As he plows through a sprawling soybean field in a combine harvester, Christian McCarty’s two-way radio is buzzing. His brother Keaton, 19, is asking if the combine is ready to be emptied into his grain cart. They are a team.
“We keep each other in check,” says Christian, 22.
The McCarty brothers grew up helping their grandfather, Mike, work on his farm from as early as age 5. At age 11, each purchased his first tractor. At age 18, each purchased his own plot of land. Today, the two brothers and their grandfather work on each other’s farms, with the help of a few family friends.
Becoming a farmer was an obvious path, both brothers agree. Keaton quit the football team in high school to focus more on his farming. The long hours and weather conditions don’t faze his love for the cattle and crops. Some days end at 3 a.m.
“The job can be the most inconvenient it ever was, and you still love it,” Keaton says.
The brothers’ relationship doesn’t come without name-calling and teasing, but their chemistry is strong. “It blows my mind that two brothers can get along that well,” says Eric Davis, a family friend who helps the brothers in his free time.
Together they work on their combined 2,000 acres of farmland, feeding cattle and harvesting corn and soybeans. Fall is the soybean-harvest season, and the brothers work tirelessly into early hours of the morning to complete all the fields. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are often eaten on the tailgate of a truck, with the headlights of the combine illuminating their meals in the dark.
For Christian, there is no better coworker than his brother. “He’s actually got some sense,” Christian says. “He understands the day to day.”
The McCarty brothers plan to stay in Mt. Sterling and continue to work on the family land. “Me and him rely on each other so much, that I don’t know what’d we’d do without each other,” Keaton says.