Missouri Neighbors

At first glance, cousins Isaac McGinnis and Dusty Roberts might look younger than the average Ozarks farmer but a few minutes of listening confirms that these two are indeed the real 'McCoy.'

Don and Artie Hughes started small in the cattle business in 1979, with four Angus cows. Thirty years later, they are going strong, in a seed stock operation, which now includes their son and daughter-in-law, Keith and Debbie Hughes. For the past 10 years, they have found reporting calving data to the Angus Herd Improvement Records (AHIR) through the American Angus Association to be an extraordinary performance advantage.

For a retired man, Bob Watkins admits to being a busy man. After 27 years in commercial construction in the St. Louis area, he has spent the last 20 years back in his home area along the Phelps-Maries County line, raising cattle and working in the restaurant business. And that’s what he calls retirement.

"He’s got about 10 years on me," chuckled Lydia Ernszt, talking about her husband Andy and the years experience with cattle. “We’ve been working these cattle together on this farm since 2001," she said.

Spend any amount of time raising cattle and eventually most people will end up with a bottle calf. It’s a typical occurrence. The cow, maybe a first-calf heifer, doesn’t accept the newborn or maybe she isn’t giving enough milk.