Sunbelt - Sunbelt Expo Program 2019

DANNY CUNNINGHAM grew up on a sixty-acre dairy farm in Calloway County, Kentucky. At thirteen he learned to drive an old pickup truck to school on back roads because his dad figured by letting him drive, he could get home at least an hour earlier than if he took the bus. And that hour could be spent on farm chores.

Tasked with a lot of the milking,
Cunningham wasn’t thrilled about that
part of agricultural life. He recalls, “I loved
working the land, so I started renting
ground for row cropping and growing
tobacco. I bought my first farm in 1964
and built our family farm house in 1967.
My wife, Judy, was my number-one hand
on the farm. She could do anything I could
do — drive tractors, combines, and grain
trucks — while doing a wonderful job of
raising our three daughters.”
The Cunningham girls were active in
4-H, softball, church, and school-related
activities and automatically helped with
farm chores. Judy, who passed away in
2016, had been a member of the Calloway
County Farm Bureau, a 4-H leader, a Girl
Scout leader, a Sunday school teacher,
and a member of the Calloway County
Homemaker Group.

Family has always been the heart and
soul of this enterprise. Oldest daughter,
Deana Cunningham Chadwick, maintains
the farming books. She is the bookkeeper,
payroll manager, and the purchasing and
accounts payable manager. She also weighs
the trucks and completes the receipts. Her
husband, Ricky Chadwick, works full-time
on the farm, driving tractors and trucks.
Middle daughter, Dana Cunningham
Martin, works with marketing and publicity
for the farm. Her husband, Terry Martin, is
the regional sales manager at H&R Agri-
Power. He oversees the purchasing and
leasing of equipment. Youngest daughter,
Denese Cunningham King, is responsible
for the technology equipment used by the
farm and is the assistant payroll manager.
Brad King, her husband, provides assistance
during planting and harvesting season,
driving tractors and trucks as needed.
Cunningham currently rents 4,290 acres
and owns 75. He has been farming now for
nearly sixty years. He grows 2,400 acres of
food-grade white corn with a yield of 156
bushels per acre; 1,900 acres of soybeans
with a yield of 48 bushels per acre; 25 acres
of dark tobacco with a yield of 3,850 pounds
per acre; and 400 acres of wheat with a yield
of 80 bushels per acre. He has the capacity
to store 300,000 bushels of grain, storing
everything he grows and shipping corn
throughout the winter to the mill.

He also does his own marketing, saying, “The basis is already set with corn, making it easier to market independently. Now, with smart phones and computers, technical help and information is at your fingertips. White corn garners a $1.00 premium that has helped keep the bottom line healthy.” He can sell in 5,000-bushel corn, soybean, and wheat contracts. His dark tobacco crop