In Town: Mike Wyant has been working for Murphy Family Ventures, LLC for the last 19 years. When he was fresh out of college, he took his Animal Science degree from the University of Tennessee and got an entry level position on a farm in North Carolina. He spent the next 15 years working his way up to his current position as Vice President and Director of Production. He now lives near Nevada, Mo., with his wife and 3 sons.
When working for a company that has over 150,000 sows on farms in Missouri and North Carolina, there is no such thing as an easy or normal day for Mike. Murphy is a farrow-to-wean operation, and Mike helps to coordinate day-to-day business from staffing and human resources to land and nutrient management. Each day presents its own set of challenges, but Mike is well prepared. Because of his varied experiences, he has a solid knowledge of how to handle each situation. He has many fond memories of working on farms before college, and of his early days with Murphys, and so he has a great deal of respect for all the workers in the swine production industry. “We ask them for a lot, and they always come through,” Mike said.
In the Country: Mike learned many valuable lessons from his time on farms, and those lessons spurred him to buy a farm of his own. While discussing his land and his cattle, Mike said that having a place of his own “has always been a dream.” He also wanted a farm for his children. He knows from experience that a farm is the best place to learn a good work ethic, to learn how to make a living, and to learn what work is really about.
He and his wife Cindy bought their land last January, and are still in the process of getting everything exactly how they want it. Cindy owns and operates Step Ahead Learning Center, and Mike is working on establishing a Maine Anjou herd. He currently has 20 cows, but would like to see that number double. He is doing a lot of AI work to build a viable maternal herd, and then he plans to sell replacement heifers and terminal crosses. His older sons, Colby and Chase Beisly, are interested in showing cattle, and his youngest son, Peyton, is only 2, so Mike can look forward to watching his family and his herd mature.
By Adam Stratton
