Ambassador Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Angie Stump Denton, Beef Improvement Federation Communication Coordinator, angiedenton@ksu.edu or 785-562-6197

June 5, 2017

 

Ochsner Presented BIF Ambassador Award

ATHENS, Ga. — The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) presented Kevin Ochsner, Kersey, Colorado, the BIF Ambassador Award June 2 during the group’s annual meeting and symposium in Athens, Georgia. This award is given annually by BIF to a member of the media for his or her efforts in spreading the news of BIF and its principles to a larger audience.

Ochsner was raised on an irrigated farm and registered cattle operation near Fort Collins, Colorado. He attended Colorado State University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in agribusiness. During his undergraduate studies, Ochsner was a member of the CSU livestock judging team, earning high individual honors at the National Intercollegiate Livestock Judging Contest. He was actively involved in FFA, serving as a national FFA officer in 1987-1988. In 1997, Kevin earned his master’s degree in management from the Krannert School of Business at Purdue University.

He spent more than two decades working for the Indianapolis-based consulting firm Adayana Agribusiness Group Inc. before founding his own consulting practice, Agcellerate LLC. During the past 26 years, he has provided strategic planning, marketing consulting, sales/management training and keynote speaking services to some of the country’s largest animal health, crop protection, seed, feed and farm machinery companies and agricultural organizations.

“It’s difficult to measure the impact Kevin has had over the years behind the scenes, helping improve beef-related organizations, but that is not the primary reason he was nominated for this award,” said Josh White, BIF award committee chair and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) executive director of producer education. “The role Kevin is known best for began in 2009, when he mastered the teleprompter and became host of NCBA’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen TV show, seen weekly on RFD-TV. In his role as host, Kevin advocates for beef cattle improvement through 30 original shows each year reaching more than 540,000 unique viewers annually.”

Ochsner; his wife, Julie; and their three children, Caitlyn, Ashlyn and Collin, make their home in the small agricultural community of Kersey, Colorado, 60 miles northeast of Denver. Together they manage their herd of 125 registered Limousin and Lim-Flex cows and produce irrigated corn, alfalfa and grass hay along the South Platte River. In addition to marketing bulls to commercial cow-calf operations, Ochsner’s family also operates Ochsner Tenderlean Beef, a small branded-beef company that markets beef directly to consumers along the Front Range of Colorado.

More than 350 beef producers, academia and industry representatives were in attendance at BIF’s 49th annual convention. The organization’s mission is to help improve the industry by promoting greater acceptance of beef cattle performance evaluation.

For more information about this year’s symposium, including additional award winners and coverage of meeting and tours, visit www.BIFconference.com. For more information about BIF, visit www.BeefImprovement.org.

The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) is an organization dedicated to coordinating all segments of the beef industry — from researchers and producers to retailers — in an effort to improve the efficiency, profitability and sustainability of beef production. The organization was initiated almost 70 years ago to encourage the use of objective measurements to evaluate beef cattle. Continuing the tradition, BIF is now the clearinghouse for developing standardized programs and methodologies for recording of performance data for all traits, from birth weights to carcass traits. Its three-leaf-clover logo symbolizes the link between industry, extension and research.

Cutline:
Kevin Ochsner, Kersey, Colorado, was presented the Beef Improvement Federation Ambassador Award June 2 at the organization’s 49th annual convention in Athens, Georgia. Pictured are (from left) Marty Ropp, 2016-2017 BIF president; Kevin Ochsner; Josh White, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association executive director of producer education; and Donnell Brown, 2017-2018 BIF president.