Neighbors

Few cattlemen are full timers. Usually one or both of the heads of household will hold a job off the farm. That normally entails working in town at a retail store, or for the electric company, or maybe as a teacher or a realtor. But this story might be the only one in which the cattlemen also market hog sauce.

A white picket fence welcomes visitors as they drive up the Abbott Farm’s driveway near London, Ark. You see soft rolling hills, and grazing Fox Trotter mares and their foals scattered across the pasture. As you look to the west you see cattle grazing and four Tyson chicken houses sitting to the north of the house. Brent and Jamie Abbott both hold down full-time jobs, plus they have three little girls; Taylor, 9, has been showing horses since she was 7. Tori is 7 and has just started to show. While the little one Sydney is 3, and she just enjoys riding with anyone or by herself with someone leading.

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.

Clayton and Kristin Whittmore from Lamar, Ark., set a high standard for young farmers who start from nothing and strive to reach their potential. Clayton's family was from the area and had a commercial herd while Kristin's involvement in agriculture was through FFA in high school.

According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service’s 2007 Census of Agriculture, family farms account for almost 96 percent of the 2,204,792 farms in the United States. Heath Shrable and his parents, Carl and Caunita, own one of those family farms.

K-BAR Predestined #167 is her name and producing eggs is her game. Oh yes, a quarter million dollar cow. Now that is enough information to make any cattle producer’s eyebrows raise. Every cattle producer would love to have a cow like #167, but there is only one, and the Kirkes K-Bar Black Angus Ranch owns her.

Paul Wallen left the racetrack and automotive repair industry and got on the fast track to raising Beefmasters full time after experiencing success with the breed first hand.

Lonnie Cook is a third generation farmer who continues his family’s tradition of raising Charolais and Charolais cross cattle on 640 acres once owned by his grandparents, Arthur and Mary Cook. Along with his brother, Derrel, who lives three miles up the Osage Fork River from Lonnie and his wife, Jean, they run 80-90 cows on his property.