2009 Commercial Producer of the Year

John McKnight

The recipient of this inaugural IBBA award is a man that we all know and respect. He is a man of honor and integrity and is known across the country, in all breeds, as a person with tremendous knowledge of the cattle industry. Whether he is out in the pasture with a local customer or at the capital building advising lawmakers, people listen to, and respect this man’s opinion.

He began his professional life in the registered Hereford business, and for years owned and operated a highly successful ranch that produced nationally recognized herd sires and females. After decades of hard work , he dispersed his herd of Hereford cattle and began to consult and work with Brangus operations such as Spring Creek Ranch and Whitehall Plantation in the 80’s and 90’s. It was with those ranches that he realized the importance and contribution to the industry that a commercial Brangus female offered.

In the years that followed, this man began to breed and gather good, functional, and consistent commercial Brangus females and breed them to registered Brangus bulls. He then marketed them all across the southern United States to cattlemen that appreciated the quality of females he had to sell. This became his passion, and calling, and with his good friend Joe Reznicek, he became very successful at it, and continues today to be a huge proponent of the commercial Brangus female.

It has been a pleasure, for as long as I can remember, to know John McKnight. He has been like a second father to me, and it is with honor that I have the opportunity to award John with the first ever Commercial Cattleman of the Year.