy, along with a commitment to family, faith and agriculture, has earned Dustin and Tiffany McMahan and their family recognition as the 2026 Desha County Farm Family of the Year.
Today, Dustin farms alongside his father, Jerry “Goose” McMahan, continuing a family tradition that began when Dustin’s grandfather, Wilson McMahan, returned home from World War II.
Wilson and his wife, Juanita, had two sons, Jerry and Don, who became the second generation to work the land. Dustin followed, becoming the third generation of McMahans to make farming a way of life.
And, in many ways, it seems there was never much doubt where he belonged.
“I was that kid who crawled into the cotton trailers and all over the equipment,” Dustin recalled.
His adventures around the farm occasionally landed him in trouble. He remembers the only time he got into serious trouble with his grandmother was after he hid underneath a disc for hours.
As he grew older, however, Dustin's father encouraged him to look beyond the farm.
“My dad always pushed me to do something else,” Dustin said. “So I did.”
Dustin went to work in the oil industry, but even while working on oil rigs, home continued to pull at him. Whenever he was home, his father needed help, and Dustin found himself right back where he had started.
“While I was home from the oil rigs, Dad always needed my help, so I was there,” he said. “The farm is where I always felt I belonged.”
Eventually, he stopped fighting that pull.
“My dad inspired me to farm because I saw that it was a life that I could see myself living,” Dustin said.
Today, the McMahan farming operation includes approximately 3,950 acres, with 2,700 acres planted in soybeans, 350 acres in corn and 900 acres in cotton. The family owns approximately 500 acres and rents another 3,400 acres from a number of landlords.
Cotton acreage was reduced this season because of market conditions. Dustin said cotton may help pay the most bills, but it is also the most expensive crop to produce.
Making those decisions requires careful attention to commodity markets. The operation works with marketing consultants, including cotton consultation on futures, and closely monitors the markets when making planting and marketing decisions.
Technology has also become increasingly important on a farm rooted in generations of tradition.
The operation uses John Deere technology to gather information and help guide farming decisions.
“They have so many tools to utilize on our fields, and it plays a crucial role in sustainability and cuts costs,” Dustin said.
Conservation is another part of the operation. The farm uses some no-till practices and plants cover crops in the fall.
For all the advances in equipment, technology and information available to today's farmer, however, there is one thing no computer can control: Mother Nature.
Dustin points to the 2019-2020 season as his most difficult. Approximately 22 inches of rain flooded fields, causing crop losses and forcing the farm to replant much of its cotton.
It was also a particularly challenging time for Dustin because he was still learning to make farming decisions on his own.
“My first year of farming on my own was very stressful,” he said. “I was still learning a lot, and I worried a lot about it.”
Over time, he learned that mistakes can sometimes be the best teachers.
“I was making the right decisions on a lot of things, but it’s a learning process, and I learned that mistakes actually teach you the best way so that next year, we won’t make the same mistakes again,” he said. “I learn something every day.”
Recent years have brought a different kind of uncertainty.
Dustin said high input costs combined with low commodity prices made last growing season particularly difficult, and federal assistance was not enough to prevent losses for many farmers.
This year has brought challenges of its own.
“This is another year where the war with Iran has made our input prices, like $5 per gallon diesel and outrageous fertilizer prices, very difficult on our profit margins,” Dustin said.
As a result, the operation continues looking for opportunities to reduce expenses without sacrificing productivity.
That experience has shaped the advice Dustin would give young farmers.
“My advice to young farmers starting out would be to save every penny you make because you’ll eventually need it in the future when times get hard,” he said.
Dustin is quick to point out that the farm's success is not his alone.
In addition to Dustin and his father, Jerry, the operation includes Dustin's cousin Mike McMahan, who has worked with the farm for more than 30 years; cousin David McMahan, who joined the operation two years ago; Nick Bordenarro; and Saul Mondragon.
The operation currently markets its grain through partner companies. The family considered constructing its own grain bins but ultimately decided against it after weighing the advantages and disadvantages.
At home, Tiffany is also an important part of the operation. She handles portions of the business side of the farm, particularly during the times of year when Dustin is stretched thin by the demands of planting, irrigation and harvest.
