Slow and Steady

At 36 years old, Patrick Fair has already spent nearly half his life building a farming operation. 

If you ask Patrick about the first few years, he won’t sugarcoat it. 

“I thought I was going to go broke,” he said with a laugh. 

Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Instead, little by little, Patrick built a life doing what he loves in the same Montgomery County community where he grew up. 

These days, Patrick runs a cow-calf operation on about 400 acres near Pencil Bluff, most of it rented ground. He does custom hay work, hauls cattle, and takes on other jobs when he can. The days are long, the to-do list never ends, but he says he wouldn’t change a thing. 

“If you like what you’re doing, it’s not really a job,” he said. “I don’t really consider it a job. It’s kind of like a hobby.” 

Of course, this hobby is also his livelihood he’s spent 16 years shaping, one season at a time. 

Coming Home
 

Patrick grew up on a poultry and cattle farm where chores, responsibility, and long days were just part of life. 

Still, staying home to farm wasn’t always the plan. 

After high school, Patrick headed off to welding school, but it didn’t take long for him to realize that home was where he truly wanted to be. 

“I didn’t think I really wanted to stay here until I left,” he said. 

After graduation, he started hauling cattle and working at sale barns while searching for a way to start his own farm. He began small, running stocker cattle on about 10 acres at his dad’s place. Then, when 50 acres came up for rent nearby, Patrick saw his opening. He just needed someone to help him take that next step. 

His family already had an established relationship with Farm Credit. His grandparents had done business with the cooperative, and his dad financed their poultry farm through Farm Credit as well. 

When 20-year-old Patrick wanted to borrow money to start building an operation, his dad gave him simple advice: go talk to Rex. 

Rex Dollar, a loan officer in Farm Credit of Western Arkansas’ Mena branch, knew Patrick’s family and the kind of work ethic that had been instilled in him. 

“Patrick was raised in an environment that gave him a good foundation to be successful,” Rex said. “Character is one of the first things you look for in lending, and I felt like Patrick would do everything within his power to make it work.” 

At first, Patrick’s parents co-signed his loans. As he grew his farm and became more financially stable, he started borrowing with his own signature. 

His first loan was a leap of faith. Patrick knew it then, and he knows it now, but looking back, not taking the chance would have been the bigger risk. 

“If I hadn’t taken it, I wouldn’t be where I am now,” he said. “I wouldn’t have gotten started. My dad always says you’ve got to stick your neck out to get anything in life.” 

A Little at a Time
 

For young farmers, “sticking your neck out” can feel especially intimidating. With land prices, equipment costs, and everything else on the rise, getting started is sometimes the hardest part.  

“It would be a hard go,” he said of starting from scratch today. “Especially to buy the cattle and pay for the land.” 

Patrick’s answer has been to grow slow and steady, instead of trying to own it all at once. Most of the 400 acres he works today are rented, which has let him expand without the heavy burden of buying land outright. 

He has also found additional sources of income. Alongside his cattle, Patrick does custom hay work, once cutting about 3,000 bales a year for others and now closer to 1,000. 

He also hauls cattle, making runs to sale barns and feedlots all over the region. On Thursday nights, that usually means a 300-mile trip to the Oklahoma National Stockyards in Oklahoma City, where he markets his own cattle, too. 

That kind of diversity has helped make full-time farming possible for Patrick, along with knowing when to hold onto a dollar. 

“I’ve seen so many people see a large check after selling cattle or chickens and then get in a bind,” Patrick said. “You have to save and plan for unavoidable expenses. Equipment is going to break. Things are going to get old. You have to be prepared to replace them.” 

Patrick credits his parents for teaching him how to be a good steward of his finances. 

“My dad’s kind of like me. We don’t live out of our means,” he said, noting that both still drive trucks that are nearly 20 years old. 

Rex believes that patience has been one of the biggest factors in Patrick’s success. 

“He doesn’t live beyond his means, and he has a purpose behind the business decisions he makes,” Rex said. “Before Patrick calls about something, he has usually already thought about it from multiple angles. He has considered what could happen and what he’ll do if things don’t go as planned.” 

That slow and steady approach helped Patrick weather the years when cattle prices were a lot lower than they are today. He’ll tell you there’s no magic formula. You handle what you can, brace for what you can’t, and keep moving forward. 

“Just stay steady and work at it,” he said. 

Worth the Work
 

Ask Patrick his least favorite job on the farm, and the answer comes quickly: building fence. 

Ask for his favorite, and he talks about something much simpler. It’s watching things grow. 

“I just like coming out and watching the calves grow,” he said. “When you come out to your pasture and really start to see progress.” 

It’s the same feeling with a good hay field. After investing in fertilizer and spraying, seeing a healthy stand of grass makes the work and expense feel worthwhile. 

Progress looks a little different here than in other jobs. It’s a healthy calf, a field of thick grass, paying off a piece of equipment, or sometimes simply making it through another year. 

After 16 years, what makes Patrick most proud is looking around at what he’s built and realizing just how far he’s come. 

Rex has had a front-row seat. For him, working with young farmers like Patrick is one of the most rewarding parts of his job. 

“You watch someone start with very little and gradually build an operation,” Rex said. “It’s not that Farm Credit is responsible for their success. They’re the ones doing the work. But there is a sense of pride in knowing you helped provide some of the capital that allowed them to chase their goals.” 

For Patrick, the relationship is just as straightforward. 

“Anytime I call Rex, he’s always willing to help me figure out the best way to make it work,’” Patrick said. “He’s always been easy to deal with.” 

That kind of trust doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the kind of relationship Farm Credit hopes to build with more young and beginning farmers through programs like AgStart, which help make financing a little easier as producers start and grow their farms. 

But financing is just one part of the story. The rest is up to Patrick.

Still Growing
 

Pencil Bluff has changed since Patrick was a kid. More people now buy rural land for recreation or as a getaway, and fewer families make their living from the land itself. 

Patrick, however, is still there. 

He still spends most days in the pasture or on a tractor. He still hauls cattle on Thursday nights and builds fence when it needs fixing.  

When he’s not on the farm, Patrick likes to ride his motorcycle, sometimes heading out with friends through the Colorado mountains. After every adventure, all roads lead to Montgomery County, where there are cattle to tend, work to do, and still plenty of room to grow. 

He hopes the future brings more cattle, more land, and the chance to spend less time working for others and more time on his own place, even if he’s not sure yet what that will look like. 

“You never know what God has planned,” Patrick said. 

That kind of uncertainty comes with farming. Markets shift, weather changes, land gets sold, equipment breaks, and plans rarely go exactly as expected. 

Patrick has learned that success means taking risks, having people who believe in you, making a good plan, and having the patience to build things one step at a time. Most of all, it means showing up every day. 

“Work hard and try your best. Don’t give up,” Patrick said. “I don’t know any other way to do it. Unless you just throw your hands up and quit, it’s all going to work out.” 

Sixteen years ago, a 20-year-old from Pencil Bluff decided to stick his neck out and take a chance. Now, he can look out across his pastures and see just how far that leap of faith has carried him.