Hometown: Pea Ridge, Ark.
Family: Wife Chris; children Courtney, Whitney, Kenzie and Shelby; and grandchild Asa
In Town: “I have worked for FedEx at the Lowell location as an inbound operations supervisor for 26 of the 28 years I have worked for FedEx Freight and have always enjoyed it because no two days are the same. I currently design routes according to the packages we receive and their intended destinations. My wife Chris works for a wholesale company named Aarow in Alma as a sales manager. We were married three years ago. For now, Chris and I are together mostly on weekends only because we are both settled in our jobs.”
In the Country: “In Pea Ridge, we have 120 acres with 20 momma cows and 15 heifers. Most of the cows are Angus influenced, though our daughter, Shelby, has a Charolais momma she raised as a bottle calf and now has two calves of her own, with the first one going to have a calf this year. We have two herds and keep our bulls with the cows year-round because we don’t have time for anything else. We use an Angus/Beefmaster with the younger animals and a black baldie with the older mommas. We also have a young Angus-influenced bull we’re bringing on to be used with heifers. Both herds are within a mile of the house. We sell our calves at about 500 pounds and 9 months old. Everybody gets a 12-percent ration every day, with the mommas teaching the calves so they are bunk broke when we sell them. We raise and harvest our own Bermuda/fescue and clover hay, with Sagegrass being our biggest weed problem. We use commercial fertilizer and a general broadcast spray but we do spot spray for thistles. Our lifestyle wouldn’t work if my parents Pat and Gene didn’t take care of the cattle when I’m in Alma. Shelby is also part of the process and helps and knows how to do most everything.”
Future: “I plan to move to Alma when I retire though Chris says she plans on working full-time. We are looking forward to living together full-time. We recently combined our herds and are happy with our bloodlines and plan to expand both land and herd sizes in the future. One of our biggest joys is being with our grandson Asa who loves to do chores; we look forward to spending time with him. As always, we will continue to serve our Lord who has been so good to us.”
