Meet the Wilmoth Family
owners of Wilmoth Ranch
History
It all started in 1953 with a small, 2 pump gas station in Mount Vernon, Missouri, with Mr. Dwight Wilmoth acting as the owner, operator, and only employee. Over the years, the business has changed, adapted, and grown, but one constant remained. Family-owned and operated. Today, the third generation has entered the business. You can drive around the ranch on any given day, and it won’t take long to find one of Dwight's sons, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren.
About the Business
We are a cow/calf operation, meaning that we raise cattle from birth. We breed the cows and then raise the calves. After the calves are grown, the females become new cows, and the males generally become feeders, which will eventually become a steak or burger on your plate. The female cattle will live with us and stay with the same herd their whole life. After the cattle are grown, they are harvested and marketed into steaks and burgers.
Why Show Me Beef?
We see everybody wants to be more farm-to-table, and this gets us closer to that point. I think there has been so much bad publicity about beef in the news that they came on at the right time. It is local, local, local. That’s how we look at it—farm, family, food.
Environmental Stewardship
We live in an area called the Ozark Prairie, and we actually own 150 acres of native prairie that has never been tilled. It’s in the Grassland Preserve program, and we manage it with the help of the soil and water conservation district. It’s not used for our cattle operation, but we do use it for some hay. We preserve that land. When Greg was growing up, quail hunting in this area was huge. There were tons of quail, but by the time Chase was born, there were no quail to be seen. Over the years, as we have purchased land around us, we’ve planted crops and done different things. We are starting to have a super healthy duck population, a healthy quail population has returned, and deer and different wildlife that we didn't use to see around here are starting to really thrive and grow in this area. As cattle producers, yes, we do use the land to produce our cattle. We also work really hard to keep that land and water and its resources to produce for all of the years and generations to come.
