Bryan Beshear
Family: Bryan Beshear lives in Cameron, Okla., with his wife Amanda and their children Paisley, 8, and Kashen, 5.
In Town: “My wife Amanda and I are both Ag teachers. I have taught for 16 years, 12 at Poteau High School. I teach grades nine through 12 with courses ranging from basic agriculture, Ag science, communications and advanced animal science to an Ag shop class. Amanda was our county extension agent for five years and has been teaching Ag in Cameron, Okla., grades eight through 12, for three years. Her program is similar but has the addition of horticulture.”
Country Life: “We have 15 acres in Cameron, Okla., which are cross-fenced into padlocks for a rotational grazing base. We had 30 Boer cross show goats but are now down to four, which we AI because that is more cost efficient than buying a buck. We also decreased the numbers because our children are starting to show almost every weekend including rabbits, mainly Mini Rex and Lionheads, at the county fair. Last June we added Dorper sheep and have bred five ewes we bought in central Texas. In this case, we leased a ram to get the best show genetics at the best cost. The sheep are much less time-consuming and make sense for our busy lifestyle. The combination of goats and sheep also makes sense for us because they graze oppositely, with the sheep eating the grasses and the goats the weeds and broadleaves. We simply rotate and all foliage is consumed so much so that when we had a couple of acres hayed, the man doing the haying asked if we did a lot of spraying because he saw no weeds. We supplement with alfalfa hay and MoorMans show feed. In addition, Amanda and I conduct all MoorMans goat and half of the sheep seminars in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. We do seminars on feeding and fitting, that is preparing for shows. Ag is all we do. We show, teach and go to school agricultural activities. Our children enjoy our lifestyle, and we are looking forward to them continuing to show and perhaps winning titles at the Oklahoma Youth Expo someday. At this point, our winnings pay for feed but not much more. Nonetheless, we sell show quality wethers, does and sheep hoping to expand our reputation through doing well in competitions whether those wins come from animals we sell or those our children show themselves.”
