Gregory Holman here. I'm public affairs reporter for KSMU Ozarks Public Radio.
It's Friday, September 6.
I am about to go on a thing called the Greene County Commissioners Ag Tour. They do it once a year — and today we’re going to check out a bunch of farming-related places in the Rogersville area. I’m about to get on a Fisk limousine bus and join a bunch of people, including the county commissioners. (Presiding Commissioner Bob Dixon and Eastern District Commissioner John Russell attended; Western District Commissioner Rusty MacLachlan reportedly had a schedule conflict.)
David Burton greets me as I boarded the shuttle parked in front of the Medical Tower, a central Springfield high-rise where Greene County rents office space for its headquarters. For many years, Burton has served as a community development specialist for the University of Missouri Extension in Greene County.
The MU Extension is part of a long legacy that spans more than 100 years and covers all 50 states. Congress authorized the university extension system back in 1914. Mainly, the idea was to connect farmers and rural communities with practical know-how. Dramatic increases in farm productivity were one result.
Burton had all 24 of us on the bus introduce ourselves, and we quickly traveled east. We left county headquarters amid the high-rises of central springfield and soon found ourselves on Highway 125 in Rogersville.
We entered a land of Western shirts, work boots and weathered hands — where people put in long hours on the job.
This 7th-generation farmer's grandpa built her milk barn back in 1947
Emma Baxter Alexander greeted us at our first stop, her family’s farm. It was established in 1856 with a deed signed by President Franklin Pierce, and closely held ever since. The Baxters have one of roughly 120 century farms in the Springfield area. Emma is the 7th generation to work their land.
"What we have left today is 80 acres that start here where you’re standing," she told the ag tour group after we stepped off the bus. "Our family is pretty unique because we still have interest in the dairy industry and the beef industry, and so for the largest part of my contribution to the tour today, we thought we’d walk you on out to the milk barn, which our grandfather Lee built in 1947.”
After her overview of dairy farming technology through the decades, Emma proudly told me that at least one of her two sons seems likely to carry on their century farm tradition — into the 8th generation.
Her brother, Keith Baxter, shared more about historic family ties, and even got some laughs.
“Our family, we always like stories," he said. "As Emma mentioned, Grandpa’s generation there were six siblings, and as they married, that’s how we’re tied to so many families around here. That’s why I always joke I never got married because I’m related to everyone here.”
Lobbying county commissioners to promote agriculture
Just before we left the Baxter family for our next stop, Emma and Keith stood for a photo-op with the county commissioners.
And Emma took time to lobby Presiding Commissioner Bob Dixon in hopes of getting Greene County to apply for Agri-Ready Designation status with a statewide farm advocacy group. If Greene County ever becomes an Agri-Ready county, it would be the first of Missouri’s biggest metros to sign up.
The tour bus swung by six other locations in eastern Greene County, all of them with ties to farming.
Next stops feature farm tractors and rescue horses
At S & H Farm Supply off Highway 60, company CEO Eric Schnelle and his team showed off gleaming tractors. And he answered questions about the latest ag technologies, including the ups and downs of the transition toward electric vehicles.
“Most all the manufacturers are dipping their toes in it," Schnelle told tour attendees. "Partially because there’s such a long learning curve, you have to try it and fail before you have success.”
We met Annette Williams, who leads the Equestrian Center in Rogersville. The place is home to the Heels Down Riding Academy and a nonprofit horse rescue sanctuary dubbed the Equine Collective.
"Thank you for not biting me," Williams told one of her horses while sharing about the Equestrian Center and its many programs, which include equine therapy and suicide prevention along with riding instruction. Williams and her team care for 25 rescue horses, including one she showed off for the tour.
"So he was technically a rescue because he was abandoned in a pasture, in Kansas City," Williams said. "And she took $200 for him. He's actually a registered saddle-bred with champion bloodlines, so I’m a little shocked. But the girl that’s leasing him is probably going to adopt him, and he’s going to go with her to Columbia at some point.
