KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At the annual Cattlemen’s Congress in Oklahoma City, Okla., Breck Debnam, Madison, Ga., was named the 2026 Hereford Herdsman of the Year. After votes were cast by fellow Hereford herdsmen and breeders, the winner was named between the selection of the grand champion polled and horned Hereford females on Jan. 10 in the OG+E Coliseum.

 The Hereford Herdsman of the Year title is a prestigious honor that annually goes to an outstanding herdsman in the Hereford breed.

Debnam started his career as herdsman at Innisfail Farm in Madison, Ga., in 2018. Innisfail Farm runs 150 registered cows and a dynamic embryo transfer (ET) program. In 2021, with Breck’s help, Innisfail began a female production sale in conjunction with Mead Cattle. They also market 50 bulls annually through ‘The Source’ bull sale and private treaty.

Breck attended Black Hawk East College and Western Illinois University, where he was a member of the livestock judging teams at both institutions.

Breck takes care of the day-to-day operations at Innisfail: data collection, show and sale cattle management, chores and rotational grazing, as well as AI and calving. Breck oversees the farm’s C-Lock system, adding individual feed conversion data to the list of the many measures they record throughout the year.

Working alongside the Hunt family to make genetic selections, Breck and Innisfail Farm pride themselves on their disciplined program directed toward increasing their commercial clientele’s profitability in the beef industry. Although Innisfail does not raise many cattle for exhibition, events such as Cattlemen’s Congress and the National Western Stock Show (NWSS) have been essential to the operation’s ability to reach and connect with customers nationwide.

Breck loves working with Innisfail’s wide variety of customers, from making donor cow purchases and matings to helping northeast Georgia commercial cattlemen make sound, profit-minded genetic selections.

Breck believes the Hereford breed will play a pivotal role in the future of the cattle business, and he is humbled to be nominated for Hereford Herdsman of the Year.

“To me, being named Herdsman of the Year is the highest honor someone in my position can receive. To be recognized by your peers is truly meaningful,” Debnam says. “When I look at the list of those who have won in the past, it is full of names that I have looked up to for the last 13 years of my career.”

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The American Hereford Association, with headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., is one of the largest U.S. beef breed associations. The not-for-profit organization along with its subsidiaries — Certified Hereford Beef^Ò (CHB) LLC, Hereford Publications Inc. (HPI) and American Beef Records Association (ABRA) — provides programs and services for its members and their customers, while promoting the Hereford breed and supporting education, youth and research. For press releases and photos, visit Hereford.org/media.

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