Town: Miller, Mo.
County: Christian
Family Members: Wife, Tammy; Taylor, daughter; Bailey, son
In Town: I am a cabinet maker and own my own shop. We have done homes, restaurants and condos to include The Cliffs at Long Creek on Tablerock and FD’s Grillhouse and Hotel Vandervort in Springfield.
In the Country: We live on a 10-acre tract in Nixa and have a 36-acre tract in Billings. We currently have about 32 head of cattle including calves and bulls. We have mostly Scottish Highlands as well as a couple British Whites, 2 registered Brahmans and 1 each of registered Charolais and Simmental. We buy all of our hay in from other farmers. We enjoy taking our Highlands to shows and a few events each year. We are a cow/calf operation but keep a few steers around for beef and a couple of pigs. I enjoy knowing that we have beef available for our family and for friends that appreciate good beef. The Highlands are easy keepers and require less inputs in the winter with the hair coat to keep them warm. The hair also allows them to develop intermuscular fat easier since they do not need the fat cover to keep their body heat. I prefer to sell private treaty but have taken animals to the HHCA Highland sale at the Springfield Marketing Center. Our current goal is to downsize a little bit to make it easier to manage with my job and the kids being less available to help. I enjoy calving season and watching the calves play together. Going out and just being with the cows can be a big stress reliever after having a rough day. Getting to play with old tractors isn’t bad either.
