Name: Tommy Caudel
In the Country:
Tommy is the sale manager for the Heart of the Ozarks Angus Association. “I get consignments and put the sale catalog together, and get everything ready for the sales every year. (The sale is held in West Plains, Mo.) It’s a lot of responsibility – you have to make sure everything is in order for the sales, get the sale facility and make sure that is arranged for a year. We try to set everything up on a yearly basis as far as our auctioneers and ring men everything like that. We just have to be sure all this is taken care of.”
Tommy also runs 30 head of Angus cattle at the family farm in Salem, Ark., and markets their stock under the family company,TBC Angus.
In Town:
Tommy has worked for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department for 33 years. He is the area headquarter’s attendant and takes care of the books and payroll and all consigned stock.
Family: Wife, Becky and two children, Jeremy and Anthony, and eight grandchildren.
How do you balance time at work and at the farm?
“In the summertime I’ll work 10 hour days with the highway department, then try to take care of the farm and grandkids; there are not many spare hours in the day. My weekends – I have three days off – that helps out considerably,” Tommy said. Tommy and family AIs all their cows and he said they have to and keep up with performance data on all their registered females and bulls.
What are the biggest challenges keeping up with a registered herd?
“You have to stay on top of the figures because commercial breeders all want to have the most information that you can give them. We keep up with all birthing, weaning and yearling weights and do ultrasound data on our bulls and females as well.”
