meet your neighbors
Dreams Do Come True By Terry Ropp
Sean Wright’s dream operation includes a newly-constructed barn Everybody in agriculture needs into taking up a new trade. As Sean put it, “I went from shoveling it to directpatience. Twenty years ago, Sean Wright had ing it.” Five years later he opened a residena dream about the perfect barn and finally brought his dream to reality a few tial plumbing repair business called months ago. Sean started working for Circle W Plumbing with the motto: “If Danny Combs at the Cavanaugh dairy it’s broke, I’ll fix it. Don’t cuss, call us” while he attended Hartford High School Nonetheless, the quail kept whistling in in Arkansas. He milked cows, built fence his memory with Sean eventually buyand fed bottle calves. Danny became an ing land for a cow/calf operation. Now, important role model who instilled a several months ago, Sean watched the barn of his dream became a reality. strong work ethic in the young man. Another friend, Dexter Lively, told Sean remembers a day while working for Danny. He was sitting on a tractor Sean about DT Construction, a compaand looking out as quails were whis- ny he found on Facebook. Levi Tincher tling and the birds were singing to the came to Sean’s ranch where Sean exsummer sun. Sean then realized this plained what he wanted: a 40-foot-bywas the life he wanted. Sensing that 60-foot pole barn to house a shop and Sean never wanted to leave, Danny alfalfa hay with a loafing shed on each side for overhead shelter for his warned the young man, “I trailers and an additional 20won’t be here forever,” and foot section covering part of Sean sadly heard him. his corrals. During his seven years at Hartford, Ark. “Once I got the dirt work the dairy, Sean had a friend done, two guys handled the who was about his age and whole project from start to finfrequented the dairy while ish,” Sean said. he milked. He talked Sean
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Submitted Photos
Sean Wright, pictured with is granddaughter Lila Jane, started working as a milk hand in high school, and has built his own thriving beef cattle operation, complete with his dream barn.
First, significant dirt work needed to be completed. Good friend and neighbor Dale Phelps, owner of Phelps Construction, leveled the pad with a bulldozer and formed it with crusher dust brought in by dump trucks. “The weather was terrible and the dump trucks got stuck,” Sean said. “We simply used a tractor to get them on the pad, and everything was done in a week.” When Levi’s men arrived, they had the structure up in three weeks, with the only issue being Sean’s corrals were not perfectly square like the barn. They compensated, and the structure is as flexible and useful as Sean dreamt. The red and tan barn matches Sean’s nearby house, with Sean getting ready to build a workbench and having the wiring installed.
Ozarks Farm & Neighbor • www.ozarksfn.com
Circle W Land and Cattle runs two herds of cattle and hay fields on 800 acres. One herd is registered Lim-Flex with 80 momma cows. With this herd, Sean is under contract with John Sutphin III in Lamar, Colo., someone he found through the internet. John runs what he calls a co-op with cattle producers across the nation. He has several finishing sites in states such as Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Sean was John’s first producer in Arkansas, beginning five years ago. John provides Sean with meat wagon bulls and buys all the calves with Sean having the option of buying the heifers in any given year. When Sean does that, he evaluates them when they are yearlings to decide which will serve as replacement seedstock and which will MAY 25, 2020
