Neighbors

It is 6:30 a.m. on Saturday with the sun peeking up over the mountains and the cattle peacefully grazing in the green pastures. It is mornings like these, when Donnie Willis can take time to enjoy the scenery and thank God for what he has, and why Donnie, of Deer, Ark., chose to live and raise a family in his native Newton County.
“When I graduated from school I didn’t want to leave Newton County.  I had my mind made up that I wanted to stay here.  I’m gonna stay here,” said Donnie.

Hard work and old-fashioned ways are important and are proving to be profitable for Kenny and Pam Underdown of Alpena, Ark.  They have taken their love for work horses and horse-drawn equipment and incorporated them into their farming operation.  The Underdowns own and operate Still Springs Farm, a 920-acre beef cattle and haying operation on the banks of the Osage Creek. They have 120 commercial mama cows and handle some 200 feeder calves per year and harvest approximately 70 acres of bermuda grass that normally yields 10,000 to 12,000 square bales of hay per year.

In the heart of the Ozarks, bordering Mark Twain National Forest in Christian County, the 1,100 acres of Bohmont Ranch are often lush and green in the dry months of summer.
The reason, says Terry Bohmont, is the native grasses he grows for pasture, hay and seed. His ranch east of Sparta, Mo., is primarily in pasture and hay. But on 140 acres at the ranch and on other nearby acreage, he raises native grass seeds – switchgrass, eastern gamagrass, Indiangrass, big bluestem, little bluestem and others.

It was a couple of Percherons that got Kirsten and Al Kosinski into the livestock business. After experiencing draft horses on a Christmas tree farm near their home in southern Michigan, the Kosinskis knew a life without a little livestock was no life for them. Two draft horses, 50 goats, a small herd of sheep, three Scottish Highlander cattle, two geese and a flock of chickens later, Kirsten and Al haven’t looked back.

James and Judy Bell have not always been in the cattle business.  In fact, James has a poultry science degree from the University of Arkansas and worked for Tyson Foods before becoming the U.S. division manager and eventually the president of Cobb Vantress.  The couple had raised commercial Brangus cattle on and off while James was working, but after retirement, the couple took a new lease on life and began a registered Brangus herd, while also increasing the number of commercial cattle they had been raising on their 900-acre Rocking Bell Ranch.

James and Pamela Mason are two firm believers in the old saying that, “great things come in small packages."  On their Valley M Miniatures farm in southern Fayetteville, near Greenland, you’ll find 39 head of miniature horses and miniature donkeys, in addition to a kennel of miniature pinschers.  There are also a few “full sized” Wirehaired and Brittany Spaniels that James trains in one of his favorite past-times, bird hunting.  James grew up on a farm in southwest Missouri where he was surrounded by horses and a family that enjoyed the rodeo lifestyle.  Painfully, his past time of riding was cut short when James fractured his back in a riding accident.  After being told by his doctor that if he had another accident like that, he’d be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, James and Pamela decided to slowly divest themselves of their horses. These pet-lovers couldn’t bear to part with all of their horses though, and kept some until their natural deaths.

Hill’s Hobby Farm is not easy to find.  Located many miles off the pavement on the east side of Bull Shoals Lake, Glenn and Sheryl Hill and family share their home with 26 sheep, two Charolais heifers, one black steer, three dogs and some chickens.

Goats have always had a place in the meat and milk markets. Here in southwest Missouri they’re not yet as prevalent as cattle, but herds are popping up everywhere. And then there's fainting goats. Recently there has been a new rise in public interest on the species, but it’s not the Grand Champions or best producers receiving all the attention. Instead, the excitement has been over these “fainting goats.”  Major media attention has won these cute and comical creatures some time in the national spotlight.

Monty Williamson said of his barn full of cutting horses they are “a play pretty that got out of hand.”  In 1992 Monty thought he wanted to get a cutting horse so he bought a couple of fillies to raise and have trained.  “There was a period there where you could sell weanlings at a nice price, so I purchased two, three, maybe four more mares,” he recalled with a smile and a sly glance at his wife, Georgia.  “I had the good fortune of owning a stallion named Docs Halestorm, and the bad habit of keeping all the fillies. Most of our broodmares are Halestorm daughters.”