Missouri Neighbors

Looking at high land prices, rising operating costs and easier ways to make a living may make young people look another direction than farming when deciding their futures, even when their hearts are connected to the land.
Advice-givers who don’t understand that connection — and maybe even some who do — may support a choice in another profession. “It can’t be done,” they say to those seeking entry to agriculture.
But while others are preaching pessimism, Jack Miller offers encouragement.

A fourth generation dairy farmer, Mike Meier has been milking “forever.” Four years ago he was thinking of quitting. At that time, they were a confinement dairy. It took three men working all day to keep up. All the equipment used for feeding the cows was wearing out and too expensive to replace.

At the end of a long, winding road is happiness and fulfillment. At least for Dr. Dale and Diane Kunkel, owners of Kunkel Farms and a healthy herd of 200 mostly Red Angus momma cows in Newton County, Mo., it is.

When visiting a doctor’s office, it is not uncommon to hear about the importance of good nutrition — the value of vitamins or the merit of minerals — and a visit to the office of Doctor Shannah Cassatt is no exception. The only difference is that Shannah is a veterinarian. At the Country Care Clinic, balance is one of Shannah’s biggest concerns.

As classes end for the day, Whitney Harrison heads to work at MFA in Cassville, Mo., where she'll spend the next few hours serving area farmers. After work, she'll head home to greet her two horses, Honey and Audrey, along with her herd of Braunvieh cows. 

Cheap land prices and a better climate enticed Mike Nelson to move his family from Minnesota to Missouri in April 2007. Of the weather, Mike said, “It’s too cold up there. You get the freezing winter.” On land prices, he said, “There’s not as much competition for land. Up there if there was 100 acres for rent, you’d have 50 people after it, jacking everything up.” Mike said prices could go as high as $200 an acre to rent. Recently he learned from a family member that land in Minnesota was selling “for $6,400 an acre.”

Volatile propane prices don’t have Larry Long worried.

In July 1999, Leon Caselman conducted his first goat auction at Buffalo Livestock Market and sold 302 goats. At his monthly goat sale today he’ll sell 2,200 goats, with the help of his whole family.  And the Caselman family literally gives new meaning to the term 'family business.' As Leon’s children, Cole and Makayla chase goats and sheep about in the auction pen along with the help of their grandfather and Bobby Cole, Leon’s father-in-law, Leon himself lets the animals in to the pen, while his wife, Tara tallies who bought what. Leon's father, Lyle, does the auctioneering and mother, Rita and sister, Chelsey, keep the front office running smoothly, while his mother-in-law, Theresa helps out, too.

Curtis Millsap grew up in Springfield. He wasn't raised on a farm, but was a regular at his grandparents dairy farm. In college, he didn't study to be a full time farmer, but he knew that he had a deep passion for the outdoors and a sincere love of the land. Never did he realize that this interest would lead him to what he's doing today.

All natural, grass fed beef. No chemicals. Period. That's the stance that Richard Potter of Powell, Mo., takes when it comes to his cattle. "I raise the cattle the way I want my children to eat them," he said. And his customers enjoy the benefits of Richard's 100 percent organic beef as well.