James F. Stine
“I have been associated with Jim Stine for many years and find his leadership and professional performance beyond reproach,” says Terry Long, executive secretary of the State Milk Board. Long, along with the Missouri Dairy Association and Missouri Farm Bureau Federation, supported Jim’s nomination for the Missouri Dairy Hall of Honors Leadership Award.
“Jim served on the Milk Board for two stints, totaling more than 15 years of which many were chairman,” Long continues. “I cannot begin to list the many crises that Jim has guided the Board through but many were potentially damaging to the dairy industry.
“His calm, take control attitude prevailed to help guide the Board and staff past the crisis with little to no detrimental effects to the Missouri dairy industry,” Long concludes.
Jim was born in Ozark in 1937, completed his high school education at Hurley in 1955, and served in the U.S. Navy from 1955 to 1958. He married his wife Betty Spears in 1959 at Crane and they have three children. Brenda Cox is a respiratory therapist at Clever, Stephanie Stine works at Allied Paints in Springfield, and Byron is a dairy farmer at Billings.
After working in town for 11 years, Jim joined with his father-in-law Dallas Spears in a farming venture. He farms 326 acres and has dairy, beef, and haying operations. The dairy operation features 200 head of Holsteins with 50 to 75 cows in the milking line at any one time with a herd average of 18,500 pounds of milk. The remainder of the herd includes dairy beef and replacement heifers.
Jim’s haying operation includes 170 acres of alfalfa plus grass hay acreage.
The Stone County dairyman has been active in dairy and farm activities. At the local level Jim served as president of the Stone County Farm Bureau for four years and served on the District 7 FARM-PAC committee. At the state level, Jim represented his district on the Board of Directors of the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation for 18 years-from 1979 to 1997.
Jim has been a member of Mid-America Dairymen (now Dairy Farmers of America) since starting his milking operation in 1970. During this period he has taken part in various activities of the cooperative including serving as chair of his district organization.
He also been active in local civic, school, and church activities. Jim has been on the Stone County Extension Council; is a deacon of the Clever First Baptist Church; served on the Clever school board for nine years; serves on the Stone County Planning and Zoning Committee; and is on the advisory board of the University of Missouri’s Southwest Missouri Center.
The Stines have been the Missouri State Fair Farm Family from Stone County and were selected to receive the University of Missouri Extension Farm Management Award.