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Kenneth Brewer raises wheat, hay grazer & maintains a cow/calf operation made up of Crossbreed cows & Angus bulls. “When my son Kevin was in high school at Watonga, we tried raising show calves for retail using Chianina bulls on Cross cows”. It was good for a few years but the trend changed and Kevin went off to college so that was the end of that venture. I did enjoy it though. He claims not to use any new programs.I farm basically the same way I was taught by my father-in-law, the late Cal Duggan. If you don’t moldboard the ground, you don’t raise a good crop of wheat. Brewer tries to cycle in new registered Angus bulls every four-five years. His cows include heavy Maine-Anjou & Angus crosses. He was Watonga All-Sports Assn. president one year & football vice president for 2 years. Kenneth holds honorary FFA degrees from Greenfield, Dover & received an appreciation award from Wheeler Brothers Grain for 20 years of outstanding service. He & his wife, Dorothy, married in 1951. They have three children, Randy & Kevin Brewer & Tina Gorman, seven grandchildren & a great-granddaughter. He enjoys fishing and bowling, besides farming. He also describes himself as “a big NASCAR fan”.
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Okeene - 2008 Blaine County Ag Hall of Fame
Kenneth Slaght – has been farming for 58 years. He raises wheat, pasture, Love grass & crab grass for his commercial cow operation. Minimum tillage & terracing are used. He is a member of Okeene Church of God, He & his wife, Mildred, have been married since 1949. They have two daughters, Linda Taylor & Sandra Dahlem, and three grandchildren. Playing with grandkids is his favorite past-time. |
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Geary - 2008 Blaine County Ag Hall of Fame
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Kenneth Smith grows wheat, alfalfa, milo, soybeans & raises Angus & Angus Limousin Crossbreed cattle for his cow-calf herd. He also raised 400 to 600 stocker-feeders from 1960 to 1990 and grew cotton from 1959 – 1980. He has a program of worming & insecticide use, along with salt & minerals to maximize cattle production. He utilizes a wheat graze-out program followed by crab grass summer pasture. His wheat is grown with low-till practiced to avoid soil compaction & utilizes testing to maintain proper pH levels. Kenneth crosses Angus with Limousin Crossbreeds to increase weaning weights & gainability on stockers, and uses proven bulls for low birth weights & high weaning weight.He’s been a member of Farm Bureau, Farmers Coop, the American Angus Assn. & 4-H. He is active in Geary Fist Christian Church & a board member & past president of Calumet Farmers Coop. He has served as a Calumet school board member & president of Geary Athletic Boosters. He & his wife, Dixie, were married in 1959. Children include Kimberlee Kidwell, David & Darin Smith, and they have several grandchildren & a great grandson. Smith enjoys working with 4-H & FFA groups & helping his grandchildren with their show hogs, attending livestock shows & gardening.
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Frank & Virgil Murray Brothers started farming together in 1972. Their father gave them two John Deere Tractors & a herd of Hereford cows & said, “Here it is”. With 400 acres of wheat & 70 breeding cows they purchased another 80 acres of farm ground & with a lot of hard work & determination are still going today. They mostly raise wheat and the cow herd is mostly black. They do almost all the work except when they get family help at harvest.
Frank and his wife, Joann, live 5 miles southwest of Canton. Their children are Sandra Cavett and Mike Murray, both of Canton, and Billy Murray, Kingfisher. They have nine grandchildren. |
Canton - 2008 Blaine County Ag Hall of Fame
Virgil & his wife, Renee, live six miles southwest of Canton. They have two children, Kurt Murray, Perkins, and Kim Nault, Okeene. They have a grandson and three granddaughters. They report their granddaughters are a big help at harvest, driving the grain car and tractors to work the wheat ground. Their son & son-in-law drive the combines.
