Neighbors

What do Limousin bulls, a school teacher and a recording artist have in common? The answer is Freddie Edwards of Rock Island, Okla.

Larry and his son, Eric Walker, of Willow Springs Ranch near Prairie Grove, Ark., like Maine-Anjou qualities when it comes to cross-breeding their Angus cattle.

Don and Artie Hughes started small in the cattle business in 1979, with four Angus cows. Thirty years later, they are going strong, in a seed stock operation, which now includes their son and daughter-in-law, Keith and Debbie Hughes. For the past 10 years, they have found reporting calving data to the Angus Herd Improvement Records (AHIR) through the American Angus Association to be an extraordinary performance advantage.

"He’s got about 10 years on me," chuckled Lydia Ernszt, talking about her husband Andy and the years experience with cattle. “We’ve been working these cattle together on this farm since 2001," she said.

For a retired man, Bob Watkins admits to being a busy man. After 27 years in commercial construction in the St. Louis area, he has spent the last 20 years back in his home area along the Phelps-Maries County line, raising cattle and working in the restaurant business. And that’s what he calls retirement.

Bermuda grass hay producer Paul E. Arnold has quality production down to a science.

Darrell Robinson, his wife Devetta and their three sons, Cole, Jacob and Garrett, have lived on the Five R Ranch at the foot of beautiful Mount Petit Jean, for about 14 years. Their home sits on top of 300 acres of meadows and wooded areas, where on a clear day you can see Mt. Nebo and surrounding farmlands below. Darrell said, “When we got ready to pick our home place out, we had to ride our horses up here, because it was too brushy and grown up to get up here any other way."

Jimmy Looper believes in good, old-fashioned hard work. The fruits of his labor include a 1,000-acre cattle operation that runs seven breeds, an auction and realty service, and a family legacy of ranching and farming that spans several decades.

Jerry Pegelow grew up in the farming country of northern Illinois. “We, my son and I,  were housed out of farming,” is the way he put it. Coming from a strong background in farming livestock and cash grains, Jerry Pegelow has seen a lot of changes. The family farm consisted of over 1,000 acres in far northeast Illinois. Much of the land was being swallowed up by urban sprawl and corporate expansion. “Where we grew corn and soy beans they now grow concrete and black top. Chicago and Milwaukee will run into each other soon,” Jerry said.

"We want to be able to sell good,quality animals to commercial producers at a good price,” explained Steve Craig, of Summersville, Mo. “I’ve been that commercial producer and I know it can be expensive, but I want to provide quality bulls to help those commercial guys make more money in the end, at the sale barn.”