Over the next month we will be highlighting all six of our senior board candidates. Three new board members will be elected from the pool of candidates at the AHA Educational Forum and Annual Meeting at the end of October.

Banks Polled Herefords is a family-owned operation with breeding decisions and day-to-day operations shared between Doug, his wife, Jane, and son, Brian, and his wife, Chrissy. The Banks started their herd with four registered polled Hereford heifers in 1966, and in 1968 became life members of the American Hereford Association (AHA). Drawing on their 4-H experience with beef projects, they recognized major differences in the performance and efficiency between the various animals they fed and showed. As their herd numbers increased, the Banks placed their emphasis on producing cattle that were more consistent in performance and efficiency. Along with participation in bull test programs, they enrolled their herd in the American Polled Hereford Association Guidelines program as a tool to evaluate and document performance and have been collecting carcass ultrasounds on calf crops for the past 25 years. Their herd was enrolled in the Whole Herd Total Performance Records (TPR) program when it was introduced, and the Banks family has been recognized as Gold TPR Breeders through this program.

Currently, their herd numbers 125 registered Hereford females, along with 25 Angus females and a few crossbreds. As purebred breeders, the Banks’ emphasis has been, and continues to be, producing balanced trait, performance verified and efficient animals with genetics that add value to their customers’ programs and dollars to their bottom lines, whether it be through bull or female purchases.

The Banks operation recently relocated from Ohio to Oklahoma with plans to increase their cow herd numbers, grow demand for their Hereford bulls in both commercial and purebred herds, and work to educate producers on the added value of documented performance genetics and the value the whiteface on calves adds to their bottom line.

Doug has served as a director, president and secretary of the Southwestern Ohio Polled Hereford Association and director and president of the Maumee Valley Polled Hereford Association. He served several terms as a director and two terms as president of the Buckeye Hereford Association. He and his wife, Jane, have also been inducted into the Buckeye Hall of Merit. Doug established the Bluegrass and Buckeye Scholarship awarded to junior members at the Junior National Hereford Expo (JNHE), and he was and a committee member and the treasurer for the 2006 JNHE.

Doug is currently a member of the Oklahoma Hereford Association. He was previously a member of the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association, and served as the Hereford representative to the board and the purebred committee chair for the establishment of the Ohio Beef Expo. He was a founding board member and president of the Butler County Cattlemen’s Association and a director of the Butler County Agriculture Society, and served as a committee chair for the 150th Anniversary Fair. Additionally, Doug is a member of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and was a 4-H leader.

Doug and Jane have two children — son, Brian; and daughter, Amy Bens, and her husband, Tony — and two grandchildren.