John H. Pfeiffer Jr., a fourth-generation Oklahoma farmer and rancher, has been awarded the 2025 recipient of Governor Stitt’s Outstanding Achievement in Agriculture Award and is the 28th inductee into the Oklahoma Agriculture Hall of Fame. Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays caught up with Pfeiffer to hear his story, which was featured in Tuesday’s BeefBuzz. Yesterday, they discussed the time Pfeiffer spent serving on the American Angus Association’s Board of Directors. Today, the heart of the topic is Pfeiffer’s vision for the future of the cattle industry.
Together with his wife, Gaye, Pfeiffer owns and operates Pfeiffer Angus Farms, a purebred Angus cattle operation. Their participation in a 1981 CAB workshop shifted their focus from show-based to performance-based breeding, with Pfeiffer leading advancements in technology like in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. He is also a former president of the American Angus Association.
Pfeiffer’s vision for the future of the cattle industry is to move further from commodity cattle. He explained, “I think the next step is – and we are beginning to see it already – we’re not going to have just regular commodity products anymore, we’re going to have specialized beef products, like Certified Angus Beef.”
He added that this is already being done in the soybean industry and will soon be seen in wheat production. “If you want to play in agriculture, and you want to be profitable, you are going to have to do some of these other things,” he said. “I think the days of commodity beef and commodity crops are fast disappearing – if you are going to be profitable.”
According to Pfeiffer, it is going to come down the which cattle have more disease resistance so that there are fewer instances of shipping fever, pneumonia, and similar illnesses.
“We’ve all known it for years,” he said. “We can tell when we bring in a set of calves, there are a few of them that always get sick, and some that don’t ever get sick. If we trace that through, and with gene-editing, we’re probably going to be able to move those traits a lot quicker. The problem that comes with the cattle business, especially the registered cattle business, is whether that is still the same kind of registered animal. That is the problem that the board is dealing with.”
He detailed how moving genes, for example, from a Red Angus bull to a Black Angus bull raises questions of purity and also consumer acceptance.
“We can do a lot of things scientifically, but I’m not sure society is ready to accept it, yet,” Pfeiffer commented.
Switching subjects, Pfeiffer shared a story about how his friend, the late Jarold Callahan, President of Express Ranches at the time of his death, with whom he judged livestock at Oklahoma State University, helped him get on the American Angus Association Board of Directors.
Setting the stage, Pfeiffer explained that he had been working with the Farm Bureau and was set up to become an officer in the Cattlemen’s Association or with Farm Bureau, when he received a call from Callahan. After the two had spoken for a while, the conversation went something like this:
Callahan: “We want you to run for the board, John.”
Pfeiffer: “Those people really know how to breed cattle. I don’t think I’m smart enough to be on the American Angus Association Board.”
Callahan: “Well, think about it.”
Pfeiffer: “How soon do you need to know?”
Callahan: “You need to let me know in three or four days.”
Pfeiffer raised the topic with Gaye, and they discussed the opportunities and time requirements of serving. “One of the things that Gaye and I both believe is that if you are going to be on a board, you have to be totally involved,” he said. “You have to commit everything to it, so I told Jarold that I would, but I also told him that I still wasn’t sure that I was smart enough to be on the board, and I didn’t think I could get elected.”
Callahan assured him that he would get elected and would be good for the job. He was correct, and Pfeiffer was elected.
Five years later, Callahan was upset because Pfeiffer, along with the board, had decided to include the Combined Value ($C) Index. “He’s taking me to task one day, asking me if I had asked all of these questions and this and that, and it had been going on about fifteen minutes. Finally, he took a break, which doesn’t happen very often, and I looked at him and said, ‘Do you remember when I told you I’d run for the board?’ He says, ‘Yep!’ I said, ‘Do you remember when I told you that I wasn’t sure I was smart enough to be on the board?’ He says, ‘Well, yeah, I remember that.’ I said, ‘Well, now you know I wasn’t smart enough to be on the board!’” Pfeiffer shared with a laugh. “He just gave up and quit railing me!”
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.
