According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average age of all U.S. principal farm operators in the 2002 Census was 55.3 years of age. Chrisie Schwerin Smith is swimming against that tide. An exceptional young lady, Chrisie is the future of agriculture in America today.
A recent graduate of Arkansas Tech majoring in Ag Business, Chrisie and her new husband, Kaleb, live just down the road from her parents, Dennis and Marlene Schwerin. The family has been on their 1,000-plus-acre ranch near Gentry in Benton County, Ark., since 1980. Chrisie and her father perform all the day-to-day chores required to maintain their herd. Chrisie said, “A typical day is me and my dad.” When an extra hand is needed, Kaleb is always available. He runs Full Throttle Power Sports from a shop on the property.”
Explaining their cattle operation, Chrisie said, “We have a little over 200 head of momma cows. So we raise calves out of them. Part of that is 30 head of registered Brangus cows. We raise our own bulls and show cows, and then we sell the extra bulls. We keep our own replacement heifers, so those are going to be out of Brangus bulls. We’re working towards an all-black herd.”
Chrisie said they raise calves to be sent to feed lots where they retain ownership. She said, “We buy 40 or 50 head every couple of weeks from local sale barns or local farms and we background them on our stocker operation. When they get to about 700 or 800 pounds, we send them to feedlots… We’re sending them to Garden City, Kan., and to Spearman, Texas.”
Chrisie and her dad ensure that their cattle are healthy so that they don’t go to a feedlot sick. “We make sure they’re really healthy so that by the time they get to the feedlot, they’re going to be on a finished ration and they’re going to gain 3 1/2 pounds a day for 120 days or so before they finish out.”
She added, “We ship them and group them together based on pounds, not color, not breed. Our fancier cows are the ones that have better genetics and they’re probably black-hided. We make sure they go to our feedlot in Kansas because they sell for grade and yield. We’re going to get paid on how good their carcass looks after they’re killed. But the cows that go to Texas, we know they’re going to be sold live, so it doesn’t really matter about their genetics so much.”
Having almost two separate herds allows Chrisie and her dad to utilize their land to its maximum potential. They rotate pastures. One field is used for Bermuda square hay that will be eaten by their horses and show cattle. Another pasture is 80 acres broken up into eight cells.
Chrisie and her father work the cattle the old-fashioned way – by horseback. They raise and train their own cattle horses and offer a few for sale as well.
In addition to her degree from Arkansas Tech, Chrisie also attended the Graham School for Cattlemen in Garnett, Kan. A world-renowned school, Chrisie learned about fertility testing, nutrition and herd health, AI, pregnancy testing, calf delivery and other subjects important to breeding and herd management.
Looking to the future, Chrisie said that she would like to make the ranch more efficient and more profitable. If she and Kaleb could find more nearby land, they’d like to acquire that, too.
With the youth, energy, new ideas and vision of Chrisie and the age, experience and stability of her father combined, Schwerin Farms, Inc., and farming in general, has a tremendous future ahead.
