By Taylor Parrish on February 5, 2021
NASHVILLE, NC – Trey Braswell, of Braswell Family Farm, grew up with a strong love and heart for agriculture. In his high school years, Trey was involved with the building of the farms grading plant and took many poultry science classes throughout college at N.C. State University. Although he ventured away for a short time, the calling of his family farm in Nashville quickly brought him back home.
Braswell Family Farms dates to Trey’s great-grandad, Ronald, who bought Boddie Mill in 1943, with his brother Joe, because the small family farm was not enough to support all the children in their generation. Since that day, by God’s grace, the family business has grown to house 1.8 million laying hens, in all types of egg-farming environments, and provide some of the state’s best nutritional, value-added, high-quality eggs. “We have a variety of chickens, some that lay brown eggs and some that lay white eggs,” Trey says, “about 1/3 of those eggs are cage-free and organic. We hope to bring that number up to half in the next five to ten years.”
As manager of both farm animals and employees, Trey’s life on the farm can vary from day to day. Employees of Braswell Family Farm are busy in the chicken houses every day and night, feeding, watering and nurturing the animals. “One day I might be walking in manure pits checking for maintenance issues and the next I might be developing and supporting our leadership team,” Trey says, “but we care deeply for our birds and have people staffed every hour of every day to ensure they have the best care possible.” Trey and his family are also members of the Got To Be N.C. program because they are proud supporters of our state’s agriculture industry. In fact, Trey serves as Board President of the North Carolina Egg Association, where he helps promote buying local eggs. Trey is continuing a legacy in this position as well since his grandfather, Ronald Braswell, was elected to the board in 1974.
The Braswell families busiest time of year is during the holiday season throughout Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. “Contrary to popular belief, Easter does not seem to be the biggest egg consuming holiday anymore,” Trey said, “Christmas seems to take the cake.” One Christmas tradition for his family is to use Braswell Family Farm eggs with Bass Farm sausage and a variety of veggies to make a delicious egg casserole.
Products from their farm can be found at a variety of local retail chains under various labels, including Eggland’s Best Eggs and Natural Choice. “Getting to provide for people, our workers and the community at large, is incredibly rewarding,” Trey said, “we want the relationships we establish to not simply be transactional but impactful. Our priority is to glorify God in all we do and to better the lives of those we meet.”
