Benjamin Nobles

With a farming legacy dating back to the 1920s, Nobles Family Farm has a rich history in the Missouri boothill. Today, Benjamin Nobles and his brother operate in Missouri and Northeast Arkansas growing rice, corn, and soybeans.  

The Nobles family started with Benjamin’s great-grandfather and has been passed down through the generations. Nobles’ father and uncle retired last year after growing the operation and acquiring land in Arkansas. This is the first season of Nobles and his brother’s partnership.

“Anybody that has been a farm kid feels like they’ve done it all their life, but I officially started full-time in 2008,” Nobles said.

Nobles grew up knowing he wanted to run the family farm one day. While his father and uncle were actively farming, Benjamin bought and began renting some ground while working on the family farm.  

When asked what keeps him interested in farming, Nobles said, “the satisfaction of raising a good quality, high yield crop. It doesn’t always happen, but it’s great when it does.”  

As longtime Riceland members, Nobles Family Farm understands the value a cooperative can bring to an operation. For the last few years, harvest has started earlier in the year, often for multiple crops at a time. For Benjamin, Riceland provides a “steady place” for them to deliver rice during a fast-paced harvest.  

As part of a cooperative, our members are a part of something bigger than themselves. When asked about the feeling of providing nutritious foods to other families, Nobles said, “I think it just has a different feel than delivering other places in that you feel that connection to how the grain gets from our fields to people’s dinner tables.”

In the agriculture industry, things move quickly, whether technology developments or production practices. For Nobles, the Riceland app is a staple in his day-to-day operations.

“It’s beneficial to be able to have the information available at our fingertips. We don’t have to search through paperwork; we can just open up our phone or tablet and it’s all in one spot.”  

For Nobles, one of the biggest challenges in agriculture is rising costs, making controlling input costs and marketing crops at the right time critical.  

Over the past few years, a major talking point has been sustainability markets and what that means for farmers. The Riceland Carbon Ready program is entering its third year, and Nobles Family Farms is a program participant.  

When asked what sustainability means to Benjamin, he said, “Sustainability is critical to keeping the resources available to keep our farm viable for decades to come.”  

We are thankful for our farmer-members like Benjamin, who have contributed to Riceland’s success for over 100 years!

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