Roger Wann — 2025 Angus Board Candidate

Roger Wann, Poteau, Okla., is seeking a second term on the American Angus Association Board of Directors.

The elected delegates will choose five directors; a president and chairman of the Board; and a vice president and vice chairman of the Board during the Association’s 142nd Annual Convention of Delegates, which will convene at 10 a.m. Central Standard Time (CST) Sunday, Nov. 2 in Kansas City, Mo.

Visit AngusJournal.net to learn more about each candidate.

To register for Angus Convention, visit AngusConvention.com.

Visit AngusJournal.net for more and to subscribe.

Transcript

Miranda Reiman (00:03):

The future of the American Angus Association depends on those willing to volunteer for the good of the organization. There are 10 candidates running for five open spots on the American Angus Association Board of Directors. I'm Miranda Reiman with the Angus Journal team, and I'm introducing you to each of them before November's annual meeting. Today, I have Roger Wann from Poteau, Oklahoma, with me, and thanks for joining us today, Roger.

Roger Wann (00:30):

You're welcome, Miranda. Happy to be here.

Miranda Reiman (00:33):

Why don't you just start off by telling us a little bit about yourself, your history with the breed and your current involvement.

Roger Wann (00:40):

Sure. Yeah. While my brother and I are first generation Angus breeders, we started our current Angus herd in 1989. We're fourth generation ranchers on this same property that's been, much of it has been in our family for more than a hundred years in my brother and I's lifetime and largely due to the work he has done. We're about three times bigger today than we were when we were kids growing up in terms of cows, we run and land we run on here in Le Flore County, Oklahoma. So growing up as commercial cattle, operation Angus was not part of our breed makeup in those days. My grandfather was kind of a Hereford guy, and it wasn't until I was in junior high and high school, that we had some Angus genetics infused into the commercial operation here. And then largely when I went to Oklahoma State University and worked at the OBI, Oklahoma Beef Incorporated Bull Test as well as the OSU Purebred Beef Center, I became really interested, enthusiastic about the Angus breed. So my real work in the breed began there in the mid eighties, and then we started our own operation in the late eighties.

Miranda Reiman (02:05):

So with that kind of history that you have, what do you think are some of the breed and the Association's biggest strengths that we can build upon?

Roger Wann (02:14):

Well, the strength to me has always been the people involved in the breed. We have a large membership over a very diverse topography that if you think of each member as this outward facing tentacle, they're all addressing the cattle industry of this nation in the best way they can for their own purposes. And it's up to us as a breed association to support those efforts of each of our members as strong as we can.

Miranda Reiman (02:47):

What do you think are some of the biggest changes you see that are facing the beef industry in the next say five to 10 years?

Roger Wann (02:55):

You would've asked a similar question maybe three years ago, when we did this before in terms of challenges to the breed, and so I would give a similar answer. I think we have to stay at the forefront of the beef cattle industry in terms of genetic evaluation. I think it's very obvious. There's a lot of corporate entities out there that are running their own genetic and genomic evaluations, and we have to stay abreast of that and stay relevant to the entire industry. The moment we lose our feedlot customers and our commercial customers attention and their focus on coming to us for genetics is the day we start to struggle to stay on top.

Miranda Reiman (03:42):

And you kind of already answered my next question, I guess in that answer, but what do you think the association needs to do today to position our breed, our members for success in the future?

Roger Wann (03:53):

Yeah, I see a multi-pronged thing there. I think continued communication within the industry, whether it's from Angus Media or Certified Angus Beef, the continued Angus message across the entire industry, all the way to our consuming public, not just the commercial segment, but all the way to the consuming public. And then those messages backed by sound science and genetic evaluations. That's where our strength for our future is.

Miranda Reiman (04:25):

So knowing that we have both these great opportunities and great challenges ahead of us, why are you running for the Board and what do you hope you can contribute?

Roger Wann (04:35):

My real focus in the industry through my academic career at Oklahoma State and Texas A&M, as well as a working career within the industry and as Angus breeder has always been very focused on the commercial cattle industry. So I have really enjoyed these last three years working with the commercial programs committee, seeing the fantastic growth of the AngusLink program, the acceptance of the Genetic Merit Scorecard. And just yesterday with the Angus Feeder Calf sale at the Oklahoma City National Stockyards, we saw a $10 hundredweight premium for calves that were in that segment of the sale that day. So that value on feeder calves produced by our Angus genetics is where my focus has been, and this is where my focus will continue to be.

Miranda Reiman (05:25):

Excellent. Is there anything else that you'd like people to know before November's annual meeting?

Roger Wann (05:33):

No more than just, my brother and I and our parents and grandparents before us. We've worked hard here. We're very hands-on. We turn in a lot of data and we believe in the strength of Angus's database is one of its more prized possessions, if you will, and that we've been involved here in Oklahoma, Oklahoma Angus Association, Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, and trying to continue to stay involved in the industry and really focus on building the best commercial bulls we can produce for our industry. And that's just kind of who we are in a nutshell.

Miranda Reiman (06:13):

Well, everyone knows that being on boards is a time commitment, and we thank you for your service and your continued volunteerism to put your name up for reelection in November.

Roger Wann (06:24):

Absolutely. Thank you. Miranda.

Miranda Reiman (06:26):

Elections will take place at the 142nd annual Convention of Delegates during the annual meeting on Sunday, November 2nd in Kansas City, Missouri. Not registered? There's still time. Visit angusconvention.com to learn more. To read full biographies and for the latest news and stories from the breed, visit angusjournal.net. And while you're there, subscribe to the monthly Angus Journal magazine. You'll get ongoing Angus convention coverage and the latest news, Association updates, stories of fellow breeders and more. Visit angusjournal.net to subscribe today.