"This is Tony Bagels, is his registered name, and he’s a little ADHD. You can’t leave halters on here because he’ll just take them off. We found that out, the hard way. But he’s a people horse.”
A 'brand-new' farm demonstrates how farm families hold down many jobs — all at once
Next, we stopped by a homestead that might one day be a century farm like the Baxter family’s. The O’Neal family focuses on ecologically sound farming practices.
Caleb O'Neal calls it a "brand-new farm."
"We bought this acreage in 2021," he said, "and we only have 5 acres here. But we started the farm in 2019 whenever I started grad school at MSU. I felt compelled to be active in food production, because, I don’t know if you noticed, and I don’t want to get too political, but we're not getting any healthier.”
Caleb's farm, technically dubbed Hoof & Harvest Farms, is just across the property line — a few steps away — from his in-laws' wedding venue, Samuel Cedars.
O’Neal’s wife, Shalyn, is a wedding photographer, while her parents own Samuel Cedars and a second wedding venue in the Branson area, Stonegate Glass Chapel.
Meanwhile, Caleb also commutes to work, about 45 miles to the Southwest Research Center in Mount Vernon. There, he’s a research specialist.
The wedding venue features a dreamlike a winding path lined by pergola arches strung with lights. Inside the reception hall, the ag tour party lunched on barbecue sandwiches and baked beans from Felton Farms catering, another local company. We also heard from K9s for Camo, a charity that trains service dogs for veterans.
David Burton, with the MU Extension, explained the origin story of the annual ag tour.
"So, 10 years ago, we were coming out of a time when we had a lot of our funding cut, and the county commission is our funder, and the new commissioners that came in at that time said, you know, we haven’t grown up in agriculture, we don’t know a lot about agriculture, but we’re making decisions that impact agriculture. So would you guys help us learn more about that? We settled on doing a fall tour, so hats off to the commission for asking for that. These are different commissioners than were on the commission then, but every year continued, can we do that again, can you take us to another part of the county?”
Commissioner says 'passion' is the keyword that describes Greene County ag
After lunch, I chatted with John Russell, Greene County commissioner for the eastern district. I asked him what stood out on the tour.
"I think it’s the passion," he said. "Really every stop that we made today each person just had passion for what they’re doing, from the century farm, the passion that they had for education, all the way to the dealership, the passion they had for serving their customers in their community, the one that we just met with, training service dogs for veterans, the passion they have for giving back. That would be a keyword for today, is passion.”
Fertile farm fields — found just across the street from Buc-ee's
Following the lunch, attendees were treated to the discovery, maybe surprising for some, of a vast field cultivated by farmer Jason Wacha — right across the street from eastside Springfield’s massive new Buc-ee's travel center, with its 120 fuel pump stations.
“We farm about 2,600 acres," Wacha said. "Most of that is rental ground, a lot of this, like here, is development ground, someday, probably be developed, but I rent a lot of that ground and farm a lot of that ground. So, out of about 2,600 acres, our primary business is alfalfa and that’s what that crop is here. We sell to a lot of dairies, beef producers. On the alfalfa that’s mainly our two customers, and we’ve got some other exotic markets: horses, deer and goats and sheep, all kinds of people that buy alfalfa to feed their livestock.”
I wrapped up the day in a brief interview with Greene County Presiding Commissioner Bob Dixon. He’s been in that office since the 2018 election and is also a former GOP state lawmaker. We talked about the remarkable amount of labor that goes into producing the food we eat. Labor that comes from farmers and their families.
“That’s something we see every year on this tour," Dixon said. "It blows me away. And they work multiple — the one I mentioned to you in Strafford that is shipping all over the country. They also both work extra jobs, and they homeschool their children. Their kids are brilliant. And they help with the business. They’re working on the farm. This is the industrious spirit of southwest Missouri, in a nutshell. I just love it.”
