A studet of the cattle idustry, Jarold Callaha was well-equipped to help lead the America Agus Associatio through ucharted territory. Story & photos by Shaua Rose Hermel F rom a bird s-eye view over cetral Oklahoma, oe ca see trails cut deep ito the ladscape by the Loghors ad the cowboys who drove them orth alog the Chisholm Trail from Texas to the rail cars i Abilee, Ka. Virtually idiscerible at groud level, the trail s easter path cuts through what is today Express Raches, Yuko, Okla. As the story goes, ad I thik it is true, says Jarold Callaha, rach presidet, they would cross the North Caadia here, lay over ad graze these hills. This is where the Idias would come ad extract their oe or two steers for lettig them cross. Visitig with the 112th presidet of the America Agus Associatio, it s obvious that he embraces Oklahoma s history the cattle, the oil ad gas baros, the politics ad the pivotal evets that helped shape the ladscape for agriculture today. It may seem a odd fasciatio for oe so otherwise sigle-midedly focused o the cattle busiess, but for this Oklahoma ative, it s part of uderstadig the idustry that is his passio, which, i tur, helps him avigate the terrai today. He loves history, says fellow Board member Phil Trowbridge, Ghet, N.Y. He does t wat to live i it. He wats to create history, ad I thik he has. CONTINUED ON PAGE 48 @ To be i this busiess you have to love @Above: it, ad you have to be iterested i it. You have to be to be very successful at it, says Jarold Callaha. I thik that s oe of the eat thigs about the Agus busiess. It s ot oly a busiess, but people have a passio about what they are doig. ANGUSJoural 47
Forgig Trails CONTINUED FROM PAGE 47 I retrospect, his years o the Board have bee challeged with some of the toughest decisios the Associatio has ever had to coted, otes former Associatio Presidet Be Eggers of Sydestricker Geetics, Mexico, Mo. From advaces i techology for geetic predictio ad iformatio distributio, to ecoomic recessio compouded with geetic defects, the Associatio Board forged trails through ucharted territory durig his teure. As echoed i Peer Review, the Board, staff ad membership looked to Jarold for his idustry kowledge, busiess savvy, power of observatio ad leadership as they made decisios that will prove pivotal turig poits i the breed s history. I like commercial cattle. I like registered cattle. I like ruig steers. I like feedig cattle. I like watchig them grow. His addictio bega at a early age. I grew up totally commercial, says Jarold, otig that the family s commercial cow herd varied i ivetory from 100 to 500 cows. Typical of other farmer-feeders i the area, they backgrouded 500-1,000 stockers, feedig some of them out i their ow feedyard ad marketig them as fed cattle to the small packig compaies available i Oklahoma City ad Coffeyville, Ka. Others they fed at commercial feedyards like Neill Cattle Co. Feedyard at Welch ad Hitch Feedyards i wester Oklahoma. With his dad ad brothers more iterested i farmig, Jarold took the lead with the cattle eterprise. I started buyig stocker cattle for my dad at sale bars whe I was 15 years old, Jarold recalls. I d get a ride after school to the Welch sale bar, ad I d buy stocker cattle. He d come i that ight from sowig wheat or somethig ad pick me up ad the cattle that I d bought. The oldest so of five childre, Jarold also gaied experiece supervisig his dad s employees. I doig so, he shares, he leared a valuable life lesso. Some of those employees were ot welleducated, but all of them kew more about somethig tha I did. I could lear somethig from every oe of them, says Jarold, recogizig that their expertise resulted from experiece ad a iterest i what they were doig. @ Oe of the thigs I ve always loved about the A eye for good stock Roots i Oklahoma agriculture That well-rouded backgroud bega o his family s farmig ad cattle operatio ear Welch, Okla., where Jarold developed a love for the cattle idustry. My dad told me whe I was youg, fid somethig you like to do so well you d almost do it for free, ad the figure out how to make a livig from it. I m that way about cattle, he shares, addig that he s glad there is o madatory retiremet age for cattleme. I will probably ow cattle util the day I die, he says, admittig to what he calls a addictio. I ve had chaces to do other thigs outside of agriculture, but I like cattle. cattle busiess is that we respect experiece ad age, says Jarold, otig that s uique to the livestock idustry. If you have a 80-yearold producer who s still goig strog i the cattle busiess, he is pretty well revered, because he has see the droughts, ad he s see the cycles, ad he s see the ups ad dows of the cattle busiess, ad he s survived. Peer Review Fellow directors offer isight ito Jarold Callaha s cotributio