David Walt

David Walt is owner of Camp David Farms in Dumas and a longtime leader in row-crop agriculture, raising soybeans, cotton and rice. He is known best as an aggressive and unyielding advocate for the soybean industry. Walt began farming in 1962, after returning home from the University of Arkansas, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He farmed for many years with his brother, Martin. Walt spent five years (1962-67) in the Arkansas Air National Guard and a year (1968) on active duty with the U.S. Air Force. While he retired from “full time” farm work in 2007, Walt remains active (especially at harvest time) on the family farm, where the fifth generation of the Walt family carries on. Walt was especially keen on agricultural research, and was an active participant in numerous land improvement, soil conservation and seed variety projects. Walt was appointed to serve on the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board in 1987 by then-Gov. Bill Clinton, and served for 16 years on that committee, being reappointed by Govs. Jim Guy Tucker, Mike Huckabee and Mike Beebe. He is a past president of the Arkansas Soybean Association (and spend 33 years on its board), was fund-raising chair for the Tri-State Soybean Forum, and a longtime board member for the Desha County Farm Bureau. He served as a founding member of the Arkansas Foundation for Agriculture. He is also a Lifetime Board Member of Economics Arkansas, which promotes economic literacy throughout the state. Walt is a past member of the Dumas School Board, Merchants and Farmers Bank board of directors and was named Man of the Year by the Dumas Chamber of Commerce in 1983. The Walt family was named Desha County Farm Family of the Year and Southeast District Farm Family of the Year in 1993.