Scott Cannada of Edwards, Miss., is the eighth generation of his family to farm in west central Mississippi. He is a member of a long-time Presbyterian (now PCA) family in central Mississippi. Ric Cannada, Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary, gives some background to the story.

A full time farmer for 11 years, Cannada says members of his family farmed in the area as early as 1827. His main enterprises are corn, soybeans and beef cattle.

As a result of his success as a crop and cattle farmer, Cannada has been selected as the 2011 Mississippi winner of the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award. Cannada now joins eight other state winners from the Southeast as finalists for the award.

The overall winner will be announced on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at the Sunbelt Ag Expo farm show in Moultrie, Ga.
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He doesn’t remember, but his former kindergarten teacher told him that he once missed school as a four-year-old to work on the farm. His grandfather later confirmed this incident.

Cannada does remember riding with his grandfather to check on cattle when he was eight years old.

In 1998 while he was still in college, his grandfather retired and gave him 230 head of beef cattle along with two tractors and hay equipment. After graduating from Mississippi State University in 2000, he returned to the family business to farm full time.
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He and his wife Lesley have two young daughters, Haley and Hayden. Lesley is a long distance runner. She worked in a medical clinic until their children were born.
She has been active in Farm Bureau with the Women’s Committee and the Young Farmer and Rancher program. She also is active in Junior League of Jackson and the Down Syndrome Society. “Now she works at home raising our children,” says Cannada.

“At some point, Lesley will relieve my mom in keeping books and handling accounting for the farm.”

“I’ve been fortunate to be a farmer,” he says. “All my income is from farming. My goal is to own more land and become less dependent on leased property. As I increase acreage, I also hope to increase grain storage capacity on the farm.”

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Comments from Ric Cannada, PCA Minister whose father was one of the founders of Reformed Theological Seminary and who is currently serving as the RTS Chancellor

Scott is the son of my first cousin. His father, Russell is my first cousin and farms with Scott. Part of the land they are farming was homesteaded by our ancestors and has always been farmed by our family since Europeans first went into that area. They are a very good family and they are heavily involved in the PCA church there in Edwards, MS, which is basically the heritage church of our family where my father, for instance, and Scott’s father and grandfather grew up and where my grandmother (Scott’s great grandmother) was the head of the Women in the Church for many years.

In addition, there is a small PCA church (Bethesda) out on the family farm near the old family home place that was the original Presbyterian Church in Hinds County (including Jackson) with a grave yard beside it that has graves going back to the original pioneers in the area. The land for the Bethesda church and graveyard was given to the church by our ancestors. Both the Edwards Church and the Bethesda Church have faithfully proclaimed the Scriptures and the Reformed faith throughout their history and continue to do so today.