as a director ad officer of the America Agus Associatio. What has Jarold Callaha cotributed to the America Agus Associatio ad its members durig his teure? Jarold has brought leadership, directio ad guidace to the America Agus Associatio ad its membership durig oe of the most usettlig times the Agus breed has ever kow. Terry Cotto Jarold has a busiessma ideology i a cowboy s body. He has a fiacial view that is ot just uique to our Board, it is uique to people. That visio has bee his biggest asset to the Board. Phil Trowbridge Jarold s experiece i the busiess world has advaced our Associatio staff ad leadership ito a busiess structure appropriate for our size. He has left a great example of executio of this busiess model to the executive maagemet team ad future boards. Steve Olso Leadership! Jarold s kowledge of the beef idustry ad his ability to aalyze issues rak high i his cotributios to our Associatio, 48 ANGUSJoural Jarold soo realized oe of his iterests whe he was itroduced to livestock judgig through his ivolvemet i FFA. I additio to sharpeig his skills at evaluatig livestock, he says participatig i livestock judgig helped him to develop the ability to thik critically ad to verbalize those but what sets him apart is his ability to lead Board members to thik idepedetly ad logically to reach the best decisios for our members. Cathy Watkis. Jarold is certaily oe of the sharpest ad most taleted idividuals i the etire beef idustry today. Jim Retz A cosummate visioary, cosesus builder ad aalytical thiker, Jarold s teure will log be remembered for his discermet of issues cofroted by the Board, listeig to all views preseted, the helpig guide the Board ad staff to strategically arrive at the best solutio for our members, always keepig their best iterest i mid. Milford Jekis His broad overview of the etire beef idustry is like oe other from feedig cattle to sellig hudreds of bulls, to the showrig ad his realizatio of its importace to juiors. He has that uique visio. Charlie Boyd Servig o the Board uder Presidet Callaha was much like attedig your favorite class, led by oe of your most challegig, thought-provokig, yet fu, teachers. Jarold is oe of the most kowledgeable, strategic, visioary ad articulate leaders i this beef idustry. Kevi Yo Examples of Jarold s positive ifluece Whe I first came o the Board four years ago, there were a lot of major issues icludig the fiace situatio ad geetic defects that we eeded to get up to speed o so we could make decisios. Alog with his expertise ad ability to uderstad the situatio,
thoughts as he explaied his decisios skills he would use throughout life. His high school team excelled, wiig the Natioal FFA Livestock Judgig Cotest, i which he placed third overall as a idividual. He cotiued to pursue that passio, participatig o the judgig teams at Northeaster Oklahoma A&M College (NEO), where his team wo every cotest i which it competed, ad Oklahoma State Uiversity (OSU). Competig i six seior college cotests, Jarold placed i the top three idividuals five times. His team wo the collegiate judgig cotests at Dever, Fort Worth ad Housto. Developig a eye for cattle starts with a love of aimals that feeds a iterest i their structure, their movemet ad their behavior, says Jarold, addig that people geerally have it or they do t. Iterest sharpes your powers of observatio, ad helps you cotiually add kowledge through experiece. It s a ogoig process, he emphasizes. You have to be a studet. I am cotiually learig. A excellet studet at that, Jarold fiished amog the top 10 seiors i the College of Agriculture at OSU, graduatig with a bachelor s i aimal sciece i 1976. That fall, at the age of 21, he bega teachig itroductory aimal sciece ad coachig the livestock judgig team at NEO, obtaiig a master s degree i aimal sciece from the Uiversity of Arkasas Fayetteville while he was at it. Jarold excelled at both teachig ad coachig ad was promoted to @A true cattlema, Jarold says the part of the Agus busiess he ejoys the most is evaluatig which matigs worked best as ew calves are beig bor i the sprig. Makig those matig decisios is a task he holds oto. head NEO s Departmet of Aimal Sciece. He retured to OSU as assistat professor of aimal sciece i 1981. With a 100% teachig positio, he taught beef cattle productio, coached the judgig team ad maaged the purebred beef cattle herds, which icluded Agus, Limousi, Simmetal, Bragus, Hereford ad Polled Hereford. Jarold s uique skill set, combiig a kowledge of livestock beyod his years, a passio for competitio ad uparalleled ability as a leader, molded his teams ito fierce competitors with a wiig metality, says Mark Johso, associate professor ad curret livestock judgig coach at OSU. Johso competed o Jarold s 1985 team, Jarold could relay ideas, ad he was always ope to ideas that aybody else might have. Doug Schroeder Jarold has a great perceptio of what others are tryig to say ad the ability to fid the root of the issue that really eeds to be discussed. Steve Olso He has bee a leader o establishig soud policy ad promotig ew iovatios to stregthe the Agus breed. He was a early promoter ad adopter of DNA techology, ad helped AGI ad AAA become the idustry leader i the use of geomics i the seedstock ad commercial cattle busiess. Doug Parrett He has bee at the forefrot of the geetic recessive issues. He realized that our commercial customers eeded protectio ad reassurace, first ad foremost. He also realized that breeders eed to be supplied with the tools to make good decisios. Be Eggers What makes Jarold a good leader? Jarold Callaha is oe of the best leaders the America Agus Associatio has ever had. To me the reaso is very simple. He has the ability to look ito the future of ot oly the AAA, but the beef idustry as a whole. He is passioate about the Agus breed ad the AAA ad is oe of the few people I kow who wats to do what is right for the breed ad Associatio ad does t have to have the credit. Bill Davis He has a ucay ability to put his arms aroud very complicated situatios ad explai them i terms the whole Board ca uderstad. Darrell Silveira which wo competitios at Wichita, the Louisiaa State Fair ad the America Royal before fiishig as Reserve Natioal Champio. With high expectatios for all studets, Jarold was a outstadig teacher ad metor, as well as the most successful ad respected livestock coach ad cattle judge of his era, adds Johso, who Jarold coviced to stay at OSU for a master s degree ad to assist i coachig the 1986-88 teams. He literally wrote the book o livestock judgig a 97-pager etitled Aimal Sciece Livestock Selectio Maual, which OSU published i 1984. Ofte asked to judge CONTINUED ON PAGE 50 From Jarold s varied experiece as a cattlema, teacher, coach, executive director of the Oklahoma Cattleme s Associatio ad presidet of Express Raches, he came o the Board beig able to uderstad all facets of what it takes to ru ad maage the largest beef orgaizatio i the world. Miie Lou Bradley Jarold has a uique ability to make thigs move forward. May times i the boardroom there will be a wide rage of ideas beig discussed ad cussed, with o real directio beig take. Jarold will take differet ideas, put them together ad move us forward to a decisio that we are, for the most part, happy with. Joh Pfeiffer The thig that impresses me about Jarold is his kowledge of the Agus breed ad all segmets of the beef idustry. He brigs a wealth of iformatio ad passio to the Board meetigs ad the breed. Scott Foster He has a uique ability to see ad fed off a problem before it becomes a issue. Charlie Boyd Because he lives the cattle busiess every day, others respect his iput, ad because he is a clear thiker with good visio, people like to work with Jarold. Doug Parrett Like ay good livestock judgig coach, Callaha expects you to see it, make a decisio, ad be able to back it up. He also demads your very best. Agus breeders ad our commercial customers alike have bee the beeficiaries of Jarold Callaha s service to the America Agus Associatio. Kevi Yo ANGUSJoural 49
Forgig Trails CONTINUED FROM PAGE 49 shows across the coutry, there was a period of 15 years durig which he would have judged, o average, 100 shows a year. Amog them were atioal shows of most of the sigificat beef breeds ad some of the largest market lamb shows. The last five years I coached I was atioal coach of the year, he otes, addig that he had reached teured status, the first ad maybe the last cadidate to do so without a doctorate. We d wo all the cotests multiple times. A fresh challege Whe frieds ecouraged him to take the executive director positio at the Oklahoma Cattleme s Associatio (OCA) i 1991, @Jarold s wife, Jeifer, ad so Rya, both part- ers i Callaha Cattle Co. of Edmod, Okla., share his ethusiasm for the cattle idustry. Now a director at McAfee & Taft law firm i Oklahoma City, Jeifer was raised o a small farm i orther Califoria, showed cattle ad sheep, ad judged successfully for Cal Poly. She has take the poit i maagig the Callahas stockercattle eterprise, which at oe time comprised 20,000 head ad 20 employees. Rya, a eighthgrader, is becomig more active i juior Agus activities ad havig success i the showrig with his bred-ad-owed seedstock. Jarold s two older childre were also ivolved i the cattle operatio whe they were growig up. So Bria lives i Plao, Texas, ad works for a itellectual property (IP) compay i Dallas. Daughter Tracie Pogue lives earby ad has her ow dace studio i Yuko. 50 ANGUSJoural Jarold decided it was time for a ew challege. visited the rach to cosult with the geeral I always thought coachig the judgig maager Bill Couch to pla matigs ad team was somethig for youger people, he provide isight for the Agus eterprise. says, smilig. I did t thik I would ejoy I 1996, whe Bob was i eed of a COO, ridig aroud i a 15-passeger va with he tured to Jarold. 19-year-olds whe I was 55 years old. I really did t have may plas to go to Workig for the OCA work for Express, Jarold allowed him the time ad recalls, but Bob recruits Jarold attributes opportuity to start his ad employs about 300,000 his success to past ow registered Agus people a year, so I guess he operatio ad brought kew how to recruit. failures. There is ew experieces, Although Jarold had icludig lobbyig. built a fairly successful o replacemet for I that job by far purebred Agus operatio experieces, ad of ay job I ve had I of his ow, it was small leared the most, because compared to Express. The lots of times you I kew absolutely othig resources ad the ability to about it whe I started, do thigs o a larger scale lear more from Jarold chuckles. I was o itrigued him. whe you fail tha a pretty quick learig Asked the key to their curve. We got a lot of workig relatioship, Bob from whe you wi. thigs accomplished quips, He tells me where to more because I was there go all the time. at the right time tha aythig I did, but it I sped literally a third of my time tryig was a very eye-opeig experiece for me. to keep him out of trouble with limited At OCA he gaied experiece i member success, but I ll ever ru out of work, relatios ad associatio fiace from a staff Jarold retorts i a characteristic bater. perspective. Seriously, we trust each other, ad we re real If I would have kow what poor cadid with each other. I kow pretty well fiacial shape [OCA] was i, I probably what he likes ad does t like ad pay would t have take the job, he says. The attetio to it most of the time. positive of that, as a officer suggested to Oce i a while, Bob couters with a him, is that trade associatios are geerally sideward glace. We have a great most resposive to the membership whe relatioship. My style of maagemet is to they are fiacially strapped, which ca spur hire people ad let them do what they do progress. best. Hire the best people you ca ad the While at OCA, Jarold coordiated a let them fuctio almost idepedetly, as if purchase-doatio of the B&L Rach at it were their ow. Shawee, Okla., for Billy Yarborough, who Pleased with Jarold s performace, Bob was watig out of the busiess. The OCA amed him presidet of the raches i 2002. Foudatio purchased the B&L assets, later With the iclusio of the UU Bar purchased sellig the cattle, equipmet ad lad to Bob i 2005, Express Raches ow icludes Fuk, ower of Express Persoel Services 15,000 acres i Oklahoma ad 185,000 acres ad Express Rach Limousis. i New Mexico, as well as about 3,000 It was oe of those wi-wi-wi deals, purebred cows, 2,000 commercial cows, ad Callaha says. The deal put $1 millio i yearligs as pasture is available. OCA s foudatio; Express got ito the A otable chage, oly a hadful of the Agus busiess at a reasoable price; ad purebreds are Limousis, Jarold says, Yarborough was able to support the stressig it was t his razzig that ecouraged foudatio while retaiig more of the sale Bob to gradually covert. He looked at the value tha he would have sellig the bottom lie. operatio outright. Havig experiece with the geetics i his It was a fu project to work o, says ow herd, Jarold built up the Agus herd at Jarold. It took a lot of time ad a lot of Express with heifers from Bill Davis of Rolli thought, a lot of tax attoreys help, but I Rock Agus, Sidey, Mot., ad Jay pulled that off, ad it was a good way to get Leachma i Motaa. Billy out. Whe I came to Express, I told Bob he probably had a poor locatio to sell 100 bulls, Followig the herd but he had a great locatio to sell 1,000 Express bought the B&L herd April 1, bulls, Jarold recalls, explaiig Oklahoma s 1995, Jarold says, raisig his eyebrows at the three big cow areas orthwest, ortheast iroy of the purchase date. The agreemet ad south-cetral. was that he would help with the Agus. With three iterstates (I-40, I-44, I-35) While still workig at OCA, Jarold regularly ruig through earby Oklahoma City, he
observed, Express Raches was located withi three hours drive of ay part of the state. Sellig fewer tha 100 bulls would arrow the market to local wheat-pasture operators who primarily graze stockers ad maitai a small cow herd o the side. Sellig a volume of bulls, they could still satisfy the local market, but they could also attract the bigger, cow-calf-focused rachers, who are typically more aggressive at buyig bulls. That s proved to be true, he otes. Express Raches is kow for producig door females ad show cattle, but Jarold says commercial bull sales are the rach s bread ad butter. Whe the females got so high, yes, we tried to capitalize o that, but it was t the foudatio, says Jarold. For most operatios i the Agus busiess to succeed, they have to have a foudatio of the commercial bull market. The you ca build the rest of the house however you wat to build it. That outlook proved pivotal i 2008 as the Great Recessio ad geetic defects took their toll o the Agus busiess. As the defects were idetified, tests developed ad Associatio policy for hadlig carriers was established, the value of door cows ad embryos i ivetory literally taked, Jarold wices. It was paiful. Yet Agus bulls retaied their value i the commercial sector, largely because of the policies the Board adopted to protect the commercial customer, the techology the Board advaced to give seedstock producers the tools to address the problem ad the Associatio s trasparecy i the matter. It s a healthier busiess model ow. People are more selective. They are more kowledgeable. They are usig all the data, resources, the geomics, EPDs ad the pheotype, Jarold observes. They are drillig dow ad really doig a better job of selectio ad maximizig superior geetics tha we used to do. Without hesitatig, Jarold says Agus breeders have improved the breed. The commercial idustry is tellig us that, he says, poitig to the domiace of Agus bulls as reflected i volume of sales ad i price. The demad for Agus geetics, particularly i the commercial sector, is what has sustaied us as a breed ad as breeders. Decades from ow, the specific discussios ad idividual decisios made durig Jarold s teure will become blurred as the casual observer looks back upo the history of the America Agus Associatio ad follows its course through time. But from a bird s-eye view, the path to where we are today was forward. @Nearly 600 purebred females, icludig these 2-year-olds, sold i Express Raches Big Evet Sale i August. The Big Evet is oe of six sales hosted throughout the year, providig the busiess cash flow at regular itervals. Key ifluecers Three me stad out as to their ifluece i his life, says Jarold Callaha, presidet of the America Agus Associatio his father, Joe Callaha; Robert Bob Totusek, who headed the Oklahoma State Uiversity (OSU) Departmet of Aimal Sciece while Jarold was o faculty; ad Bob Fuk, ower of Express Persoel Services ad Express Raches. My dad is livig proof there is a lot right with the U.S., says Jarold, who describes his father as very quiet ad cerebral. He started with othig ad wated to be a farmer ad racher. Over the period of his lifetime, he accumulated several thousad acres of lad. It s paid for, ad he got to do what he wated to do. Through hard work, he was very successful. Though either of his parets atteded college, all five childre were expected to go ad to graduate, otes Jarold. Most of us have advaced degrees. By ature impatiet, Jarold says Totusek taught him patiece with people ad ideas ad perseverace. That s oe of the thigs that s helped me o the Agus Board to respect other people s poits of view ad recogize they re ot always goig to be the same as mie, says Jarold. If you re coviced you re right, persevere, have patiece ad work with people to brig them aroud to your way of thikig. Jarold says he leared how to work with diverse groups observig how Totusek maaged the OSU faculty. Applicable to both his role at Express Raches ad o the Agus Board, Totusek helped him uderstad that, i order for a group to fuctio properly, everyoe has to respect the importace of everyoe else s job. About oce a year, whe he thought everybody was fightig ad feudig ad fussig about turf, Dr. Totusek would give us a very quiet, mild-maered lecture that everybody should thik their job was the most importat, but they eeded to respect the fact that their co-workers thought the same thig, recalls Jarold. While they might ot thik their co-worker s job was as importat, he did, ad the admiistratio did, ad that s why they had those jobs. Jarold looks to Bob Fuk as his role model for workig with ad supervisig people. As a youg guy, I was a little harsh i maagig people because I wated results right ow, he explais. Bob s more people-drive. Bob s more successful tha I am. Bob believes i people ad always looks for the best i them, says Jarold, otig that his superb people skills result from the fact he really ejoys people. He embodies the power of positive thikig, ad it is that ejoymet of people ad positive outlook that makes Bob a great perso for whom to work, says Jarold. He ll give you as much resposibility as you ca hadle. Now he is goig to hold you accoutable, as well he should, but he will let you try about aythig. I maagig people, Jarold says Bob has impressed upo him the eed to fid the right people, to support those people ad to cotiually ecourage those people. ANGUSJoural 51