Hometown: Searcy, Ark
Family: Children: Jessica Wesson and Will Wesson
In Town: Sherri has worked as a White County Extension Agent for Agriculture for 24 years. Her office is also over 4-H. She stays busy serving as an Ex-Officio on the White County Farm Bureau Board, White County Fair Board, Searcy Tree Board and the Searcy Pollinator Friendly Committee. Sherri and her family attend First Baptist Church in Searcy where she serves on the hospitality committee and sings in the choir. Sherri is a member of the Arkansas Ag Agents Association and of the National Ag Agents Association, she serves on the Searcy High School Agriculture Education Advisory Committee, and she is a ambassador member of the Miss Rodeo America Foundation.
Kyle has worked for Ram/Ford for six years now. He taught agriculture for 30 years, teaching at three different school districts finishing up at Riverview in Searcy, Ark.
In the Country: Rafter S Cattle Farm sits on 15 acres. The farm has around 24 head of cattle, which they started raising around three years ago. They moved into their new home over a year ago and when they first bought it they couldn’t even pull off the highway. They are working towards adding a full pasture and hay barn after the pasture is cleared.
They raise crossbred commercial cattle. They breed with artificial insemination from superior Angus and Limousin bulls. They also buy young heifers, run them for about a year and sell them.
“It’s a family operation. Both kids help on the farm as their schedules allow, and Kyle helps when he’s not on the road working. There has been a lot of hard work put into it,” Sherri said.
Before they moved, they had sheeps hogs, and goats at their old house, where they had a show barn, but decided to do away with that and focus on raising cattle when they moved to their new home.
“Cattle are a lot easier because they pretty much take care of themselves, but we don’t have more than we can take care of and we try to manage what our land can suffice. We are constantly trying to work on building our pasture and our productivity so that when we sell animals that they are of quality,” Sherri said.
“Just to stand here you would think everything is caught up but there is always something to be done. Keeping days and weeks planned so you keep everything running as it needs to be so you don’t get behind,” Kyle said.
