Family: Wife LeAnn Suggs, and grown daughters Lauren and Brianna
In Town: “I am a town person. When I was a senior, my father George purchased a small body shop in Prairie Grove, Ark. While attending the University of Arkansas, I discovered I could make more money in the shop than I could teaching history and returned to the shop for 30 years before retiring two years ago.”
In the Country: “I always wanted to be in production agriculture, like my cousin John Robert Hart, when I retired. Many years ago, my grandparents owned 280 acres completely surrounded by the National Forest in Crawford County, Ark. When my grandmother, Nora Hyler, passed, I bought the land and spent 20 years developing a hunting property for out-of-state hunters. After retirement, I purchased 67 acres near Hogeye, subsequently buying eight commercial Angus cow/calf pairs due to their popular color and reportedly few birthing issues. I was a complete novice. John Robert and many others like, Donnie Napier, helped me learn. I recently sold my first batch of steers at 550 to 600 pounds, while retaining heifers for herd growth. I band rather than castrate and wean in a couple of months because I have plenty of grass for fair weather grazing and haying. As a method of learning more about land management and production agriculture, I began custom baling years ago. During cold weather, I alternate feeding cubes one day and hay the next. I work my herd once a year, with the calves receiving two rounds of shots.”
Future: “The first order of new business will be purchasing a purebred though not papered Angus bull. My goal is to maintain 30 momma cows and build a new hay barn to provide good, protected hay for my cattle.”
