Jo Anne Rickman
In Town: Jo Anne Rickman is concluding 30 years in the field of education, 16 of which has been in her hometown of Stockton, Mo.
Currently, Jo Anne teaches pre-Algebra and Algebra I at Stockton High School. She wears many hats at the school, which range from driving a bus route, working the clock for basketball games, keeping the book for volleyball matches, and teaching summer school.
Jo Anne spent many hours at Stockton coaching the girls’ high school and junior high basketball and volleyball teams, the boys’ baseball team, and she started the softball program at Stockton.
Jo Anne enjoys working with the kids the most.
“It is fun when you see the light bulb come on, it is cool to see that,” Jo Anne commented. She will retire from teaching in June, but plans to continue working the clock and keeping the book for the games.
In the Country: Jo Anne’s family raised cattle when she was growing up, so naturally when she moved back to Stockton, Mo., to continue her teaching career, she started a herd of her own. She grazes her small herd of Angus crossbred beef cattle on her grandparents, Joe and Georgia Rickman’s, farm where her mother, Carole Rickman, still resides.
Since the majority of her time is spent at school, most of the chores are done in the evening, after she completes her bus route, and on the weekend.
Jo Anne prefers her herd to calve in the spring and fall. This allows her to manage calving season with as much ease as possible and gives her an income during both seasons.
Another management tool Jo Anne uses to keep her herd low maintenance is using calving ease bulls.
“I want the calves to be around 50 to 55 pounds. I don’t want them bigger than that,” Jo Anne explained. “I don’t want to be pulling calves.”
She also selects and retains cows that are structurally correct, consistently breed back, and produce a high weaning weight calf.
After retirement, Jo Anne plans to add a few cows to her herd and dedicate more time to farm maintenance and fence repair.
