Neighbors

Nothing is more heartwarming than seeing a young person with a goal. Elysia Bushey, a 21-year-old entering her senior year at Missouri State University, is a young lady with a plan. Her major is ag education with a minor in animal science. Elysia said, “My goal is to ultimately be an ag teacher and to raise show cattle and registered cattle on the side. I probably want to get into raising some registered goats for my students so they can have access to some pretty good quality animals at a decent price.” Now that’s making a plan.

What happens when you have two girls of college-age? For Jerry and Dyanna Moyer of Lincoln Ark., the answer is build four new chicken houses. Jerry and Dyanna have two girls, 20-year-old Cheyenne pursuing a degree in animal science and 18-year-old Caleigh looking forward to a degree in agribusiness. Jerry is a fieldman for George's and Dyanna is a special education teacher's aide in Prairie Grove, Ark.

You may see their products in your local grocery store. Real Farm Foods is the marketing company for products raised and grown at Rockin H Ranch owned by Cody and Dawnnell Holmes.

Connie Jenkins began her love affair with horses as a young child. “My uncle, Lorain Beard, was a professional cowboy and broke and trained horses in Idaho before World War II. He came to Missouri after that and owned the 300 acres here around us. I got in trouble as a little girl for running off over to his place to ride horses when I’d get upset with things at home,” she laughed. “We still have a small part of that farm as do my brothers and sisters. My uncle never married or had children but he left the land to us, his nieces and nephews. My brother, Chester Wood, for instance, raises crops on his, hay and corn. He even grew and baled turnips for cattle this year.”

"I’ve always ranched, but for years I ranched for other people,” chuckled Ray Marchant of Howell County.

There isn’t much the three generations of Greenwoods won’t tackle on their farm in Big Cabin, Okla.

Jack Turner and his son, Colby, work together on the 1,000-acre spread accumulated over time section by section in Mansfield, Ark. Colby's earliest agricultural memory is gathering eggs at age four while the family still lived in Utah. Bonnie Tuner, Jack's wife, remarked, "We had chickens that laid colored eggs, which were especially popular at Easter. Colby always loved anything that flew, whether that was birds or planes." Then Jack grinned and said, "It was Colby that got us into the chicken business. He spent a night at a friend's house and came home and said, 'We need to get into the chicken business.'" Just at that time a nearby piece of property with two broiler houses came up for sale, and the Jack Turner Company broiler business was born.

Mark and Jerri Weathers may never have met if Jerri's dad hadn't gone elk hunting in Colorado so that Jerri accompanied her mom to a poultry grower’s dinner. Now the Weathers family raises Cornish and egg laying hens for Tyson as well as a small commercial cattle herd on 70 acres in Gentry, Ark. Though both Mark and Jerri came from poultry families, they had to start their own farm from scratch. Mark said, "First-time farmers have a hard time getting started. People have to be able to look you in the eye and see you are worth the risk. Rex and Shirley Harper provided that opportunity for us and now we are trying to do the same for a family that works for us."

Jimmie Chastain of Dunnegan, Mo., in Polk County grew up on a dairy farm, which also had some beef cows and feeder pigs, milking jerseys also show animals for 4-H. He’s spent his whole life as a producer. Today he owns 186 acres of his own and leases another 160 acres. In 2012 he owned 60 momma cows plus calves and a few bulls. Jimmie downsized that year like a lot of other producers because of the drought.

Roscoe Bishop was actually born in Iowa at a time “when there was no work in the Ozarks.” His mother, Cleo (Gregory) Bishop was from Sweet Holler near Eldridge and his father, Green F. Bishop was from the Lead Mine, Mo., area. His parents met at Mountain Creek Church but left the area for his father to find work. He grew up with four sisters and a brother.