In rural Texas, some things never change. Small town camaraderie. Crops and cattle. Friday night lights. DeWitt County Farm Bureau (CFB) membership grows. Again.

DeWitt County Farm Bureau membership has grown every year since 1949. That 70-year streak is likely the largest of any CFB in the nation.

“Agriculture has changed a lot over the past 70 years and so has Texas,” Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) President Russell Boening said. “We’ve gone from a largely rural to a majority urban population, with fewer people involved in farming and ranching every year. But the board members in DeWitt County have remained dedicated to keeping people engaged in agriculture and growing our membership the entire time.”

It’s a big accomplishment. No other CFB in Texas has even come close. As far as anyone knows, it’s also a record for the American Farm Bureau Federation, too.

“I called American Farm Bureau to see if they had any knowledge of other County Farm Bureaus having that many years of membership gains, but they don’t keep that information at the county level,” TFB Director of Field Operations Charles Benton said. “But they did say it’s an impressive feat.”

It’s not an easy task to keep adding members year after year. But it’s always been a priority in DeWitt County, according to current DeWitt CFB President Wes Dukes.

“We have several longtime members who have said, as far back as they can remember, it was always important to move forward,” Dukes said. “I’ve been a board member on and off for 30 years now, and it was instilled in me early on that we were always trying to increase our membership and increase our reach for rural Texas and Texas agriculture.”

Some years are tougher than others for membership. There have been some years, Dukes noted, when board members and county employees had to work more to achieve a gain, but the efforts have always paid off.

“We go into the year beginning on Nov. 1 knowing we have to add new members,” he said. “We’re a small town, rural community. We don’t have a huge population, so we’ve really had to work some years to keep making those gains. But all the board has literature on hand to sign up people, all the time. We’re very active in promoting Farm Bureau and recruiting new members whenever and wherever we can.”

Dukes said the DeWitt CFB board and other members are involved in recruitment because people in the area know what explosive urban growth can mean in a rural community.

“DeWitt County is a great place to live,” he said. “And because we’re rural, Texas Farm Bureau is even more important. Having representation as cities around us grow is just absolutely vital. We believe strongly in what the organization does for rural Texans and farmers and ranchers in Austin and Washington, D.C.”

The membership gains wouldn’t be possible without the help of longtime CFB Secretary Myra Parr, he added. It’s a point of pride to all DeWitt CFB staff that they’ve managed to help keep the record going for so long.

“Our philosophy is there’s always room for improvement,” Dukes said. “Until the last person in DeWitt County is a member, we won’t quit.”

For more information on Texas Farm Bureau membership, visit https://texasfarmbureau.org/membership/.