Snedden named new American Hereford Association president
Austin Snedden, Maricopa, California, officially took the helm of the American Hereford Association board of directors Oct. 25 in Kansas City, Missouri, during the 2025 World Hereford Conference and AHA annual meeting.
Snedden will serve a one-year term leading the 12-member board, which governs and provides strategic direction for the AHA. The association has more than 7,500 adult and junior members from across the United States.
Snedden is a full-time fifth-generation rancher in central California, where his family has been raising cattle in the same county for more than 150 years. Snedden Ranch was founded in 1867 by Anna and Samuel Snedden and has been passed down through the generations. It continues a family business with family members of all ages working in every aspect of the operation.
Austin Snedden grew up on the ranch in southwest Kern County, California. He graduated from Azusa Pacific University in 2005 with a degree in business administration. Austin and his wife, Sarah, met in college and married in 2004. They have four children: Ryah, Rainey, Sonora, and Ezra. Austin and Sarah partner with his parents, Richard and Susie, to operate Snedden Ranch.
Snedden Ranch consists of 350 to 400 commercial cows, 120 Hereford cows and 40 Red Angus cows. The Snedden family raises bulls for their commercial herd and their annual production sale, held on the second Saturday of October each year. In addition to the cow herd and hosting a production sale, Snedden Ranch markets a select group of commercial replacement females annually. Their steer calves are merchandised at weaning or yearling age and sold off the ranch through auctions and video markets.
Snedden Ranch has raised primarily Hereford cattle for more than 100 years and registered its first cattle with the AHA more than 50 years ago in 1972. The ranch received Gold Total Performance Records (TPR) Breeder status from the AHA in 2022 and was also honored as 50-year Golden Breeder that year. Austin and Sarah served as advisers for the California/Nevada Junior Hereford Association in 2017 and 2018.
Austin has been involved with the Kern County Cattlemen’s Association for many years and served as president from 2014 to 2015. He was appointed to serve on the Trump Administration’s Rural and Agriculture Advisory Committee. Austin served as a delegate for the California Republican Party from 2021 to 2022 and is a contributing columnist to the Valley Ag Voice, a regional agricultural publication.
Additionally, Austin was recognized as the Kern County Cattleman of the Year in 2020, and Snedden Ranch was recognized in 2013 as California’s 18th Senatorial District’s Small Business of the Year.
Sullivan to serve as vice president
Scott Sullivan, Grannis, Arkansas, was elected vice president by the AHA Board. Sullivan is a fourth-generation rancher. He and his wife, Sherry, are the owners of Triple S Ranch, where they run 150 Hereford cows and 300 head of commercial cattle, along with a backgrounding operation.
Scott graduated from Southern Arkansas University in 1983 with his bachelor’s degree in agricultural business. A large part of his education occurred on the ranch, learning from his father and grandfather. The Sullivans do not have children of their own, but they are active with their local 4-H and FFA chapters. The Sullivans work to get local youth involved in the cattle industry. They offer cattle at an affordable price and help with the breeding process if the kids purchase a heifer. Scott has a buyback program in the fall where he purchases and backgrounds approximately 500 calves from his bull customers.
Scott’s goal is to offer his customers worry-free calving, while providing genetics that create profit opportunities from pasture to plate. The Sullivans work to find replacement heifers and AI bulls to continually improve their herd’s genetics.
He is a fourth-generation farmer who has been involved with the Hereford breed his entire life. He served on the board of directors for the Magnolia Hereford Association from 2008 to 2022 and served as the president from 2011-2022. He was the president of the Sevier County Cattlemen’s Association twice and was a member of the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association board of directors twice.
Before returning to the family ranch, Scott worked for the Arkansas Farm Bureau for 14 years. Since 2009, he has been serving as the legislative officer for the Farm Credit Associations of Arkansas and Southern Arkansas University. He is a member of the Magnolia Hereford Association and the Northeast Texas Hereford Association. He is serving on the ACA executive committee and on the Sevier County developmental board. He is also a member of the Arkansas State Fair board. Scott received the ACA Lifetime Service Award in 2018.
Triple S Ranch earned recognition in 2022 from the American Hereford Association (AHA) as a Platinum Whole Herd Total Performance Records (TPR) Breeder. From 2003-2009, Scott served as an Arkansas state representative. During his term, he served as speaker pro-tempore. He also was the chair of the legislative council.
Newly elected directors
Outgoing president Chad Breeding, Miami, Texas, and directors, Lou Ellen Harr, Jeromesville, Ohio, and Travis McConnaughy, Wasola, Missouri, completed their terms on the AHA board.
During the AHA membership meeting, delegates elected three new directors to serve four-year terms: Bryan Blinson, Buies Creek, North Carolina; Joe Ellis, Chrisman, Illinois; and Joe Dan Ledbetter, Wheeler, Texas.
“Today’s growing demand for Hereford genetics is the result of breeders’ dedicated commitment to genetic improvement with the needs of commercial producers in mind,” said Jack Ward, AHA executive vice president. “However, current breed opportunities are also the result of the selflessness and foresight of the men and women who have guided the AHA over time for the benefit of association members. The new board members, like those they join, have proven their dedication to the Hereford breed across decades.”
Blinson and his wife, Beth, operate Blinson Hereford Farm, a small seedstock operation split between Buies Creek, North Carolina, and Lenoir, North Carolina. Calving about 20 cows annually, the farm’s focus is selling a few select bulls each year as well as offering females private treaty and through the North Carolina Hereford Association sale.
Ellis operates Ellis Farms Beef Genetics, a three-generation family business, which raises row crops and cattle to support four family households. Hereford cattle have always been the operation’s primary focus. Today, the family runs 200 momma cows. The Ellis family has raised registered Herefords for 143 years. The first registered stock were brought into the family operation as a wedding gift in 1883: two cows and the imported sire, Beekjay Hero.
Joe and his wife, Lauri, have three daughters: Audrey, Hannah and Lauren.
Ledbetter owns and operates Ledbetter Cattle Co., Wheeler, Texas, a progressive herd consisting of around 50 cows—35 Hereford females and 15 commercial recip cows. As a smaller breeder, Ledbetter threads the needle each year by producing bulls that perform with limited input while maintaining functionality, eye appeal, fleshing ability and style that will impress any cattleman and be problem-free. Ledbetter Cattle Co. markets these bulls through the Indian Mound Ranch Annual Production Sale every October.
Ledbetter Cattle Co. is a family operation. Joe Dan and his wife, Hope, their sons and their wives, Ceaton and Erin, Grant and Lauren, and Grady and Lindley; two grandchildren, Knox and Tandi Jo; and daughter, Caton, all chip in on the ranch from time to time.
PHOTO: Pictured is the 2025-26 American Hereford Association board of directors. Pictured are, from left, (back row) Jim Coley, Lafayette, Tennessee; Joe Ellis, Chrisman, Illinois; Austin Snedden, Maricopa, California; Joe Dan Ledbetter, Wheeler, Texas; Danny Fawcett, Ree Heights, South Dakota; and Scott Sullivan, Grannis, Arkansas; (front row) Grant McKay, Marysville, Kansas.; Bryan Blinson, Buies Creek, North Carolina; Cindy Pribil, Hennessey, Oklahoma; Jim Williams, Kearney, Nebraska; Jerry Delaney, Lake Benton, Minnesota; and Jack Ward, AHA executive vice president. Not pictured is Hampton Cornelious, LaSalle, Colorado. (Courtesy photo.)
