FEATURE ARTICLE
WYMAN CREEK CATTLE COMPANY: WHERE LOOK AND A LOW INPUT HERD GOES HAND IN HAND by Deanna Nelson-Licking Deep in the Missouri Ozarks, a herd of Brangus cattle flourish, but the south hasn’t always been their home. The herd started near Oroville, California in 1990 when Carolyn Belden Carson and her family attended a Brangus herd dispersal sale with a family friend. Two open heifers came home with them and became the foundation of Wyman Creek Cattle Company. Wyman Creek Cattle Company is owned by Bob and Kathy Belden, daughter Carolyn and her husband Larry Carson, and daughter Annie Belden, daughter Denise and Larry Roenspie and sons Adam, Nick and Neal. Carolyn is the one in charge of the cattle with the others having their own careers and pitching in when needed. Carolyn’s husband, Larry, who retired after working maintenance for 40 years at AT&T, had a small herd of Angus cows when the couple married. “Some of those Angus cows still have influence in our Ultrablack program,” she said.
A young set of Springfield sons seeking employment.
26
November 2021
Raising registered cattle was a new endeavor for the family, as Carolyn’s parents were tree farmers raising walnuts and almonds on an irrigated place in California. “We liked the Brangus really well and we had helped our friend with his cattle and started growing our herd. We bought a few females, but mostly we have bought the best herd sires we could afford and bred a great set of daughters,” Carolyn explained. In 2016, the drought in California was extremely hard on the farms and orchards when they ran out of water. “We had three good wells and a tree farmer from the other end of the state came by and asked to buy our place,” Carolyn recalled. She said that the price offered was too good to turn down but they were unable to find pasture ground in California that they could afford. “We needed a place that could run a couple hundred cows and had three houses so we started looking online.
