Welcome to Smalley Farms

We are not located in the flat, treeless wheat land of Western Kansas but rather in the beautiful rolling hill country of Southeast Kansas.

 People have asked, "Why would anyone in their right mind want to farm or run cattle?" and they do have a point.  When cattle prices are high, if you added up all your hours, you might make minimum wage.  When cattle prices are low, you don't even think about minimum wage, and neither does the banker.  In the summertime your day begins early and ends at dark.  There's hay to bale and haul.  There's feed to harvest and store for winter.    There's fence to fix and cattle to move because the ponds are getting low on water.  Occasionally the temperature drops below 100 degrees but it isn't bad in the shade with a breeze.  However, there is very seldom a breeze and very little shade.  In the fall there's still fence to fix because it's never done.  You spend your time gathering cattle to get ready for market and a thousand other things that must be done before winter.  In the winter time you put on knee high rubber boots and wade through mud almost as deep as the boots to feed and care for the stock.  Other days, you wake up, turn the radio on, and hear the announcer say, "The temperature isn't expected to get above zero again today" so you go to the closet and put on enough clothes for a family of four.  You spend an hour trying to get the truck or tractor started so you can make the rounds of the ponds to cut ice, only to watch it refreeze almost as quick as you cut it.  You look at the ice hanging from the backs of the cattle and wonder how in the world they survive.  This is done everyday, seven days a week.  Why,  because it has to be.  Why would anyone in their right mind want to farm or run cattle?

Then one day you wake up and it's March.  Spring is just around the corner.  Things are turning green, the sky is clear, and the baby calves are popping up like mushrooms after a rain.   You drive the pastures and watch a baby calf wobble to it's feet and begin to nurse, only minutes after being born.  You watch the calves, only a few weeks old, play tag like a group of children or you watch one get atop a mound of dirt and all the others play 'king on the mountain'.  You watch a Meadow Lark flutter away, apparently with a broken wing, because you got too close to her nest.  You stop and listen to the coyote pups learning how to yelp.  On rare occasions, you take the time to sit on the porch and watch a sunset so beautiful it could have only been designed by God or you go out at night and look up to a clear sky, filled with more stars than a person in the city could ever imagine.  You listen but fail to hear the sound of horns honking, people arguing, and all the other sounds of the city.  You go to sleep at night without worrying about drive by shootings or putting bars on your windows to keep people out.  When someone ask, "Why would anyone in their right mind want to farm or run cattle?" it is usually someone from the city who will never understand.  There are two things that keep those who care for the land from quitting.  The belief that 'next year will be better' and 'spring'.  You'll get many reasons why they stay but one of them will never be "for the money".  Farming or ranching is not an occupation, it's a way of life , a way of life those born and raised in the city will never understand and a way of life those in the country hope will never be lost.

 We hope you enjoy your trip to the country and find interesting the history of our 3rd generation farm.

Thanks must be given to Kerry Elkins, webmaster,  who has been a tremendous help in putting this site together.  For more information about the history of Neodesha, KS  and the surrounding area please check his web site at www.neodygrads.com