John and Joy Dees own 300 acres and lease an additional 2,000 acres in Powersite, Mo., not far from Branson. The land has been in the family since the early 1900s when John’s grandfather bought the first 80 acres. John said, “This land has been as important as a location for raising our families as for raising cattle. A lot of people have grown up here. In fact, we now have three households on the land.” John and Joy have three children and one granddaughter who lives in town but loves riding in the Kubota, being around cattle and enjoying the country. Family is the center of everything and John readily admits that he couldn’t farm without extended family members helping work cattle, build fence or whatever else needs to be done.
The farm currently supports 100 Angus/Brangus crossbred mommas and three registered Angus bulls. John likes the mixture because he believes calving is easier, milk is richer, calves grow better and, just as importantly, the herd handles hot weather well due to the Brahman influence. John keeps cows typically for 12 to 14 years as long as they have no flaws such as bad feet or eye issues. John did some AI but is not satisfied with a 60 percent pregnancy rate combined with the cost of paying someone else to do it. John said, “I’d just as soon let the bulls do their job.”
John believes preconditioning the momma cows is essential for a successful herd. He does this by supplying good grass and supplementing with a commercial feed of at least 18 percent protein and corn gluten, a byproduct of making ethanol. He also works the cattle vaccinating, deworming and castrating to prevent problems as much as is possible. John prefers castrating to banding because he once had to cut out a missed testicle. John laughed, “It’s not very hard to count to two and then you are certain.”
John readily admits that cattle prices are better than ever before and that up until now inputs such as fertilizer, rent and feed often made making a profit difficult. He believes that good times like these are when people should pay off debts so their inputs are lower when the market drops. John also believes in multiple streams of income. He sells hay, spreads lime and fertilizer, hauls and does custom dozing.
Though he personally was impacted far less than others by the drought, John did have to downsize his herd which is at the smallest level in many years though the numbers are now recovering. Nonetheless, the farm had sufficient water and more than enough hay for their needs. On the other hand, fulfilling the needs of his regular customers was problematic and he had to hustle to keep them supplied. He also tried to help others, especially in Texas, where the devastation was so severe. He hauled in what hay he could and charged only what the hay and transportation cost him though that cost was still very high. John is fully aware that the damage brought about by the drought gave birth to strong cattle market now.
Government programs have been an occasional help. John used drought assistance in 2012 but also received disaster relief on rental land after a tornado in 2009 when fences needed to be rebuilt and land reconditioned. John believes the programs are there to help when you have a specific need and that taking advantage of the system hurts everyone.
John has six waterers supplied by rural water, which is cleaner and more dependable than ponds and most springs. John quipped, “The trade-off, of course, is digging a lot of pipeline but we always have the water we need.”
John’s pastures and hay fields are mostly fescue mixed with clovers and orchardgrass. John likes Ladino Clover because it seeds back and Korean Lespedeza because it is a good hot weather legume. He fertilizes with both chicken litter and commercial fertilizer believing chicken litter is cheaper in the long run but commercial fertilizer is the optimum solution for pinpointing solutions on a specific piece of troubled ground.
John and Joy’s goals for the farm are to buy more land little by little. They want to develop a farm that will provide a good supplemental income without great difficulty and continue to be a place for raising future generations.
