This episode of In Our Expert Opinion Real Estate Podcast welcomes Chance Creighton, an avid sportsman with deep roots in Arkansas's agricultural industry, to discuss the state's appeal as a prime location for both farm and recreational investment. Hosted by Arkansas Managing Director David Hill, the conversation covers some of the state's main crops—soybeans, corn, cotton, and rice—and explores various specialized farming techniques adapted from the state's unique geography and climate. David and Chance also discuss Arkansas’s excellent hunting opportunities, various conservation programs and agricultural incentives, and other lucrative land investment strategies.
Below is an excerpt from the interview. Listen above for the full podcast.
Chance Creighton, expert in farming and hunting in Arkansas
What makes Arkansas ideal for farming and hunting? I think to understand that, you need to understand the geography of Arkansas a little bit–it's split between the Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains in the west and the north and the Mississippi Alluvial Plain in the east.
The Mississippi River creates Arkansas's eastern border. Everything in between [the Arkansas River and the Mississippi River] is the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. That plain is the result of river sediment deposits over a millennia creating really rich soil, which just creates a perfect habitat for agriculture, but also ducks. We're right in the middle of the Mississippi Flyway, which more or less is the interstate for bird travel from north to south.
When you get into the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, you've got all this rich soil that's flat and holds water. You've got a perfect storm of bottomland timber that holds water in the winter, but also is a perfect habitat for rice field production. You can hunt green-headed mallards in a rice field and then the next day, hunt them in bottomland timber. Any hunter would love to hunt Arkansas.
What types of crops are produced in Arkansas? You really have four main ones; you've got corn, soybeans, cotton, and rice. We're the 10th largest producer in soybeans, we're the fourth largest producer in cotton–we produce a little over a half million acres–but what we hang our hat on is that we're ranked number one in the country in rice production. We're harvesting 1.6 million acres on average a year and that creates tremendous opportunity for rice production, but also for jobs in the state. [Rice production] produces over 20,000 jobs so the economic benefit to the state is pretty incredible.
Chance Creighton joins Arkansas Managing Director David Hill on the In Our Expert Opinion Real Estate Podcast to discuss the agriculture and recreation as key drivers for Arkansas land investment.
Irrigation in Arkansas. A lot of what goes on in Arkansas, particularly cotton, corn, and soybeans, is furrow irrigation. Generally, just at a high level, you take evenly spaced plows, you go in the field, dig those trenches, and it creates what we call a bed. That seed bed is where you plant the crop. You lay flexible plastic pipe on the high end of the field, and then you water from the high to low; this is pretty unique to Arkansas.
In addition to that, Arkansas has great access to water. This is important. We don't get the rainfall that the Midwest gets, and we can't depend on dry land because of our climate. Through the aquifer, we have really great access to subsurface water, but we're inundated with canals, ditches, reservoirs, ponds, rivers, and lakes. All of that culminates to bring us a lot of access to water. Where you have access to water, you have access to making consistent crops. Having an investment that pays year over year consistently is a huge benefit.
With the rice, generally speaking, you're in a constant flood. It's a semi-aquatic plant. We manage weeds in rice by putting a flood on it. It can withstand the constant soaking and moisture, but that flood is also going to keep grasses out. [Rice] is not Roundup-resistant like soybeans, cotton, or corn would be. It can't be sprayed with Roundup to kill the grasses, so we manage those pesky grasses with water.