Hometown: Elkins, Ark.
Family: Husband, Rick; daughter, Skyler Moore and her husband Tyler; son, Chase Smith; and granddaughters Lilly (4) and Lizzie (19 months)
In Town: Debbie Smith owned a salon in Fayetteville, Ark., for 29 years. After the COVID-19 pandemic, she sold her salon and now works as an independent contractor at Looks Unlimited. In all, she has been a hairstylist for 36 years.
Debbie’s husband, Rick, is a welder and operates Rick Smith’s Mobile Welding. He specializes in pipe fencing and corals.
In the Country: Debbie and Rick have a cow/calf operation near Elkins, Ark. They run about 80 cows on roughly 280 acres of owned and leased property. Cows are mostly Angus-cross, which are bred by four Angus bulls. Calves are sold after weaning, averaging between 500 to 600 pounds.
Heifers retained for future breeding are tagged according to their sire, with the progeny of each bull receiving a different colored tag. The tagging system allows the Smiths to rotate bulls easily among the female groups. Calving is in both spring and fall. The couple changed some of their breeding schedules after an Arctic blast in February 2021.
“It was 20 below, and I had five babies in my garage,” Debbie recalled. “My garage is heated, so we rolled out a bale of hay. They lost their ears and the tips of their tails, but we saved them all. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s life on the farm. You can do everything right, but they still don’t make it.”
The Smiths also have a partnership with a neighbor. The Smiths provide the facilities, and the neighbor provides the labor to care for six butcher hogs and laying hens.
Growing up on a farm, Debbie said, instilled many of her values, which she and Rick have passed on to their children.
“We taught our kids that if you see a gate open that needs to be shut, you shut it, no matter who opened it,” Debbie said. “We taught them if something is hungry or needs water, you feed and water it; it’s not just one person’s responsibility.
“On a farm, you get to see the benefits of your hard work. When you’re doing everything right, like feeding your cattle good, you see them fat. You also get to bite into that steak you can cut with a fork, and you know what it ate and where it came from.”
While many farmers and ranchers look forward to retirement and becoming full-time producers, Debbie said that’s not part of her plan.
“With the cost of diesel and fertilizer, you need your full-time job to help pay for your farming,” Debbie said with a laugh. “If I do anything, I might slow down to eight hours a day instead of 10. As long as my health allows me, I’ll keep working. I’m closer to my clients than some family; they are my family.”
