Family: Husband, Daniel
Hometown: Mountainburg, Ark.
In Town: “Daniel and I have been married 2 1/2 years. For the last year I have worked as an intake coordinator for Valley Behavioral Health in Barling, Ark.. I assess prospective patients and work with our treatment team to determine the best treatment options for them within our facility. Patients are court, family or self initiated. My husband Daniel has a degree in animal science and a masters’ in agricultural economics. He works as a loan officer for Farm Credit in Prairie Grove, Ark. We also serve as assistant pastors of Living Waters Church in Chester, Ark.”
In the Country: “I am a city girl and Daniel is a country boy. Daniel’s father was in an accident and needed some daily help so I was readily open to moving to the homeplace in Mountainburg to help him. We buy a handful of calves and feed them for 12 to 18 months on a feed ration devised by Daniel before selling. This ration reflects Daniel’s deep and continued interest in animal nutrition. My mother, Krista, and I have recently decided to become partners in raising Myotonic goats, more commonly known as fainting goats. People around here don’t have them and I find them fascinating. They have protruding eyes and long or short hair usually in black or white. While they can produce cashmere in colder weather and can be used as meat goats, they are generally smaller than other meat goat breeds and are easier to take care of because their smaller size is easier on the land and fencing. We are in the planning stages which means we haven’t decided whether we will sell them for meat, as show animals or for cashmere production. The whole process of figuring all this out is both interesting and challenging. The last part of our country life is that we have egg laying hen’s for our personal use.”
Future: “Daniel really loves his job at Farm Credit and says he’ll stay there as long as they will let him. I also really love my job and find it challenging and interesting. However, some day, I may be interested in opening up a private practice. The real change we are looking for in the future is buying more land in the area, hopefully contiguous but not necessarily so, in order to expand our livestock production.”
