The 39th Annual Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association Ranch Rodeo is coming up on August 18 & 19 at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma. 12 historic Oklahoma ranch teams will compete in the rodeo in six different events comprised of work that makes up day-to-day ranch jobs.
Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, talks with Executive Vice President of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association, Michael Kelsey, about the event.
“We are just so excited about this event and the legacy that it shows,” Kelsey said.
The Annual OCA Ranch Rodeo is not only a comradery between Oklahoma ranchers and working cowboys, Kelsey said, but it is a great benefit event for the Children’s Hospital Foundation.
“We have been blessed over the about 19, almost 20 years, that we have been working with them to exceed 635,000 dollars that we have raised for the Children’s Hospital Foundation,” Kelsey said. “Cowboys Helping Kids. That is what this is all about. The competition is intense, but it is really about that opportunity to help out such a great resource here in the state of Oklahoma, and that is the Children’s Hospital Foundation.”
Kelsey also talked about a new spin on the ranch rodeo involving the order of teams to run in the last event.
“Saturday night, the last event is the wild cow milking,” Kelsey said. “Normally, the way we run the order of ranches in the event is an alphabetical process. On Friday, we go A to Z, and then on Saturday, we flip it and go Z to A, and then we kind of just snake, rotate, through the events.”
This year, in the Saturday wild cow milking, Kelsey said the teams will be up in the order they currently sit in placing. The 12th-place team will be the first to run, Kelsey said, and the last team to run will be the first-place team.
“We think it is going to add a spark of competition, and excitement,” Kelsey said. “Last year, we had the biggest crowd ever. This year, our ticket sales are already outpacing last year. We are just anticipating a lot of fun, a lot of intensity.”
On Saturday, before the second ranch rodeo performance, there will be an OCA Ranch Horse Competition and a LongRange Kids Dummy Roping contest.
“Then, we go to the children’s rodeo, which we have some of the Miracle Kids come in from the Children’s Hospital, and that is the first time some of them have seen a horse,” Kelsey said. “To see their eyes and their expressions as they climb onto a horse, or they hold a branding iron and paint brand a piece of paper just like a cowboy… it just makes the day for them.”
For those who cannot attend the event in person and would like to donate to the Children’s Hospital Foundation, donations can also be made online at https://www.okcattlemen.org/oca-annual-ranch-rodeo#donate.
Aside from the two rodeo performances, the event also hosts a trade show made up of over 50 vendors, with something for everyone!
“It is just a really good, fun event that emphasizes legacy, emphasizing our ranching heritage, and is also a great opportunity to help the Children’s Hospital, and it is just an honor to be able to do it,” Kelsey said.
For ticket info, CLICK HERE.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
