Passing Down the Love of Farming

Rock’N C Farms, operated by the Stigall family, is located deep in the Ozark Mountains in Stone County near Galena, Mo.
The James River cradles the farm on three sides, creating a beautiful peninsula. The land has a rich history – part of the farm was originally purchased by Joseph Curbow in 1876. The farm remains in the Curbow family today. In 1949, Charlie Curbow purchased the farm’s first John Deere M, which enabled them to retire their team of horses and mules.
These days, Matt and Alexandra Stigall and their daughters Elizabeth, 8, and Kinzey, 3, live and work on the farm. Both Matt and Alexandra work jobs off the farm as well. Matt works in the maintenance department at the Springfield School District and Alexandra is a supervisor in the operations center at Great Southern Bank.
The family farm and where it is today is almost like a love story.
Alexandra’s grandfather, Lt. Colonel Elmer Curbow, completed two tours in Vietnam, flying missions in war torn Southeast Asia, and later worked at the Pentagon, but he was a country boy at heart and longed to go home to the farm and his wife, Connie, who waited for him there.
Elmer bid farewell to the U.S. Army at Fort Eustis, Va., in 1986, retiring after 45 years of service.
In the years that followed his retirement and subsequent move back to the family farm, Elmer shifted gears and devoted his full attention to the farm. He purchased additional acreage that was part of the land that the family had owned in 1876. He mentored Alexandra, teaching her everything he knew of the land and his commercial cattle operation. Elmer and Alexandra worked side-by-side together under the Missouri sun, but to her it wasn’t “work,” the land was deep in her soul.
“I was his little farm hand and son he never had,” Alexandra recalled. “He was my dad and my grandfather.”
Alexandra became rooted in agriculture at an early age. She was highly involved in FFA and employed at Ozark MFA during high school. She also showed cattle.
She graduated from Ozark High School in 2006 and went on to earn her State FFA Degree, and continued her education at Ozarks Technical College. She kept her eye on the goal, increasing her knowledge of farming for the future. She learned EPDs, something Elmer knew little about. She took this new found knowledge to Farmfest and bought a bull every year.
Elmer became ill and was no longer able to carry out the day-to-day operations on the farm. Matt and Alexandra were married the year before and she was expecting their first child. Elmer kept his illness a secret from the family until after the birth of baby Elizabeth, not wanting to diminish the new family’s joy.
“He lasted about a year,” she recalled. “One day he called me to his bedside at the hospital and asked me if I could quit my job and run the farm.” Alexandra went straight to the phone and quit her job at MFA.
“We didn’t live on the farm then, it was winter and I had baby Elizabeth with me. Many times it would be dark before we got the hay put out. Matt was traveling for his job and he couldn’t be home all the time,” Alexandra said.
It was during this time that Elmer’s widow, Connie Curbow, Alexandra’s grandmother, stepped in. She did chores, babysat and helped the young family anyway she could.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today without the incredible support from my Mimi Connie,” Alexandra said.
Matt, a hard-working pastor’s son from Ava, Mo., had no previous farm experience, but to him it was just an awesome adventure.
“It was one of those situations,” Matt explained. “After her grandfather passed away – it just kind of flowed. One day we were doing hay when I first met Alexandra, and we were taking a break under a big tree. Her grandpa said, ‘If my dad and grandpa could see how we’re farming, they wouldn’t believe it.’ His mother literally flipped the hay over with a pitch fork. They hauled it all up on wagons back then.”
Today, Rock’N C Farm runs smoothly under the Stigall’s watchful eye. Elmer’s tractors and farm implements can still be heard chugging through the fields daily.
The Rock’N C is a faith- and family-based farm. They strive to build a customer base by building relationships and knowledge of what is best for their customer’s operation. Their focus and passion is producing top quality Angus and Salers cattle that will be a success in the field, and in the show ring.
Their motto is: “If we won’t keep it on our farm, we won’t sell it to a buyer looking for replacement heifers or a herd bull.”
The Stifalls have slowly added registered cattle to the farm. They enjoy looking at the bloodlines and EPDs, which will hopefully enable them to produce the perfect prospect.
Salers cattle are known for being low maintenance cattle. Salers and Optimizer females have very few calving problems and thrive on self- care.
The combination of Salers and Angus genetics adds fertility, milk production, calving ease, longevity and mothering abilities. This moderately framed cow keeps themselves in good condition on the forage available to them.