The Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association (OCA) announced Byron Yeoman of Dover as the 2025 OCA Cattleman of the Year.

The award was presented during the OCA’s 73rd annual convention and trade show, recognizing Yeoman as a leader whose dedication, service and integrity have made a lasting impact on the cattle industry and the OCA.

Yeoman served as the OCA president from 2021 to 2023 and has held numerous leadership roles on the association’s board and committees.

“It an honor to be recognized by such a great organization,” Yeoman told the KT&FP.

“It truly is a fantastic group. It’s like one big family.”

His fellow cattlemen proved that to him just over five years ago.

Shortly after being voted president in 2021, Yeoman was interviewed by the OCA for a promotional video.

In that interview, he recalled his mother Barbara Yeoman’s death in May 2020.

“My mother passed away last year in the middle of COVID and some people drove four hours - cattlemen friends of mine - to come to the funeral and that was very special to me at the time,” Yeoman said.

“You can’t buy people like that. That’s friendship.”

Yeoman was born to George and Barbara Yeoman and raised on their dairy farm in Dover.

He graduated from Dover in 1977 and headed to Stillwater to attend Oklahoma State University.

After a couple of years, other duties and commitments pulled George and Byron’s brother, Robert, away from the farm.

“Mom was doing the milking by herself,” Yeoman told the KT&FP.

“So I came home.” And he hasn’t left since. The family operation consisted of some raising of beef cattle, but was primarily a dairy until they ceased those operations in the early 2000s to focus on beef cattle.

He partners in the family operation with his wife, Carolyn, his brother Robert and sister-in-law Cathy.

“I enjoy going out in the mornings and seeing the calves born, checking cattle and probably most rewarding is going to the sale barn and seeing your cattle top the market,” Yeoman said in the promotional video.

Yeoman is a lifetime member of the OCA.

He’s also represented Oklahoma on the Oklahoma Beef Council and has been an active participant in several NCBA boards and national events.

A dedicated supporter of youth in agriculture, Yeoman is an alumnus of the Cattlemen’s Leadership Academy and has annually donated a steer to the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Foundation Steer Carcass Challenge. His unwavering commitment to the association and its members is evident in everything he does, says an OCA executive.

“Byron represents the very best of Oklahoma’s cattle industry. His steady leadership, deep-rooted integrity and lifelong commitment to our association have made a lasting impact on producers across the state,” said Michael Kelsey, OCA executive vice president.

“It’s an honor to recognize someone who has given so much to the OCA and the cattle community.”

He is the second Kingfi sher County man to win the honor in the last four years.

Mike Frey of Kingfisher was the 2022 recipient of the award.