Hometown: Rogersville, Mo.
Family: 10-year-old son Bryson
In Town: Ryleigh Bouldin has been on accounting for the freight brokerage company Heartland Logistics Group, which is based in Lenxa, Kan., for two years.
Ryleigh began her career in accounting at Peterbilt in Springfield, Mo.
In the Country: Ryleigh and Bryson live on her family’s James River Valley farm, Bouldin’s River View Farms. Ryleigh’s father, Mark, owns the farm, which is consists of about 100 commercial cows on 300 owned and rented acres.
“Bryson is the sixth generation to live in the James River Valley,” Ryleigh said. “My grandpa milked cows, and then got out of milking in the late 1990s and went to Angus cattle. Bryson is the fourth generation to raise Angus. My dad went into commercial Angus, but now that Bryson is big into showing cattle, he has his own little registered herd started.
“He picked out his own semen straws for his two cows and heifers, so he will have three calves hit the ground in January. He will tell who is bred to who and why, and who he is going to breed them to next year. He is involved in all of that.”
As Bryson’s show career began to grow, so did Ryleigh’s involvement in various ag-related organizations in Webster County, Mo.
“When Bryson started showing cattle, I thought it was important to get him involved in 4-H. When we got involved in 4-H, I said we needed to get involved in our country fair board, so I got on the fair board. Then I realized Webster County needed a market show and sale, so I am one of the founding member for the show and sale. We did our first one last summer, which tied to me tied into the FFA Booster Club, so now I’m vice president of that. We are just really busy these days.”
Ryleigh is enjoying her role as “show mom.”
“It’s all on him,” she said. “I’m pretty hands off with it, but I took him to a fitting clinic for him to take the clippers and he was all into that. I love to watch him, but he does the work himself. His calves like them more than they like me because he takes care of them.”
Raising Bryson on the family farm was very important for Ryleigh; it just took a little time to get there. “We dove out every day to feed his calves, but we just built a house and moved to the farm,” she said. “We were at the farm at least once a day, but we needed to be out here; it just takes time.”
Future Plans: Ryleigh said as long as Bryson wants to show, she will there cheer him on.
“He had the best attitude. As long as he gets a ribbon, he doesn’t care what color it is.”
