Arkansas Neighbors

Among the farmsteads in the rolling terrain of the Cane Hill, Ark., area known as the Vineyard Community sits the 365-acre homestead of Ed and Judy Winsted. Now semi-retired, the couple has downsized their agricultural life to a primarily Angus herd of 75 momma cows and four bulls.

Rick and Terri Fields live in Fort Gibson, Okla., with their two daughters, Cierra, age 12 and Cheyenne, age 18, currently a junior in college. This family is one of those that go back to the beginning of Oklahoma. Both were part of the Cherokee removal, with Terri's family settling in the 1830s and Rick's in the 1840s. As a result, they have over 80 relatives living in the area.

Few cattlemen are full timers. Usually one or both of the heads of household will hold a job off the farm. That normally entails working in town at a retail store, or for the electric company, or maybe as a teacher or a realtor. But this story might be the only one in which the cattlemen also market hog sauce.

A white picket fence welcomes visitors as they drive up the Abbott Farm’s driveway near London, Ark. You see soft rolling hills, and grazing Fox Trotter mares and their foals scattered across the pasture. As you look to the west you see cattle grazing and four Tyson chicken houses sitting to the north of the house. Brent and Jamie Abbott both hold down full-time jobs, plus they have three little girls; Taylor, 9, has been showing horses since she was 7. Tori is 7 and has just started to show. While the little one Sydney is 3, and she just enjoys riding with anyone or by herself with someone leading.

Clayton and Kristin Whittmore from Lamar, Ark., set a high standard for young farmers who start from nothing and strive to reach their potential. Clayton's family was from the area and had a commercial herd while Kristin's involvement in agriculture was through FFA in high school.

According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service’s 2007 Census of Agriculture, family farms account for almost 96 percent of the 2,204,792 farms in the United States. Heath Shrable and his parents, Carl and Caunita, own one of those family farms.

K-BAR Predestined #167 is her name and producing eggs is her game. Oh yes, a quarter million dollar cow. Now that is enough information to make any cattle producer’s eyebrows raise. Every cattle producer would love to have a cow like #167, but there is only one, and the Kirkes K-Bar Black Angus Ranch owns her.

A major concern for anyone living in rural areas is fire. Fire hazard potential determines safe burning, hay storage and insurance rates. Paying attention to wisps of smoke, especially during burn bans is critical for everyone's safety, and when fires do occur, dealing with them is often a multi-community effort.

Like many families in northwest Arkansas, the Stettmeier’s came from elsewhere, in this case Maryland. Ken and Debbie met at a resort in Ocean City, Md. On that day he was jumping rope for football when five girls walked by. Ken said, “I was instantly done so I could meet the girls.” Later the whole group went to a beach party. Ken said, “As soon as they arrived, I sorted out the show cattle to find the one I wanted.” Debbie laughed and added, “I knew he had sorted correctly, but it took him longer to figure it out.” The couple married with Ken following in his father’s footsteps in the meat industry and Debbie becoming a grade school teacher. Ken’s career opportunities took their growing family from Maryland to Seattle.

Rob Long has been a high school teacher for 21 years, first as a physical science teacher and for the last 11 years, as a vocational agriculture educator. “I liked teaching science but I like teaching agriculture even better and particularly, being an FFA advisor. I enjoyed FFA as a student but once one of my daughters was in FFA, I realized the impact it really has on students, in important areas, like public speaking, leadership training and exposure to parliamentary procedure. It’s easy to overlook extracurricular high school activities as relatively unimportant but the truth is some of them are as important as the academic process and I really think FFA is one of those.”