Harlan Crowe shares his journey from his small piece of agri-paradise
FORDLAND, MO. – Harlan Crowe of rural Webster County, outside Fordland, Mo. has been immersed in agriculture all of his life, born at home on his parents’ dairy farm. “Me and my brother, Cecil helped our dad, Doyle Crowe milk 24 Jersey cows by hand twice a day,” he reminisced with a smile. “Dad had two milk can routes. He took one and my older brother took the other. In 1953 when we got electric to our farm, my dad bought a milking machine and we thought we’d died and gone to heaven!” he added with a laugh.
He grew up on the family’s 126 acre farm along Panther Creek. As a teen, he and five other boys skipped school one day and enlisted in the army. After that, he went to work in a different part of the dairy industry, driving a truck for Foremost Dairy for over 30 years until Foremost Dairy was no more. Afterwards, he became a driver for Yellow Freight, driving a route between Wichita and Amarillo.
“When I applied to work there, they told me, ‘you’ll only be here six months before this line shuts down’. I was there for six years.”
Harlan and his late wife, Wanda lived in Springfield and after 38 years, driving a truck he thought he was retired. He would go fishing as often as he could until one of his neighbors told him, ‘I’ve got just the job for you’. Harlan spent another 11 years working for Missouri State University which was SMS, Southwest Missouri State back then, in the vending, shipping and receiving areas.
It’s been 11 years since he lost Wanda. “I still miss her,” he added. “She was a good woman.” Ten years ago, his son, Darris helped him move back to Webster County onto six acres, just five miles northwest of the family farm, his grandfather, Herbert Doyle homesteaded decades ago. Darris still lives on 55 acres of that original 126, the other half belonging to Harlan’s uncle. When his grandfather died, Harlan’s father and his brother split the acreage and Darris still lives there.
Today, Harlan raises commercial steers which he bought from the Laclede County Livestock Auction. “Years ago, I started with cow-calf pairs,” he explained, “but when a couple of those calves got out on the ice on one of the ponds and I went after them, Darris said, that’s enough of that. You don’t need to be doing that. Last year I had seven heifers and I really like them but I got neighbors on both sides of me who own bulls and that can get to be a problem. This year I’ve got the steers. They weighed in at 440 pounds apiece when I got them and as you can see they are double that now.”
Six beautifully sleek steers made their way into the corral as Harlan emptied a bucket of feed into their feed trough. They lost no time, munching their mid-morning treat but kept a wary eye on the stranger with a camera at the gate.
“I feed them Di-Cal mineral supplement,” Harlan shared “and higher protein medicated feed. I bring them into the corral here twice a day for fresh clean well water.
Then they get Ladino clover in the pasture. I treat ‘em for black leg, pink eye and with dewormer as soon as I get them and I haven’t had any trouble with pink eye or any of it. I feel like if I can’t afford to feed them right, I better be running ‘em down the road. I’ll be taking them over to the Wright County Livestock Auction at Mountain Grove when it’s time to sell ‘em.”
Harlan’s attentive care for his steers has yielded obvious results in their excellent build and conformation. Harlan Crowe has come full circle from life on a homesteaded dairy farm to a return to his hometown roots, living a semi-retired life on his own small piece of agri-paradise. He concluded. “I’ve got my cows and I see deer and turkey out here, too. I love it out here.”
