ASA Board of Directors Intent to Run

- Fellow Shorthorn Breeders: I am Rick Osterday, 4th generation to run Shorthorn cattle on the rolling prairie near Java, South Dakota. My wife Sandy and I own Stangl Shorthorns and are blessed to have our 2 sons and their wives involved in our farming and ranching operation.

I have always believed in membership stepping up and being involved in their organization and have done so as a past director of South Dakota Shorthorn Ass’n, South Dakota Cattlemen’s Ass’n, South Dakota Beef Breeds Council, our church and local fire district. I’ve also served for 27 years as a director of our local agricultural cooperative with 18 of those as board president.

I would be honored to be elected to the ASA board and will do my best to serve its members while making sure the great Shorthorn breed is relevant for the next 150 years.

Lee Miller - For the past three years, I have been honored to serve as a member of your ASA Board of Directors. It has been a great opportunity to build meaningful relationships with a passionate and diverse group of breeders that serve the members of this association.

I am located in Millersburg, OH where my family and I operate Paint Valley Farms, a purebred Shorthorn operation with an emphasis on functional production traits. At Paint Valley Farms we host the Maternal Event sale each December along with the Byers and Beckler families. We also host a bull sale each spring where we offer Shorthorn bulls to seed stock and commercial cattlemen. With the progress this breed has made, we have seen an increase in demand for Shorthorn genetics from all sectors of the cattle industry.

I also am involved in a multi-generational manufacturing business, where we manufacture and distribute replacement parts for heavy equipment in a North American market. For the past two years, global supply chain challenges have greatly impacted normal business patterns for many companies in our industry. While this has created hardship and turbulence for many, it has also created opportunity for others. One of those opportunities has been for domestic manufacturing, which is already on the rise in parts of the United States. Companies who were prepared to capitalize on opportunities during uncertainty have grown and flourished.

I believe that the Shorthorn breed is positioned to capitalize on the opportunities available in the modern cattle industry. As challenges arise in America’s cow herd, we are uniquely positioned to help solve some of these challenges. We have opportunity due to our breed’s maternal and carcass (marbling) strengths that can add profit for progressive cattlemen and women. Investments made in forward-thinking programs today impact the success of our future generations of Shorthorn breeders. There is no time like now to take action and move this breed forward!

I would welcome the opportunity to serve another three year term as a director of ASA.

- Born and raised in Baytown, Texas where I first started showing livestock through 4H then FFA at Robert E. Lee High School.

Started with a hog, chickens and then found my first Shorthorn heifer, thanks to my Grandma, when I was 12 years old. When I entered her in my county livestock show I was told she was not a registered breed of cattle. That was my first “fight” in the livestock business because I researched and wrote a dissertation of the Shorthorn breed and how they influenced many of the breeds found in the US today, giving specific references. My heifer was accepted in the show!

After high school, I attended Texas A&M University graduating with a Doctor of Veterinarian Medicine in 1975. Starting my veterinary practice, a family and relocating to Cypress, Texas consumed all of my time, so my cattle business was put on the back burner for a while. Then, when my daughter showed a Shorthorn steer in the Tomball High School progress show, my interest and love of the Shorthorn breed was born again and has continued to grow!

I started buying my first few Shorthorns in 1998, however, after my marriage to Barbara in 2001, our herd grew exponentially because of her love of the red, white and roan heifers. We became involved with WHR Shorthorns and our current donor cows are a result that relationship.

I have served on the Texas Shorthorn Association BOD, as vice president and president and currently as VP again.

I was elected for my first term to the ASA BOD in 2019 and now running for my second term.

I recently sold my veterinary practice and retired in 2021, although retirement was not really in my vocabulary and so my Shorthorn cows have now become my current job!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the membership for allowing me to be involved this extensively in the Shorthorn breed. It has really been one of the most enjoyable things I have been involved in and I attribute that to the cohesive group of men and women that have made up the board in my tenure. =