Texas Cowboy Builds Farm and Future One Piece at a Time

“It’ll take a long while to get there, but nothing good comes easy,” says Wesley Crumpler, pictured alongside his wife, Lauren, and daughter, Brighton.
“It’ll take a long while to get there, but nothing good comes easy,” says Wesley Crumpler, pictured alongside his wife, Lauren, and daughter, Brighton.
(Photo courtesy of the Crumpler Family)

Wesley Crumpler’s world is ruled by the timeless, level land of northwest Texas, his cattle and crops a tiny speck against endless big sky of the High Plains. The overwhelmingly flat vista, broken by scattered cottonwood and mesquite trees, provides perspective for a young producer wiser than his 28 years: “I’ve got big dreams for my family, but they require small steps. I have to always know when to pull back on the reins.”

In the age of instant gratification, Crumpler is a throwback—a self-made producer intent on paying the price for a toehold of opportunity. “Land and cows are where all my money goes, and that means learning to fix and build everything on my own. If I want to make it in agriculture from nothing, I have to build my operation just like the Johnny Cash song: One Piece At A Time.”

“Still Cowboying”

Crumpler is a cowboy born to the cotton of Abernathy, Texas, a town straddling both Hale and Lubbock counties, tucked roughly 20 miles north of Lubbock, and 100 miles south of Amarillo. Cotton is king for most growers in the Hale County vicinity, and each fall sees a cavalcade of strippers rolling through the fields, rather than the traditional picker-type machines commanding most geographies of the Cotton Belt. Crumpler’s paternal grandfather, Eugene, once ran City Gin in Abernathy, and Crumpler’s father, Junior, remains at the gin’s helm. Yet, during a childhood spent following the feet of Eugene and Junior in the shadow of City Gin, Crumpler always had an eye for cattle.

When Crumpler hit his teen years, Junior stressed learning beyond the comforts of the family nest. “My dad always told me to get out there and make my own tracks and learn to work from someone outside the family. He knew what I needed and how to shape me.”

 

Brothers
Wesley Crumpler, far left, and his firefighting brothers. “The Lord gave me another calling in firefighting and I had to follow his will,” says Crumpler.

 

On a fortuitous day of ginning season during his sophomore year of high school, Crumpler watched as Clark Riley, an insurance agent and cattleman, pulled into the gin yard to fill a feed truck with cottonseed. “He made me an offer to work on his place and that was the first time the door ever opened for me to work with cows, and I couldn’t have been more excited because I’d always been interested in cattle,” Crumpler recalls. “He warned me there was no glamor and that I’d be on horseback only part of the time. I didn’t care; it was still cowboying.”

Crumpler’s first job for Riley was cleanup following a new barbed wire fence installation. In heat and dust, he picked up endless stretches of old rebar and fenceposts, and rolled rusted wire. Simply, the young Crumpler could not have been more content. “I was happy as could be, just because I was finally doing the work I wanted.”

In short time, he ran the feed truck and mixed rations, and helped prepare cows for artificial insemination and embryo transfer. “I learned so much from Clark Riley’s place and I was so grateful to find something I loved. I didn’t know how I was going to start my own cattle company, but I knew the Lord had a plan for me if I would work hard and be patient.”

“Nobody Owes You Nothing”

Throughout his teens, Crumpler was a sponge at multiple ranch and farming operations, learning to brand, build pens, herd, feed, and recognize the nuances of livestock behavior. He entered the Clarendon College ranch and feedlot program to get a better feel for both sides of the industry, and began searching for a fulltime position. “I put in an application at numerous ranches, including one of the biggest in Throckmorton, and did my best. I wanted to cowboy forever and I wanted to live the free life it offered. There’s something big to be said about riding out and getting to watch the sun come up while you’re already on horseback pushing cattle. There’s no other feeling like that in the world.”

 

CRUMPLER 5
Lauren and Wesley Crumpler with a blessed trio: Brighton, Bryleigh, and Maverick.

 

Despite Crumpler’s best efforts, he was met with no full-time offers. Rather than stew in frustration, Crumpler pivoted, and accepted the circumstances as Providence. A volunteer fireman since 18, Crumpler found an answer on his knees: “I said, ‘Lord, if this is not where I’m supposed to be, then don’t give me a job. I’ll go to fire school and be a fireman if you open that door.”

