Family: Husband, Zach Smith; and daughter, Tinley
Hometown: Talala, Okla.
In Town: Kadie Smith is a fifth-year teacher at Oologah High School in Oklahoma, where she teaches agriculture education.
“I take care of the students showing goats and student research projects. We have 130 students, all of whom belong to FFA,” she said. “You would think we would have a rural population, but the truth is only five out of 47 freshman come from traditional farming backgrounds. Consequently, we have an on campus facility for keeping some show animals. My husband Zach and I have a construction business called ZKS Construction. The main focus is concrete work.”
In the Country: Both Kadie and Zach have rural backgrounds.
“While we live in Talala, our cattle are located in Coweta in Wagoner County, Okla., on 80 family owned acres with two ponds. We take care of my Aunt Tracie McKnight’s cattle in exchange for being allowed to keep our cattle on the land. We have a 25-head mixed commercial momma cow herd with 80 percent Brahman or Simmental influenced, in addition to some of my old show cattle. Though we have used a Brahman bull the last few years because of the breed’s hardiness and adaptability to climate, this year we are renting a Santa Getrudis bull as we vary our genetics. We work the cows every six months with a traditional vaccine protocol and worm both the cows and the calves with a pour on. We keep our stock on grass when available with access to liquid feed year-round. In the winter, we feed hay and liquid feed.”
Future: “Zach’s goal is to work full time with the cattle though we will still work together. We really want our children to grow up in an agriculture life as it was for us including production and showing. The goal is to increase our cow/calf operation which we will improve through genetics. For now, everything is pretty low key and organized according to our job schedules.”
