Following are sketches of this year's honorees:

Rodney & Carol Cowan - Watonga-Fay Area

Rodney Cowan was born in Clinton and graduated from Greenfield High School in 1979 and from OSU in 1983 with a degree in agricultural economics with emphasis in farm-ranch management. He and his wife, Carol, met at OSU and were married in 1982.

A life-long farmer-rancher, he participated in the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program 1994-96 and received the Indian Soil Conservation Award. They were farm-ranch family nominees in 1994. Crops include wheat, alfalfa and Tricale and he pastures on Bermuda and native grass. "I purchase cattle in the summer and fall to run on winter pasture. I have also been running cattle in the Kansas Flint Hills during the summer," Cowan said. He is a Mid-Oklahoma Coop board member and is a former trustee with the First Baptist Church. Cowan combats soil loss with terraces and waterways and also builds waterways, terraces and ponds to improve his land. "If a person takes the time to plant a crop, he should continue with all practices to produce the best crop possible," is Cowan's philosophy of farming. "I am proud of being able to make a living farming-ranching and raising my family country-style. I am doing what I have always wanted to do ever since I was 10 years old!" The Cowans' children include Ashley Anne, 19; Lance Earl, 17, and twins Kelsey Sue and Kari Layne, 15. They enjoy snow-skiing, hunting, eating out and going to movies.

Mike & Sarah Helm - Geary Area

Mike Helm grew up in the rural Geary area and went to school there before attending OSU for two and a half years in agricultural economics. He was an FFA State Farmer in 1976. The Helms married in 1996.

Ted & Joyce Jantzen - Canton Area

Theodore "Ted" Jantzen hopes to see in his grandsons the fifth generation of his family to farm in Blaine County. He and his wife, Joyce, married in 1966. He has farmed 41 years.

Jantzen has received recognition from the Soil Conservation Service for practices, which include minimum till, ponds, terraces, waterways and red cedar control measures. His enterprise includes wheat, Bermuda, Lovegrass and native grass to keep up his Limousin cow-calf operation. He is a Farm Bureau member and enjoyed helping with 4-H activities when their daughter was in that organization. Something he takes pride in is cleaning rye from his wheat fields and also clearing rye and weeds from his fence rows. The Jantzens' daughter, Dawn and her husband Darrin Gambill, have two sons, Hadley and Rhett.

Eric & Cindy Lamle - Okeene Area

Eric Lamle is an Okeene High School graduate and both he and his wife, Cindy, grew up there. They married in 1985. He raises wheat, alfalfa and Angus and Limousin cattle and maintains a cow-calf herd as well as stocker/feeder cattle.

"I run stocker cattle in the winter to diversify," he said. "I would say the biggest change in my tillage program was 25 years ago when we pulled the moldboard plow out in the pasture and changed the name to 'terrace maintenance tool,' " he relates. He is a member of International Flying Farmers, Okeene United Methodist Church (where he is a trustee and administrative council member), the Okeene school board, Okeene Quarterback Club and is a youth group trip sponsor. He has a private pilot's license and is a member of AOPA. Conservation practices he uses include constructing waterways and terraces, saving residue for wind and water erosion, raising up on draws to conserve topsoil and putting some marginal ground back to grass. "To see my kids involved in my farming operation," he says gives him the most pride. The Lamles' children include daughter Amy and Vernon Post, daughter Laci and Steve Strickler, daughter Erica Lamle and son Michael Lamle. They have three granddaughters, Callie and Cassidy Post and Hannah Strickler. They enjoy spending time on the farm, hunting, fishing, snow-skiing, flying and attending Okeene Whippet sports events.

Wes & Jane McCrary - Watonga Area

Wes McCrary grew up at Watonga and then took vo-tech farm management courses. He and his wife Jane, have been married since 1980. He has farmed for 19 years, starting with his late father-in-law and then seven years on their own.

Wheat, rye pasture, alfalfa and native and improved grasses all get his attention, along with his Brangus cattle. He does custom sprigging, when help is available, and also custom swathing and baling. Rotating grass pastures is utilized in his operation. McCrary is a current director and past president of the Blaine County Cattlemen's Association and also is involved with the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, Chisholm Trail Farm Credit, East Central Farm Credit and Watonga Round-up Club. Establishing grass on highly erodible lands and planting windbreaks have given him pride in his operation, and he also uses rotational grazing and low-till farming. He has a special nephew, Ryan Redinger of Seiling, who has farmed with him for seven years, or ever since McCrary has farmed on his own. When time permits, he enjoys travel, spending time with his nieces and nephews and sitting on his back deck and enjoying the view.

Waverly Pollock is originally from Weatherford but met his deceased spouse, Josephine "Jobie," at Longdale. He now resides near Seiling. He has been in farming-ranching for 61 years and the Pollocks were farm family of the year in the late 1960s.

