Greg Holland
In Town: Greg Holland of Oktaha, Okla., in Muskogee County knows the balancing act of working in town and at home. “Both my wife, Carla, and I work in town and on our farm. I worked for a company for 25 years and it suddenly closed its doors. I’ve recently started a new job at CP Kelco in Okmulgee, which manufactures xanthan gum – an ingredient needed in most gluten free products to bind it together. My job can be very demanding of my time, since I now work 12-hour shifts. It is challenging to work a job for 25 years and then have to learn another job. Change is very hard.
“My wife works at Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma in Muskogee as a Loan Support Specialist. She loves her job and the fact Farm Credit helps people who are in agriculture.”
In the Country: “We have a small operation on 160 acres. We initially started with stockers about 20 years ago. We switched to a cow-calf operation and later got into the registered Angus business about 15 years ago. One of the greatest men I have known, John Buse – who passed away a couple of years ago, was my good friend and mentor. He had been in the industry years upon years and was inducted into the Oklahoma Angus Hall of Fame. It was because of him we decided to switch to registered animals. He was a really good teacher of what to do and why you did or didn’t do something. His daughter, Jeanetta Buse and my wife clerk a few registered Angus sales each year. We still have a few commercial cows but the largest part of our cattle are registered.”
We AI twice a year and use bulls for clean up. It’s really interesting to be able to look at the catalogs and have access to genetic traits we otherwise wouldn’t have. We have been blessed to have a couple of really good vets in the area that have helped us with our vaccination program. Along with good minerals, it has really helped eliminate a lot of time-consuming problems. Maintaining a good herd is all about how you take care of them and we feel the Lord expects nothing less from us.”
Going Forward: “We plan on retiring some day and spend more time working around our place while building up our cattle numbers. A lot of people want to travel when they retire; we do too but I’m sure it’ll mostly be going to cattle sales.”
