FEATURE ARTICLE
Dotson Cattle Company
HOLDS DEEP ROOTS IN OKLAHOMA AND BRANGUS by Deanna Nelson-Licking In the Oklahoma land rush of 1893, James Woodson and John Morris staked land claims southeast of present-day Enid, Oklahoma. Their descendants have lived within a few miles of those exact properties ever since. The families have been involved in farming and livestock merchandising for over 100 years. James Woodson’s grandson, Stanley Dotson, married Oletta Morris, the granddaughter of John Morris and the couple carried on their grandparents’ agriculture beginnings. Stanley and Oletta operated a livestock hauling business for 40 years, farmed 1,500 acres of wheat and custom harvested wheat from Canada down to Texas. They also owned an agriculture trailer and equipment dealership and at one time owned a livestock auction barn business in Covington, Oklahoma. Stanley’s son, Wes Dotson, is the fourth generation to farm the land and his children are raising the sixth generation now. Wes and his wife, Connie, have been married 44 years and raised two sons and a daughter. Son, Tucker, and his wife,
18
August 2021
Whitney, and children Drake and Bailey; son, Cody, and his wife, Chelsi, with their children Emmy and Declan; and daughter, Lezlie, and her children Lewy, Ellie and Weston, all live within 20 miles of their parents and everyone helps keep the operation running smoothly. “Everyone pitches in since we all have other jobs, but we work as a team to make things happen,” Wes said. “We have been in the same six-mile radius since the land rush.” “Well, we bought our first registered Brangus cattle in 1981, so 40 years in the business,” Wes said. “We bought 20 head from James Ottman of Rock Port, Missouri, and our first Brangus bull was purchased in 1980.” From the 1950s to the early 1980s, the Dotsons ran English-bred cattle before Wes purchased his first Brangus. At the time, he chose the Brangus breed for their ability to perform on wheat pasture as stockers and their disease resistance qualities in the hot and humid Oklahoma summers. “Over time we have required much more of our cattle
