Ozarks Farm & Neighbor Newspaper – written for, by & about farmers

Currently J.W., Belle and Andrew Hendrix have 50 Foxtrotter horses on their 700-acre Boston Mountain Foxtrotter Ranch near Witts Springs, Ark. When J.W. was 4 years old his family moved from near Bass, Ark., on the Buffalo River to Witts Springs in order for the children to attend school. He has lived at that location since; some of the property is the original home place that once belonged to his dad. J.W. has been involved in cattle and horses for many years.

The eastern Oklahoma farm of Arlus Walters gives the feeling you’ve stepped back in time to a simpler place. No strip malls, no gas stations, just the small community church right up the road. That is how Arlus Walters prefers things.

Rush hour traffic, city ordinances and people trying to arrive at the airport on time. Every day hustle and bustle may not concern most Arkansas farmers; however, it is a major concern for Ryan Anglin who owns and operates a 300-cow dairy and runs 150 pairs of beef cattle on 1,100 acres with his family outside of Bentonville. Ryan, who has been in the dairy business for 37 years, has learned how to adapt to the ever-changing Northwest Arkansas.

There is some information that is mandated by law that the feed manufacturer has to provide on a feed tag. A custom formulated feed would be the only exception to the mandated law.

It is important to reduce noise when handling livestock. Animals are more sensitive to high frequency noise than humans. They can hear high pitched noise that humans cannot hear. Human hearing is most sensitive at 1,000 to 3,000 Hz and the auditory sensitivity of cattle and sheep is greatest at 7,000 to 8,000 Hz.

If you drive down a road in northwest Arkansas during this time of year, you're likely to see tractors in the field pulling a rotary mower, or 'brush hogging' machine. Now is a good time to take care of that brush, weeds and other scrub that's sprung up in your fields this rainy summer. "The primary benefit of brush hogging is to clean up a pasture so it can be better managed. This may be as simple as cutting tall, un-grazed grass or it may mean cutting three-foot tall pigweed or large brush," John Jennings, a University of Arkansas Extension forage specialist, said.  Jennings added that the temporary removal of thorny or un-grazeable species allows livestock to have access to underlying forage. Sometimes clipping pastures may reduce eye problems, but a good grazing plan would be more effective to keep the grass under control than brush-hogging alone.