In today’s America, more and more children of farmers are taking jobs in the city and less and less are returning to the farm. Matt and Amanda Crutcher both grew up on family farms. Matt’s dad was an AI tech with a commercial herd of cattle and Matt grew up showing cattle at the fairs. Amanda was raised by her parents alongside cattle, horses, sheep and pigs. Matt went to college at Fort Scott where he judged livestock and claimed the National Championship title. Amanda went to college at Fort Scott where she claimed the heart of her soon to be husband, Matt.
When they married, they together returned to a life in the country on their own farm. Today, the Crutchers and their two children, Lucas and Ryanne, live on a small farm about ten miles north of Springfield. Matt taught at Buffalo High School for two years as an agriculture education teacher and FFA Advisor. In 2000, he started teaching at Fair Grove.
Around that time the Crutchers started purchasing purebred Charolais. Matt was the co-owner (with the Hankins family, also of southwest Missouri) of most of their first cattle. “That really helped us out because I was able to have more cattle – and better quality cattle – since I didn’t have to buy them completely on my own,” said Matt. There’s also the benefit of having full-time help when you co-own cattle. Matt added, “The Hankins family is really established in the Charolais world, so it’s been great to work with them because we’ve been able to network with other successful Charolais breeders. I would recommend co-ownership to other breeders in a full-blood aspect.”
On their farm, Matt has a handful of high quality Charolais cattle and a small commercial herd as well. “I really want to have a few good quality animals as opposed to a lot of mediocre cattle,” he added. Matt shows his best Charolais at some fairs and at shows around the country. As an ag teacher, Matt always has a few students that show cattle with him. He goes to the Ozark Empire Fair, the State Fair and shows in Tulsa, Kansas City, Ft. Worth and Denver. “It just depends on how the cattle perform each year,” he added.
Though having the cattle for shows is a worthwhile venture, Matt and Amanda’s main purpose of owning their Charolais is for breeding. They want to breed a few really good, really high quality females each year to sell.
In the future the Crutcher family would like to get more commercial cattle and a few more Charolais. They want to put in more embryos and continue raising from birth the cattle on their farm. “We probably won’t go a whole lot bigger than we are now because land prices are so high and it’s hard to buy much land,” Matt added.
Matt is currently serving in his first year as the President of the Missouri Charolais Breeders Association, a two-year term. That is a sub-organization of the American International Charolais Association. He concluded, “The defining feature of our cattle is quality. We always want to be competitive on a national level and continue networking within the Charolais community.”
