It’s wedding season, at least for all my friends it seems. I’ve been to several weddings so far this year, and have plans for several more this fall. One was out in Lubbock, Texas, for Prairie Grove, Ark., native, Lindsay West’s wedding. (Lindsay West is, by the way, now Lindsay Kennedy.) It was a well-spent half a Saturday here recently, that I drove west through some of the most barren, desolate land I’d ever seen. We’re talking 30 miles of nothing. Nothing will make you appreciate Arkansas' green pastures like the Badlands of Texas. We passed some of the biggest ranches in the nation going southwest out of Wichita Falls on Highway 82. Four Sixes, Pitchfork, Spike Box… miles and miles of pipe corral fencing. My consolation was they just can’t run the numbers of livestock per acre, like we can here. Out there it takes thousands of acres to compare to our production levels. The more I got to thinking about it, northwest Arkansas is a strong cattle-producing region, with the top counties concentrated right here in the Ozarks. So really, those big ol’ ranches with their fancy logos and helicopter landing pads stuck in the middle of nowhere don’t have much on us, with our average farm size of 100 acres, and something like 40 head to a family’s herd. We’ve got prettier land, happier livestock and better proximity to friendly neighbors. There’s a level of pride I feel about our way of doing things; the way so many of us keep the cattle, keep the farm going. So I’d like to pat you on the back today, Ozarks livestock producer. I know Lindsay and her great new husband love it out there, but having seen those Texas ranchers’ tough environment, well, I just like our way better.
