Doing dairy the "Wright" way

  Kim Wright once said she would never marry a farmer.   But that was before she met her husband, Wesley Wright.

Stephen Lega

Wesley and Kim Wright and their five-month-old son, Isaac, were named the Outstanding Young Farm Family of the year by the Marion County Farm Bureau.

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They were first introduced in the McDonald's parking lot in Lebanon.

After seven years of dating, Kim and Wesley married. Last month, Kim, Wesley and their five-month-old son, Isaac, were named the Marion County Farm Bureau's Outstanding Young Farm Family.

Wesley said he was surprised that his family was chosen for the award.

"I figure there's probably more deserving farmers out there," he said.

Nevertheless, Marion County Farm Bureau President Joe Paul Mattingly said the Wrights are a good example of a family committed to agriculture.

"They are encouraging and promoting other people to pursue agriculture as a career," he said.

Mattingly added that it's very important to keep agriculture alive, calling it the most important industry to Marion County, Kentucky and the United States.

This isn't the first time the Wrights have been recognized this year.

In March, the Wright Dairy Farm, which is owned by Wesley's parents Tom and Marie Wright, was named a "Member of Distinction" by the Dairy Farmers of America. Wesley and his brothers, Casey and Dooley, help their parents run the dairy.

Each of the seven dairies that received the national award are considered DFA Gold Standard dairies. According to the DFA website, that means those dairies have successfully participated in a program "that reviews farm practices, encourages continuous improvement and recognizes member achievements."

But the awards - both national and local - haven't changed how things are done on the farm.

Farm workers work on three shifts, which start at 6:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. The 330-head of cattle are milked three times daily, starting at 7 a.m, 3 p.m. and 11 p.m., Wesley said. Each milking lasts about six and a half hours, and approximately 22,000 pounds of milk are picked up daily from the Wright Dairy.

Wesley was about 10 years old when his family moved onto the farm. He said the family had about 40 head of cattle at that time.

"I got out of high school and did a few other things, but I always came back [to farming]," Wesley said. "Once it gets in your blood, it's always in your blood."

Kim teaches reading to sixth graders and language to seventh graders at St. Charles Middle School, but she has grown accustomed to the smells that go along with farming, according to Wesley. He added that she is his support at home.

Wesley's work on the dairy keeps him working long hours, although the couple makes an effort to do things together - like eating dinner - every day.

"That's hard because sometimes you don't eat until 8 or 9 o'clock," Kim said, "and you're starving."

Wesley also does a lot of the mechanical work on the farm, and the family raises corn and wheat to feed its herd.

"The benefit to raising your own feed is you can control the quality a lot better," he said. "It's a science."

Even with the long hours he puts into farming, Wesley didn't expect to receive the Farm Bureau's young farm family award.

"He said he didn't feel he deserved it," Kim said.

But she disagreed. Wesley was actually working when they received the news, and she simply pointed that out to him.

"I said, 'Wesley, it's 10:30 at night,'" Kim said. "What more do you have to do to feel like you deserve that award?"