Missouri Neighbors

“When I retired from the Army, I’d lived all around the country and decided the Ozarks was the place for us. We bought a farm, built a new house, started with cattle. Very quickly, I learned a lot,” Butch Ferguson said as he explained how he came to the Ozarks. He and his wife, JoEllen, a nurse with the Wounded Warrior Project, have 190 acres in rural Pulaski County, Mo., just south of the St. Robert-Waynesville area.

Lane Shumaker has three jobs. The first is facilitating his own battery store, Battery Outfitters, located in Golden, Mo. Second, is his life on the farm raising Brangus-cross beef cattle. Then he’s also a tournament bass fisherman. That’s a full schedule, and just how Lane likes it.

For some farmers there is nothing prettier than a herd of Herefords grazing in the pasture. Tom Luthy III is one of those farmers. Tom owns a 200-acre farm in Laclede County; LIII Farms. He said, "We farm a total of about 350 acres." That includes his father's farm.

Though life is filled with uncertainty, Sandy Arthur has always been sure about one thing.