Wabaunsee County rancher Barb Downey of Wamego moved up to president of the Kansas Livestock Association during the group’s annual business meeting recently in Wichita. Members chose Harry Moser, a cow-calf producer from Wheaton, as the new KLA president elect. Downey and Moser will lead the 5,500-member organization during the next year.
Downey represents the fourth generation of her family in the ranching business. She and her late father, Joe Downey, started Downey Ranch in 1986. Downey and her husband, Joe Carpenter, operate the ranch, which consists of a registered Angus and commercial Angus-based cowherd that grazes pastures in Wabaunsee and Riley counties. The cattle are marketed as seedstock through a joint production sale with Kniebel Cattle Company of White City or finished and sold through U.S. Premium Beef, of which they are founding stockholders and qualified seedstock suppliers. Downey Ranch was named Beef Improvement Federation Commercial Producer of the Year in 2010.
She has been extensively involved in leadership with both KLA and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Moser and his family own a seedstock and commercial cow-calf enterprise in Marshall and Pottawatomie counties. Seedstock is merchandized by private treaty, with steers finished on the ranch and sold through a niche market. The cattle graze primarily on native Flint Hills pastures. All the feed for the cattle is grown on the ranch.
Moser Ranch won the BIF Seedstock Producer of the Year award in 2003. The ranch was selected as Outstanding Stockman for 2012 by the Kansas State University Block and Bridle Club.
He is a second-generation cattle producer. His parents, LaVerne and Elaine Moser, still live on the ranch they purchased in 1958 near Elgin, North Dakota, where Harry grew up. The third and fourth generations of Mosers are living and working on the Kansas ranch. Moser, his wife Lisa, son Cameron and his wife Carrie, are involved in the day-to-day ranch operations. Daughter Kendra Michaelis is the office manager at the Pottawatomie County Noxious Weed Department, and her husband, Rex, works off the ranch. Daughter Kayla Josefiak and her husband, Ty, farm and ranch in Pawnee County. Harry and Lisa Moser have eight grandchildren.
Moser is a past chairman of both the KLA Stockgrowers Council and KLA Membership Committee. He has served on the KLA Executive Committee and is a member of the KLA Board of Directors. Moser, a graduate of the KLA Leadership Conference, is vice chairman of the KLA Policy & Resolutions Committee. He has represented KLA on the NCBA Board of Directors. He is a past chairman of the board of the American Simmental Association and previously has served on the BIF Board of Directors. Moser also has served as president of the Kansas Simmental Association.
KLA is a 5,600-member trade organization representing the state’s livestock business on legislative, regulatory and industry issues at both the state and federal levels. The association’s work is funded through voluntary dues dollars paid by its members.
