The Burton girls are creating a productive herd with their show animals
STILWELL, OKLA. – Growing up in Stillwell, Yalonda Patterson Burton had history under her feet. The farm her father owned and worked had been around for more than a century. So, when Yalonda and her husband Dean started their own farm across town from where she grew up, they had similar aspirations to create something that lasted that long.
While Cherry Tree Farms has only been around since 2003, the Burtons appear to be off to a good start. And that’s mostly because their four kids (Katie, Kenzie, Grace and Brianna) have taken more than an active interest in the farm’s operation. In the end, it was the Burton’s kids who essentially decided what type of operation Cherry Tree Farms was going to become. It was their love of showing that took it in a different direction.
“It’s probably more because that’s how we were growing up and the kids started showing. That’s what they enjoyed the most,” Yalonda said. “We kind of went that direction. And then, of course, a little bit of help from me, because I had dairy goats growing up, and I also had shown Beefmasters. And so, we raised registered Beefmasters, and that’s what the kids have shown while they were home.”
Burton’s oldest kids began showing 14 years ago when they were eight. Of their four kids, only 17-year-old Brianna is still at home, for now. But all the daughters still participate in dairy goat showing events.
“You just never know what the kids are going to like. After they’d done it a few times, they really fell in love with it,” Yalonda said. “We just kind of ran with it and have always just done it as a family. It’s just something that kind of stuck with us once they enjoyed it.”
While the Burtons encouraged their children in their showing activities, they also let them know they had one standing rule regarding the show animals.
“If you’re going to live on our farm, you have to somehow earn your keep,” Yalonda said. “And so the animals had to somehow contribute back. Buying show animals every year is just really expensive.”
According to Yalonda, all of their animals have to not only be good enough to show at contests, but also meet the high standards of prospective clients.
“We don’t get into the supplements or into the special feedings and things like that. Generally, they all eat the same thing, whether you’re in the pasture or in the show pen,” Yalonda said. “And if you’re in the show pen, you have to know how to survive on the pasture too. And so, when we’re not actively showing they’re turned out in the pasture and learn to be cows or goats or whatever.
“We probably push them a little harder than some pasture cows get pushed, we still expect them to be able to be self-sustaining and they’re not pampered. They’ve got to be able to take care of themselves. They have to do what they’re made to do.”
The animals that do not make it to the show pen are taken to the livestock market.
“We’re not selling our own meat yet, although that’s something we’re working towards,” Yalonda said. “We mostly sell registered stock as replacement stock, like breeding stock, into herds with all three of our species.”
On the cattle side of the ranch, Cherry Tree Farms stick mainly with Beefmasters as their beef breed and Brown Swiss and Milking Shorthorn for the dairy cows. However, the dairy goats are a different world altogether. Unlike many ranches, Cherry Tree Farms isn’t tied down to just one breed of goat. The 300-acre farm is a menagerie of various breeds that include Alpine, Lamancha, Nubian, Saanen and Experimental.
“The goats are interesting because we have four kids,” Burton said. “Because one of them wanted two of the nine registered dairy breeds, we have five of them. It’s an interesting endeavor, but they all definitely grew to love their specific breed and so that kind of snowballed from there. We’ve all just kind of learned that it means a lot more when you’re showing something that was born on your place. It just became more special to us to be able to do it on our own. Which has helped our herd obviously be better in general.”
