Cameron to Host 24th Annual Beef Cattle Improvement Conference

Cameron University’s Department of Agriculture will host the 24th Annual Beef Cattle Improvement Conference, featuring keynote speaker Jim Whitt on Thursday, November 17. The conference will also include exhibits pertinent to the beef cattle industry. The event starts at 6 p.m. in the McCasland Ballroom of the McMahon Centennial Complex on the CU campus. There is no charge to attend. For more information, call the Cameron University Department of Agriculture at 581-2275.

Armed with a degree in animal science and a healthy dose of humor, Whitt uses his cowboy background to engage and entertain the audience. The result is a tangible demonstration of how the power of purpose empowers the human spirit and enables us to rise above our animal natures to fulfill our own unique potential.

Whitt will focus on leadership with his presentation, “Riding for the Brand: The Power of Purposeful Leadership.” Whitt explains that in the old west, a brand not only identified a ranch's cattle, it was a symbol of pride and loyalty for all its cowboys - they rode for the brand. He asserts that people today want more from their work than a paycheck - they want to be partners in a cause. Like cowboys of yesteryear, they want to ride for the brand. He will address how leaders and organizations are transformed through “The Power of Purposeful Leadership.”

For more than 20 years, Whitt – a self-proclaimed “people provoker” - has inspired people and organizations to reach their full potential. A native Oklahoman who grew up in the cattle business, he spent more than a decade in sales and marketing with two Fortune 500 companies. During his sales career at Ralston Purina in the High Plains region of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, Whitt was a top 20 producer in a sales force of 500; his customers included some of the largest commercial cattle feeding operations in the world. As national cattle product marketing manager with Central Soya, his product group had the largest percentage increase of all product groups in the company over two years.

The conference will include exhibits by event sponsors Phil Perryman, ABS Global, Apache; Ag Preference ACA, Altus; Apache Farmers Co-op, Apache, Elgin, Ft. Cobb, Chickasha; Co-op Services Inc./Nutrena, Lawton. Chattanooga, Grandfield; Comanche County Farm Bureau, Lawton; Farm Credit of Central Oklahoma, Anadarko; Farmers Co-op Association, Snyder; Frazier Meats, Indiahoma; Darren Baker, IVESCO LLC, Mt. Park; L & L Farm & Tire Supply, Chattanooga; Livestock Nutrition Center, Chickasha; Spencer Brothers Feed & Supply/Stillwater Milling, Lawton; and Stockman-Oklahoma Livestock Marketing Inc., Apache.