About
From the Locker Room to the Rodeo Arena
Most Carroll graduates can point to one or two defining experiences from their college years that shape their future. For David Whitmoyer ’07, it wasn’t just one. It was a combination of the classroom, the locker room, and—years later—the rodeo arena and a thriving chicken business that turned his life into the kind of story you tell at class reunions or someday to your grandchildren.
David arrived at Carroll as a business major with the discipline and competitive spirit shaped by football. As a member of the Fighting Saints football team during Carroll’s dominant years in the NAIA, he learned the importance of hard work, perseverance, and accountability. Those lessons, paired with a strong academic foundation, continue to guide him today. “The lessons I learned at Carroll—on the field and in the classroom—show up in my life every single day,” David says.
Rodeo had captured David’s imagination long before college. As a young boy, his grandfather took him to his first rodeo at the Field House in Bozeman, and he was hooked. He was a fan of bull riding and nothing else. Knowing he was too big to ride, David set his sights early on becoming a bullfighter.
After a playoff loss in 2006, David realized football would not extend beyond his senior year at Carroll. Rather than waiting until graduation, he began preparing for his other life’s passion beyond football during the time between his junior and senior years. That preparation led him to the Sankey Rodeo School in Kansas, where he trained under some of the best in the industry, earned top student honors, and launched his career as a professional rodeo athlete and entertainer. For David, the transition felt natural. “The rodeo arena isn’t that different from football,” he explains. “You prepare, you trust your teammates, and you show up ready.” Because of his hard work, athleticism and talent for entertaining David has been voted to four PRCA Circuit Finals and was a top five comedy act of the year in 2017. And how many people can say that their best traveling partner is a 1600-pound, saddle-broken, long-horned steer named Jeffry!
But the story doesn’t stop in the arena.
About five years ago, David’s business partner—who was retiring from riding bucking horses—approached him with an idea: raising chickens. They ran with it, building their business plan and barns at the same time. Today, Buck’N Dave’s Eggs operates 4,000 pasture-raised laying hens in two barns in Corvallis, supplying eggs throughout Western Montana. David is quick to point out that agriculture, much like entertainment, is serious work. “Agriculture and entertainment are big business—even if people don’t always think of them that way,” he says.
A typical day on his ranch – the Lazy K Bar L Cattle Co. - starts around 6 a.m., with David usually the first one up, checking on everything across the property. Cows, horses, chickens, dogs, cats—and even fish—all require daily attention. Mornings are a family effort, with his wife, Kelly, cooking breakfast while they get the kids ready for school and daycare. From there, everyone heads in different directions: one child off to school, Kelly to work in real estate or to the gym, and David to the chicken barns or leased pastures to check on the main cow herd. Their youngest sometimes goes to daycare but often spends the day alongside them if the work allows. Evenings bring the family back together around dark, when dinner is underway and projects around the farm continue. In the fall, hunting naturally weaves its way into the routine.
Being his own boss in three different businesses gives David a level of freedom he values deeply—but it comes with real responsibility. “If something goes wrong, it’s on me,” he says. “That makes you work harder and smarter.”
One of the greatest challenges of his career is time away from home. As a professional entertainer, David is gone more than a third of the year, often leaving on Thursdays and returning on Mondays. The time away from his wife and children is the hardest sacrifice he makes.
Through it all, David relies daily on the education he received at Carroll College. His business degree has helped him successfully operate three businesses over nearly two decades in industries where education is often overlooked. “I can’t think of a day when I haven’t used something I learned at Carroll to help move one of my careers forward,” he says.
Today, David’s story is one of joyful unpredictability—of embracing challenges, carving unconventional paths, and saying yes to opportunity. Whether he’s on the ranch, in the arena, or overseeing his poultry operation, he carries the Carroll spirit with him: work hard, show up prepared, take chances, and always be willing to chase the next great adventure.