In 2013, on the very day of Crumpler’s acceptance into Wolfforth Fire Academy, he got a telephone call from a ranch manager at R.A. Brown Ranch outside Throckmorton, Texas. “He asked if I’d be interested in interning and maybe making it fulltime. But I didn’t take it, because I knew the right thing to do.”

Standing by his pledge, Crumpler turned down the offer and stayed at the Fire Academy. “One of the hardest things in life is turning down something you want to do for something you know you’re supposed to do,” he says. “But the Lord gave me another calling in firefighting and I had to follow his will.”

“It’s amazing how things develop in life if you keep your priorities in order,” Crumpler continues. “The Lord Jesus had good things ahead, and even though I couldn’t see them at the time, I trusted. Even today, I’ll drive down the road and be talking out loud to the Lord, and people might see me and think I’m crazy, but I don’t care. There’s a lot of farmers and ranchers that know what I’m talking about.”

Fresh out of the Fire Academy, Crumpler’s life with the Lubbock Fire Department centered on a 24-hour-on and 48-hour-off schedule, and as he settled into the rigors of a new routine, the opportunity for a piece of land fell into his lap—a quarter-section begging for cows.

 

CRUMPLER BUILD
“As a couple, we were shown a work ethic by our parents and that’s what we copy,” says Lauren Crumpler.

 

The boy raised at the Abernathy cotton gin, and trained as a firefighter and paramedic, had in no manner spit the bit on livestock. Crumpler Cattle Co., a decade-long dream in the making, was nearing fruition. “When you have nothing, you gotta move slow and be grateful for opportunity,” Crumpler emphasizes. “Nobody owes you nothing and you can’t worry just because things don’t always work out in life. Most of all, you can’t be afraid to try.”

In the Bloodline

In May 2015, Crumpler signed a pasture lease on 160 acres, bought 10 heifers, leased some bulls, and jumped out of the gate. Six years later he owns the 160 acres and rents roughly 500 more acres, runs 35 cow-calf pairs, and grows wheat on 80 acres. “We’re more grass than cattle, but that’s fine right now because we’re looking for a happy medium. I pull cattle off in winter to feed on the wheat, and I try hard to let the grama grass and blue stem rest.”

Crumpler Cattle Co., Crumpler insists, is fueled by self-reliance. Pennies fill the well, a method of savings learned directly from his grandfather and father, Eugene and Junior. Crumpler soaked in repeated lessons from Eugene’s ingenuity at City Gin. “He fabricated all kind of stuff for the gin and people had no idea of all the improvements he made,” Crumpler describes. “When something broke, he made the parts himself, instead of calling the gin company. By doing so, he saved money and improved the machine. There is no better lesson in efficiency and putting money in a farmer’s pocket.”

In the bloodline of Eugene, Junior currently functions far above the standard. “Dad ran a welding rig besides the gin, and he used his creativity to do everything himself,” Crumpler says. “He once invented a spoon for people with Parkinson’s with an apparatus that swivels. That’s just an example of what he is capable of designing, and he is a guiding light for me. He’s taught me to build everything myself, and if I don’t know how, learn. Don’t depend on society.”

 

THE REAL BOSSES
Who really calls the shots? Brighton, Bryleigh, and Maverick make sure their father, Wesley, toes the line.

 

Third-generation producer Clayton Sanders, 30, grows cotton on a family farm in Hale County, and is a long-time friend of Crumpler. “Wesley’s grandfather seeded a work ethic based on a ‘you don’t need what you can’t make’ approach, and that is exactly how Wesley operates today,” Sanders notes.

“It’s not common to see a guy like Wesley, who wasn’t given anything, to stick it out so tough and never ask for anything,” Sanders continues. “His eye is on building something for the future that he can pass to his kids.”

“Nothing Good Comes Easy”

Crumpler put down his first welding bead at six years young, and spent his youth trailing his father, as Junior built fences and barns. At 17, Crumpler started a multi-year project to build a 20’ gooseneck horse trailer. “I was breaking wild mustangs at the time and needed a trailer. I got the floor, fender, axles, and hitch done, and my dad helped with the rest. That particular trailer wasn’t about saving money; it was about learning how to build so I could save money later. It was the only trailer I had when I started in the cattle business; a major asset.”

