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Dr. Fredric Clark, an established rocket scientist from Alabama, and back in 1988, he decided he wanted to have a farm. Now, many years later, deer valley farm is a quite the staple in the community and beyond.
Amy Beckham: From Rocket Scientist to Farmer. Hello there and welcome to Tennessee Home and Farm Radio, I’m Amy Beckham.
Bryan Ishmael: Deer Valley is a staple of Tennessee.
Amy Beckham: Well, Dr. Fredric Clark, an established rocket scientist from Alabama, back in 1988 decided he wanted to have a farm. And now, many years later, Deer Valley Farm is quite the staple in the community and beyond. Bryan Ishmael, herd manager of Deer Valley, shares more about how the farm came to be.
Bryan Ishmael: Dr. Fredric Clark decided he wanted to get into farming. He bought a small chunk of land here in Fayetteville and started commercial herd and then you know, decided he wanted to get bigger and bought a herd of Limousine cows from out west. He started showing those on the state and national level. And then the Limousine breed kind of started to die out and Mr. Fred wanted to get into the Angus business. And it just went from there. And Mr. Fred was one of those people he wanted to have the best and there’s some of the best donor cows in the country standing on this farm today.
Amy Beckham: Well, that small commercial Angus herd has grown quite a bit and is now on 5,000 acres and no doubt a premier Angus producer across the country. Ishmael shares an overview of the farm currently.
Bryan Ishmael: We have a pretty intense AI program. We do a lot of ET – embryo transplant work. We run about 800 mama cows. We’re big bull producers. We have two bull sales a year or three bull sales a year matter of fact. One here in March, one in Okeechobee, Florida in October and one in November. So, we sell about 400-450 bulls a year here off the farm. Somewhere around 200 females a year probably is what we sell.
Amy Beckham: Unfortunately, Dr. Clark passed away earlier this year, but Ishmael and his team are continuing to work hard to improve and grow the farm. And that includes the few sales a year. He says even if you have no plans of buying cattle, it’s still a great experience to come to the sale.
Bryan Ishmael: All the leading Angus operations in the country will all be here you know on sale day. It’s quite the crowd. It’s something to see actually. I would encourage people to come just to watch it. If you have no intention of buying, just come and see it. I mean, it’s it’s unbelievable.
Amy Beckham: For Tennessee Home and Farm Radio, I’m Amy Beckham.
