St. Clair County Cattlemen

What better time than the heart of the holiday season to say thank you to all the local individuals and businesses that have helped the St. Clair County Cattlemen’s Association have a successful MO Beef Kids program!

St. Clair County Cattlemen’s Association started the MO Beef Kids as a county-wide program in the last six weeks of the 2018-19 school year. The first donation was a beef from Wheeler Livestock Auction. In June 2019, the St. Clair County Cattlemen held their MO Beef Kids Kick-Off Meeting, where they presented all four county schools with a banner to hang at their school and Wheeler Livestock Auction as the first donor. From there, the program grew to encompass 12 head donated in the 2019-20 school year, and down to 10 head planned for 2022-23 as schools are working to recover from COVID times. St. Clair County Cattlemen work to provide quality farm fresh beef to the following schools: Appleton City School District, Lakeland School District, Roscoe School District and Osceola School District. Lakeland School District and Osceola School District are OPAA schools, so OPAA pays the processing. Appleton City School District and Roscoe School District are self-paying districts that have chosen to participate on their own.

Each year at the beginning of calendar year, processing dates are set with Powell Meat Company for the next school year to ensure the county schools will be provided farm fresh beef on their trays. Starting in the 2020-21 school year, St. Clair County Cattlemen started reaching out to local businesses for extra funds to help sustain the program. Local businesses and individuals can donate any amount and the Cattlemen give them a MO Beef Kids donor sign to put in the business window/ yard. They also put articles thanking the business or individual on Facebook and in the local paper throughout the school year. For the 2022-23 school year, local cattlemen can sell a beef at the local sale barn and tell the sale barn to donate the funds to the St. Clair County Cattlemen MO Beef Kids program. Donations are how the program has been sustained for the last two school years.

St. Clair County Cattlemen’s Association has currently donated 33 head to date. The Cattlemen would like to shout out a BIG thank you to the following who have donated to the program:

2019 – Byron Wheeler, Paul Wheeler, Larry Shelby, Austin Shelby, Weston Shelby, Mike Nance, Josh Salmon, Eddie Meredith, Johnson Ranch, Howard Taber, Joe Shelby, Robert Salmon, Willie Davis,

Donnahue Farms, Don Payton, Phillip Johnston, and Raysha Tate.

2020 – Bill Creek, Community First Bank, Dull & Heany LLC, Gregg Smith Ford, Hawthorne Bank, Jim Falk Motors, John and Megan Swaters, Legacy Bank and Trust, Oakstar Bank, and Phillip and Carol Johnston

2021 - Community First Bank, Dull & Heany LLC, Gregg Smith Ford, Hawthorne Bank, Jim Falk Motors, Legacy Bank and Trust, Oakstar Bank, Stewart and Kiefer Real Estate, Phillip and Carol Johnston, Wheeler Livestock Auction, Jim and Stephanie Neuenschwander, and Eddie Meredith

2022 - Community First Bank, Dull & Heany LLC, Gregg Smith Ford, Hawthorne Bank, Jim Falk Motors, Legacy Bank and Trust, Oakstar Bank, Susan Hemenway, Mike McEwan (McEwan Lawn Service), Eddie Meredith, Dan and Shelby Wisner, Larry and Rhonda Shelby, Weston and Julie Shelby, Mike and Gwenny Nance, and Philip and Carol Johnston.

If you or your county are not involved in a MO Beef Kids program, St. Clair County Cattlemen would strongly suggest you seek out getting a quality program going in your county as promoting Missouri beef is to promote the very livelihood of every Missouri cattlemen!