More than 70 Oklahoma Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers gathered in Sulphur for the 2025 YF&R Summer Conference July 25-27.
Farm Bureau members ages 18-35 toured local agricultural facilities, heard from guest speakers and networked with fellow farmers and ranchers during the three-day event.
Jaclyn Darling welcomed the group Friday evening for dinner at the Southern Oklahoma Livestock Auction sale barn in Ada, where members heard from Robert York, CEO of National Livestock.
Saturday morning kicked off with John Kane, weapons of mass destruction coordinator for the Oklahoma Federal Bureau of Investigation, who visited with attendees about agroterrorism.
The tours began at Buchanan Family Pecan Farm near Ardmore, where members had the opportunity to tour the grounds while learning about the family’s business.
Members also had the opportunity to visit the Washita Valley Sod Farm where Keith and Mary White gave members a tour of the sod farm and showed the group their cattle herd with E-collars. Mary uses the E-Collars for rotational grazing with her cattle herd, with the E-collar she is able to set up a boundary for where she wants the cattle to graze instead of moving poly wire fence daily.
Members stopped for lunch at the Noble Research Institute, where they heard from Dr. Charles Rohla as he shared Noble’s work with the E-collars for cattle.
Members wrapped up the afternoon with a tour of Coffey Ranch from Chuck Coffey himself. Members learned about the ranching operation and how wind turbines on his property have impacted the usage of his ranch by having gravel roads throughout the ranch enabling the family to move around the ranch easier.
The day full of tours wrapped up at Doc’s Food Truck Park in Ada, where members played cornhole and listened to live music.
Eddie Wollenberg from SOLA led the group Sunday morning for a vespers service. Kinsey Westwood, OKFB senior director of public policy, wrapped up the morning by sharing with members recent legislative updates.
