11 minute read
Jennifer Lutes said her ag classes gave her a sense of belonging
from OFN July 20, 2020
by Eric Tietze
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An Unlikely Career
By Katrina Hines Jennifer Lutes found her “home” in agriculture
Jennifer Lutes never intended to have a career in home,” Jennifer said. “I had taken many classes at that point and agriculture but the Beaufort, S.C., native now says done well in them, I hadn’t felt a sense of belonging.” she cannot see herself doing anything else. She dove into animal production classes and began working on
Living in rural McDonald County, Mo., with her husband Jothe student farm, giving her a chance to develop skills in all aspects seph, a family nurse practitioner in Newton County, and their two of farm operations. youngest children, Autumn and Nathan, she loves the sense of She completed both an associate’s of science in general agriculcommunity and the fact there are four seasons here, instead of the ture and an associate’s of arts in agricultural business. two in the deep south. “The ag classes, teachers and students finally felt right,” Jennifer said.
Jennifer was raised in a military family. Her father was a Marine, her “I have always loved every type of animal but when I began working mother was Navy and Photo by Katrina Hine with different types of her husband also was animals, the pieces finala Marine. Their oldest ly began to fit together.” son Kyle now serves in At home, they began the Marines. raising horses, predomi
Although, she never nantly Belgians and Perthought about farming cherons, with as many or livestock growing as 16 at the zenith of up, her mother remindtheir production until ed her as a child she the market declined. always wanted to buy Always a horse lover, a farm and raise horses. Jennifer still has three
Her unintentional “pasture ornaments” journey into agriculwhom she dotes on. ture began soon after Her studious passion they arrived in Missouto make connections ri in 2004. between ideas and top
Even though early jobs ics, gaining knowledge were in the restaurant in what was once an field, working up from unfamiliar field of study food prep to manager, became something she she wanted a change could immerse herself. and began computer sciAfter Crowder, she ence classes at Missouri learned about the UniSouthern State Univerversity of Arkansas’ sity. They had moved poultry science program to a 38-acre spot with shade trees and sloping meadows that flattened out into a pasture and coupled with a pond, it Jennifer Lutes is from a military family, but as a child she wanted a farm and horses. Today Jennifer has that farm, the horses, as well as Katahdin sheep. Jennifer also has advanced degrees in agriculture and works for the University of Missouri Extension. while on a field trip. She met with a recruiter and found she qualified for enough scholarships to cover the two years she was a perfect place to would need to complete raise livestock. Their her bachelor’s. first attempt began with a herd of small goats. HowevAlthough, it would mean that she would have to re-home er, they soon noticed the animals were getting sick and the menagerie of fowl residing on their hobby farm. within a matter of hours they started to die. Her journey into agricultural studies earned her a bache
Unsure of the cause, they sold the few remaining goats. lor’s in Food and Life Science, majoring in poultry with a
Jennifer, not one to be bested by a challenge, decided minor in agribusiness. But she did not stop there. to check into classes that might educate her on caring for small ruminants at Crowder College in Neosho. Exeter, Mo. “I believe that you should take opportunities when they present themselves,” Jennifer said.
“When I took my first ag class, I finally felt a sense of Again, her college performance and eagerness to
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learn, earned her the opportunity to work on her master’s in ag economics as a researcher. She discovered a knack for research and working with numbers.
Meanwhile, with fewer horses and the pasture sitting idle, the Lutes decided to try goats again. First, they raised meat goats, then transitioned to Kiko’s for their maternal traits. At their peak, they owned 50 breeding does and two bucks.
But when the goats effectively cleaned up all the brush, they decided to reduce the goat herd and purchase Katahdin sheep.
Hoping to better understand herd management, she dove into researching the goat market and found that live goat prices fluctuated throughout the year. She also realized there was a sharp contrast between sheep and goat market prices.
Wanting to earn more per head on her goats, she developed a research model for one of her classes that revealed profit differences between selling different size goats in different months.
“The goat market is not broadly studied and is relatively young compared to cattle, hog, sheep and poultry markets,” Jennifer said. “In 2010, the U.S., became a net importer of goat meat and today meat goats are a very strong market because of the increased demand.”
Missouri has many livestock auctions that sell small ruminants, but there are only six designated livestock auctions in the state that USDA Market and Analysis reporters use for price discovery.
Despite this, there are few researchers looking into the market and data is difficult to compile without adequate conversion software.
Today, Jennifer works for the University of Missouri Extension as a county engagement specialist in agriculture and environment, based in the McDonald County Extension office in Pineville.
Her passion for small ruminants is a proven niche’, allowing her to create a “small ruminant market outlook” tool she uses to educate area producers.
She has drafted a team composed of specialists from both MU and Lincoln University Extension to develop a small ruminant educational resource specific to Missouri.
Since coming to Extension, she has seen a trend in new or beginning farmers hoping to utilize their small acreage with efficient methods. And with increased social media platforms, Extension can offer online classes to a new and larger audience.
“We [Extension] were Google before there was a Google,” Jennifer said smiling.
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