Missouri Neighbors

White-faced Dorset sheep can be seen grazing the pastures near the home of Ronnie and Debbie Dains, residents of Rockville, Mo.

On the picturesque 10-acre Holaday Farm near Springfield, Mo., in Greene County, Barbara Holaday raises Boer goats.

Checkerhill Angus in West Plains, Mo., operates with a dual focus when it comes to raising cattle.

Connie Brooks of Fair Grove, Mo., admits that her highly-muscled cattle get a few looks, but what else do you expect when you breed the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the cattle world?

Keith Stevens, and his wife Beverly, call western Polk County, Mo., home, but much of his time is spent on the road, traveling to various county cattlemen’s meetings, agricultural events and visiting with legislators promoting policy in Jefferson City and Washington D.C.

“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.

On May 14, 2015, Angie Sing received the call no mother ever wants to get. Her child was hurt in an accident and he was being taken to the hospital by helicopter.

Just over five years ago, Carey Portell, like many of her neighbors, was a busy working mom and farm wife, trying to get her four children to school, sports events and other appointments and praying for a way to literally, slow her life down a bit. And then just days after Christmas in 2010, she and two of her daughters were in their family’s Ford when they were hit head-on by a drunk driver.

“Management is the key,” explained Hal Ryan, ranch manager for Organic Cattle Exchange located in rural Texas County. “We just have to watch what we’re doing and make sure we follow the organic guidelines and regulations. But the basic principles of livestock production are the same.”

John Love is a thinker, and he’s always thinking of things to improve his family’s farm in St. Clair County, Mo.