She balances that role with her career as a cosmetologist, a profession she loves because it allows her to help others feel beautiful, and with raising the couple's children, Kash and Henlee.
Tiffany and Dustin's story began before the farm became the center of their lives together.
The two met when Tiffany was a senior in high school in Warren and Dustin was working on an oil rig. A friend introduced them, and they eventually married in 2017.
For Dustin, Tiffany has been much more than his wife. She has been his partner through the uncertainties that come with agriculture and the person standing beside him when the weight of those uncertainties became heavy.
“I found my better half,” Dustin said. “Tiffany had faith and believed in me, and prayed for me when nobody else did.”
He describes her as an honest, Godly woman who entered his life during one of its most difficult seasons.
“Behind every success story of a man, there is a woman with these qualities,” he said. “She came into my life when my world was on fire, and she truly saved me.”
Tiffany speaks just as warmly of her husband.
“I’ve always loved Dustin,” she said. “He was my first love. He has a big heart, he is kind, he doesn’t talk bad about anyone, and he cheers me and the kids on.”
She said Dustin supports his family in every adventure while working tirelessly to provide for them.
“He works so hard to be my safe place,” she said. “He loves God and reads a daily devotional in the morning.”
For Tiffany, being married to a farmer means sharing in the joys of agriculture, but also carrying some of its worries.
“The biggest challenge as a farmer’s wife is watching silently and worrying,” she said. “Dustin works so hard and so does his daddy. Dustin comes home exhausted and filthy every day, yet he keeps his faith.”
Faith, she said, is what helps their family navigate the uncertainty that comes with putting a crop in the ground and knowing that weather, markets and countless other factors can determine what happens next.
“Farming is a gamble, but his bet has always been on God to see him through each farming year,” Tiffany said. “Every year at the beginning, we pray over the fields. I try to encourage him to leave his worries at the feet of Jesus.”
That combination of farming, faith and family defines much of the McMahans' life away from the fields as well.
Tiffany serves as a youth leader at First Methodist Church of McGehee.
Kash is preparing to begin his senior year at McGehee High School, where he participates in football, baseball, track and cross country. He and Dustin also share a love of hog hunting and spend time together hunting each fall.
Six-year-old Henlee attends McGehee Elementary School and stays busy with church activities, dance and gymnastics.
Rounding out the household are three Doodles, Ollie Pearl, Lola May and Honey.
When farming allows them a little breathing room, the McMahans enjoy traveling together. They recently returned from a family beach vacation.
“We don’t have a favorite vacation spot, but we love anywhere with a beach with white sand and pretty blue water,” Dustin said.
Those breaks can be precious in a profession where the calendar is dictated by weather and crops rather than weekends and holidays.
The family is currently irrigating soybeans and cotton. Corn irrigation has been completed, and preparations for harvest are underway.
With another harvest approaching, Dustin knows the lessons will continue. So will the worries, changing markets, unpredictable weather, early mornings and long days that have been part of the McMahan family's story for three generations.
He also hopes there will someday be another generation of McMahans working the same land.
Dustin would like to see his children continue the family's agricultural legacy, but he also understands the lesson his own father taught him. Sometimes a person has to leave before discovering where he or she truly belongs.
He wants Kash and Henlee to choose lives that make them happy, whether those lives lead them back to the farm or somewhere entirely different.
For Dustin, leaving ultimately made him certain of where he wanted to be.
“If I wasn’t farming, I’d probably be back on the oil rig,” he said. “I was good at what I did, but I couldn’t imagine doing anything else now other than farming.”
For the third-generation farmer, the greatest reward isn't measured only in acres, yields or commodity prices.
“It’s very rewarding to get to carry on my father’s legacy,” Dustin said.
From Wilson McMahan returning home from World War II and putting his hands to the land, to Jerry and Don carrying the operation into its second generation, to Dustin now farming beside his father, the McMahan story has been written season by season.
There have been floods and droughts, good markets and bad ones, mistakes and lessons, planting seasons filled with hope and harvests that did not always turn out as planned.
Through it all, the roots have held.
And for the 2026 Desha County Farm Family of the Year, those roots remain firmly planted in the same things that started the story generations ago: family, faith and the land they call home.
