Greg Hoelscher has lived on a 40 acre farm near Humansville, Mo., in Polk County since 1992. He rents another 100 acres.
He described his 40 head of cattle as “dairy cow descendants. We had several heifers left from the milk cows and we’ve been breeding them to Angus and Gelbvieh bulls since.” Greg’s son, Lance, also has a few cattle.
Greg had a dairy farm for 15 years. About six years ago, he sold the dairy cattle and bought a feed store. Several things factored into the decision to get out of the dairy business. Greg stated, “Milk was cheap, and we had a helper get pretty close to being hurt real bad. I said, ‘It’s time to get out before somebody gets hurt.’”
Greg said, “I put myself in jeopardy one time. The bull was getting after one of my helpers and I tried to stop him. I later thought that was silly. I can’t stop a 2,200 pound bull.” He summed up the end of his dairy business by saying, “More or less, I got scared.”
But fear wasn’t the only factor. Greg said, “We were AI’ing and we had a fertilizer and lime business too. That was taking up a majority of our time when we were milking. So I wasn’t there very much and we hired a lot of help. It just took its toll on us.”
Greg believes the biggest problem facing farmers today is, “the volatility in our markets. There are so many uncertainties.” He continued, “There’s nothing to write home about. There’s no writing on the wall. There used to be some rules of thumb. Things always get high in the winter. Now, before winter even struck, everything skyrocketed.”
“C & M Farm Supply is a manufacturer of all livestock feeds,” he said. Greg would like to make several improvements at the feed store.
“When we bought the feed store, we started with the straight commodities,” Greg stated. “We did that for two years and then we went to pellet. We bought the pellet mill. We’ve come a long way. We’re just trying to build a customer base. We make a complete feed here. We carry a complete line of CM Grow feeds.”
This is Greg Hoelscher’s favorite season of the year. He called it “Feed Season,” and explained, “some people say ‘make hay when the sun shines.’ From the fall all the way till March is when we ‘make hay.’ We sell feed when the sun don’t shine. This is our prime time.”
