Missouri Neighbors

Don and Mary Deffenbaugh of Neosho, Mo., live on the farm where they raise and breed purebred, registered Black Angus cattle and bulls. Don's father started the herd in the 1950s on his farm near Newtonia on Highway 86. Don partnered with his dad a few years later, and now, Don's son John partners with his dad in the Angus business.

Married 37 years, Bill and Cathy Dalton have lived on their 80-acre ranch in Douglas County, near Ava, Mo., for 16 years.

For a semi-retired woman, Linda Shaddy of Grovespring, Mo., in Wright County stays mighty busy on Tri-Mi Stables with her 18 Fox Trotters and 25 miniature dachshunds. The ‘Tri’ in the original name came from the fact that when she founded the business in 1983, she did so with two partners. Today she and her business partner, Janet Cunningham, operate the business that has produced over 50 World Grand Champions at Ava Missouri’s yearly Missouri Fox Trotters Horse Breeders Association (MFTHBA) Show and Celebration.

Over 140 people from 11 states gathered this spring at the MO-ARK Livestock Marketing Center in Exeter, Mo., for a chance to purchase bulls that were bred and developed in Fescue Country. The idea was to purchase low-input bulls.

Robert “Bob” M. White, a fourth generation farmer, cattleman and owner of White’s Bar-W Ranch in Ozark, Mo., has a love of history that is almost as great as his love of farming. Owned by Bob’s family since the 1850s, White’s Bar-W Ranch has a long and well documented history – starting with the original land grant signed by Ulysses S. Grant hanging in Bob’s office. In 1931, Bob’s parents began a dairy operation, known as White’s Dairy, with Guernsey cows; White’s Dairy bottled, sold and delivered milk to Ozark. In 1966, Hereford cattle joined the Guernsey cows at White’s Bar-W and today Bob raises crossbred beef cow/calf pairs with a Hereford base. “They’re crossed with a little bit of everything,” he laughed.

"Kids need to learn about farming and animals. They need to touch the dirt. There are so many lessons to be learned and so many kids are missing these lessons,” said Bob Brandon, director of Runnymede School for Boys and Runnymede Farm.

The Salyers family, of Billings, Mo., is like any other family living in the 21st Century, busy. What is the most important trait that a cow/calf operation needs to have to be profitable and productive when management must be time-efficient? Easy calving provided from stable structured mommas and low birth weight sires. “The female Salers have the largest pelvic area of any cow breed, this quality along with choosing calving ease sires makes the possibility of calving problems very low,” said Gary Salyers.

In 2000 the potential of Ron Locke’s farm, in Long Lane, Mo., grew exponentially after he attended the Annual Southwest Missouri Spring Forage conference in Springfield, Mo., where Ron first learned about intensive grazing.

Brenda Snider isn’t what a person might typically think of when they think of a dairy producer. With a master’s in computer information systems, Brenda has taught at the college level. Brenda owns her own company, Equitech Information Systems, LLC, and works with various state, county and other government agencies aiding them by developing and implementing various computer software programs.

Sharon Medina Benigar moved to Osceola, Mo., from Coosbay, Ore., in 1980. She was a young, single mother with three children. Sharon moved here to find the life she had always dreamed of, but she found more than expected.