Neighbors

There is nothing to prepare you for a move like this. It’s probably the biggest project I think I’ve ever undertaken,” said Dave Brummet, describing his family’s move from Springfield, Mo., to rural Douglas County.

We've all been there. Trying to get some recalcitrant cow back to the barn.

Charles Hatfield had his first taste of raising cattle from his father. He had his first calf of his very own at age seven. “I had Angus ever since high school,” he said. “In 1980 or 1981, we started switching over to Brangus. We didn’t sell our Angus cows and then buy back,” Charles said. “We just put three quarter Brangus bulls on them and then in one cross we had Brangus. It took me about ten years to get my uniformity back.”

Henson Farms is a small, but powerful operation, says Dan Henson of his family-run, 35-acre Limousin cattle farm in the Bloomfield Community in Benton County.

Lesia Foresee of Lead Hill, Ark., gives new meaning to the old saying, “A woman’s work is never done.” In addition to her full-time job in the office at the Tyson Feed Mill in Bergman, Ark., Lesia raises meat goats and feeder cattle with her parents on their farm in northern Boone County. Her nights and weekends are spent caring for over 125 head of goats and 70 head of feeder calves. “We usually plan big projects for the weekend. Right now, we are mostly cleaning up brush,” said Lesia. When she does have spare time, Lesia enjoys trail riding one of her two horses, a Missouri Foxtrotter and a Quarter Horse.

Dairyman Duane Kaiser is hopeful about the future of agriculture, including dairy farming. He insists one of the great things about capitalism we need to remember is “what creates hardship for one, means opportunity for someone else.” Duane believes the time is fast approaching when a person could buy a dairy farm.

In these uncertain economic times, William Stanton believes, “It hasn’t affected the goat market; neither in the breeding stock nor commercially.”

Glenn Brown’s life has changed dramatically nearly every decade. He was born and raised on a small farm in rural Copan, Okla., near Bartlesville. Both his grandfathers were farmers, and both his parents grew up on the farm. When talking about the country, Glenn said, “When your roots are there, you lean back in that direction — at least I did.” After 40 years, Glenn went back to his roots.

The Diamond W Angus farm is a five generation farm, bought in 1933 by Gail Weisenbach's grandparents, Tony and Minnie Price. When Jack and Gail Weisenbach were married in 1977; they started out bottle feeding 10 baby calves. They raised commercial cattle until 2004, and then changed to registered Angus cattle.

With the idea of living on the land like generations of self-reliant people in the past lived, Tina Marie Wilcox moved onto her 28 acres of wooded ridge-top near Leslie, Ark. She’s one of the back-to-the-landers who stayed, keeping a connection to her roots. In 2009 she co-authored and published a book with Susan Belsinger, titled "The Creative Herbal Home," a guide for both beginners and more experienced home herbalists. She raises a vegetable and herb garden.