Kansas Livestock Association members elected Jerry Kuckelman, a cattle feeder from Manhattan, as president during the group’s annual business meeting recently. The membership chose Oskaloosa rancher Phil Perry as KLA president-elect. Kuckelman and Perry will lead the 5,700-member organization during the next year.
Kuckelman is the president and chief executive officer of Innovative Livestock Services, which consists of eight feedyards in central Kansas and south central Nebraska and an extensive farming operation. He began his career as a cattle buyer for IBP, then transitioned into feedyard management where he spent 27 years, with most of that time as manager of Fairleigh Feed Yard in Scott City. Kuckelman joined ILS in early 2011 as chief operating officer.
He and his wife, Linda, have three grown daughters, including Jill Miller and her husband, Justin; Amber Reynolds and her husband, Jake; and Kelsey Hess and her husband, Tyler. The Millers welcomed the family’s first grandson, Parker, in February.
Kuckelman serves on the KLA Executive Committee and KLA Board of Directors. He is a member of the KLA Risk Management Services Safety Committee and was chairman of the KLA Cattle Feeders Council in 2017. He also represents KLA on the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Board of Directors. In addition to his service to KLA and NCBA, he currently is a member of the Livestock and Meat Industry Council.
Perry has been involved in the cattle industry for more than 40 years. He and his wife, Rhonda, own a cow-calf operation and custom preconditioning business and currently reside on land that has been in his family for six generations. They have two grown children, Nickie and Nathan, and 11 grandchildren. Nickie, her husband, Gary Johnson, and their five children live in Overland Park. Nathan, his wife, Lynn, and their six children live near Oskaloosa.
Perry currently serves on the KLA Board of Directors and the Jefferson County KLA Committee. He was chairman of the KLA Stockgrowers Council in 2014. Additionally, he is a member of the Kansas Beef Council Executive Committee and represents Kansas on the Cattlemen’s Beef Board.
