"My name is James Tucker. I'm a sixth-generation farmer from Willard, Missouri. It's a small family farm in northwest Greene County, and we raise corn and soybeans and run some beef cattle and put up hay and grow some forages as well. It's pretty much just myself and my dad, who's semi-retired during busy times of the year, like harvest season. We might have a couple of friends that are helping out to bring the harvest in."
"We are growing about a thousand acres of row crops, which typically is an even split between corn and soybeans. Sometimes we'll grow some wheat as well when it's worth it. And then we also have a couple hundred acres of pasture that we run the cows on as well."
"We have a very small amount of topsoil in southwest Missouri, so we decided we're going to try to not do any cultivation because we get a big three-inch rain and it all washes down the drain. You know, I would like to structure the operation so that it's going to be sustainable long term, that if I have a family someday, that it can be something they could maybe take over. I really value sustainable and I want to be climate friendly on our farm. I'm the sixth generation. I'm kind of the first one that has farmed full time."
"It's kind of an amazing area because it's a melting pot of a lot of different types of farming. There are still people that have dairy cows. Beef cattle are obviously the bread and butter, like cow/calf is the bread and butter of southwest Missouri. Hay production is huge around here, but we also have, you know, 45 inches of rainfall annually, so we have plenty of rainfall that people are willing to try to grow different things. And with the advent of genetically modified crops like roundup ready crops, more people are able to no-till and not have to worry about all the rocks and the limestone we have very shallow under the surface. And so that's kind of become more of a part of the farming around here. And, you know, even in the past like few years, I'm seeing people show up, like with flocks of sheep that I never saw when I was little. And it seems like, you know, people have a few chickens and everybody just kind of wants to get involved in agriculture."
"We're limited in what we can grow because of our fertility and also there's a high population area in southwest Missouri. Springfield and the greater area is like a million people. And so, there's interest in farm to table now, more so than there was like 20 years ago. We're trying to do the most with what we have, and we don't have the most fertile land, you know, in the United States. We try to do the best with what we can. And the climate issues that we deal with are very extreme. I mean, it's been reported from people that study the weather, study the climate, that southwest Missouri has some of the most unpredictable weather in the country. And when you're farming, like, you're always looking at the weather, I check the weather like 20 times a day on my phone."
"The challenges that are facing agriculture right now are not limited to southwest Missouri. I mean, you're always worried about the markets. And it's kind of interesting. The cow/calf producer, which there are a lot of cow/calf producers in southwest Missouri, are experiencing a boom time like they've never, never seen before. Like, the price of feeder cattle is, has set records in the past six months. Five years ago, feeder cattle were bringing like $1.50 to $1.70 per pound. And now they're up to like 350 to 370 a pound, which is really nice because cow/calf producers for a long time just kind of scraped by and struggled. It's been really tough to make a lot of money. It's not like with corn and soybeans where you can grow a big crop in one year and completely have this crazy surplus and change the market. Like, with cattle, it takes a little while for the price to change because it takes a while to produce beef. You know, we're dealing with extremely high fertilizer prices in part due to international diplomacy issues such as what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz. And while we're dealing with really high fertilizer prices, the corn and soybeans are not bringing what they typically should based on what the inputs cost. So, they're kind of getting — farmers are kind of getting it from both sides, like not selling their product for a very high price but also dealing with super high inputs."
"I feel very grateful for where we farm because we have — we're like 15 minutes from the edge of Springfield, so everything is really convenient. And also, I feel like there's a little bit of an untapped resource of agro tourism. We haven't really delved into that a whole lot, but there are other farms around, some, you know, some people have like a corn maze or you-pick blackberry or orchard, things like that that can get people out. And I think that's just another way for people to make money in agriculture and the fact that we're this close to a relatively high population center."
"There are some people that think that young people don't really have an interest in farming, don't really want to farm, would rather have a 9 to 5 and not have to get their hands dirty. And I think that's certainly true for some people, but I think a lot of people actually do — would love to live on a farm and start a family in that setting. Access to land is probably the largest barrier. It's clear to me that people in Missouri, in the government, value agriculture and understand the importance of its vitality for the state economy overall."
Nico Burasco and Dax Bedell with Ozarks Public Television provided production support for this series.
Find more in our Sense of Community series at this link, and view companion documentaries from Ozarks Public Television at OPTV.org.
