Neighbors

There is nothing ordinary about Todd Stephens and his wife, Melissa.  Extraordinary would better describe their lives, their family and their farm. In fact, a close friend once called their farm “A little slice of Heaven.”

The youngest of six children, L.C. Ratchford is perpetuating the tradition of his father Odas Ratchford, who started the farm after he returned from World War II in late 1945. The family operation evolved and passed eventually to L.C., when his dad passed away in 1988.

Jared and Anita Munyon are do-it-yourselfers when it comes to their farm. The couple, along with Jared’s parents, John and Linda, run Tri M Valley Farm – a dairy and beef operation near Canehill, Ark.

Ron, DyAnna and Sheldon Shaver’s registered Angus herd has its roots as Sheldon’s Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) when he was an FFA member at Norwood High School. “We got into that in my freshman year of high school for my FFA project. We have continued it and grown since then,” said Sheldon, who has just completed his second year at College of the Ozarks. “We started by selecting some cows out of a couple of production sales. We kept animals with traits we like.” The Shavers now run about 40 head on 84 acres in Wright County.

It has been often stated that one of our most precious natural resources is the land, and it should be used and cared for as stated in ancient medical tradition – 'First, do no harm.' This is the philosophy of Ash Grove, Mo., farmer, Gayer Dixon. “We must preserve our farm lands for future generations,” he said with heartfelt sincerity. Due to urban development and limited government regulations our priceless farms are disappearing. Conservation and protection of our nation’s farmlands should be of the utmost importance to everyone.

On the north and east slopes of the tenth highest hill in Missouri's Douglas County is a sea of fescue and clover dotted with Angus cattle hugging the shade of the trees.

Newt Mitchum’s love for riding horses started when he was only three years old. Since then, his passion has grown into the Arkansas 7 Express, a non-profit riding club that teaches Fort Smith, Ark., area youth the joys of horsemanship.

Ken Douthit has rhythm, and he shows it while caring for his seven-day-old turkey poults. Turkeys are naturally curious animals, which sometimes results in their piling up while looking at something or trying to reach something. This can lead to large death loss. To avoid this, Ken Douthit always pauses to clap and herd the turkey poults back up the rings before he leaves his barns. The poults have been following him questionably to the end of the ring, where they started bunching together, until Ken started his display of rhythm.

Kent "Woody" Porter started in the business fighting bulls. “One night me and a guy named Scooter were fighting bulls together. It was a tough show. Scooter split his lip and broke his nose. I broke my hand and something else,” Woody said. “We went to get paid, sitting at the fair waiting for the stockman contractor to come pay us our money. In walked the rodeo clown. He wasn’t even dirty. All happy go lucky. Nothing hurt. The contractor paid us and then paid the clown twice as much. I said I wanted his job. The contactor said,  'Good.  You’ve got it next week.' That is how I became a rodeo clown.”

Jerry Floyd is a man who knows what he likes. Living on his 120-acre Webster County farm, near Marshfield, Mo., with his wife, Doris, Jerry was a dairy farmer until about 12 years ago. Since then he has been raising steers.