Howetown: Summers, Ark.
Family: Wife Christina; and daughter Brinkley
In Town: Dax Moreton is the loan manager and executive vice president of the Prairie Grove, Farmington, Lincoln and West Fork Arvest Bank. He has worked in Prairie Grove since September 2000.
“I started as a loan officer after graduating from Arkansas Tech with a degree in agribusiness and I later graduated from the Southwest Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. One of my major responsibilities is competing for quality loans by making the client part of the process so his needs, expectations and future plans are met. I am also president of the Lincoln School Board and want to make what is already a superior small school into a better place for my 11-year-old daughter Brinkley and others.”
In the Country: Dax and his wife, Christina, own and lease 185 acres in Summers, Ark.
“We have a cow/calf operation with 110 Angus/Gelbvieh momma cows bred by four registered bulls, two Angus and two Gelbvieh. They are paired by EPDs with an emphasis on small birth weight, good milk production and a high weaning weight rather than yearling weight because I sell my calves at 200 to 225 days, when they weigh 500 to 600 pounds. Bull calves are castrated rather than banded because I believe two or three days of stress is better than the two to three weeks with banding After receiving shots, the calves are sold at the sale barn in Joplin because they pick up my cattle and because they have been good to both my parents and me.
“I retain 10 percent of my heifers to introduce younger breeding mommas while improving herd genetics as I cull the older mommas. I feed my weaning heifers a 28 percent ration in addition to providing access to a lick tub. My breeding age heifers receive the same feed but only half as much, although I up the ration on my second calf heifers to promote breeding back. I fertilize in late April with poultry litter purchased locally to encourage Bermuda rather than Fescue growth. I boom spray with Grazon P + D for weeds, their follow up with spot spraying for honey locust using Remedy. I also help my folks on their farm.”
Present and Future: “This farm requires ‘all hands on deck.’ That means we have good family time and Brinkley and I have special father-daughter time. While Brinkley loves working on the farm, her heart is currently captured by pitching on a traveling softball team. My future plans are to increase acreage and finally retire to the farm.”
