Grazing Wisdom

Meet Doc

I was born into the cattle business in South Central Missouri. My Father was a farmer and at different times owned everything from a rodeo, livestock auction, beer joint and John Deere dealership. I hardly remember these ventures but my formative years were spent on the farm fighting the drought of the 1950's. I remember my Father doing everything recommended by our county agent. But the drought and application of agriculture knowledge of the time broke him financially and most importantly spiritually. If only we would have known then what I know now, I would probably still be on that farm.

I enrolled at the University of Missouri the Fall of 1961. I graduated with a BS in Agriculture and a Doctors in Veterinary Medicine in 1967 - the only time in my life I was not involved on a daily basis with livestock. I practiced food animal veterinary medicine a bit over 30 years around the Columbia, MO area. Our practice encompassed consultation and preventive medicine. Then a backgrounding/pre-conditioning operation. I’ve been a millionaire and I’ve been broke.

I was exposed several times to this rational grazing concept but had all the misconceptions of the time required, cost, etc. In my early 60’s after a late in life marriage, I ended up on a traditional farm. We turned it into an all grass pasture operation and stumbled into rational grazing.

After attending a grazing school at a nearby neighbor and friend, Greg Judy, and hearing Ian Mitchell Innes from South Africa, things began to fall into place. I quickly realized all the things I had been doing wrong and the few things I’d been doing right.

Here we are 10 years in and as an old saying goes; “When the need arises the teacher will appear.” The teacher appeared, we learned our lesson and now want to pass it on to as many as possible.

Meet Karen

I came home to farm with my husband, Craig McBride, in 1974. We had row crops, cattle and a farrow-to-finish hog operation. After his death in 1994, I sold the hog operation and continued raising cattle and hay with his Father. In 2001 I married Doc and he has told our grazing journey above. We sold our cow herd in the fall of 2012 and now commercial graze our grass with cow/calf pairs for another rancher.

Between us we have 5 children, 12 grandchildren and a cat, Susie.

Visit the Farm

Click here to schedule your visit and meet Doc and Karen at their farm.