Women in Ag: Kathy Bell is essential in the success of Bell Livestock
Kathy Bell was born and raised in Tulsa, Okla., far removed from a life in agriculture with little inkling she would help run a successful ranching operation one day.
Since marrying her husband Russell Bell nearly 33 years ago, she has become a force in the Wyoming ag community and an essential part of Bell Livestock, a diverse operation situated on the border of Converse and Campbell counties, 70 miles from the nearest town.
Culture shock
Although raising livestock is now second-nature, Kathy admitted moving to a rural Wyoming ranch over 30 years ago came with a bit of culture shock.
“I am not from an agriculture background, and I had no idea about sheep and cattle until I met Russell,” she shared. “It was a culture shock at first, being from the South, but I would not change anything. I absolutely love where we live.”
With little prior experience around livestock, Kathy noted the first few years of living on a ranch in rural northeastern Wyoming was a major learning curve.
“The biggest shock was being 70 miles from town,” she said. “There is no grocery store within 70 miles, so we can’t just run out and get a loaf of bread. When we go to town, we make sure we have a list, and if we forget the list, it’s two weeks until we go back.”
With a patient support system, an ambition to learn and a few years of experience under her belt, Kathy now fits right in on the ranch and has played an integral role in the operation’s success.
Current operations
Today, Kathy and Russell are the sole operators of Bell Livestock, and Kathy helps with all of the day-to-day operations including – but not limited to – lambing sheep, calving cows and fixing fence.
Kathy and Russell’s five adult daughters, located throughout the state, return home to help on the ranch when they can.
The Bells currently run a herd of commercial cattle, as well as 400 head of Rambouillet, Columbia, Targhee and naturally-colored breeding sheep and Columbia-certified rams.
“We have quite a few cows, but they aren’t registered,” Kathy shared. “They are nothing special, but they are special to us. We have everything from red, black, blue roan and red roan cows, and three of our kids have cows out here as well.”
Kathy admitted the sheep are Russell’s livestock of choice, and while the cattle are calved out on pastures on their own, every ewe at Bell Livestock is shed-lambed in a jug.
The Bells sheep operation emphasizes raising fast-gaining, low-input ewes and rams with a focus on range-ready, good-mothering, high-quality fleece sheep that also perform well as feeders.
Big milestones
While living on the ranch for 33 years is certainly a milestone for Kathy, she noted her greatest accomplishment is her five wonderful children. In addition to ranching, she enjoys her role as an involved mother and grandmother.
Kathy also enjoys sewing, and what little free time she has outside of ranching operations is spent with a needle and thread in hand.
Kathy explained she has made several quilts for her kids and grandkids over the years, and in 2021 she donated a handmade quilt for a University of Wyoming (UW) raffle, in which proceeds were used to support UW 4-H and collegiate wool judging teams.
More recently, Kathy donated a quilt top to Blue Bike Quilt Studio in Gillette, where the backing will be finished before it is sent to kids in Florida affected by recent hurricanes.
“I just love quilting. In fact, I was starching fabric to start on a new quilt when you called,” she laughed.
Kathy’s passion and can-do attitude have helped her succeed on and off of the ranch.
She said, “I love what I do, and my husband loves what he does. It’s a struggle, but we wouldn’t give it up for anything.”
Hannah Bugas is the managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
