Beef Without Borders: Growing Partnership Between Oklahoma and Florida Strengthens Beef in the Southern Region

By Emma Moore

Whips once cracked through the thick Florida air as cowboys drove cattle out of the swamp years before Oklahoma’s red dirt pastures became home to a herd of their own today.

In April 2023, the shared legacy in cattle production came full circle as a group of Oklahoma producers and Extension specialists visited Florida to tour several cow-calf operations, hear from local producers, and learn about Florida’s beef industry.

This trip reinstated a longstanding tradition of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association ranch tours. They are organized by OCA, in collaboration with Oklahoma State University Extension.

These tours create impactful learning experiences and educate beef producers and educators about the diversity of agriculture globally.

After years of ranch tours across Oklahoma, OCA approached Derrell Peel, OSU Extension livestock marketing specialist and agricultural economics professor, to organize an international ranch tour in 2015.

The inaugural international tour was in 2016, with Peel and a group of OCA members visiting tropical cattle production operations in Veracruz to the highlands in Tlaxcala, Mexico, and ending the tour in Mexico City.

A second tour followed in 2018, with Oklahoma producers visiting cattle ranches and cattle feedlots in the arid regions of Chihuahua and Durango, Mexico, and the border crossing into Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

Another tour to Canada was planned for 2020, but COVID-19 put this trip and future ones on hold.

Eager to provide this opportunity again, Peel said the OCA approached him about reinstating the ranch tours in 2023, and he pitched Florida as the next ranch tour site.

“It’s not international, but a unique environment, and I believed it would be fun for our producers,” Peel said.

Florida is historically significant as the place where cattle were first introduced in what is now the U.S. It was also a strong candidate given the interdependence of the two states in beef production.

Oklahoma is currently ranked second in the nation for beef cattle production, while Florida ranks 10th, according to Hannah Baker, OSU alum and state specialist in beef cattle and forage economics for the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension.

Kellie Curry Raper, agricultural economics professor and OSU Extension livestock marketing specialist, attended the Florida trip. Raper said due to differences in climate and geography, producers in each state represent different sides of the cattle industry.