Hard work and old-fashioned ways are important and are proving to be profitable for Kenny and Pam Underdown of Alpena, Ark. They have taken their love for work horses and horse-drawn equipment and incorporated them into their farming operation. The Underdowns own and operate Still Springs Farm, a 920-acre beef cattle and haying operation on the banks of the Osage Creek. They have 120 commercial mama cows and handle some 200 feeder calves per year and harvest approximately 70 acres of bermuda grass that normally yields 10,000 to 12,000 square bales of hay per year.
Kenny is a semi-retired residential contractor and Pam works full-time on the farm. They are proud of the improvements they have made to the farm since initially purchasing 420 acres in 1995 and another 500 acres in 2000. “When we bought the farm, all but the bottoms were timberland and there were no fences. The bottoms couldn’t even be mowed. We sprayed, bush hogged, cut timber, sowed grass and built fences. Me and my wife and kids did about 95 percent of the work ourselves,” said Kenny.
The Underdowns were both raised on small farms. Kenny came from a small dairy farm in Carroll County where his father taught him how to raise their own feed and work mules. “Dad rented land to grow grain. We raised our own feed. We used a hammer mill to make our own feed. When I was nineteen, Dad helped me break a team of mules to work. The mules were broke to plow the garden and to pull a wagon. My dad taught me how to do all that, but I didn’t like it at the time,” said Kenny.
Time has changed things a bit. “Five years ago, I wanted to get back in the work-horse business. I decided I wanted horses this time,” said Kenny. He bought a team of Haflinger horses that weighed 1,200 lbs. each. Within a year he was plowing with them. Kenny prefers using leather harness equipment and blind bridles with his team. “Plowing ground really makes them pay attention to you. I use blind bridles because I think they need to completely trust what we are doing,” said Kenny.
Since Kenny has been a collector of horse-drawn equipment for several years, he uses the horses to plow fields, rake hay, bring wood to the house in the winter, work two gardens and to drive his family to church on Sundays occasionally. The Underdowns’ collection also includes a doctor’s buggy and a carriage. Kenny has delivered a bride to her wedding destination in the carriage. Most of the ride-on equipment in his collection was found in Missouri. However, he just recently finished restoring a horse-drawn planter that belonged to his uncle.
One year ago, Kenny decided to try his hand at growing corn. With the price of corn and fuel going up, using the horses seemed like the logical thing to do. He used horses to plow and disc the ground. The corn was planted with a horse drawn corn planter and cultivated three times with a riding one-row cultivator. In the meantime, Kenny built a grain house to store his harvest and bought a hammer mill mixer just like he had used many years ago. Three acres were picked and shocked using a row-binder and a tractor. When it dried, the shocks were put through the hammer mill and mixed with salt to make salt mix. The remaining seven acres of corn were picked and ground with a two-row corn picker and tractor.
The Underdowns received a 70 bushel per acre yield on their corn patch. They mixed the ground corn with cottonseed mill and fed their feeder calves all winter with it.
Since their experiment turned out so well last year, Kenny and Pam are trying again. This year they planted another ten acres of corn to use for feed and hope to plant an acre of watermelons to share with their family and friends. “This year I’m gonna sure do it for real,” said Kenny.
The torrential rains delayed the planting for a few weeks, but Kenny and his good friend, Eldon Walker, were able to get the corn in the ground in late April. Underdown and Walker spent approximately eight hours planting the ten acres of corn. During that time all that could be heard was the water running in the creek, the planter and harness leather clanking and creaking and occasionally a horse blowing off steam.
Kenny and Pam think it is important to keep some of the old-time ways of life alive. In addition to their work horses, they brought a windmill in from South Dakota and use it to pump water into their home. “The old-time ways don’t pay good a lot of times, but I still like it. I think we need to keep them alive,” said Kenny.
