Missouri Neighbors

Collecting is a hobby for Neil Breshears. Initially it didn’t seem to matter what he collected guns, knives or pocket watches. He can tell you with lots of pride when and where he acquired each piece. Neil is very sentimental and almost everything is symbolic of a piece of his past. Walking on his farm he will tell you that this came from his dairy farm, or that his dad had a tractor just like that one. The memories they give him are important to Neil.

Farming isn’t new to either John or Misty Schmitz, having both grown up on farms in the Ozarks.

Bonnie and Van Vanderpool are two individuals from divergent backgrounds – hers as a lifelong resident of the Ozarks and the Dallas County farm where she still lives and his as a happy transplant from Chicago – have come together to establish their own micro-dairy farm, with sons, Trenton, age 12, and Will, age 5, in a unique and greatly self-sufficient lifestyle.

Woodhaven Farm in Ozark, Mo., truly is a haven for horses. The long, uphill drive is bordered by pastures full of peaceful grazing broodmares and their foals. At the end of the drive, you’ll find David and Marti Wood and their two children, Kyah and Trey Schumaker, owners and operators of Woodhaven Farm, an equine business venture that has been a work in progress since March of 2011.  

Splitlimb Ranch is in the eastern half of Texas County near Raymondville, Mo. This sprawling ranch has an “end of the road” location that makes it perfect for this diversified farm operation. Andy and Kelly Dietsch bought the ranch and moved here from New Jersey in 2009. They were looking for a turn-key operation with two houses. Andy said, “We could not continue to make a living farming in New Jersery, because the property taxes were high and there were continuous over-regulations incurred on farmers by the state.” He further stated they liked the property values in Missouri along with the beauty. The farm they selected was just what they were looking for with a house and a hunting cabin. They loved the wildness and isolation for themselves and the animals they wanted to raise.

"I actually lucked into my flock of Katahdin sheep,” explained Rhubein Belcher on his farm in Howell County, near Moody, Mo. “My wife, Carla, and I moved back to the area and wanted to raise livestock, but at my age I knew cattle farming was going to be too much. She did some searching on the Internet, and found a gentleman near Gainesville, Mo., who was looking to sell his entire flock.

Good fences make good neighbors, according to the old saying, but good neighbors willing to extend a helping hand to one another are a staple of life in the Ozarks. Jarrod Campbell and Roger Martens of rural Camden County, outside Macks Creek, Mo., are living proof of that.

Brenda and Darrel Tribble love their animals – all of them which include Boer goats, horses, ducks, Guinea hens, Dominique chickens, a miniature horse, a miniature donkey, dachshunds, schnauzers, cats and kittens, and perhaps their favorites, Old English Babydoll Southdown sheep. They raise their self-confessed menagerie on 38 acres in rural Camden County, outside of Macks Creek, Mo.

On a ridge above James River sits a beautiful dairy called Lorenae. Lorenae Dairy is the only state licensed Grade A raw milk provider in Missouri. Bruce and Debbie Salisbury, who have been in the dairy business for several decades, came out of retirement to be part of this agricultural industry that they have loved so much.

Paul and Jennifer Walley moved to rural Polk County, outside Bolivar, Mo., from Florida, looking for a place with better milk laws and more conservative values for their growing family. They brought their sons and a couple of cows from Florida and settled on 24 acres in the Ozarks.