PEA RIDGE — The three men look strikingly similar, each wearing sweatstained Wilkerson Farms ball caps. Their grins are mirror images of one another.
One sat in the cab of his truck.
His elder brother stood at the front of the truck leaning casually on the hood. The father of the two younger men sat beside the brick milk barn.
It was cooler in the shade of the tree. There they typically gather to discuss the farm and any business matters concerning the dairy and beef cattle they raise.
Continuing in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, Benton Wilkerson, Trey, the youngest of the Wilkerson boys, milks the 44 dairy cows six nights and two mornings a week - giving his father a much-needed (and deserved) break from the ceaselesstasks of a dairyman.
“Five years ago, I was ready to quit,” the elder Wilkerson said, explaining that working for 26 years without a break had worn him out. Now, smiling about his son’s desire to continue working the dairy, he said: “I told him Iought to check out his head.”
“My grandpa milked. Actually, Grandma and the seven kids did the milking,” Brentley said. His father, C.W. Wilkerson continued the dairy farm. “My mom did most of the milking.”
Brentley began milking in 1985. Today, the Holstein and Jersey herd produce 1,900 gallons a day.
On the 56 acres off Schrader Road, the Wilkersons have the dairy herd. In the still of the predawn mornings, Trey said he can often hear J.C. Beaver calling in his cows at the only other dairy farm in the area. Beaver and his brother, Randy, own and operate a dairy farm off Lee Town Road, a couple of miles south of the Wilkersons’ farm.
It wasn’t always so. Just a few years ago, there were small dairy farms scattered all over these Ozarks hills. But as dairy farmers have aged and the younger generation left the farms for the cities, dairy operations have closed.
It’s a hard, demanding life.
The cows are milked twice a day - at 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. And, in addition to the milking, there are a myriad of chores to complete. Some dairy farmers growtheir own feed. All have to manage the property and equipment associated with the operation - fences, pasture, feed, tractors, trucks.
The Wilkersons grow as much of their hay as they can, but the dry weather this year are hurting the crop. Brentley said he’s already having to feed hay.
When milking time arrived, Trey headed toward the interior of the milk barn and Tyler headed outside to herd the cattle towards the two doors on either side of the barn.
Four cows filed in - two by two - and each walked into her stall, she she eagerly munches the feed awaiting her.
As Trey went about his duties, cats and kittens mewed for their feed. He stood in a concrete trench with cow udders about chest height to him.
Trey said he arises about 4 a.m. on milking days.
Each milking session takesa couple of hours. He admits he goes to bed rather early for a young man - 9:30 on most evenings.
“I really like it,” he said, explaining that he enjoys the quiet mornings.
There’s a fan to stir thebreeze on the hottest days and a heater to abate the chill of winter days.
Tyler and Trey have abeef herd, too.
Trey laughed, admitting some of his friends think he only works a few hours in the morning and in the evening, but he said there’s always something to do. There are cows to feed, sometimes cows to doctor, fences to check and mend, cows about to calve to check on, lots to clean. There’s welding required; that’s a task Tyler does well, his father said.
Tyler said he’s majoring in agriculture business at Arkansas Tech.
Working on the farm is something he enjoys, although he prefers to leave the dairy barn to his brother.
“It’s going to put Tyler through college,” Brentlysaid.
“It’s a way of life - I’d rather do this,” Tyler said of farming. “You learn something all the time.”
“It tickles my parents to death,” Brentley said of the boys’ interest inthe farm. He admits that although they did have chores to complete when younger, he did not require them to work in the milk barn.
“They’ve shoveled a lot of manure,” Brently said.
“I was raised pretty tough. But, everyone wants their kids to have it easier than they did.”
“I’m pretty particular,” he said, about his milking style.
“I just don’t think I could work in an office all day. Once you start milking, you kind of get attached to the cows,” Trey said. He said some of his friends who grew up on farms wanted to get as far away from a farm as possible after graduation.
Obviously proud of his sons, Brentley said of Trey: “I think he’s better with the cows than I am, he’s more patient.”
“If we all work together, we can make some money,” Brentley said.
News, Pages 7 on 06/20/2012