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Texas Agriculture Archive

November 18, 2005

Charlie and Holly Rand

Charlie, Holly and Jacqueline Rand

By Tom Nicolette
Director of Media Services

Developing trust among clients and communicating with the world are strategies facing Charlie and Holly Rand in their agricultural careers. Charlie is vice president and branch manager at AgriLand Farm Credit Services while Holly is the marketing manager at Chamblee's Rose Nursery in Tyler.

"Our sole business is to address the needs of production agriculture and rural homeowners," Charlie said. "We provide lines of credit, we provide the needs for cash flow for production agriculture, people involved in it everyday that make their living full-time or part-time. We supply the capital means for them that they may need to have a successful business."

Holly is in the first few months in her new career as marketing manager at the East Texas nursery. She was hired to help expose the rose industry to people who know little about it: "As a former ag science teacher, I studied ag sales and ag marketing with my students and really found this as a challenge. I've come aboard here at Chamblee's to number one, develop their retail and wholesale website, and to make it more accessible to the world."

Charlie, 32, received his college education with an agricultural science degree from Texas A & M University. In his role at AgriLand Farm Credit Services, he places a lot of his decision-making process on the character and family history of the young people applying for ag production and rural home loans. "(We) weigh that fairly heavy and take into consideration their capital position at the current time may not be as great as someone more established," the credit services branch manager said.

For 30-year old Holly, who earned an agricultural science masters degree at Texas A & M University in Kingsville to go along with her horticulture teaching certification, simplification is the name of the game in horticultural industry marketing. "Really, what I've tried to do with the information in the rose industry is to simplify it for people. As they come through our doors, call us on the phone, look at us on the website or as they read our catalog, they're able to make a connection between what they don't know and what we can teach them," Holly said.

Charlie grew up on a farm in Kaufman County and Holly, a city girl at first, moved with her family to Jim Wells County to begin life on a farm. Today, with their 11-month-old daughter, Jacqueline, Charlie and Holly have their own commercial and registered Beefmaster cattle herd.