River Creek Farms is a diversified family operation owned and operated by the Mertz families. The family’s interest in cattle began in 1891 with Sherman Mertz, who fed cattle and sheep in Wabaunsee County. His son, Harold A. Mertz, started his operation three miles west on the land that is now headquarters for the farm. Today, the business is continuing with third generation Harold D. and Jeanne Mertz, fourth generation Joe and Kim Mertz and Bob and Mary Mertz as operating partners.

The farm headquarters is located approximately nine miles east of Manhattan along K18, in the Kaw Valley River bottom. Our main crops are corn and soybeans, with some wheat and alfalfa on over 3000 acres of leased and owned cropland. Most of this cropland is in the river valley with some upland ground. We do some irrigation with center pivots and flood irrigation. We graze the cowherd during the summer in the Flint Hills pastures south of the farm. The cowherd grazes the cornstalks in the valley during the fall and winter.

We have been breeding Purebred Simmental cattle since the early 1970's. This is also when we became official members of the American Simmental Association. Our breeding philosophy is the same today as it was 30 years ago. We have consistently focused on producing cattle that will excel in any condition, while focusing on the economically relevant traits like Calving Ease, Growth and Carcass Value. Recently we have used popular Angus sires to produce a select group of F1 hybrids. These cattle combined with our Purebred herd are an elite group of out-crossed Simmental genetics.The resulting offspring, both F1s and purebreds, have proven to continually produce incredible calves when mated to Angus based cows.