Hometown: Ozark, Ark.
Family: Daughter, Haley
In Town: Toby has worked for Shelter Insurance for 22 years. The family agency began in 1967 when his father, Gene Hogan, became an agent for MFA Insurance, which later became Shelter Insurance. Gene worked with his wife Norma until they both retired five years after Toby joined the agency.
Kim is a CPA and, in 1999, made the decision to purchase half interest in a local CPA firm which then became Leding & Hogan CPAs.
In the Country: “My grandparents raised cattle. My father, Gene, was a cowboys’ cowboy and probably born 100 years too late,” Toby said. “After passing in 2017, he left my mother his 1,300-acre dream ranch, cattle and a lifetime of memories. As a result of that heritage, Kim and I run 115 momma cows and 30 replacement heifers on 600-plus acres north of Ozark, Ark. We primarily keep commercial Red and black Angus cows and breed them to Red Angus, Hereford and Charolais bulls. Typically, I buy bulls from regional breeders or Pharo Cattle Company and select for traits such as calving ease, muscling, disposition and conformation. Our goal is to produce offspring that efficiently convert grass into high-quality beef. Most years we wean calves at 400 to 500 pounds and sell at the I-40 Livestock Auction. We are more concerned with pounds of beef produced per acre than we are with pounds per calf. Further, we believe high quality, efficiently-sized cows, weighing 1,000 to 1,200 pounds do a better job utilizing grass and other inputs than larger cows.
“Two practices we consider to be big advantages in consistent herd improvement are selecting replacement heifers that exhibit an inherent ability to utilize their surroundings with little assistance and rotating brand and distribution methods of wormers and vaccines.”
Future: The couple say they want to improve their land and forages, using cost-share programs to make improvements more quickly and efficiently.