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Watonga - 2008 Blaine County Farmer/Rancher of the Year Chaze Cox - was born in Okeene & grew up in Watonga. In high school he was a state wrestling champion his senior year, second his junior year & third both his freshman & sophomore year. He & his wife, Kari, live on a farm in Watonga. He has been farming full-time for 10 years & also worked at McCrary Vet. Hosp. for 10 years, besides operating a hay-hauling business for several years. His farming-ranching operation consists of wheat, rye & Bermuda grass with crab grass for summer grazing. He uses a minimum-till grain drill to aid in his conservation practices of stubble mulch farming. The crab grass cover prevents wind erosion of soil as well as providing pasture for cattle.He is proud of his Angus cow herd & his low birth weight Angus bulls. He purchases stockers in the fall to run on wheat & rye pasture & supplement liquid feed. He limits stress on calves at weaning time with medicated feed. He has trimmed the trees in his pasture to help increase forage production and has replaced miles of fence to keep his cattle in & his neighbors happy. He enjoys hunting and fishing.
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Canton - 2008 Blaine County Farmer/Rancher of the Year William Hoffman – has been inducted into the Ag Hall of Fame in 2005. He was born on an Indian Reservation northwest of Canton & met his wife, LaVerle Kimbrel at the Canton skating rink. They were married in 1948. Hoffman raises wheat, hay & maintains a grassland to pasture his mixed-breed cow/calf herd. He said his values that he & his wife enjoy farming & ranching and are still able to work at it after some 60 years together. They attend the Christian Church. They have three children, Lanita, Jay & Todd & five grandchildren & six great-grandchildren. The Hoffmans enjoy camping, fishing & playing with their grandchildren. |
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Okeene - 2008 Blaine County Farmer/Rancher of the Year Robert Cannon grew up in Kingfisher but now farms in the Okeene area with his wife, Beverly. He raises wheat, alfalfa, Bermuda grass & raises Angus & Hereford Cattle, and pastures stockers. His memberships have included the National Hereford Assn & the Kingfisher Cattlemen’s Assn. He serves on the North Blaine Water Board & as an Okeene volunteer firefighter & belongs to the Kingfisher County Sportsman Assn. The Cannons take pride in having built their operation on their own. He tries to conserve his resources by planting grassland. In his spare time he enjoys hunting & fishing. Their children include Rick & Missy & three grandchildren.
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Geary - 2008 Blaine County Farmer/Rancher of the Year Lyndon Jameson – A forty-year farmer, was born in Okarche & went to school at Geary and now lives/farms in that area. He grows alfalfa, wheat crops and raises Angus Crossbreed & Limousin-Crossbreed cattle. A member of the National Wheat Growers Assn., he still implements new pratices to improve his farming methodology. Jameson plans to seed his 2009 wheat crop using no-till and also has started using GPS guidance & automated steering systems. He has been involved with Geary FFA, the Geary Community Fair & Geary First United Methodist Church. Jameson takes pride that his operation is “a second-generation farm that continues to expand.” We try to protect our farms by managing run-off & floodwater by building & maintaining ponds, terracing, spillways & waterways. We will also be using more no-till to protect against erosion. The Jamesons have three children, Summer Drumm, David Jameson & Afton Brower and two granddaughters. He enjoys mud-racing & spending time with his granddaughters. |
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Hitchcock - 2008 Blaine County Farmer/Rancher of the Year Cody Meier – was born in Okeene & graduated from Lomega High School and earned a degree in animal science from OSU in 1995. He and his wife, Lisa, married in 1996. They have three daughters, Hannah, Madylin & Chloe. Meier grew up engaged in his family’s farming operation. He now raises wheat & also had a Holstein dairy herd from 1996-2001. His farming career also has included raising milo, corn, soybeans & millet hay. His latest conservation measure is using GPS technology to conserve fertilizer & fuel. Contour farming also is utilized.He is a member of Farm Bureau, Sooner Coop and a past member of the Holstein Assn; a Hitchcock volunteer firefighter, and a member of Immanuel Baptist Church. He enjoys playing golf, family bike rides & attending his kids’ school functions.
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