Craig & Carol Thompson
Hometown: Kingston, Ark.
In Town: “Carol and I moved from Texas to a beautiful spot outside of Kingston, Ark., where we now own three businesses,” said Craig Thompson. “One is Ranch One Realty, which opened in 2007. We sell mainly recreational property and farms with most properties being located in East Madison, West Newton and South Carroll counties. The second business is Ranch One Farm and Feed, just north Kingston. It contains livestock and pet feed, hunting products, hardware and veterinary supplies as well as fence gates and panels. The third business, opened in 2015, is a wholesale oil products distributing service called Elk River Distributing. We deliver packaged and bulk oil products to businesses in Northwest Arkansas. These products include hydraulic oils, motor oils and bar chain oils.”
In the Country: “We live near Kingston where we raise commercial beef in a cow/calf operation,” Craig said. “Our mamas are predominantly a Gelbvieh/Angus mix, bred by an Angus or Gelbvieh bull. We are trying the Gelbvieh for the first time after seeing positive results with the neighbor’s herd. These results included good mothering instincts and milk production. However, since we are still in the testing stage, making any statement about results would be both uninformed and unfair. Time restraints necessitate purchasing our hay. Another benefit of having cattle is using overstocked cattle related products from our feed store operation. This practice balances our inventory and decreases the feed store’s operating costs which makes good business sense.”
Future: “Perhaps someday we will have more time to devote to developing the cattle herd we love. For now we are focusing on developing our businesses, perhaps consolidating them in one location in town which may eventually decrease the time pressure,” said Craig.
