Hometown: El Dorado Springs, Mo.
Family: Three grown daughters and three young grandchildren
In Town: Mark and Leah Akin are broker/sale agents at United Country American Heartland Real Estate & Auctions in El Dorado Springs.
“I often meet clients on site at the farm or ranch they’re interested in selling or purchasing,” Mark said. “My wife, Leah sells mostly houses while I prefer land sales and auctions. We work as a full-service real estate brokerage, meaning we list or locate properties such as residential, farms and land that people are looking for, whether it’s for agriculture purposes or for recreation, like hunting and fishing. We are integrating into internet and live auctions and prepare specs that fit the client’s needs.
“We’ve been doing this, actively pursuing real estate for the last seven years or so. Prior to real estate, I worked 25 years as the general manager for Circle A Ranches headquartered out of Iberia, Mo. At one time, the operation included over 30,000 acres throughout Missouri and Lineville, Iowa.”
In the Country: “In 1997, we bought 640 acres here in Vernon County, which we rented out for hay production for several years. When corn got so high, we had the opportunity to rent the land for row cropping. After 25 years, we decided it was time to do something different. We built a home on our property, moved here and began to do real estate on a full-time basis. Leah enjoys selling houses and I like to do the land sales. I use the same skillset that I developed over 35 years in ranch management in real estate. I like taking a piece of land that has potential and improving it to fit the purpose of the new landowner.
“We have 40 head of cattle, a small cow/calf operation, both registered and commercial Angus. That’s what we’ve always worked with so that’s what we do here. We do some rotational grazing and have been able to develop our new pasture incorporating a novel-endophyte fescue since we were converting from row crop farming.”
Most of the fescue grass in this area is Kentucky 31 which has the possibility for high endophyte at times, which can severally effect production.
“We merchandise our steer calves at Joplin Regional Stockyard in Joplin. They have a value-added program in which we keep track of the vaccinations on the calves and those records follow them to the new owner. We sell the heifers to neighboring ranchers, although lately, I’ve been keeping some back to grow our own herd.
“My son-in-law, Ethan Ulmanis is married to our oldest daughter, Lauren and they live and work in Koshkonong in Oregon County as part of a family-owned registered Angus operation. We are currently a cooperator for them and that’s where our registered bulls go that make the cut. We don’t need a large operation, just enough to ‘scratch the itch’ as they say, for staying involved in ag and cattle production that has been part of my entire life.”
