Neighbors

Rethel King runs about 125 head of registered Red Angus on his 120-acre ranch outside Harrison, Ark. They’re all-natural, raised with no hormones. Rethel said that if his calves don’t scan in at “choice,” he doesn’t keep them. Because of the extreme high quality of the cattle that Rethel produces, he is able to sell them directly to a local market at a premium.

The lambs at Bloomin' Acres call out and crowd around Marilyn Miles when she visits them twice a day on the 70-acre hilltop farm in rural Washington County.

Joe Don Koenigseder has wanted to be in the cattle business all his life. And like most people who had a dream and no inheritance to back it up, he had to scratch it out with his own bare hands. He and his wife, Susie, started building toward this dream in 1968 in Ft. Smith, Ark., with two heads of cattle, and moved from there to Hackett, Ark., with stock cattle. During this time they had a family of five kids – four girls and one boy, Jill, Amy, Kathy, Jay and Sarah. "They were good hard working kids too," said Joe Don. The family then moved from Hackett, to Booneville, Ark., and while they lived in Booneville, they changed from stock cattle to dairy cattle.

"It’s all born of laziness,” said Larry Marah in reference to his farm equipment inventions. “I got old and tired of doing everything by hand. Maybe if I was easier to get along with, I wouldn’t have to build so many one-man machines,” he chuckled.

In 2008 Rebecca DeLong decided that it was time for a change after 14 years in the medical industry. She wanted to get back to the farm life, be her own boss and keep her own hours. Although Becky was raised on a dairy farm, she was quick to say it did not fully prepare her for her new career.

A black and white photo hangs on the wall of the Edmundo Quiñonez home in western Dallas County that shows a 13-year-old boy and other family members riding in a horse-drawn buckboard wagon across the dry desolate countryside of Durango, Mexico. The scene could easily belong to the mid-19th century instead of the mid-20th century when it was actually taken. Edmundo Quiñonez, owner of 220 acres, 100 Black Angus cows and three horned Hereford bulls, smiled as he pointed out that he is the young teen in the photo.

Twelve years ago Jeanette Larson moved to the Ozark Mountains from Colorado. She attended CSU in Fort Collins, Colo., majoring in Forestry and Animal Science. In Arkansas she utilizes that degree raising Jacobs, an ancient, domesticated breed of sheep. Historical documentation indicates the breed originated three thousand years ago. When they first moved to Arkansas, they had 120 sheep, but currently they have 12. She considers the fleeces from Jacob sheep a delight for hand-spinners, with healthy luster and sheen.

There was a time when Jerry Carnes, his three siblings and parents spent long hours milking 22 cows a day by hand. That was back when Carnes Dairy was just beginning on a 240-acre spread in Rose, Okla., that his parents, Paul and Floy Carnes, had purchased on March 18, 1950.

Manuel Barnes has spent his life trying to be a good steward of the land.  Manuel received his degree in Zoology from the University of Arkansas. He worked with the Corps of Engineers for 13 years in two of their district offices and at their main laboratory in Vicksburg, Miss. Manuel also received a Master of Science specializing in Water and Land Resource Planning from Colorado State University. Manuel formed EGIS, Inc., an environmental consulting firm, in 1990.

Shelton Dairy Farm is located at Bucyrus, Mo., (locally known as Ellis Prairie) just a few miles from where three generations of Shelton’s were born and where their grandparent’s homesteaded land in the 1800’s. Farming is nothing new for them. In 1985 Leonard and Carolyn sold their beef cattle and built a dairy barn because they thought it would be more profitable and provide a steady income. They had high hopes for this family farm, and for their two sons Jeff and Darin.