Missouri Neighbors

Ron, DyAnna and Sheldon Shaver’s registered Angus herd has its roots as Sheldon’s Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) when he was an FFA member at Norwood High School. “We got into that in my freshman year of high school for my FFA project. We have continued it and grown since then,” said Sheldon, who has just completed his second year at College of the Ozarks. “We started by selecting some cows out of a couple of production sales. We kept animals with traits we like.” The Shavers now run about 40 head on 84 acres in Wright County.

It has been often stated that one of our most precious natural resources is the land, and it should be used and cared for as stated in ancient medical tradition – 'First, do no harm.' This is the philosophy of Ash Grove, Mo., farmer, Gayer Dixon. “We must preserve our farm lands for future generations,” he said with heartfelt sincerity. Due to urban development and limited government regulations our priceless farms are disappearing. Conservation and protection of our nation’s farmlands should be of the utmost importance to everyone.

On the north and east slopes of the tenth highest hill in Missouri's Douglas County is a sea of fescue and clover dotted with Angus cattle hugging the shade of the trees.

Jerry Floyd is a man who knows what he likes. Living on his 120-acre Webster County farm, near Marshfield, Mo., with his wife, Doris, Jerry was a dairy farmer until about 12 years ago. Since then he has been raising steers.

"A happy goat has its tail up,” Donna Allen of Rose Hill Farm east of Lebanon, Mo., shared on a recent walk through her pasture, which includes 18 registered Boer goats. Donna and her husband, Cecil, a former truck driver have Allen & Allen Limousins, and for the past six years, have also raised Boer goats, the meat goat breed originally developed in South Africa.

In 50 years as an Angus breeder, Kenneth Elbert has found that the middle of the road isn’t all that bad a place to be.

Double J Ranch is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. Operators Ronald and Will James of rural Mindenmines, Mo., recalled many family dinners put on hold to show bulls to customers, and the father and son duo laughed about a time when they were stopped one Easter Sunday, mid-egg hunt, to show a bull to an interested customer. The bottom line is, Double J Ranch tries hard to give their customers what they want.

For his parents, it was a babysitter. But now it’s become a profession.

Raised on a farm near Urbana, Mo., Larry Glor said, “I never could quite get it out of my blood.”  Although he milked before he was married, almost 42 years ago, he has been in the beef business since.

"It’s all born of laziness,” said Larry Marah in reference to his farm equipment inventions. “I got old and tired of doing everything by hand. Maybe if I was easier to get along with, I wouldn’t have to build so many one-man machines,” he chuckled.