Don Rainbolt
Family: A daughter, Laykyn Rainbolt
Hometown: Leslie, Ark.
Town Life: “After working in commercial maintenance, I began Rainbolt Excavating Services out of my home in Leslie, Ark., eight years ago. I do housing, NRCS projects (especially water systems for farms) footings, roads and driveways, to name a few. Normally, I have one or two guys working for me but not at the moment though I am very busy. Five years ago I built a city street in Marshall that started with dirt ground and became an asphalt-topped road.”
Country Life: “I have 100 acres of family land in Leslie and lease an additional 200 acres. Between my daughter Laykyn and me, we have 30 registered Black Angus mommas and one bull. We use both AI and natural cover. I use AI on my best producers and all heifers, and choose bull semen to match the cows to maintain a variety of genetic strains and to meet customer’s diverse needs. Some customers want lower birth weights, some higher. Others want higher weaning weights, but disposition is always the number one criterion. I sell bulls right off the farm by word-of-mouth and have kept all our heifers the last several years because buying them is too expensive. Rotational grazing is systematic with the cattle moving every Sunday through our five similarly sized pastures. My health protocol includes vaccinating once a year with a broad spectrum vaccine and worming twice yearly. I hay cool season grasses and some clover which means the cattle eat dormant grasses in the summer though I grain feed as well, especially my bull calves.”
Together: “My two businesses work well together. I’m always learning from the people I work for in the excavating business and sometimes sell bulls to them. While each business stands on its own, profit margins are tight and we need both incomes.”
Future: “Our goal is to keep expanding the herd and leasing more land with the intent of having a production sale of our own. For the last two years, Laykyn has had the high-points Angus bull in Arkansas and may someday keep cattle as a part of her adult life.”
