Cottinghams Nevada County Farm Family of the Year
PRESCOTT – Mike and Tami Cottingham have been named Nevada County’s Farm Family of the Year for 2019.
The couple primarily runs a cattle operation, but unlike most cattle ranchers, the Cottingham’s don’t focus on a single breed. They raise Brahma, Brangus, Registered Herefords and Master Cross “Gerks”, keeping them separated on different pastures. Overall, they have around 300 heifers and 11 bulls.
One of the remarkable things about the Cottingham’s ranch is how quickly it’s come together. They returned to the industry seven years ago, as both worked other full-time jobs. Tami delivered mail for the US Postal Service as a route carrier, while Mike still works with Texas Eastern Gas. While doing that, they also had a mowing service and Mike ran a taxidermy business for 30 years.
When time permits, they enjoy hunting and fishing. Mike also plays golf, while Tami prefers to hit the gym and recently joined Anytime Fitness and Legends in Texarkana. However, she has a small gym in what was Mike’s shop. Her gym includes a stationary bike, free weights, dumbbells, weight benches, a treadmill and a weight machine, along with a pullup bar. It gets warm there in the summer as the shop isn’t air conditioned. But, she said, it feels good in the winter.
They have one daughter, Cassie Gonzales, and two grandchildren, Jax, three, and Arden, eight. Cassie is married to Eric Gonzales.
When Cassie got married and wanted to move back to the country, Mike and Tami deeded her and Eric 15 acres on their ranch. Cassie and Eric have built a house on the land and are working to get the yard landscaped. Currently, it’s pretty much nothing but red clay and they haven’t been able to do much because of all the rain.
Mike and Tami have a 2,700 square foot house, with three bedrooms and 2.5 baths.
When they returned to ranching, they owned 180 acres and rented 40, but bought the 40 to make it 220. Now, they rent an additional 550 acres for their cattle operation. The Cottinghams raise drilled wheat on 400 acres and have another 40 acres planted in drilled oats. These crops are used for grazing and hayledge.
Bulls are turned in with the cow herd Dec. 1 through March 1, to assure the calves will be born before January’s cold weather sets in. Their business model is to market some calves at auction, while retaining ownership in others at feed yards, while keeping select heifers as replacements.
They have roughly 120 acres in pine on a Silvopasture establishment, which means the trees are kept thinned out enough to allow grass to grow for cattle.
They use a mineral feed to help keep flies off the cattle and the cattle are wormed every six months. When it comes time to take them to be sold, the cattle either go to the Hope Livestock Auction, or auctions in Oklahoma City or Welch, OK. Mike said on one sale trip he sold some livestock to Pittsburgh Steeler Colby Hamilton and the two became friends.
The farm has six ponds. They fish out of one as it has bream and bass, with Tilapia added to keep the grass down on the bottom. Tami said because the Tilapia can’t handle the cold weather, they plan on catching as many as they can and having a fish fry later one.
Their goals are to improve the herd’s genetics. To date, they’ve installed water pipelines and water tanks, built new cow pens, put up almost all new fencing and installed cattle guards at almost all gates.
Mike said when they first bought the farm the fencing was in bad shape, much of it having fallen in. Initially he tried to repair what was there, but soon realized it would be quicker and cheaper to put up a new fence. Plans are to add more cross fencing and water troughs along with building a new hay barn.
In touring the facilities, Mike talked about rebuilding a barn as it had pretty much collapsed. He used as much of the original material as possible, but built new joists and added a metal roof.
He started working with Texas Eastern in 1981, four years after graduating from Prescott High School. He grew up in a family with cows, but when he went to work the job required traveling and he got out of the cattle business. Around seven years ago he started thinking about retiring and decided to get back in the business.
Tami helps in the hay field when she can, while Eric helps when needed. Tami was a mail carrier for the Prescott Post Office for decades as well, retiring a year or so ago.
The paperwork for the farm family has a segment for leadership experience and community service. The two stated they own or have owned at least two businesses in addition to having full-time jobs over the years and haven’t had time to be “civic minded” though they do mow the Moscow Cemetery gratis every two weeks. Mike said it takes the two of them five hours to mow and weed eat the cemetery.
He said when they returned to the cattle business, the property was grown up and had to be cleared off. This has also been the situation with the rental property. Mike said the property he’s leased has all been grown up and he makes sure he gets a long-term lease before going to work to clean it up. He said there have been times when people have come to him asking him to lease land so they can get it cleaned. On average, his lease agreements are for 20 years.
The two are Prescott born and bred. They met in the third grade where Mike gave Tami his Cub Scout bracelet. She still has it and they’ve been together since. Tami did get a basketball scholarship at Southern Arkansas University, attended for a year, but dropped out to get married. “I got a job at the Post Office and couldn’t think of anything I’d rather do,” she said. “It got me outside and gave me plenty of exercise.”
