As for the Meyer children in Sarcoxie, Mo., however, these lessons are just the beginning to the many they’ve learned by being involved on the family farm.
Following in his father and grandfathers’ footsteps, Eugene Meyer, Jr. is carrying on the tradition of a true “family farm.” As a young boy, Eugene grew up on his dad and grandpa’s land. His grandpa had a dairy farm but soon the dairy farm was sold out and the family started a Charolais operation.
Why Charolais?
“Dad and grandpa wanted a cattle herd different from everybody else’s, so they decided to go with the Charolais breed,” said Eugene, who grew up working and learning on this farm. After high school Eugene went to college to get his teaching degree. He worked at Carl Junction High School in Carl Junction, Mo., right out of college as the districts agriculture education teacher and FFA advisor. After a few years at Carl Junction, Eugene pursued and obtained the agriculture teacher position back in his hometown of Sarcoxie, Mo. There he met his wife of now 11 years, Lori.
Youth in Agriculture
Eugene and Lori have three children: Matthew, Eli and Emily (all pictured above with cousin Ana Clemons, middle right). “The main purpose of the farm is for the kids. We have 120 acres and rent 200 and on that land we run about 100 momma Charolais cows and replacement heifers and we keep a few herd bulls on hand. The kids are pretty involved in all of it.” The three kids show the cattle and have even made additions to the farm life with llamas, sheep and chickens.
Currently the Meyer Charolais operation is not regulated under an intensive grazing system, but Eugene wants to go to intensive rotational grazing in the future. “Right now, it’s hard to find the time to set up that kind of a grazing system because I’m at school every day, dad does the day to day chores and the kids help out with the other stuff,” said Eugene. This is very representative of the division of labor on the farm all the time. Grandpa Meyer (Eugene Sr.) gets to spend time with the grandkids during chores. Eugene Sr. owns a lot of the land in the operation, Eugene Jr. owns most of the cattle in the operation, and they split much of the machinery costs.
“It’s definitely a partnership between me and dad,” said Eugene.
The Land and Herd
The land the Meyers farm is a fescue mix that is over-seeded with orchard grass and red clover in the summers. “There are mostly ponds that we use for watering, but eventually we’d like to put in automatic waterers,” added Eugene.
The Charolais herd is a fall and spring calving operation. But because the kids (as well as some nieces and nephews) show calves in the summer, some calves are born throughout the year.
In the future, Eugene wants to keep the kids involved on the farm. “We want to improve the quality of cattle we have and eventually we’d like to raise a national class winner for one of the kids to show,” said Eugene.
Eugene would also like to be more of a seed-stock producer in the future. “Most everything we sell in our operation is right off the cow. We sell at Joplin Regional Stockyards because it’s right down the road.”
Overall, the Meyer operation is continuing in the tradition of a family farm. Eugene’s kids, if they continue production on the farm, will be fourth generation farmers. The lessons learned on this family farm, and others across the Ozarks, are invaluable to the future of American agriculture.
