Rick McNary

We are excited to announce a new membership benefit program to offer you perks for supporting your Shop Kansas Farms farmers and ranchers. We call it, “Riding for the Brand.”

The practice of branding cattle and the American cowboy has deep roots in Kansas from the early cattle drives to Abilene to the cattle trucks backing up to the Bazaar Cattle pens along the Kansas turnpike. It is common to see the entrance to a farm or ranch with the cutout of a brand in an arch over the drive or mounted to posts along the side.  

When Angela married RJ Dake in 1993 at the end of his military career, they both shared the dream of farming, which had been in RJ’s blood since he was a child. However, California land prices near their home in Sacramento made it cost-prohibitive to begin a farm.

Cherie Schenker is a problem solver. One such problem was her husband, Kevin, was longing for the homegrown Kansas beef raised on their farm near McCune when he was stationed in Afghanistan. Although it took considerable work navigating the bureaucracy and red tape of international governments and working with an outside company to invent a shipping system, she was finally able to ship Schenker Family Farms beef to hungry soldiers longing for a taste of home.

Today marks the sixth anniversary of Shop Kansas Farms (SKF) and here are six reasons to celebrate!

Although Anna Tucker thinks it’s a bit corny, I agree with her: it’s pure joy to watch baby lambs head-butting each other or suddenly busting out in moves like a backup dancer for Taylor Swift

“It’s the part I enjoy most on our ranch,” Anna says. “I was raised around dairy cattle and much of my background is working with cattle, but when Jeremiah and I bought 72 acres, we realized we were limited by how many cattle we could raise to responsibly maintain our pasture ground, so we started exploring smaller livestock when we formed Diamond T Livestock.”

Shannon Kearney bought her first herd of Angus cattle while she was living in an apartment in Lenexa. How did she make the transition from city life to country life?

“I would go with my dad after work to help take care of his cattle,” Shannon says. “I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to get my own herd, so I secured a first-time farmer loan from the USDA in 2015. Land is expensive to purchase in Johnson County, but I was able to find some pasture to rent.”

Cheryl Hunsinger loved sitting in her office and looking across the road at the field of sunflowers her husband, George, had planted as a surprise for her. She’d watch them turn their heads toward the east then slowly follows the sun’s arc across the sky until the sun set in the west. He planted them so they would bloom in time for Labor Day, creating a perfect opportunity for people in the Lawrence area to enjoy their field of sunshine.  

The first thing I noticed when I met Kelly Perry the first time in the fall of 2020 were all of the USPS Flat Rate boxes of Perry’s Pork Rinds stacked on her front porch ready to be shipped. But they were nothing compared to her living room, dining room and kitchen, which were lined wall to wall with even more boxes in their home in Bronson.

“This is crazy,” she laughed as she handed me a pork rind to taste. “We had no idea it would turn into this. We started doing this just to make a little cash for a long-overdue honeymoon.”

People who grow up on a farm like Anita Hamm seem to be at their happiest when they are growing either plants or animals. Whether it is nourishing the lives of animals on Hamm’s Homestead Farm near Minneapolis with her husband, Tim, or previously caring for surgical/trauma patients as a nurse at Salina Regional Hospital, Anita finds great satisfaction in caring for others. Lately, her role at the hospital has shifted to the quality improvement department, which gives her more free time to work on their farm.

Melissa Hildebrand-Reed of Hildebrand Farms Dairy in Junction City is proud she is the product of a long and rich history of women on the farm.

“I have great examples of women like my grandma Margaret who is still going strong, working hard alongside all of us on the farm,” Melissa says. “Women like my aunt Karen and aunt Kathy are more than “farm wives;” they are every part of the day-to-day operation. Grandma was finally able to slow down in her 70s after decades of milking cows and caring for calves.”