Name: Tim Neidecker
In The Country: Tim runs 96 momma cows on 300 acres; half rented half owned. His dad helps at the farm, and Tim bought all his land from his father when he sold out two years ago.
In Town: Tim works for O.K. Industries, Inc., as an applications development manager. O.K. Foods, Inc., the selling branch of O.K. Industries, is a fully integrated poultry company which harvests 3 million birds weekly, and owns birds from hatching to the harvest. Tim is from Van Buren, Ark. He went to college at Westark (Now University of Arkansas, Ft. Smith) and graduated from Arkansas Tech at Russellville.
Family: Wife, Chansouda and son, Ethan, 3 years old. Tim's parents are Bob and Carol Jean Neidecker.
How do you balance the farm and the job?
"It has always been a struggle. My work is very flexible, I am able to take off should I need to. If there's a 'fire' I can come home and take care of it. My dad is around still and helps out a lot.
"We put up all our own hay, so I take off and use my vacation time during hay season."
What improvements would you like to see made to your farm?
"Pasture and forage management, intensive grazing. We have all our pastures split into 20 acres. I know I could get a lot more out if I would use electric fencing and put them on five acres at a time. The problem there is time- trying to do all that by yourself. My three-year-old son isn't able to help out a lot just yet."
What do you hope to improve on the farm in the future?
"I would like to improve our working facilities. We've got fairly good ones now, once we get the cattle up, they get the job done, but it could be better. Also, I'd like to continue improving the herd genetically. We got our first AI calf in 2003 and we've been doing that ever since. We breed for carcass traits and growth, but mostly carcass. Eventually I want to go back to putting calves in the feedlot, retain ownership, then get information back on the calves and do selection culling based on that information."
