FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For a high-resolution photo of the winner, click here (will activate link when photo is available).
For more information contact:
Joe Cassady, executive director, Beef Improvement Federation, North Carolina State University; 919-513-0262; www.BIFconference.com; www.beefimprovement.org
Sally Buxkemper Honored with
BIF Pioneer Award
HOUSTON, Texas (April 20, 2012) — The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) honored Sarah (Sally) Buxkemper with the Pioneer Award during the organization's 44th annual meeting and research symposium in Houston, Texas, April 18-21. The award recognizes individuals who have made lasting contributions to the improvement of beef cattle, honoring those who have had a major role in acceptance of performance reporting and documentation as the primary means to make genetic change in beef cattle.
Buxkemper, owner of RX Simbrah, has been in the cattle business for more than 50 years. Her ranch is located on the Colorado River in Runnels County, Texas, between Ballinger and Rowena.
In 1959, Buxkemper took a two-week course to learn how to administer artificial insemination (AI) during a time when it was common for breeders to hire others to do the task. The American Breeders Service hired Buxkemper and her husband as foreign representatives, and they moved to Mexico.
When she moved to Runnels County in 1960, she decided to cross the Brahman bulls her brother, Boots Kubela, raised with the Hereford cows her grandmother, Lucy Kuhn raised. "Most neighbors thought I was crazy," she says, "but County Ag Agent C.T. Parker loved the results." From that point forward Sally has developed a business of breeding Simmental, Simbrah and SimAngus composite seedstock.
Her passion for agriculture is evident through her work in refining cattle pedigrees. She aided in the development of a new breed of cattle, the Simbrah, combining Simmental with Brahman, which is resistant to the ailments of its ancestors.
Working in a male-dominated field, Buxkemper's career has been anything but mediocre. She was one of the few women to graduate with an animal husbandry degree from Oklahoma State University, and was the first woman to be trained by the American Breeders Service as an AI technician. She has been an early proponent and adopter of genomic technology. In 2009, Sally received the prestigious World Simmental Flechvieh Federation (WSFF) Golden Book Award for her work in Simmental and particularly Simbrah breed promotion, both domestically and internationally.
Buxkemper lives in Ballinger, Texas, where she maintains the RX Ranch, managing approximately 150 cows and heifers, and continuing her lifelong goal to improve the herd and sell product worldwide. In addition to ranching, she has interests in a feedmill, real estate development, and oil and gas production. Sally has been a speaker at several seminars and workshops, including the SIMSeminar and the TAMU Beef Cattle Short Course.
She was presented the BIF Pioneer Award at a luncheon Friday, April 20, in Houston.
For more information about this year's symposium, including additional award winners and coverage of the meeting and tours, visit www.BIFconference.com. For more information about the BIF organization, visit www.beefimprovement.org.
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Editor's Note: This article is provided as a news release by the Beef Improvement Federation. For a high-resolution photo of the winner, additional award announcements and coverage of the meeting, visit the Awards page at www.BIFconference.com.
The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) was formed more than 40 years ago as a means to standardize beef cattle performance programs and methodologies and to create greater awareness, acceptance and usage of these concepts of genetic improvement. BIF represents more than 40 state and national beef cattle associations. For more details about the BIF organization, contact Executive Director Joe Cassady at 919-513-0262.
