PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

Progressive Cattle would like to introduce RancHER, a new column spotlighting female leaders in the beef industry. This month, we are featuring Brenda Younkin, a natural resources specialist. She and her husband own and manage Y2 Consultants, a Wyoming-based small business specializing in engineering, natural resources management, GIS, landscape architecture, land surveying and land planning.

Lance Pekus is a rancher from Salmon, Idaho. He works on a 300-pair cow-calf operation with his father-in-law and, with the support of his wife and two children, competes yearly on the TV game show American Ninja Warrior, where he has become known as the “Cowboy Ninja.”

Case Beken, a 14-year-old boy from Weimer, Texas, grew up blind after battling a brain tumor as a toddler but never let his lack of sight hold him back, learning how to hunt and fish and enjoy life to the fullest.

Luke Jennings won the Culver’s FFA essay contest with his essay on the 2018 FFA theme, “I can. We will.” Jennings will be a freshman at Felicity-Franklin High School in Felicity, Ohio, in the fall.

Coleman and John Locke are fifth- and sixth-generation members of the J.D. Hudgins family. The father/son team operates one of the seven divisions of J.D. Hudgins Inc., a 110-year-old Brahman ranch on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Larry Gray will retire from the Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers on May 31 as executive director of law enforcement and theft prevention services. He was director of law enforcement for the past 23 years and spent 37 years at the association.