OUR FAMILY
My wife and I (Joe Jr.) got married 2 months after graduating high school. Then we went off to college, but I continued to farm full time until 1993. That is when my wife told me I needed to find a real job that actually paid me for the time spent working. During that time my wife received her teaching degree and became a pre-k and kindergarten teacher. I started at Ditch Witch in 1993 as a welder and then moved to accounting, sales and marketing before spending the next 12 years as the International Sales Manager for Ditch Witch, allowing me to travel the world.
In 1995 we had our first son Cole Ryan Smith, in 2000 we had our second son Houston Lloyd Smith, and in 2005 we were blessed with our 3rd son Jett Corbin Smith.
In June of 2010, I was burning some tree piles and there was an explosion that burned a large part of my body, and they air lifted me to the burn center in Tulsa Oklahoma where I received several skin grafts on my legs, arms and hands.
On December 21st of 2012 while hosting a Christmas dinner party for my employees and spouses, we received the worst call a parent could receive. Our youngest son, Jett (not quite 8) had a severe asthma attack and was rushed to the hospital, and they were not able to save him.
This was the lowest of lows for our family but by the grace of God, our family was lifted up and given strength. We had so much support from our wonderful friends and employers, what a blessing. At this point we had a decision to make, feel sorry for ourselves or pick ourselves up and make the best of it. We choose the latter and become much stronger members of our church and truly embraced our family & faith and what that meant to us.
We were running black and black baldy cows bred to registered Ultra Black bulls. I offered my oldest son the opportunity to buy 2 cows and the earnings could help him with college. Little did I know he would want white cows that didn’t really fit my herd. Shortly after that my son and I bought 5 registered Charolais cows and a bull from J&J Beef Genetics out of Orlando, Oklahoma and Hilltop Charolais out of Ninnekah, Oklahoma.
Since that time, we have changed over half of our cow herd to registered Charolais, buying several heifers, cows and most recently 2 bulls from Nipp Charolais out of Wilson, Oklahoma and Zehnder Waage Partnership out of Minnesota. I can’t thank them all enough for all the help getting our cattle herd turned around and going in the right direction. We have been increasing the quality of our herd by AIing some of our cows using Pure Beef Genetics and ST Genetics. We have had a lot of help from Zach & Joe Rupp of the Rupp Ranch out of Perry, Oklahoma.