Robert J. Schaffler - Hitchcock Area

Robert Schaffler graduated from high school in Hitchcock and then went to Oklahoma A&M for a year. He and his wife, Donna, married in 1950. A 55-year farmer, he has received Cimarron Valley and BIA Soil Conservation awards.

Wheat, native and Bermuda grass, mixed breed cows/calves and stockers make up his operations. When moisture permits, he also raises alfalfa and milo. He likes using limited tillage and also takes pride in maintaining rye-free wheat fields. As for conservation measures, Schaffler said, "We try to do everything we think is necessary." He is a member of Farm Bureau. Favorite pastimes are harvesting grain and watching football and basketball games. His children include daughter Susan Bailey and her son T.J.; Robert P. Schaffler and wife Judy and their children Sam and Keela; Gail Schroeder and husband Rodney and their children Jerry and Sarah and a deceased son, Gerald Keith, who died at age 23.

Ray Stevens - Geary Area

Ray Stevens has been farming in the Geary area some 70 years. He has raised corn, wheat, maize, cotton and melons and also Limousin and Crossbreed cattle.

In the past he operated a dairy for 26 years and commercially grew watermelons and cantaloupes. He claims credit for having the first Simmental calf born in Blaine County in January 1971. He was one of the earliest here to use artificial insemination for his dairy herd and had an early gas-powered milking machine. He also used one of the first cotton strippers in the Geary area. Stevens was an Eagle Scout in his youth when he was in Boy Scouts. His conservation measures have included planting Lovegrass and other grasses to prevent erosion where red cedars cut canyon banks. He remembers his father had some of the first terraces back in the early 30s, made by a grader pulled by a Caterpillar. He has kept up terraces where needed. Rotating his cattle herd to different pastures helps prevent overgrazing. His late wife, Joy, died in September 2003. They had married in 1941 after meeting at a 1937 Old Settlers Reunion. He has two daughters, five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Daughter Pat and G.L. Wright have two sons, Craig and Lorinda Wright and their children Korie, Meghan, Melany and Melinda, and Shelly and Lynn Wright and their children, Hilary and Luke. Daughter Wilda and Phillip Kerr have daughter Amanda and Terry Simmons and their children Jacquelyn, Kerrie and Jenna; daughter Rebecca Kerr, and son Phillip and Amy Kerr. Ray Stevens enjoys gardening, traveling, watching pro baseball and improving his land. Looking back over his 70 years in farming, he said what gives him the most pride is "keeping the land in the family that my dad purchased in 1923. Joy and I purchased it in 1947. With Joy's help and other employment, we kept the land through some tough times." Stevens also is proud they were able to turn farmland into pasture and clear red cedars off for more pasture, and also improve the cattle herd so that the calves bring top market prices.

Orval Swaim - Okeene Area

Orval Swaim was born at Crescent and graduated from Classen High School in Oklahoma City in 1935 but has been in Blaine County almost ever since. He has farmed for 50 years and reports his homestead qualified for the Oklahoma Centennial Award.

Swaim raises wheat, oats and milo, along with Herefords in his cow/calf herd. He has planted grass on some wheat ground to restore it and utilizes summer fallowness on some other ground. Cattlemen's and Mineral Owners associations, serving on the local coop board, the Okeene Jaycees and being an honorary Okeene FFA member are among Swaim's memberships. He also earned his way into the White Fang Club by being rattlesnake-bitten. He and his late spouse, Elberta, who died Dec. 10, 2003, were married in 1937 in Okeene. Their children are Ted and Donna Swaim and son Brandon and his wife Robin; Bob and Ruth Ann Swaim and their children Richard and wife Jimmie Dee, Rachelle and Rebecca (Becky) and her husband John. He has five great-grandchildren. Swaim enjoys repairing clocks, welding, restoring antique autos, carpentry, traveling, water-skiing and boating and is a member of the Okeene Round-up Club. Conservation practices over the years have included building ponds and terraces and planting grass and trees. "To preserve the land we live on is to preserve the future for all our children and grandchildren," he said. Others report he has been a great neighbor, having helped work fields in times of need and taking his boat out for rescue work when Okeene had major flooding in 1957, along with other kind deeds. He has cooked hamburgers for FFA fund-raisers for around 10 years and enjoys helping with Okeene snake hunts with his friends. Swaim has always felt farming and raising cattle is an important profession. They raised two sons who returned to farm the land, Ted at home and Bob at Watonga on his land. Grandson Brandon Swaim also farms with his father, and grandson Richard Swaim also does some part-time farming. Swaim said what gives him the most pride is that "my homestead is more than 100 years old and my son and grandson are still farming on it."

Sponsoring the event are the Blaine County OSU Cooperative Extension Service; Central North Canadian River, Cimarron Valley and Blaine County Conservation Districts; Canton, Geary, Watonga and Okeene Chambers of Commerce; county commissioners and the Blaine County Fair Board, with assistance from Wheeler Brothers Grain, Okeene Milling, Chisholm Trail Farm Credit, area banks and food coordinator Martha White.