Raised on a farm near Urbana, Mo., Larry Glor said, “I never could quite get it out of my blood.” Although he milked before he was married, almost 42 years ago, he has been in the beef business since.
Larry and wife, Sandy, have lived on their 170-acre farm near Buffalo, Mo., for 38 years. He worked for the State Highway Department at Plad for 30 years before retiring almost nine years ago.
The Glor’s share their farm with their Angus-Limousin cattle. Larry said, “I’ve got a good, gentle bunch of cows and of course you have to work with that and cull out the crazy ones. I’m pretty big on Angus. If you get too much Limousin in there, you have a lot of wild cows.”
Larry said, “We usually run 40 momma cows.” To prevent a breeding disease, he noted they don’t buy cows. "We raise our own heifers. I’m not much on bringing in stuff, except my bulls.” He has a Gelbvieh bull and a Balancer bull. Both are registered.
Calving time at the Glor Farm begins in February. Larry has three little buildings where the calves can take shelter. “There are creep feeder gates in front of them. The cows can’t get in. It only takes two or three days for those new babies when it’s cold out there, and sometimes they go in the first day. They get out of the snow and rain, and I keep them bedded down good. That really cuts down on the scour problem. I have feed troughs in the back of them and usually feed Cattle Charge pellets.”
Giving the calves that extra care from day one is something Larry firmly believes in. “If I could say one thing that helps me more than anything, that’s probably letting those babies run in a good dry shelter when it’s bad out.”
Larry also believes one of the best, and most inexpensive, things a cattleman can do is keep the flies, lice and worms out of the cattle. "For a dollar spent, it’ll make you more money than anything you can do," he said. Larry uses back rubs in the summer and saturates them with his own mixture about twice a week. He also sprays about once a week in the fall when the horseflies are really bad.
The best farming advice Larry ever received came from older farmers, and, he added, he has always asked the successful ones for their advice. "I still do. You never learn it all,” he said. His advice for young men today was, “If you want to farm, you’ve got to start the way we did, borrowing money, you’ll have to work and your wife probably will too. Get the debt paid off as quick as you can.”
Larry emphasized the hard work. “When you work out and run a farm too, you’re doing a lot of hard work and putting in a lot of hours.”
The economy has not gone unnoticed at the Glor Farm. Larry said, “You have to cut back. We’ve been thinking about buying a new pick-up or maybe a new hay baler, but we just make do with what we have. You have to go with your needs and not your wants.”
One thing Larry and Sandy do enjoy is barbecuing. Larry said, “We like to fix steaks for people who don’t often get them. We raise our own beef, fatten them out, and have good meat. One time we had a missionary lady here from Russia, and she was going to our church.” Larry estimated her to be about 30 years old. “I asked how she wanted her steak fixed. She said she didn’t know because she’d never eaten a steak before. It really makes you stop and think.”
Last year Larry Glor had tick fever and knee replacement surgery. He has recovered from both, and is very grateful. A plaque on the Glor’s living room wall says, “Remember the blessings and forget the day’s troubles.” Larry said, “That goes a long way on the farm. Be thankful. Thank the Lord for what He’s given us, and He’s been good to us all along the way.”
