• By Chris Aldridge
• Kentucky Agricultural News

In December 1808, Abraham Lincoln’s father, Thomas, bought a farm in LaRue County where the nation’s 16th president was born two months later.

That same month, Caleb Ragland’s ancestors moved to the county and settled on a farm of their own.

The Lincolns moved to Indiana in 1816, but the Raglands remained. Today, the ninth generation of Raglands maintain on that same farm.

“We kept on farming here,” Caleb, 34, said via telephone from his farm near Magnolia, Kentucky. “We’re really proud of that heritage.

“We’ve got deep roots in LaRue County,” he told Kentucky Farm Bureau News. “There’s been different crops and different livestock, but we’ve always adapted and been able to stay involved in agriculture.”

Most of the Raglands’ 25 employees work in its farrow-to-wean hog operation.

The large farm annually grows nearly 2,000 acres of seed production soybeans, which Caleb called “a little bit of a niche.”

“We grow for a few different companies,” he said. “We have lots of storage.”

Caleb said his family has grown the Asian bean for about 50 years.

“We’ve had soybeans as far back as I can remember,” he said. “My grandfather started growing them in the 1970s.”

Last year was a banner year for soybeans, with Kentucky farmers harvesting a record average yield of 55 bushels per acre.

“We had a very good crop overall, corn and soybeans,” Caleb said. “We had plenty of moisture for the most part. We can deal with excessive moisture better than we can with not enough.”

The Raglands also produce 2,000 acres of corn and 1,500 acres of winter wheat for Kentucky’s bourbon industry.

Caleb, his wife Leanne, and their three sons are doing an “outstanding” job, according to Farm Bureau. After being named Kentucky Farm Bureau’s Outstanding Young Farm Family at the virtual annual meeting in December, the Raglands went on to win the national contest at the 2021 American Farm Bureau Federation Virtual Convention.

“It was such an honor to be named this year’s national winners,” Caleb said. “We have dreamed of this for so long.”

Caleb serves on the board of directors of the American Soybean Association and serves as chairman of the Kentucky Soybean Association’s legislative committee. He also is president of the Kentucky Livestock Coalition and LaRue County Farm Bureau, and sits on two committees: the Kentucky Farm Bureau Swine Advisory Committee and Farm Service Association County Committee.

Caleb graduated Summa Cum Laude from Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, with a bachelor’s degree in business management and economics/finance. Caleb and Leanne hope to pass the family farm down to the 10th generation – their three sons: Charlie, 10, Cory, 8, and Carter, 5.

“We’re going to do our best to have our farm in a position where the next generation can take it and run with it if they want to,” Caleb said. “That’s our goal.”