Jan Lyons selected for the National Golden Spur Award
The 47th National Golden Spur Award will be awarded to Jan Lyons of Manhattan, Kansas. Lyons, and her husband, Frank, own Lyons Angus Ranch, located in the Flint Hills of Kansas.
According to the Golden Spur Honors website, “The National Golden Spur Award is presented in recognition of exceptional accomplishments by an individual. Established in 1978, the award has been conferred upon iconic industry leaders whose unparalleled devotion to land and livestock has earned them notable respect and admiration from their peers. The award also emphasizes the humanistic, scientific and technological contributions of the ranching and livestock industries to society.”
The American Quarter Horse Association, National Cattlemen’s Foundation, Ranching Heritage Association, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, Texas Cattle Feeders Association, and Texas Farm Bureau sponsor the accolade.
“When I got notification that I had received an award, I was surprised and very humbled, because I’ve worked with a lot of the people who have received the award and the past,” Lyons said. “I admire them greatly, and I know it’s a very unique award, and I’m very honored to have been selected to receive it.”
Lyons will be honored at the National Golden Spur Awards Honors at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center in Lubbock, Texas, on Oct. 4.
A lifetime of dedication to livestock
Lyons grew up on a farm and Angus operation in Ohio, and developed a passion for cattle, that has been sustained throughout her life.
“I was a strong 4-Her and very involved on the family farm,” Lyons said. “In fact, I was able to help put myself through college with some of the steers I sold through 4-H.”
In the 1970s, the Lyons ranch was established in Kansas with registered and commercial cattle, with some of the females originating from Lyons’ father’s herd. Eventually she began selling registered bulls and in 1988, they held their first production sale, which has continued every February.
However, Lyons was not only involved in the operation; starting in the early 1980s she started stepping up to leadership positions in the state and across the nation. Some of her most prominent leadership roles include the first woman president of both the Kansas Livestock Association and the Kansas Angus Association; chair of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board in 1996 and president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association in 2004.
“We started our ranch in Manhattan in 1977 and I got involved in industry issues because I felt like it was important to be knowledgeable and to do what I could to help speak up for all those people who were working every day—farmers and ranchers,” Lyons said. “What I’ve experienced all across the country, and especially what I’ve seen In Kansas and this part of the country, is dedication. These people want to do the right thing, and they need people to speak up. I thought, ‘I have time for that. I’ll make time for that.’
“It was a natural step for me, and I was very privileged to have been selected to be part of these teams, and just doing my part the best that I could to make sure that the industry stayed viable and that we were able to increase demand for our product. If we’re able to build demand for the product and pass it on then to future generations.”
Beef Checkoff and mad cow disease
Lyons said one of the milestones that stands out in her leadership career is establishing the Beef Checkoff program in the mid-1980s.
“We were able to use check off dollars for a self-help program, if you will, for producers to pay into,” Lyons explained. We were able to do a lot of promotion and research relating to the beef industry, and that has made a significant difference.”
Another distinguishing period of Lyons’ NCBA career was the bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease outbreak. BSE was an epidemic in the 1980s in Europe.
“We saw what was happening around the world, and we thought that we had a high risk of it coming to our country at some point,” Lyons explained. “In the early 1990s, we were able to approve the use of industry producer dollars to do research on BSE. Then we developed an industry plan for it if we were ever hit with an episode or an event.”
In 2003 a dairy cow from Canada was slaughtered in the state of Washington, and it was confirmed to have BSE. Due to the plan Lyons’ team had devised, the U.S. beef industry was able to mobilize and respond to news. Lyons said developing that plan was probably the most significant component of the work she did on the BSE team.
“We put out talking points and unified messages about the safety of our product, recognizing what we had done to make sure our product was safe, unlike what had happened in other countries that contracted BSE,” Lyons said. “We actually increased the consumer confidence in our product as we made people more aware of what was in place.”
Leaving a legacy
Apart from the National Golden Spur Award, Lyons has also been honored as BEEF Magazine Trailblazer of the Year in 2004; Kansas State University’s Stockman of the Year in 2008; the Jay B. Dillingham Award for Agricultural Leadership and Excellence in 2022 and the Visionary Award from the Cattlemen’s Beef Board in 2024.
Although Lyons’ goal was not to become a role model for others in the beef industry, she has paved the way for others—specifically women—to excel in animal agriculture. Lyons said she first started getting involved with KLA, the Angus Association and NCBA back in the late 70s and early 80s, there weren’t many women taking leadership roles, but that has changed over the years.
“I will tell you that women have always been involved in agriculture,” Lyons said. “They’ve always worked side by side with their husbands and families, and it’s been a tradition of ranching that is there to pass on. I see more and more women now that are taking leadership roles, and we need the voice of all producers.”
Lyons said as she enters her 80s, she has become less active on the family ranch and has instead delegated most of the management decisions and physical labor to her family members.
“We have three generations actively involved with the grandchildren and children, both daughters of ours, are involved in the ranching community and they have their own operations and are part of our LLC.” Lyons said. “To me, that says it all, and I’m really pleased that the kids and the grandkids growing up were all exposed building the ranch and living in the Flint Hills. They have a respect for the land and almost all of them are somehow involved in the operations in one phase or another. I’m real proud of that.”
Lacey Vilhauer can be reached at 620-227-1871 or [email protected].
TOP PHOTO: 2025 Sale Day at Lyons Ranch. Pictured are Jan and Frank Lyons; daughter, Amy and Karl Langvardt; grandson Tanner and Shelby Langvardt and great grand kids Sadie and Tate Langvardt, and grandson Trey and Bailey Langvardt. (Courtesy photo.).
