Jerry Shannon has spent most of his life farming or teaching agriculture. He grew up on the family farm, and now Jerry and his wife, Russ Ann Shannon, are being recognized as the 2020 Stone County Farm Family of the Year.
The Shannons have a beef cow-calf operation with 90 cows and raise 40 acres of hay on the couple’s 819-acre farm.
They have one son, Jeff, 41, who lives with his wife, Megan, in Huntsville, Arkansas, with their daughter, Kinley, 9, and sons Jerrett, 5, and 3-year-old twins, Alex and Andrew.
“Jeff helps us when he comes to visit,” Jerry said.
Jerry said he was surprised when he learned the family was being recognized with the county honor.
“I never even thought about it,” he said. “It’s such an honor to be picked. I was surprised.”
Jerry, 70, grew up in Mountain View, a son of the late Ralph and Lorene Shannon. Jerry’s grandfather, Finis Shannon, started the farm with cattle and a few crops.
“My father raised cattle, and I helped him until I took over the operation in 1986,” Jerry said. “I grew up on this farm and have been involved with it all my life.”
Jerry graduated from Mountain View High School in 1968 and attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he earned a degree in animal science in 1973 and a master’s degree in entomology in 1975.
“I decided to become a teacher and come back here to Stone County to teach,” Jerry said. “I like the small schools.”
He was a vocational agriculture teacher in the Rural Special School District at Fox for 30 years, retiring in 2008.
Russ Ann, 69, grew up in Coffeyville, Kansas. She and Jerry met at college and were married in 1973.
Russ Ann retired from a 32-year teaching career in 2012. She taught English and Spanish at Big Flat, Timbo, Rural Special and, finally, Mountain View.
Jerry said the couple raise a mixed breed of cattle, with Angus and Hereford influence.
“I probably will not expand the farm by much,” he said. “I’m pretty satisfied with what I’ve got. I raise the hay to feed my cattle, and I sell the cattle at local livestock auctions as much as I can. Clinton is the closet, but I’ve also sold at Harrison and Batesville.”
Jerry said he does plan to increase fencing to improve pasture rotation.
“I rotate some now, but I need to do more,” he said.
“I would like to get to the point of being able to sell my calves in the Green Tag Sale,” Jerry said. “I am very close to being able to do that. The Green Tag Sale is something the Extension Service started. Your cattle have to be conditioned, weaned for 45 days, vaccinated and fully wormed. Those cattle often bring a better premium.”
Tyler Caston, chairman of the Stone County Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture, said the Green Tag Sale is the Natural State Preconditioned Calf Program.
“It was started a couple of years ago through the Extension Service, where cattle farmers could participate by becoming BQA (Beef Quality Assurance) Certified,” Caston said. “Then enrolling in the program, the farmer has to vaccinate their calves for respiratory diseases and blackleg and give a booster shot if necessary. [The farmers] must worm the calves and dehorn or castrate any bulls, then wean the calves for at least 45 days and train them to eat and drink from a trough.
“The calves in this program have a Green Tag that states they have been preconditioned and pre-vaccinated, and farmers should be able to sell these calves for a premium because of that. The reason for premium prices is because buyers will not have to do as much work to keep the calves healthy. This program is to, hopefully, make Arkansas cattle have a better reputation throughout the United States.”
Jerry said he sold a few heifers “before the [coronavirus] outbreak, but since then, I’ve only had a few to sell,” he said. “The prices have gone down so much that I’m holding until I see what happens.”
Jerry said he has a few other cattle — eye-candy, as he calls them.
“I have a few Longhorn steers that are impressive to see,” he said.
Jerry said that when he is not busy on the farm, he and Russ Ann enjoy traveling.
“We have been on a few cruises but mainly like to travel here in the United States,” he said.
Jerry said the couple’s granddaughter, Kinley, is involved in the 4-H poultry chain and was also involved in shooting a BB gun with 4-H. She is also involved with the Awana program at her church.
Jerry served as an FFA adviser from 1968 to 2008. He is treasurer of the Stone County Cattlemen’s Board of Directors, secretary of the Stone County Farm Bureau Board of Directors and a member of the Stone County Fair Board of Directors.
He has attended the Arkansas Farm Bureau State Convention, the Arkansas Farm Bureau Officers and Leaders Conference, the Arkansas Cattlemen’s annual convention and the National Farm Bureau conventions in Phoenix in 2017 and in San Diego in 2015.
Russ Ann is a member of the Stone County Farm Bureau Women’s Committee. She has attended the Arkansas State Farm Bureau State Convention and the national Farm Bureau conventions in Phoenix and San Diego.