Missouri Neighbors

You may see their products in your local grocery store. Real Farm Foods is the marketing company for products raised and grown at Rockin H Ranch owned by Cody and Dawnnell Holmes.

Connie Jenkins began her love affair with horses as a young child. “My uncle, Lorain Beard, was a professional cowboy and broke and trained horses in Idaho before World War II. He came to Missouri after that and owned the 300 acres here around us. I got in trouble as a little girl for running off over to his place to ride horses when I’d get upset with things at home,” she laughed. “We still have a small part of that farm as do my brothers and sisters. My uncle never married or had children but he left the land to us, his nieces and nephews. My brother, Chester Wood, for instance, raises crops on his, hay and corn. He even grew and baled turnips for cattle this year.”

"I’ve always ranched, but for years I ranched for other people,” chuckled Ray Marchant of Howell County.

Jimmie Chastain of Dunnegan, Mo., in Polk County grew up on a dairy farm, which also had some beef cows and feeder pigs, milking jerseys also show animals for 4-H. He’s spent his whole life as a producer. Today he owns 186 acres of his own and leases another 160 acres. In 2012 he owned 60 momma cows plus calves and a few bulls. Jimmie downsized that year like a lot of other producers because of the drought.

Roscoe Bishop was actually born in Iowa at a time “when there was no work in the Ozarks.” His mother, Cleo (Gregory) Bishop was from Sweet Holler near Eldridge and his father, Green F. Bishop was from the Lead Mine, Mo., area. His parents met at Mountain Creek Church but left the area for his father to find work. He grew up with four sisters and a brother.

"It behooves us to take good care of our chickens,” explained Jim Shepherd alongside wife, Sharon.

The name Hammond is synonymous with several different things, especially in Licking, Mo. In the 60s it meant Hammond Post & Lumber – on Highway 63 north of Licking. For over 30 years, the late Bill Hammond sold thousands upon thousands of all sizes of penta-treated posts and lumber all over the Midwest.

"If you don't grow it, you don’t know what goes on your table.” Growing it yourself is exactly what Len Pense, of Pensaroda Farm, teaches the horticulture knowledge seekers who brave the steep, rocky, bumpy road to his hilltop garden haven.

Gary Boggs of rural Dallas County is a man of many interests and talents. He and his wife, Cecile, live on 1,100 acres, several miles outside of Urbana, close to both the Hickory and Camden county lines. “The land is about half-open, half-timber,” Gary explained recently, “and right now I have about 60 head of commercial momma cows. I’m down right now because I just sold a bunch of steers. I’ve had up to 250 head and was planning on gearing down, maybe getting out as I got older but as prices rose, I thought I might stay in a little longer. My brother, Ron is helping me now and if he wants to continue, I’ll stay with it.”

Among the hills, creeks and timbers of the beautiful Ozarks in Barry County, Cherry Warren has successfully grown and maintained a farm operation which he has managed with a vision of deep diversity. Cherry, who has always had a love for farming, got his start with the ownership of 137 acres in Exeter, Mo., in 1965. “There was a little house on the property with two small bedrooms. That's where we lived for the first few years. Those were some of the best years of my life," said Cherry, speaking of wife, Ann, and their two young daughters who are now grown with families of their own. Since that time, Cherry has kept beef cattle as a source of income and to help pay for his property as his operation has developed and grown over the years. “When I wanted to buy a piece of property, I made sure I had cattle to put on it. With cattle there is always a payday.”