Dean Adkins, KMA Radio, www.kmaland.com
(Pickering, MO)–It’s truly a family affair when it comes to raising cattle for the Cline family near Pickering, Missouri.
Matt Cline farms in a partnership with his dad, Danny and gets great help from his wife, Cari and son Cody.
“My wife, Cari, helps me on the farm,” he says. “Couldn’t do the things I do without her. She teaches computers at Northwest. She helps me AI my heifers and keeps everything straight.”
The young couple has two children; Cody, who is a junior at North Nodaway and Jacquelyn, who is in 8th grade.
Danny and his wife, Connie, have three children; Matt, Brad and Jennifer and enjoy spending time with their seven grandchildren.
Along with his wife, Berneta, Danny’s father, Claude Cline, starting the family farm in Nodaway County in the early 1940s.
Matt describes the Cline family farming operation.
“We run a 160 cow-calf operation. We’ve been keeping back heifers since I got in with dad, trying to re-do the herd-get a “youth movement” going. We background for three months. We usually sell at Clarinda Livestock.”
And the other aspects of the operation?
“I have 52 acres of row crop, corn-soybeans rotation. We cut silage, feed our calves, background them on silage, ground hay and QLF liquid feed that we buy up in Iowa. Mix that and feed that to them in a ration,” he says.
The Clines raise Simmental-Angus cross cattle.
Cody helps when he can, especially over the summer months. Matt likes the opportunities for young people to get involved in the cattle side of agriculture.
“I think it’s real good,” he says. “For a young guy trying to get in, I think cattle is probably your best option. Row crop’s a little harder to get into because of the land prices and machinery prices. A young guy trying to get in, I think the cattle operation’s the way to go. You go to any auction and your age, on the average, is pretty steep. There’s a lot of older guys still in the cattle operations looking to get out and I think if they wanted to they could probably help a young guy out.”
Matt has a deep appreciation for getting the opportunity farm with his dad as he worked at the Energizer battery plant for 15 years before entering the family farming operation a few years back.
As we continue to celebrate May Beef Month, we honor farmers like the Clines who do such a fantastic job of providing nutritious, delicious beef to the people of America.
