Farm Director, KC Sheperd, caught up with the president of the Oklahoma CattleWomen’s Association, Cheyenne Sparks, and talked about the upcoming WIRED event and about her participation in the Cowgirl 30 Under 30 weekend.
“It (Cowgirl 30 Under 30 Weekend) was absolutely a humbling experience because I could not fathom, number one, the honor of being chosen for this award, you know, being put up on stage with 29 other fantastic women in the western industry was humbling and so honoring, and I have no words for how much I felt doted on,” Sparks said. “They really spoiled us with their sponsors. It was incredible.”
Sparks said Cowgirl Magazine chooses 30 women from across the western industry under the age of 30 to honor each year.
“I was so thankful to be in the 2023 class, and of course, I made sure to give my CattleWomen a shout out when I got up on stage because I know that I would not have been up there had it not have been for all the work that I’ve been privileged to be able to do for the CattleWomen,” Sparks said.
Regarding the upcoming WIRED event, Sparks said women from all backgrounds in Oklahoma and outside states are welcome.
“These aren’t just ranchers,” Sparks said. “These are women that have either grown up in ranching or haven’t. They’re consumers, everybody that came is just someone that loves the beef industry loves learning and knows that WIRED is definitely the place to get that knowledge.”
The Oklahoma WIRED event, Sparks said, is set to take place on Saturday, May 6.
“It’s actually going to be the day after our region meeting which is going to take place in the stockyards at the Cattlemen’s Steak House Special Events Center on Friday,” Sparks said.
The region meeting, Sparks said, is welcome to everyone, and will include a variety of speakers, door prizes, a steak lunch, stockyards tour and a riverboat tour.
“So don’t discount Friday because it’s on the website as well,” Sparks said. “You definitely want to give a look at that. But WIRED is going to kick off on Saturday, May 6, and it’s going to be bright and early.”
Check-in for the WIRED event starts at 7:30a.m., Sparks said, and the event begins at 8 a.m.
“We are going to be doing some hands-on stuff,” Sparks said. “We are going to be learning chute behaviors and how to utilize Molly Manufacturing chutes, they are one of our sponsors. I love having them come in bring these materials in for our women to learn hands-on. We’re also going to have PNK equipment there. They’re bringing out big technology. They’re bringing out machines that we want to learn on. They’re going to talk to us about how to utilize those machines, and how to utilize them safely.”
Oklahoma State University State Extension Beef Veterinarian, Rosslyn Biggs will also be at the event, Sparks said, helping with the presentation.
“All of these hands on things are going to be happening that morning, and then we’re going to go over to lunch, and that’s going to happen at Growing Pains, because this is all taking place at Kelly Payne who was the first woman president of the Oklahoma National Stockyards,” Sparks said. “This is all happening at her place out there and Mustang. And so, we’re going to head over to Growing Pains for a delicious lunch.”
Oklahoma Farm Report Farm Director KC Sheperd will also be helping with the event to speak about media training for agriculture.
The morning will be more of the hands-on activities, Sparks said, then after lunch there will be speakers.
“They’re going to give us some presentations on things like diversifying your operation,” Sparks said. “We’re also going to learn how to do things that are going to make it to where our operations are withstanding even in those tough months, kind of like right now when things are getting down to the nitty gritty and we’re really needing to uplift our ranchers and support them with those extra jobs. This is going to be the same way here. We’re going to be giving everybody knowledge on how, yes, to work hard on the ranch, but also how to keep your ranch sustainable through those hard times.”
To register for the WIRED event, click here.
“You can register for just the region event which is on Friday and all those events I mentioned,” Sparks said. “ You can register just for WIRED for the Saturday event and all those things that we talked about, or you can do a combination and you can do the whole weekend, which I highly suggest because it’s all going to play into each other and you want to stick around for everything you’re going to learn because this is truly going to uplift you as a cattlewomen, you as a cattle rancher, you as a producer, as a consumer, it is going to truly give you this feeling of confidence in yourself when it comes to how you ranch.”
