Ranae Poole is a young woman farmer continuing a family tradition
LEBANON, MO. – Ranae Poole is a remarkable young farmer, doing what she loves with the conviction of knowing just what she wants to do in the future. She works with her father, Robert Poole on the 430 acre farm where he and she were both raised and which also once belonged to her grandfather, Martin Poole. Located in Dallas County outside of Windyville, Mo., they raise cattle there together and on another 220 acres that belonged to her mother, the late Jackie Poole, which is in Laclede County, outside of Lebanon, Mo.
Ranae began her agriculture journey as a four year old, showing feeder pigs and by age 12, she was showing cattle. Today, she shows registered Limousin, Herefords, Simmentals, crossbred Limousin, and Lim-Flex.
“This last year I showed at Ft. Worth, Tulsa, Memphis and Missouri State Fair in Sedalia,” Ranae shared recently while working on the family farm. “We travel to shows with a friend, James Henderson and last year when we went to Denver, we were stalled with Kevin Ochsner who appears on the program, Cattleman to Cattleman on RSD-TV. James knows him and my dad watches that program regularly so he was really happy to meet him. That’s one of the great things about showing is that you meet people from all over. We’ve now met people from different states who we would never have met otherwise.”
“We basically have a cow-calf operation and come August, we’ll sort out the calves, wean the smaller ones and sell off the larger ones at the Joplin Regional Stockyard.”
Ranae says her father’s personal favorites are his Belgian and Percheron draft horses. He and Ranae also compete in pulling competitions. Ranae was recently featured in the fall issue of the quarterly, Draft Horse Journal, with her draft horses, Frog and Leroy, with pictures of the three of them in competition. “Just about everybody in the draft horse world reads it so my dad was pretty proud.”
In 2014, Ranae attended AI school in Springfield and also attended the Graham School in Garnett Ks. to learn more about AI and to learn to pregnancy check. She has done some AI work for others as well.
“I work Thursdays at the Lebanon sale barn in their café and I really enjoy listening to the old farmers there. And I’ve learned a lot that way, too,” she added with a shy smile.
Ranae, a 2017 Buffalo High School graduate, has also been busy sharing what she has learned growing up on an active cattle operation, helping other up-and-coming ag-interested youth, like family friends, teens Hayden and Christian Warner.
“My mom and I did the show cattle together. It was kind of our thing. She passed away in December 2021 of breast cancer. This year I’ll be doing the third annual Halfway Memorial Cattle Show in Halfway, Mo., in her memory. I work a lot of the shows with two friends, my cousin, Klaire Hendricks and a friend, Morgan Turner. People call us the Three Amigos because we are always together.”
She concluded. “I’ve learned throughout all of this that life is short. Enjoy it while you can. I’m not planning on going anywhere, just staying here on this farm in Windyville. The whole world of the cattle industry is really very small in terms of people whose primary income is from raising cattle. I heard once some time ago that it was like less than two percent of the population and it’s even smaller now. It’s really cool to be a part of that.”
