Introducing the Farm Press/Cotton Foundation High Cotton winner each year is a highlight. U.S. farmers work tirelessly, day-in and day-out, risking everything to produce the world’s safest food and fiber, so when we have the opportunity to spotlight one of them, in a way it’s like spotlighting all of them.

This year I get to present Dahlen Hancock of New Home, Texas, the 2019 High Cotton Award for the Southwest states. While Dahlen has accomplished many great things on the farm and on behalf of the cotton industry, serving in various capacities, it’s his connection to his late grandfather, D.W. Hancock, that caught my attention.

In our interview, Dahlen recalled growing up around his grandfather on land he had acquired through an FHA loan program in the 1940s — land they still farm today. He described his grandfather as a man he dearly loved and who was very engaged in farming. D.W. enjoyed playing dominos, trotline fishing, and his hound dogs. Dahlen recalls tanks full of goldfish at the farm. “Growing up, I was around those fish all the time, which was fun as a kid. I’ve always loved the farm.”

But after Dahlen graduated from high school, he left, wanting to get away from the farm. “This is not for me,” he said. But after two years in college and being an electrician for a couple of years, he says he started feeling the call to return home. “It’s an OK world out there,” he says, “but I found that I kind of liked those farm roots.”

Upon returning home and eventually taking on a quarter section of land, he says his grandfather continued to be an influence in his life. One of the things he particularly admired was is how he had employees helping him. “I saw that and I liked it. If somebody wasn’t at work one day, things were still going.” He wanted to manage his farm operation like his grandfather and began working toward that goal. 

D.W. has since passed away, and Dahlen himself has become a grandfather to a five-year-old little girl with big blue eyes and contagious energy —  Cora Elin Hancock. He will unabashedly tell you she is his world, his future, the reason he’s trying to leave the land better than the way he found it. He wants a future for her on the farm.

I wonder: What will she remember about her grandfather. Will it be his servant’s heart at church and within the agricultural industry? Will it be his sustainable practices on the farm today so she can have a viable inheritance with which to raise her family in the future? Or maybe it’s how he adores his wife and her, teaching her the value of a woman in a family and a business.

Whatever it is, you can’t downplay the power of a grandparent. Congratulations, Dahlen Hancock, on a rich heritage and a bright future!

Read more about Dahlen: