Hey there it’s that time of year when we as an organization can vote folks onto the Board of Directors. Here are the individuals that are up for re-election or election. The ballots are being mailed out and you will have to have them filled in and returned by March 26th the meeting will be that evening at 6:30pm to Dan Stricker c/o Hidden Trace Farm 1761 Lawrence Rd. Franklin TN 37069. Only vote for FOUR. download and print the pdf copy here

Penny Hacker-Knuckles(AR):________(current board member)

Leonard Muehr(TX):________(current board member)

David MCCoy(MO):___________(current board member)

David Lanford(TX):___________(New Candidate)

Dana Camarena(WA):_________(New Candidate)

Davielle McCoy(MO)__________(New Candidate)

David Lanford, San Antonio, Texas

David is a lifelong resident of San Antonio. He and his wife Pam have two grown sons Warner and Hunter. He is a graduate of the University of Texas, Health Science Center at San Antonio. Mr. Lanford is a Veteran of Desert Storm, he served with the 114th Evac Hospital as an ICU RN staff nurse of a 400-bed field hospital in King Khalid Military City, Saudi Arabia. Currently he is in the Medical Insurance field and serves as a project manager for CVS/Aetna in data analytics and reporting and clinical transformation. He and his wife have had a small herd of cattle in Lavaca County, Texas for twenty years and have raised Beefalo for the past two years, they are looking forward to growing their herd in the future. David is also interested in raising various poultry as a hobby.

Dana Camarena, Washington

I was born in Eastern Washington and am a 3rd generation rancher. In the late 80’s my family sold all of our cattle, but kept the land and horses. I have spent more time in the saddle than any other activity in my life and am on a never-ending pursuit for a higher understanding of horsemanship. Growing up, I had dreams of becoming a veterinarian or working in some sector of agriculture but sometimes life doesn’t go as planned and I ended up going to college at Central Washington University and the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, Mexico, majoring in Criminal Justice and Spanish. I have spent the last 18 years working in Education and am the Director of Student Support for the Educational Service District #123. Close to a decade ago, we decided to make our way back into the cattle industry, but with a different approach than my grandfather and father took. We chose the Beefalo breed due to a few specific characteristics, namely calving ease and the ability to finish our well on grass. The breed has definitely lived up to our standards and we have thoroughly enjoyed them and are working to continue growing our herd and fine tuning our genetics. I am currently the secretary for the NW Beefalo Association and had the privilege of assisting many new breeders start their operations here on the West Coast by providing quality breeding stock. In our current operation, we fun our herd on summer range close to the Canadian border, and in the late fall, we haul our animals down to SE Washington to calve out where the weather is mild. We utilize 100% direct market sales and have created a loyal customer base that appreciates knowing their producer personally and supporting a product that was raised humanly and handled with great care. You can see more on our operation on our website www.crearanch.com

David McCoy, LaMonte Missouri

I was born and raised here in central Missouri and have been raising livestock my whole life. I have been raising Beefalo since the early 90’s when i purchased a bull from the Fowler Beefalo Farm during field day, they were having to promote the breed. I started just because I was in the market for a good bull and like the idea of the calving ease since I was working in town and would not always be around during calving season. I have since started breeding for both meat animals and raising some breeding stock as well. I am staring to market my meat animals directly from the farm and have found it to be very satisfying to provide my customers with a top quality product at a reasonable price. I also enjoy the breeding stock line using new and old bloodlines to improve and promote the breed.

I feel it is important that we all work together as an organization and learn from each other how to keep moving this great breed forward. We must promote both the great meat qualities and the benefits of the hybridization for the production in breeding stock.

Davielle McCoy,DPT, Warrensburg, Missouri

Hello, my name is Davielle McCoy. I am a second generation Beefalo breeder. Although I have remained involved with my parent’s animals and farm, I have spent the past few years focused on school, getting my Bachelors in Biology ‘14 and Doctorate of Physical Therapy ‘17. When I was a little girl my family bought a brindle bull named Dalton, from Jim and Jewel Fowler. This is where it all started. I have been showing cattle since I was 5 years old including showing Beefalo for the Fowlers during elementary and high school. I have shown many different breeds during my junior years including showing Beefalo, Simmental, Santa Gertrudis, Charolais, and Crossbred just to name a few. Beefalo has always been the breed I call home. Since graduating PT School, I have started buying, breeding, and raising my own herd of Beefalo cattle. While I have always enjoyed helping with my parents’ operation and admiring other Beefalo breeders, I have developed a new appreciation of the “breeding” process. Having the opportunity to pick and choose which characteristics to use in a bull based on the females I have makes seeing the offspring so much more enjoyable.

We are fortunate as Beefalo breeders to have the opportunity to breed these animals how we want, incorporating the characteristics we find important and beneficial to our individual breeding programs. This is why I love this breed! It takes all of us to continue to develop the genetics and evolution of the breed. I would greatly appreciate your vote and love the opportunity to serve on the board of directors to help continue the improvement of the Beefalo breed.

The annual meeting will be held at the Spring Beefalo Showcase in Franklin Tennessee all are invited to attend if you would like to come to dinner you can purchase your dinner tickets on the website under the Events tab. The meeting will take place FRIDAY MARCH 26th at 6:30pm at the Hidden Trace Farm. Your ballots will need to be received no later than March 26th to Dan Stricker. The election will take place that evening.