Over 500 cattle producers are gathering in downtown Oklahoma City through Tuesday for the 2026 Texas Cattle Feeders Association Annual Convention. Among those who will be speaking to the cattlemen are Laphe Laroe, TCFA Chairman, Hunter Ihrman, NCBA’s Executive Director for Strategic Engagement and Dr. Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State Extension Specialist for Livestock Marketing.
Oklahoma Farm Report’s Ron Hays caught up with Scott Anderson from Guymon, who currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Policy Committee for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Anderson, a past Chairman of TCFA, emphasized that TCFA’s footprint extends well past the Texas Panhandle, offering critical operational resources across western Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico. (Listen to Hays and Anderson by clicking on the Listen Bar above)
“Here in the High Plains, there’s a big concentration of feed yards… and one of TCFA’s values is the fact that they not only concentrate on the Texas Panhandle and other production areas, but also reach over into Oklahoma and New Mexico as well.” While legislative and regulatory advocacy remain central to the association’s mission, Anderson noted that the day-to-day technical assistance delivers immediate value to individual yards.
“They provide services that our individual feed yards would have a hard time providing on their own to the level of quality that TCFA’s trained staff can provide us,” Anderson explained. “Not only the things that they do to help us from a policy standpoint, but environmental services and safety training for our employees—all those things add up to helping us on each step of what we try to do every day.”
Mexican Feeder Cattle Relieve Inventory Strain
A pivotal development for regional feeding operations is the renewed flow of feeder cattle across the southern border. Following nearly two years of disruptions, cattle shipments across the Rio Grande into New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma feedlots are finally resuming.
“It’s long due time,” Anderson said of the crossing progress. “It’s been almost a two-year deal, and we’re finally getting some crossing on a routine basis in two of the ports now, and things are going smoothly. We have a very, very good pre-shipment protocol to make sure that those cattle are coming across without any issues with the New World Screwworm flies, and [we are] excited to finally have the wheels turning.”
With domestic cattle inventories at historic lows, the arrival of Mexican feeders provides much-needed volume to High Plains bunks. Anderson added that genetic investments on both sides of the border continue to pay dividends in feedlot performance.
“At the levels that we’re at today, we need the support,” Anderson stated. “The quality of those animals coming across improves every year. We trade a lot of genetics across both borders… the quality of the product coming across will help us here on this side.”
Front-Line Biosecurity Collaboration
Maintaining border flows safely requires stringent biosecurity, especially amidst ongoing surveillance for New World screwworm. Anderson credited TCFA’s proactive coordination with state and federal agencies—including the USDA and the Texas Animal Health Commission—for safeguarding herd health while keeping trade corridors open.
“They and some other associations have been in the forefront of all of this, trying to make it go,” Anderson said. “They have phenomenal relationships with all these other organizations, USDA included. They have been most helpful in all of this.”
