Neighbors

Each fall for the last 10 years, truckloads of hay drive down Cherokee Street of Seneca, Mo. The scores of hay bales are trucked in from across the region to help feed those less fortunate in the area school district.

Richard and Melissa Nevills happily admit they are “horse people.” The two fell head over “hooves” in love the day Richard, who was working as a farrier, arrived at Melissa’s family farm to shoe her horses.

When Gary Baker and Louie Parker join forces, the fun can take all kinds of turns from riding in a parade on their antique John Deere tractors to nearly setting the barn on fire.

For Taylor McNeel, recently retired National FFA President, a year has brought more knowledge and change than she ever imagined. Taylor, a native of Vilonia, Ark., was a student at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia when she attended the 2015 National FFA Convention in Louisville, Ky., where she was elected national president. She spent the year traveling the country, as well as visiting Japan, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, far afield from her earliest agricultural memory of riding a horse her grandmother, Mary Lou McNeel, bred especially for her.

Tori Welsh is definitely not your typical 19-year-old community college student. Although she will be graduating from Carl Albert State College in 2017 as a first step toward her ultimate goal of being a family court judge, she is actively involved in carving out her first career in horse training, trading and selling while working her way towards a judgeship.

Kinsey Watkins has always been surrounded by agriculture.

While most high school students are focused on athletics or extracurricular activities, Clayton Locke, a senior at Stockton High School, is spending his time becoming a successful entrepreneur.

While Shelby Mitchell might appear quite and even a little shy at times, the 16-year-old has the heart of a fierce competitor when it comes to the rodeo arena.

The adage, ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover,’ applies to this year’s Missouri State Fair Queen, Lani Ogle.

“I spent the first half of my adult life trying to be a captain in American industry and the second half trying to get back where I started from; on the farm,” Rob Bullock, a full-time farmer in West Fork, Ark., said.