Fabrication from raw or scrap material directly equates to efficiency, Crumpler contends. He operates a 4640 John Deere tractor (as well as a propane-driven 4020) that stays in grass on his farm and is often fueled via a 60-gallon drop-tank. “I got tired of fooling with that tank,” Crumpler says. “Time is crucial for a one-man show and I had to do something.”

 

trailer
“It’s so easy and convenient to go out and spend money for something, but there’s more than just savings if you build it yourself,” says Crumpler.

 

That “something” was a new trailer built from scratch. In 2020, Crumpler bought a 500-gallon tank from an oil marketing company and let it sit for a year while he scavenged scrap steel. On July 1, 2021, he set to work and the finished product was complete in under two months.

Two 3,500 lb. spring axles support the structure made from 5” channel: “Some guys would have gone with something else, but I already had the axles along with the hardware. Use what ya got.”

15’ long, 6’ wide, LED lights, and a 15-gallon per minute pump plumbed through a box on the tongue: “I can lock the box and lock up the hose. If somebody really wants to steal my fuel, they’ll have to try pretty hard. Also, this way there are no nozzles to fall off or get dragged. I also wired a three-prong extension cord plug into the backside of it so I could unplug the wires and put them in the box.”

And the cost? The entire shooting match cost Crumpler $2,300, a likely savings upward of $5,000-plus. “Pretty much this exact trailer from some manufacturers will run you about $7,800.”

“It’s so easy and convenient to go out and spend money for something, but there’s more than just savings if you build it yourself,” Crumpler says. “You also get pride of upkeep and that makes the product even stronger and makes it last even longer.”

 

fini
The DIY effort cost Crumpler $2,300, a likely savings upward of $5,000-plus.

 

What about his next DIY effort? Crumpler is entering a niche market of raising steers for beef and is eyeing an improved setup. His next project is corral and feed pen construction. “I want to hold calves and have more space when needed. I’d also like to build a barn about 40’x80’ and a lean-to.”

Once again, patience is his ultimate measuring tape. “I’m not going to overstep my financial boundaries. I’ll find out what is the exact fit for my operation and then build it myself. I don’t put money except in places that make me more money later. It’ll take a long while to get there, but nothing good comes easy.”

Delayed Gratification

Despite Crumpler’s tenacity, he doesn’t put a foot forward without help from an indispensable companion—his wife, Lauren, a nurse in Lubbock. “She is my big, big, big help. I could never describe everything she does for our family. It was never her dream to own cows, but she became my business partner. She’s my everything.”

Crumpler and Lauren are blessed with three children: Brighton, Bryleigh, and Maverick. A truly matched pair (and former frenemies of childhood since age five), the Crumplers are two sides of the same coin. Lauren describes her husband as “fueled by four sources working together.”

 

TWO
Wesley and Lauren Crumpler are building a future—one piece at a time.

 

First, a pedal-to-the-floor mentality. “Cattle business, firefighting, life in general…he’s a total go-getter and always has been. Just geared that way. Bad month or bad year, keep on.”

Second, a calling from God. “He loves Jesus and believes he’s following the will of the Lord.”

Third, a legacy. “Wesley is honoring his papaw. He saw the hard work of his grandfather and father for years.”

Fourth, love of family. “He loves us and that pushes him to want to create something for our kids.”

“As a couple, we were shown a work ethic by our parents and that’s what we copy,” Lauren continues. “Also, we follow the example of Jesus and that means being in his will, not what we think we want in the moment. That means long hours of work and no shiny toys, but that’s a cost we’re willing to pay.”

Delayed gratification in a nutshell.

Lost Art

One rung at a time, Crumpler is climbing his ladder, deeply appreciative of his station at each level: “Everyone has to be realistic about how expensive it is to make it in agriculture. I’d love to have 1,000 head and 1,000 acres, but I’m not worried about that right now. Today, I’ve got to keep putting my money in land and cattle, and make sure I never let pride get in my way.”

“Whether I’m running a cattle company or just taking care of my family at home, I want to be the guy that knows how to stretch a dollar bill,” Crumpler concludes. Sometimes it seems like a lost art except with people in farming, but I want to be the guy that never gives money for something he could have built himself.”

 

For questions or to read more stories from Chris Bennett (cbennett@farmjournal.com), see:

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