Hometown: Drury, Mo.
Husband: Randy Stout, as well as adult children, grandchildren and two great-grandchildren
In Town: Teresa Stout has been in the financial/lending industry for several years. She has been with FCS Financial in West Plains, Mo., and serves as a financial services specialist.
“I assist in taking applications and processing farm/ag loans,” Teresa explained. “Some I can do from the beginning; others I help in getting the paperwork and other details.”
In the Country: Raising animals and a rural way of life were not things Teresa was born into.
“I actually grew up in California and relocated here when I was just starting my junior year in high school,” she recalled. “My father wanted to take us out of the city and move into the country.”
Teresa and her family moved to Douglas County, where they began raising feeder pigs and registered Collies and Poodles.
She met her husband Randy as a senior in high school at Ava. Teresa said Randy grew up around dairy and beef cattle, and they have been raising cattle since they got married.
“We have stayed with it since then,” Teresa said.
She and Randy run about 20 cow/calf pairs of primarily black and baldie cattle on their Douglas County, Mo., farm, which is just under 80 acres.
“We sell our calves after weaning, and then we keep replenishing our herd with our own heifers,” Teresa said. “Because we have saved back our heifers, everything we have now was raised on the farm. We will replace our bull every few years and go from there.”
They also raise hogs for their own use and keep laying hens.
Moving from a city where everything she needed was within walking distance to rural Douglas County, Mo., where it was a 20-mile trip to town, was a change for Teresa as a teen, but she has enjoyed the country’s way of life and is glad her children have rural roots.
“Raising my kids here is different than how I grew up, but they love it,” she said. “I have a daughter who lives just outside of town and she and her husband have raised cattle off and on. My younger daughter lives in town, and she and her husband have just purchased some property outside of town and are starting to run cattle. Their intention is to move there so she can get her kids out in the country.
“The kids all got a taste of country life and are passing that on to their kids.”
