Bryan Lanting grew up on his family dairy, helping out with the daily tasks of farm life.
Lanting graduated from Dublin High School in 2001, and went on to San Angelo State to play football and rugby. He stayed there a year before transferring to Tarleton to study animal science.
“I’d go to class Monday/ Wednesday/Friday drive back to Dublin and work with the family farm on the other days to try to offset college costs,” he said.
Over his college years, Lanting started taking on more responsibility at the dairy, and ended up leaving his junior year, in 2005, to work full time. “I just started managing the dairy — the employees and all the feed inventories and medicine — all that stuff,” he said.
In 2008, Lanting began buying cows himself, and he and his father became partners in the business. The Lantings ran the dairy for another 13 years, until 2021, when changes in the industry made it harder to break even.
The family decided to sell the cows and find work in other fields. The decision was not easy for Lanting. “We had an opportunity that was given to us to make some money and do something different, but then after the cows were gone, I kind of lost my identity. I was like ‘Who am I going to be? I’m a fourth generation dairy farmer, and [I thought] this is what I was going to do for the rest of my life.”
It took some getting used to, but after taking some time off to be with his family and praying about it, Lanting felt ready to move on. He found some odd jobs to keep him busy, and enjoyed spending more time with his wife and children. Work on the dairy was 7 days a week, but now he could take more holidays off. “This Christmas I took off between Christmas and New Years,” he said. “It’s delightful to hang out with family and the kids and not have to work.”
Two years ago, in 2022, Lanting started his own company, B. Will Earthworks. “I had always been around heavy equipment, and we built our own roads and, and tanks and diversions and things of that nature here on the farm as we needed it,” Lanting said. “My brother in law needed some help, so I worked for him a little bit trying to decide what was going to be next for me and he said, ‘Hey, let’s go buy a bulldozer.’ That led into an excavator and then a skid steer and next thing we know I’m building things for people — pads and roads and septics as well now.”
Lanting likes that the work varies from day to day. “We are working in a KOA in Dublin right now,” he said. “It’s expanding and we’re doing all their dirt work for them for the roads and the infrastructure. We’ll go from that to doing septic, then somebody needs some land cleared or some mesquite grubbed or cedar trees pulled out, and we get to change it up.”
In the future, Lanting plans to expand the company a little bit. He still misses the cows, but feels like he’s on the right path. “It’s just been a journey that God’s brought me on,” Lanting said. “He closed certain doors and opened up other doors, and I’ve just tried to follow wherever God leads me and my family and it’s worked out well. He’s blessed us.”
When he’s not working, Lanting enjoys spending time with his wife of 15 years, Jan, and their three children, Clara, 11, Braxton, 8, and Hazel, 3.
“We ended up buying a camper after we sold the milk cows and we didn’t have that everyday responsibility, and we just love camping,” he said. “The kids are young enough where they’re fine just to be at a lake, like Proctor or Possum Kingdom.”
Lanting’s parents, Bruce and Kari Lanting, live near Lanting and his family in the Edna Hill area.
His parents have been one of his greatest inspirations in Lanting’s life. “[They taught me] that we have to work for a living,” he said. “We work, and then we play.”
Lanting’s advice to Dublin graduates is to follow their dreams, but also to be adaptable. “Always chase your dreams,” he said. “Sometimes doors close, but it’s for a reason to send you down another path. You don’t know where it’s going to end up, but when you get there, you’re like, ‘Oh, okay. That was right.’”
Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen. com.