5 minute read
TGS | Honorees Beyond the Spotlight
Dusty Burchfield and Guy Shoulders are named the 2025 Sirloin Club Show Honorees.
Dusty has spent the first two weeks of March every single year of his life at the Oklahoma Youth Expo. The first nine years were spent alongside his dad who was a vocational agriculture teacher and superintendent of his local school. After that, his time in Oklahoma City was spent showing sheep with his brother and sister. Burchfield even won the prestigious title of OYE Grand Champion Lamb in March of 1999.
Upon his high school graduation from Fairview High School, Burchfield headed to Oklahoma State University and began an audio-visual business, Burchfield Productions, that he founded in 2000. Burchfield Productions served as a side hustle during his time in Stillwater. It was during this time he began orchestrating what we now know today as the legendary OYE Grand Drive. Burchfield continued working on this passion project throughout his undergraduate career until he graduated from OSU with his Bachelor’s of Science in Agribusiness in 2004. He did not miss a beat when he transitioned to the professional world, still working diligently behind the scenes to perfect the well-known spectacle complete with lights, lasers, fire, and the trophy drop – all which aims to honor the years of hard work put in by the exhibitors, their parents, 4-H extension agents, and ag teachers at the conclusion of the Oklahoma Youth Expo each year.
Fast forward to today, Burchfield has made waves in the professional world. He founded Burchfield Commercial Realty in 2008 through which he has represented occupiers and investors as a commercial real estate broker. His clientele includes business owners, Fortune 500 companies, privately-held syndications and funds, large family offices, crypto-miners, and both in-state and out-of-state investors. Burchfield has closed over $100+ million in transactions and is a CoStar Power Broker.
Additionally, he is the CEO of BlockMesa, which invests in commercial real estate to yield returns for its investors. Burchfield also serves as Partner of RACK59 Data Center.
When he’s not active in his multiple work ventures, you are sure to find Burchfield involved with his local community. He has served for 10 years on the board of Autism Oklahoma with service as the Treasurer. Burchfield currently resides in Oklahoma City with his wife, Ande, and three kids: Dagny, Jane and Benjamin.
Amidst his busy professional and personal life, you will still find Burchfield present at every OYE, working zealously to continue bringing his vision of excellence and celebration to the Oklahoma Youth Expo and its exhibitors. The OYE team extends its greatest thanks for Burchfield’s steadfast commitment and of greatness for the Oklahoma Youth Expo.
Our second Honoree is Mr. Guy Shoulders. Guy Shoulders originally hails from northwestern Kansas, although his family eventually settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Each summer, he and his family returned to Kansas to help on his mother’s family farm, which is where he developed his profound love for animals and livestock shows.
In 4th grade, Shoulders moved to Collinsville, where Guy first began raising cattle. A $10 blind bottle calf which his father picked up at a local sale barn began what would become a lifelong passion for Shoulders and the beginning of a small cattle operation.
By the time he reached high school, Shoulders had joined the FFA and got his first show calf, a polled Hereford heifer, which led him to participate in the Oklahoma State Spring Livestock Show in the 1980s. Shoulders said he will never forget the thrill of showing his calf in the same arena where his father once coached a state basketball championship and where legendary rodeo moments took place.
After high school, Shoulders began studying Agricultural Education. He did his student teaching in Guthrie in 1985, working alongside dedicated educators and witnessing the Sale of Champions at the Spring Livestock Show for the very first time. Upon graduating, he taught for three years in Ralston, then moved to Oilton, where he spent the next 17 years of his teaching career. During that time, he brought many students to the Oklahoma Youth Expo, where they experienced success with goats and swine.
In 2005, Shoulders transitioned to become Oklahoma CareerTech’s Northeast Area Program Specialist for Agricultural Education. Rose Bonjour “asked” him to join OYE’s swine committee, where he worked with a dedicated team for the next 16 years. Taking on everything from arena set-up and redesign, penning assignments, to scale cleaning and calibration – Shoulders and the swine committee were committed to enhancing the exhibitor experience from start to finish. Together, they made numerous improvements that prioritized youth participants and the integrity of the show.
After his CareerTech tenure, he served as the Agricultural Education Program Consultant and State FFA Advisor for the Kansas Department of Education for three years. Although he was working in Kansas, Shoulders remained connected to OYE, this time as a grandparent cheering on the next generation.
Now back in Oklahoma, Shoulders is serving as an Ag Ed Instructor and FFA Advisor in Cleveland. This spring, he will be returning to OYE as a teacher, experiencing the event anew after nearly two decades away.
Without the support of his wife Leslie, his daughters Sage and Sierra, and other family and friends, Shoulders said he could not have been so involved in OYE.
The Oklahoma Youth Expo is grateful for the years of service Shoulders dedicated to OYE exhibitors. It is volunteers like Shoulders who make OYE truly ‘The Greatest Show!’
