Hello! We are Eddie and Susan Stephens of The Stephens Farm in Locust Fork, Alabama.
Even though we haven’t been fortunate enough to meet many of our AMZA friends and enjoy your friendship personally, we feel like we know many of you anyway! We know that those Miniature Zebu Shows and County Fair Shows that we are informed of are surely wonderful experiences. Maybe someday we will be able to attend one!
Life on our little farm is hectic to say the least! Eddie has retired from the Military but still continues to work at his every-day job. And I, even though I don’t currently work outside the farm, have an everyday job here, too! We have always said, “After a bad day, just go outside and hug a Zebu. That will make everything much better!”
As Eddie mentioned to me only yesterday, it seems as though there is ALWAYS something going on around here! We are terribly protective of all our animals. Between coyotes, foxes, raccoons, snakes, and dogs belonging to other people, it is an on-going job to keep all our babies safe. But, between those horns and their hooves, they are pretty self-protective themselves. We had a little heifer who looked as though she were “pointing” like a dog and looking intent upon something. That something turned out to be a snake. How intuitive that she stood so still with her front hoof up for a goodly amount of time “pointing” that snake! Only yesterday Eddie had to relocate a bothersome raccoon to a new zip code! He simply had to go! Wish we could relocate red ants, wasps, and yellow jackets, too. Grrrrrr!
As we are sure many of you do, we recognize each Zebu by his or her actions and their distinctive sounds! Our matriarch, Loretta, has an indoor and an outdoor voice! We get the biggest kick out of hearing her “silent little” moo which seems to grow into a full-fledged moo while waiting to be fed! And, our precious Whispering Bill…we love to hear him refute his name by snoring like a big bear!