Robin Dale and Margaret Bilyeu bought the original 25 acres of their farm in 1973. He was a full-time Missouri Department of Transportation employee and farming. After retiring in 1999, he increased the farming.
There has been a lot of improvements made to the original farm, such as clearing acreage for pasture, improving the boundary fencing and putting up outbuildings. They started with a hog operation and later purchased cattle. In the 1980s, they purchased an adjoining farm. They now do backgrounding on calves and have a herd of cow/calf pairs. Cattle guards were added to eliminate having to open gates, and a donkey was put in the pasture with the cows to discourage dogs.
Although they have not done a lot of crop farming, they have incorporated fescue grass and baled hay into their operation.
Over the years, SWCD has assisted with three ponds (for a total of five), added to a redesigned 3,284 feet of diversion terraces and installed 2,450 feet of tile. More than seven acres of pasture renovations have been completed. Almost five acres where erosion had been taking place were reshaped and reseeded.
Most recently, they added to their operation an Intensive Grazing system, allowing the flexibility to rotate the cattle to smaller paddocks weekly, allowing forage production to increase. A new well was added to provide a water source for areas too far from the existing ponds. More than 2,500 feet of waterline connects to four concrete freeze tanks and two tire tanks which have been installed. More than 9,800 feet of cross fencing was installed splitting the original five fields into 17 paddocks.
When they moved onto the farm in 1973, they moved into a new home. Due to remodeling that home is now unrecognizable. They have a son Jason and his wife Michelle and a daughter Heidi and her husband Chol. They have four grandchildren who enjoy coming to the farm.