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

When Chuck and Lacey Donaldson moved from South Carolina to their farm in Laclede County, Mo., in December of 2000, it was “a life-change," said Lacey.  She said that she grew up as a city girl, but spent summers on her aunt’s farm near Poplar Bluff, Mo.  Chuck, a native of Wisconsin, spent several years on his grandparents’ farm whenhis mother contracted tuberculosis while he was a young boy.  Due to his experience with severe winter weather, Missouri was as far north as he cared to move.

Farmers know firsthand that sometimes life will hand you more than your fair share of lemons. 2006 and 2007 brought Don and Kathy Sissel’s thriving cattle farm a devastating tornado, draught, and the crippling Ozarks’ ice storm.  Farming hasn’t been easy for Don and Kathy, especially the last couple of years; nevertheless, they’ve done what good farmers do – adapted, persisted, and focused on the things that mattered most. 

Tom Howard's first work in production agriculture began in seventh grade when he began working on a turkey farm south of Carthage, Mo.

Keeping the Beefmaster herd black has become an adventurous and challenging task for Charles and Evelyn Rieder.  The Rieders have had many types of cattle in their lives, but in recent years, have found their pleasure in black Beefmaster cattle.  “We currently have a black Beefmaster ratio of around 90 percent of our herd,” explained Charles. 

This is the way of life. To live here with all God’s creatures from eagles to deer to our farm animals – this is the best. I always wanted to farm and now I am with my son and grandsons right along beside me,” exclaimed John Oravec II.

His tone was rather quarrelsome. Or maybe I just don’t like a finger stuck under my nose.
“Why do you waste so many words on agriculture?”
“Because,” I said, hanging my cap on his finger, “it is my favorite subject. It is the most exciting enterprise in the world today.”