Lewis Farms Beefmasters have several tools to advance progress in their herd
MILLER, MO. – To say that Jon and Stephanie Lewis of Lewis Farms Beefmasters of Miller, Mo, are busy people is quite the understatement. They raise over 100 registered Beefmaster cattle in addition to another 250 cow-calf pairs of commercial crossbred cows. They do so on approximately 1100 acres in Dade and Lawrence County where they were both raised. In addition, Jon works at a stainless steel business he runs with partners that provides equipment to various food facilities.
They produce their own hay and do custom round baling, no-till planting and cattle hauling for others as well.
“We got into the Beefmaster breed several years ago when we bought some registered bulls from a producer in Mount Vernon,” Stephanie shared recently. “Before that we were just doing the commercial cross cattle.”
“We fell in love with the breed,” Jon explained. “Their docility, and the gains on the calves really serve us and our customers well.”
In addition to using their own herd bulls, they use AI and embryo transfers, taking DNA samples to verify pedigree on all their Beefmasters. They sell herd bulls and replacement heifers by private treaty and at other Beefmaster sales in Kansas and Texas .
Their own family life is no less busy. Both having grown up in Miller, Jon and Stephanie first met in elementary school and were sweethearts back then. “She still has notes that I wrote to her in grade school,” Jon shared with a shy smile.” They went their separate ways, however, in the ensuing years, married others and had children before reuniting years later to become a blended family.
Today, they have grown daughters, Sydnee, Shaelyn and McKenzie and sons, Jadon and Gavin who are still in high school and living at home. All were highly involved in farming life while living at home and today, Sydnee is working in the medical field, Shaelyn works at a local family feed store while McKenzie is in veterinary technician studies. Both boys are involved in FFA, Jadon competing at state this year on the FFA dairy cattle team. Gavin is ready to ‘quit school and go into farming’, according to his father but that is not the plan as far as his dad is concerned.
“I was asked to leave school before I finished,” Jon continued with a grin, “and so I did. I went to work on a drill rig at age 16 and started sweeping floors at the stainless steel company. I was a supervisor there before I turned 21. My dad had a small cattle operation when I was growing up and I worked with the steel company founder’s cows as well. I loved working around the cattle and when I started my own, it was with one cow and one calf,” he added with a laugh.
Stephanie grew up on a local farm that is still in the family. She is actively involved in all of the various aspects of their farming ventures including all of the office and paperwork, accounting, billing, and registration work involved. In recent months her workload has changed in that she is taking care of the couple’s first grandchild Sloane, during the day, while their daughter works. That still allows her to keep up with the various office and registration tasks involved in running a major farming operation like theirs.
“Stephanie is still working as our company accountant,” Jon concluded, “and keeping up on the work with the registration of their Beefmaster cattle and that’s a lot.”
Lewis Farms Beefmasters is a member of the Beefmaster Breeders United, one of the top five largest beef breed registries in the United States.
