Members of the Kansas Livestock Association (KLA) voted Mark Harms, a Lincolnville rancher, as the new president elect of the 5,500-member organization at its annual meeting Friday in Wichita.
Harms and the newly elected president, Frank Harper of Sedgwick, will represent KLA members during 2012 as volunteer leaders.
Harms and his wife, Kim, own and operate Harms Plainview Ranch. They raise registered Angus, Red Angus, and Charolais cattle and sell seed stock. The ranch utilizes leased grass in Marion County and surrounding counties. Dryland farm acreage is used primarily for feed production.
Harms Plainview Ranch has grown to involve four cooperator herds in Kansas to help supply the business with breeding stock. Harper’s registered cowherd is one of them.
Harms’ leadership resume is lengthy. He currently serves on the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association board of directors and is a member of the industry’s joint advertising committee. He has represented Marion County on the KLA board of directors; served as chairman of both the KLA purebred and stockgrowers councils; chaired the KLA policy and resolutions committee for three terms; and has spent several years on the KLA executive committee.
Harms is a founding member of U.S. Premium Beef. He was chairman of the USPB board of directors nominating committee for the first six years the company was in business. Harms Plainview Ranch is a qualified seedstock supplier for USPB.
Harms is a member of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Lincolnville, has served on the board of education, and currently is vice chairman of the congregation. He is a past director of Marion County Farm Bureau.
He graduated with honors from K-State in 1990 with a degree in animal sciences and industry.
The Harms have three children. Daughter Taylor is a senior at Marion High School. Sons Cade and Payton are in seventh and sixth grade, respectively.
KLA is a trade organization representing the state’s livestock business on legislative, regulatory, and industry issues at both the state and federal levels. The association’s work is funded by voluntary dues paid by its members.