It’s that time of year on Flat Forty Farms in Sunflower County. That means Sarah Clark will split her day between her chair at the county FSA office and the driver’s seat here.

“Sarah works two full‑time jobs.  She gets off work, then comes out here, and we run until 11:00 or midnight every night,” said Gentry Clark, Sarah’s husband. “In her role here, she does everything.  Our neighbors call her the general because she’s the boss.”

But Sarah’s more than a supervisor…She does it all especially when there’s beans to be harvested.

“She does everything.  She can do anything we need to do, and so on an operation like ours where it’s only us two, you know, you have to be able to do that,” said Gentry Clark. “She can jump in and do anything anywhere.”

“I tell everyone we are a great team and we work together, and Gentry also has a degree in Agronomy,” said Sarah Clark. “It’s just an opportunity every day for us to bounce ideas off of each other and I really value that he includes me in the operation, and we get to share as much as we do on the farm together.”

Beyond the farm, Sarah works to keep farmers and their operations informed in Sunflower County, and also taking part in the grass roots process Farm Bureau is built on, allowing member farmers to bring their issues and solutions through the country Farm Bureau, even if it means taking a break to bend the ear of her regional manager.

“I didn’t fully realize the impact that Farm Bureau has across our state,” said Sarah Clark. “As I have transitioned out of the college age and into just young professional, young business professional, I have begun to realize how many people truly are impacted by Farm Bureau’s work and certainly that’s helped because I’d stayed in an agriculture field.”

Sarah attended county Farm Bureau meetings growing up, and has previously won the collegiate discussion meet and the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation Discussion Meet. She and her husband are also taking part in the current Thad Cochran Agriculture Leadership Program class. She says it’s a way to grow personally and professionally in order to be the best advocate for agriculture.

“The Discussion Meet at the collegiate level got me out of my comfort zone.  It was really a push to get into Farm Bureau and, I think, I realized then that there is a lot to learn from other people and, you know, being in Sunflower County or being raised in Oktibbeha County, you’re exposed to a small set of agricultural practices,” said Sarah Clark. “When you’re in Farm Bureau meetings and participating in events like this, you have an opportunity to learn from people who are involved in all aspects of the industry.”

Sarah plans to keep learning and keep working hard for a better future, and not just for her and Gentry, but for all of Mississippi agriculture.

“We’re hopeful that through just growing our operation that we will be open to more leadership roles, just with it sort of being promotion more or even if it’s something as simple as being able to join Farm Bureau on the State Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee and share a little bit more about who we are and our story,” said Sarah  Clark.