Harry Cope farms in Central Missouri with his wife Rose and our 2 grown children Sabrina and Dustin.
They run a diversified livestock operation producing beef, pork and lamb. These are marketed both as direct meat sales and commercial animals.
They grow a limited amount of row crops as milo, corn, cereal rye, wheat and annual forages. They harvest nearly all of these with animals. They have roughly 800 acres of permanent pasture (1/2 seeded diverse natives and 1/2 cool season). They also have 500 acres of timber pasture.
After graduating from Fairbury Junior College, Ray Ward continued his studies at the University of Nebraska, earning a bachelor’s in 1959 and a master’s in 1961. After graduation Ward went to work at South Dakota State University, where he attained a doctorate in 1972. Ray then went on to manage a research extension center in Redfield, South Dakota. Ward started two more labs: a research extension center for Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and a commercial soil testing laboratory for Servi-Tech in Dodge City, Kansas. Dr.
Tyler Williams is a Sustainable Systems Agronomist with Bayer Crop Science located in Lincoln, Nebraska. In this role, he works with operations across the region to build soil health, enhance weather resiliency, and provide support for growers new to no-till and cover crops. Prior to this role, he was a Production Research Scientist within Bayer where he led sustainability trials in Bayer Seed Production. Before joining Bayer in early 2020, he spent 10 years at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln working in Extension and the Nebraska State Climate Office.
Annette was raised on a fifth generation sheep and row crop farm in the Willamette Valley of western Oregon. She earned her Bachelor's in Animal Science and her Master's degree in Ruminant Nutrition with an emphasis in forages. She spent ~10 years in the animal health and nutrition industry before transitioning to work full-time on her and her husband's first generation farm in Northwest Oklahoma, raise their girls and provide agriculture consulting services.
