Name: Bevers, Stan
Title: Ranch Management Consultant
Texas A&M Class: 1989
Inducted: 2017
Raised in Oklahoma, Stan Bevers received a B.S. in Agricultural Education from Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1982, and taught vocational agriculture at Carmen-Dacoma High School in Carmen, Oklahoma, 1982-1987. In 1987, Stan and his family moved to College Station, TX where he completed his M.S. in Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University in 1989. Stan then joined the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, Department of Agricultural Economics, as the Farm Management Extension Economist located at the Research and Extension Center in Vernon, Texas. He retired from that position in 2016.
During his 27-year career, Stan accomplished numerous significant achievements to the benefit of Texas, the United Statess, and international agriculture. He developed innovative educational programs and provided expertise and analysis in the areas of farm and ranch management, agricultural finance, marketing, policy, computer applications, and risk management. He has received numerous awards and recognitions from Industry groups, Extension, Texas A&M University, USDA, and regional and national professional organizations, including the 1994 Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence – Extension Team Award; the 1997 Southern Agricultural Economics Association – Extension Program Team Award; the 1998 Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence – Extension Team Award; the 1998 American Agricultural Economics Association Distinguished Extension Program – Group; and, within Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, the 2010 Individual Award for Superior Service and the 2017 Individual (Career) Award for Superior Service. Stan was honored by the Texas County Agricultural Agents Association with their Specialist of the Year award in 2004 for his support of county programs. He was always willing to participate with various County crop and livestock committees, and marketing clubs, viewing those meetings as essential opportunities to connect with producers and learn about emerging issues. Stan used the information gathered from such interactions to create leading Extension education programming that could be implemented for County faculty in both their outreach work and result demonstration efforts. Above all else, Stan was a self-less leader who could be called upon to explore and develop innovative approaches to support th Extension programming of his colleagues.
Throughout his career, Stan was involved in developing and bringing several major educational programing efforts to the producers in his region. Four of the major efforts across his career included: (1) “Ranching and Beef Cattle Program” – Stan (working with James McGrann until his retirement) championed the use of Beef Cow-calf Standardized Performance Analysis (SPA) in the Rolling Plains and throughout Texas and the Western United States. In recent years, he maintained the Southwest SPA database on his website, with information from 627 herd analyses, including 435,039 breeding cows, from Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. He provided summary benchmark reports and analytical reports to Extension clientele and industry. Through these efforts, Stan has become one of the top individuals in the country in analyzing cow-calf operations. A popular series of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) publications, workshops, and presentations was the last spin-off from those efforts before his retirement; (2) “Tomorrow’s Top Agricultural Producer Program” – an in-depth educational effort to improve the business and business planning skills of agricultural producers. The program won several awards for its innovative design of 100 hours of training over an 18-month time frame and the use of producer/industry mentors; (3) “Master Marketer Program” – began in 1996 as an in-depth educational effort to improve producer risk management skills and practices. With continued industry support and strong demand, the eight-day program continues today. The team’s effort won numerous awards at the state and national level; and (4) “Texas/Oklahoma Joint Conferences (Cattle Trails Cow/Calf and Cattle Trails Wheat/Stocker, and the Red River Crops Conference)” – a set of three annual joint conferences emphasizing multi-disciplinary programs that pull Agents and Specialists together across state lines to more efficiently serve Texas/Oklahoma clientele needs. These conferences, which first began in July 2010, have been well attended, generated substantial industry sponsorship, have consistently generated very positive evaluation results, and have received recognition/awards for creative/high quality programming in both states.
Stan has taken prominent leadership roles with several professional organizations, including his service as President and being on the Board of Directors for the Texas Section of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, along with serving on the National Ethics Committee. Throughout his career, he maintained active membership in many other professional associations including the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, the Southern Agricultural Economics Association, and the Western Agricultural Economics Association. Stan is a member of the Calvary Baptist Church in Vernon, where he has served on the Finance Committee and the Pulpit Committee. He also participates in Lions Club and Jaycee Club meetings, promoting agriculture in the local area.
Stan, his wife Tina, and daughter Dana live outside Vernon Texas, where Stan continues to ranch/farm and consult. Their family also includes daughter Jana, son-in-law Jonathan, and two grandchildren.
