Pete Atkins, Tea, South Dakota, was announced as the new president of the American Hereford Association during the recent Annual Meeting and Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.
Atkins and his wife, Laura, and three sons, Scott, Craig and Paul, own and operate Atkins Herefords, Tea, South Dakota. Pete was raised on a diversified cattle, hog and crop farming operation in southeastern South Dakota, where he and his family live today.
The Atkins family started collecting and reporting performance data in 1975 and have used artificial insemination since the late 1970s and embryo transfer for the past 10 years. Atkins Herefords’ goal is to produce high-performing cattle with moderate birth weights that have eye appeal and will work for the commercial cattleman.
Emphasis is placed on raising sound, trouble-free cattle, and udder quality in the cow herd is stressed heavily. Pete thinks it is important to use a balance of all tools available when selecting breeding stock. Today, Atkins Herefords consists of a base herd of 25 registered cows, and it produces an additional 20 to 50 ET calves each year.
Together with their good friends and partners, the Jerry Delaney family, the Atkins’ market bulls through a bull sale each year, and host an online female sale each fall. Atkins Herefords consigns bulls and females to the Mile High Night Sale and exhibits carloads of bulls and pens of heifers with the Delaneys each year in Denver.
“The Hereford breed is made up of great cattle and great people. We have tremendous momentum in the breed right now and I look forward to working together with the staff and board to continue the momentum and expand Hereford influence across the beef industry,” Atkins says. “I am truly humbled and honored to have the opportunity to serve this great breed and look forward to the coming year.”
Birdwell selected vice president
Selected to serve as the 2019 vice president was Joel Birdwell. Joel and his wife, Bridget, and three sons, Jarret, Judson and Jhett, currently reside in Kingfisher, Oklahoma.
Birdwell grew up on a ranch in southwest Oklahoma, where his family homesteaded over 115 years ago. In 2002 Joel and Bridget moved to Kingfisher to help expand Bridget’s family’s farming and cattle operation.
They run approximately 2,000 head of stocker cattle annually. They also have more than 400 commercial cows and utilize a three-breed cross breeding rotation of Hereford, Angus and Charolais genetics. The family’s focus is to raise bulls and females that excel in economically important traits.
