Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Farm Familiy In Thin Gravy

Thin Gravy is a small spread as ranches go.

There's only 103 acres to the entire outfit, with 10 of those woodland. The rest of the land is used as pasture.

Upon this ranch resides 46 head of cattle and the 1996 Clark County Farm Family of the Year, Ray and Debbie Smith. Both hold full-time jobs with International Paper Co. and work the ranch after they finish their daily shifts at the plant.

The Smith family became involved in ranching when they bought a registered brangus bull in 1990 for their son, Paul Schee's, FFA project.

They rented 26 acres in Moon Valley in 1991 and bought eight crossbred pairs.

Slowly, the Smiths expanded their operation, as they bought a tractor and stock trailer in 1992.

The family had a dream of a bigger and better ranch, with more cattle. This dream became a reality in 1994, when they found the ranch of their dreams.

In order to come up with a down payment for the house and land, the Smith's sold their camper and bass boat.

They were also fortunate in being able to sell their other house in only a month after putting it on the market.

When the Smith family moved to the Thin Gravy Ranch, they bought 26 more cow-calf pairs.

Nicole McMichael, their daughter, began showing registered brangus in 1994 as a 4-H project.

She began showing a three-in-one pair and has built up to seven registered head of cattle.

Brangus cattle were selected for the Thin Gravy Ranch because of the breed's good maternal traits, disease resistance and easy calving.

The main pasture is broken into four sections so the Smiths can rotate the cattle from one to another on a weekly basis.

They couldn't rotate their livestock this year because of last year's drought, which caused a shortage of grass, hay and water.

The cattle are wormed at least twice each year, or three times if the grass is short.

They vaccinate their herd annually in late winter. Heifers are given shots for brucellosis in the spring and fall.

In addition, they band all bull calves within two or three days of their birth.

The birth dates of the animals are tracked on computer. The calves are weaned in 200 to 300 days after birth

The pasture has contains clover and fescue. On normal years the Smith's don't begin feeding hay until late December, allowing the cattle to begin grazing again in early March.

Along with tracking cattle births on computer, the Smith family keeps all records on a computer spreadsheet program.

This helps them keep track of where their money goes, how it's spent and makes life easier during tax time.

In an effort to help the environment, the Smith's keep used motor oil around for oiling the chains and moving parts on farm machinery.

They also collect and recycle cans and use manure, hay, shavings and wheat straw from the show calf bedding in the garden and around flowers in their yard.

The family is active in the New Caney Baptist Church.

The Smiths also raise a garden each year, freezing or canning vegetables for use throughout the year. They also slaughter a calf each year to save on meat costs.

Ray Smith is a youth leader in the church, along with being a volunteer with the Clark County Office of Emergency Services, the Clark County and Arkansas Cattlemen's Associations, is a Gurdon FFA alumni and a member of the Arkansas Brangus Breeders Association.

Debbie is also involved in youth work with the church, is a Gurdon FFA alumni and is in the Women's Missionary Association at the New Caney Baptist Church.

Paul, along with working on the farm, is active in the church's youth programs and works at International Paper Co.

Whitney is also in the church youth group and is in the Girl Scouts.

Nicole is active in the church, is on the Clark County 4-H Club Meats and Livestock Judging team, the Gurdon FFA meats team, the Arkansas Junior Brangus Breeders Association, the International Junior Brangus Breeders Association and the Arkansas Junior Cattlemen's Association.

Though their 911 address lists them in Okolona, the Thin Gravy Ranch is actually in the Trinity community, near Dobyville,

Where did the name, Thin Gravy come from? Well, according to Ray, when they bought the farm, they wanted a name, but couldn't think of one.

One Sunday before they moved, Donald Patterson, who has lived in the area most of his life, asked when they were moving to Thin Gravy.

When Ray asked what he meant, Patterson said when he grew up, things were so bad they didn't have anything to make their gravy thick with. Therefore, it was thin gravy.

Subsequently, because things were tight for the Smith's in the beginning, the name stuck and they are the proud owners of the Thin Gravy Ranch.