January

National Meat Month

Three of Oklahoma's top four agricultural commodities are meat animals. Number one is cattle and calves; number two is hogs and pigs; number three is broilers (chickens). In 2017, we ranked number three nationally in the production of beef cows, ninth in the production of hogs and 13th in the production of chicken broilers.

Source: National Agricultural Statistics Service and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, 2018 Oklahoma Agriculture Statistics

Livestock marketing became Oklahoma City's first major industry when stockyards and meat packing plants opened in October, 1910, on a site west of the downtown area. Read more about the history of the Oklahoma National Stockyards.

• Describe your favorite meat dish.
• Compare and contrast two different kinds of meat.

Red Dirt Groundbreaker

Roy J. Turner and Hazford Rupert the 81st

Hereford Cattle at the Turner Ranch, 1944

Roy Turner was governor of Oklahoma from 1947 to 1951, but he may have been more famous for his prize bull, Hazford Rupert the 81st.

Hazford Rupert 81st was the 1936 international champion, and the nation's first "million-dollar bull." Featured in various articles in Time and Life magazines, the bull in its lifetime produced hundreds of descendents valued at well over $1 million.

Turner was born near Kendrick in 1894. He built his ranch near Sulphur with royalties from his oil-rich land. The area where Turner's ranch was located was called "Hereford Heaven" because some of the most important sires and dams in the national Hereford registry came from ranches located there. In 1963 Turner sold his ranch to Winthrop Rockefeller.

Governor Turner built highways (including Turner Turnpike) and farm-to-market roads, consolidated some small school districts, and secured passage of a common school bill that provided free text books. President Harry Truman asked Turner to become secretary of agriculture in 1949, but Turner declined the offer. While governor of Oklahoma and after leaving office, Turner sponsored livestock exhibitions and judging contests for 4-H Clubs and Future Farmers of America.

Turner's hobby was writing and singing country and western songs. One of his songs was named for Hereford Heaven.