Jim and Elsie Parker own 280 acres and lease 300 acres in Stilwell, Okla. They raise registered Black Angus using 100 momma’s including 16 heifers and four breeding bulls for cleanup. Both Jim and Elsie came from agricultural backgrounds. Jim remembers feeding cattle when he was in the first grade because his father was gone all week as a traveling carpenter. Elsie, on the other hand, remembers shucking corn for the family’s hogs when she was very young. The couple met through FFA in high school when Elsie was helping her brother with his FFA sheep and Jim came over. Jim and Elsie began dating and later married in 1960. Elsie said, “In those days there was no FFA for girls but our oldest daughter, Tammy Bartholomew, was one of the first girls in FFA in Stilwell and is now an Ag teacher in Missouri.” All three of their children, Tammy, Cindy and Randy were active members in the Stilwell FFA Chapter and showed cattle.
Jim and Elsie began with 20 acres and later leased government land on Tenkiller Lake. They started with a commercial herd but Jim had always liked Simmentals and started using Simmental bulls. Then the market demand changed to black and smaller animals, so Jim started using Angus bulls with Brangus cows. Jim said, “When I got too old to work with the Brangus, I went to registered Angus because Elsie always liked them.”
The current herd started in 2002 with 15 breeding age heifers and an additional 8 in 2003, which they purchased from their daughter, Cindy, and her husband, Chuck. The Parkers sell bull calves. Jim explained that they usually cull any cow that does not produce a calf for one year and any who are highly temperamental. Jim said, “Almost all the cows we have now we have raised ourselves, and besides being more docile, they are rather like pets even though they are a business as well.” The Parker’s animals, curious and friendly, are popular. Jim said, “People like our bull calves because they’re so gentle. We sell mostly by word-of-mouth and our animals are spread all across the area.” The ranch has used AI for the last three years and the herd is split into 20 head per pasture for breeding and pasture rotational reasons.
A recent and beneficial change for Jim and Elsie occurred when their daughter, Cindy Stewart, and her husband, Chuck, sold their ranch in southern Oklahoma and moved back to Cindy’s hometown. They are an active part of her parents’ operation. Their son, Randy, and his wife, Shannon, and sons, Shane and Steven, also help out when possible.
Part of the transition has included Cindy taking over most of Elsie’s paperwork with both Cindy and Chuck actively working with the animals and Cindy especially liking to work with newborns. As standard practice, they catch all the newborns and tag and weigh them the day they are born, which is where Cindy begins her close relationship with the animals.
Another standard practice in the Parker operation is that all animals have double ear tags as well as tattoos. Jim explained, “Ear tags can get brittle and pulled out in any number of ways such as in a chute, at the hay ring or by a branch. If you have two and you lose one, you don’t have to check the tattoos to make a replacement.”
When asked about the future, Jim said, “Raising cattle is in your blood and a way of life. You have to love the work to want to feed them in the winter. As long as the weather and our health holds out, we plan on doing just what we are now.”
