Secretary’s Corner Fellow Angus Breeders, I will be enjoying several bittersweet moments
in the coming weeks as I perform my final tasks for the Ohio Angus Association, this being one of them as my final column and final directory as editor. As I reflect back over the last 5 years, it has been an amazing journey that has created many great memories, and even greater friendships within the Angus circles in Ohio and beyond. When I began as the Secretary/fieldman, I was a county extension agent in Fairfield County, single, living in a room at my brother’s bachelor pad in a suburban housing development! While I enjoyed the county, the work, and the people, I longed to be back on a farm, of my own, with a family of my own. Little did I know that one of my regular clients at the Extension office, whose kids I watched grow and mature through 4-H, and who became a great friend, would soon be my new boss, as Doug Majors took the reigns as President just as I began as Secretary. My acceptance of the Ohio Angus position was the first step in realizing the aforementioned dream - giving me at least part time work so I could move home to the family farm, expand my cow herd and role in the family grain and hay operation, and start a family of my own. Susie and I were married that same year, and I found additional work as an Organization Director for the Ohio Farm Bureau. The time flew by quickly as I learned a whole new set of computer skills that are still evolving, learned every back road in Ohio, and somehow even found, near the end of the rainbow and way past where the sidewalk ends and cell phones work, places like Ridgeview Angus, Pine Hill Farm, Bidwell OH, and a mile long lane to nowhere at Claylick Run Farm where I called many nights home in my camper during sale (hunting) season! (Thanks Dave!) At those places and many more I found not only great cattle, but great people, and came to realize what a great asset Ohio and its breeders are to the purebred industry and Angus business. Susie will certainly attest to that statement as well, making a few friends of her own along the way and listening to me swap household stories and make friends over the phone in my almost daily conversations with each of our Presidents along the way - John, Doug, Bob, and Dave. Not long after some of those on-the-road discoveries, I had news for those frequent conversations as Susie and I made a discovery of our own - parenthood! Our hopes and prayers for a family were answered three times at once and here I am today, turning the reigns of a great team and organization over so I can spend more time with my 3 new conversationalists - Lilly, Addison, and Griffin. It has been a lot of fun, a pleasure serving the Ohio Angus members, and, I have enjoyed working with newly hired Secretary, Dan Wells, through the transition in February and March. The board has hired a very capable, hardworking, and knowledgeable individual I now look forward to watching Dan further evolve this job and utilize his well-polished skill set to lead the organization and its members into a very bright future for the Angus business in Ohio. I also look forward to keeping the many friends I’ve made as my family operation continues to raise, show, and market Angus cattle. Speaking of marketing cattle, demand looks to be great, please be sure to mark your calendars for our newly formed “Best of Both Worlds” sale to be held November 17 at Claylick Run Sale Facility in Newark, and either consign a few head or show up to buy a few and support this exciting joint venture between the Ohio Angus Association and the Ohio Simmental Association! Sincerely, Executive Secretary/Fieldman 73