Surprises, Blessings and Animals Abound at OAT Livestock
“I never thought I’d say, ‘Watch out for my kid; it bites.’”
But that’s exactly what Amanda Taylor finds herself saying when people approach one of her surlier goats. Amanda and her husband, Oran, own and operate OAT Livestock in Yates Center, about 80 miles due south of Topeka.
Their life together and on the ranch has unfolded in surprising ways, biting goats among them, and Amanda has embraced the unanticipated blessings that have come her way.
Unexpected Romance
Amanda was born and raised on her family’s farm in Michigan. After completing a yearlong beef management course at Michigan State University, she had trouble finding a job in her home state. She cast a wide net, conducting job searches in remote areas and networking online.
“There were not a lot of people who were interested in having a 20-year-old woman who was not a family member on the farm,” she said.
She got creative in her job search. When Farmers Only, a dating site for country folks, kept popping up in her feed, she decided to use the platform to make friends, thinking it might help her networking prospects.
“I saw it as professional, not dating,” she said.
She got more than she bargained for when someone messaged her to say: “Michigan girl. You must like Herefords.”
(Herefords are a popular cattle breed there.)
She responded: “How’d you know?”
The message was from Oran Taylor, owner of a trucking business in Kansas. Amanda still remembers the date of that first message: January 6, 2007.
“We emailed all night,” she said. “The next morning the last message I sent was, ‘I don’t normally do this, but call me next time.’”
The two started talking almost non-stop. Seriously. After the day that first message came in, they averaged 14 hours a day on the phone together.
Less than three weeks later, Oran drove to Michigan to meet her family. He came again for Valentine’s Day, spent time with her parents and helped her siblings do their chores. He invited her to Kansas, where Amanda spent almost three weeks meeting his friends and family. She planned to travel back to Michigan on her own, but when he offered to drive her home, she didn’t think anything of it. He asked her father for permission to propose.
“We had known each other four months when we got married,” Amanda said. “Now we’ve been together 15 years. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long.”
Finding Her Place
The couple chose to live in Kansas because Oran’s trucking business was established there and they would be close to his family. His grandparents owned farmland in the area and his parents offered to let the young couple live in a house that was standing empty on the family farm.
“We’ve had an excellent support system,” Amanda said. “We were relatively set, as much as any young couple can be. We are very blessed.”
Oran continued to operate his trucking business and Amanda found work at a veterinarian’s office. Life was good, but the couple wanted to establish their own ranch. Oran’s grandparents owned some pastureland that was not in use.
“A couple months after we got married, Oran asked his grandfather if we could rent the pasture so we could get some cows and have the opportunity to farm,” Amanda said.
Oran’s grandfather quickly agreed and Amanda couldn’t help thinking that this was his hope all along.
As she settled in, it seemed everyone in Yates Center (population less than 2,000) knew who Amanda was. Strangers would approach her and say, “You’re Oran Taylor’s wife.” She found the close-knit community endearing and focused on setting up house and home while looking for work.
Livestock and Guard Donkeys
The couple started OAT Livestock, a cow-calf operation. They background calves, which means they raise cattle during the phase of production between weaning and finishing at a feedlot.
However, with Oran traveling and Amanda in town for work, they worried about the safety of their herd. That’s when the donkeys came, another unexpected twist.
When they got married, Oran told Amanda, “No horses and no puppies.”
“So I thought ‘OK, I’ll show him. I’m just going to get some donkeys.’ The next day, he showed up at the house with three of them. I think it was his plan all along,” she told our friends at Kansas Living.
The donkeys are not pets. They have an important job to do. They serve as guard animals for the herd, keeping watch for predators like coyotes. The donkeys can be gentle, but they also have big personalities.
“They are so funny,” Amanda said. “It’s really fun to watch them and get to know them. They’ll eat from your hands. But they are very independent. When a donkey decides it’s not going to do something, it’s not going to do it.”
Her jacks (male donkeys) are adventurous. One has earned the nickname “Head of Security” because he will venture out on patrol if a gate is left open.
“We spend a lot of time shutting gates,” she said.
Her jenny (a female donkey) is more of a homebody.
The donkeys are also curious. To get their attention, Amanda sometimes puts rocks in a bucket and shakes it. They will come over to see what all the fuss is about.
Another personality quirk?
“They are terrible thieves,” Amanda said. “They will steal a garden hose, a tie-down strap. One even stole tater tots out of my hand.”
Sheep, Goats and Something Extra
As Amanda and Oran got into the rhythm of balancing their day jobs with their ranch, they wanted to expand the operation. Oran showed sheep in FFA and they had owned some off and on. There was a small pasture near their house.
“It was a perfect spot for sheep and goats,” she said.
They created a feedlot, where they could finish the animals, which means they feed them a special diet during the final phase of production before harvest.
They also brought in a nanny goat for breeding. A nagging question became how to protect these animals. Sheep and goats are much smaller than cattle.
“Our concern was that the donkeys had run with the cattle for so long and wouldn’t recognize the switch in species,” she said. “A small calf is as big as a mature goat or sheep. How would they deal with the babies? How would they know to protect them versus play with them?”
The solution arrived out of the blue.
Again, Amanda remembers the day: November 13, 2019.
“I came out to look at the chicken coop and saw a big dog and thought, ‘I hope it’s friendly,’” she said. “The dog walked right up to me and sat down as if to say, ‘Hi! I’m here. What’s my job? Whatcha got for me?’”
As they looked for the owner, they kept the dog in a pen, or at least tried to. The dog got out and wandered around the ranch, but kept coming back. One day when Oran was preparing supper for their Labrador Molly (yes, he caved on the “no puppies” rule after all), he asked if he should feed ‘extra.’ Amanda was confused. Why would he feed Molly more than usual? “No, Extra,” he explained, gesturing to the stray dog.
“The name stuck,” Amanda said.
So did the dog. Extra became a guard dog for the sheep and goats.
“It became very apparent, very fast, that she found us, she chose us and she put herself to work,” Amanda said. “The job was a perfect match for an aspiring working dog. She will run coyotes away all night long. We haven’t lost any sheep or goats to predators and I credit her with that. We are so, so blessed to have her.”
Even though Molly is an indoor pet, she also has a job on the ranch, caring for orphaned sheep and goats.
“If a newborn needs mothering, we’ll put it in with Molly and she will lick it and do other things a mother would do naturally,” Amanda said. “It’s not a good day when Molly becomes anything’s mom because it means something bad happened, but that’s what we’re here for — to take care of the animals.”
Finding Peace
Between the cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, Extra and Molly, you might think the ranch is chaotic. But Amanda has found the opposite. For her, this mixed-up menagerie is where she finds peace.
“Mental health is a big thing,” she said.
Amanda suffered miscarriages and resulting post-partum depression. As life got busy after those personal tragedies, she started feeling anxious and overwhelmed. Oran suggested she reduce her work hours so she could spend more time on the ranch. Sitting in the pasture, watching the animals graze and play, Amanda feels the stress subside.
“It made a huge difference,” she said. “I can watch the little goats swagger and jump around. I can watch the little ones. It’s fun to watch them grow and think we had a part in that. God has a plan for all of us. At the end of the day, we’re helping put food on someone’s table and that means a lot to us."
Read More Stories of Kansas Farmers
