Kimmons Family: Hope For The Farm
As originally published in Ozarks Farm & Neighbor
“My name is George Kimmons and I am a Christian County farmer. Even as a 12-year-old, agriculture and farming are very important to me. It is a tradition in my family. It is important to have farms because we all have to eat. I am glad to be a farmer in Christian County.”
Hope for the future of agriculture swelled in the standing-room-only meeting where George gave his testimony to the Christian County Commission as they considered Agri-Ready Designation for his home county. All three commissioners smiled. The crowd held a collective breath.
The Hope of Kimmons Farm
George and his sister, EmmaSue (age 9), are the hope of Kimmons Farm, owned and operated by their parents, Mark and Amanda Kimmons. Their farm encompasses 900 acres along the Finley River in Ozark and is home to a commercial cow-calf herd. The family grows forages and hay for use and sale.
Grandpa George’s Legacy
Grandpa George Kimmons was born in 1919 on a family farm near Clever. With a degree in agricultural education from the University of Missouri-Columbia, he returned to Ozark. In 1954, he established the Kimmons Farm. Over the decades Grandpa George grew his own feed and forages, milked cows and had a beef herd.
His river bottom land gave him a production advantage, so he grew seed corn. He competed in multiple annual yield contests, even winning a combine as top prize one year!
Mark and his mom moved home to Missouri to help Grandpa George with the farm when Grandma Pauline passed away. Grandpa George built a new milking barn and Mark started milking cows in 1996. Mark was in eighth grade.
The Next Generation’s Challenge
In 1999 as a young farmer still in high school, Mark received an astronomical tax bill when Grandpa George passed away. The current tax code demanded a hefty death tax on capital gains AND a bonus tax because the inheritance skipped a generation. Although the farm was left in trust, the document was contested, bringing more burdensome expenses to the effort to keep the farm intact.
Sustaining Hope
“As long as I have been a part of the family, I have heard about how important it was to Grandpa that the farm should stay a farm. He hoped it would stay together and so we were willing to do whatever it took,” shares Amanda.
“Through our worst years, our hope came from being young and dumb,” Mark chuckles. “We thought we could do anything. We wanted the farm to work.”
Mark and Amanda milked cows for nearly 25 years and Amanda built a full-time career at Ozark Bank. Their hope and support during long days came from Mark’s mom, Georgia, who helped milk the cows.
Hope from Community
As a small family with a big farm, hope for Kimmons Farm comes from the agriculture community: friends lend a hand in body and spirit, trade work, and share equipment. At silo time, in the milk barn, working the beef herd, during planting and harvest, photos of Mark and Amanda’s children around the farm usually also include Keith, Scott, Grandpa Bob, Kevin, AJ, Benjamin, Lucas, Travis and others. Not their family-but their FARMily.
Achieving Agri-Ready Designation
Beyond its growing economic significance, farming is historically significant to many families in Christian County, including the Kimmons. Thanks to encouragement from George and others, the Christian County Commissioners voted unanimously to apply for Agri-Ready Designation. The county’s Designation was announced on January 7.
A New Hope
“I hope that this Designation means our elected representatives are paying attention to agriculture. I hope that my children can take over our working family farm someday, but today that opportunity is a challenge,” Mark says. “Our farm is inundated and changed by suburban run-off, sometimes causing water to stand inside barns, meanwhile we work daily to be courteous in suburban traffic. There are other struggles. Agri-Ready Designation is a great step in the right direction.”
A New Generation
George and EmmaSue are active members of the Mighty Eagles 4-H club and annual contributors to the Missouri Farmers Care Drive to Feed Kids. George is also an officer of the Ozark Junior High FFA Club. The Kimmons family are members of Missouri Farm Bureau.
University of Missouri Extension 4-H programs, Missouri FFA Association, and Missouri Farm Bureau are partners of Missouri Farmers Care.