Owners
COLBY MOSS is active in managing farming interests in south Texas and a stocker cattle operation in eastern New Mexico. Colby is an independent commodity trader at the Kansas City Board of Trade and has been a member of the exchange since 2002. Prior to joining the KCBT, he spent eight years merchandising grain domestically and rice on a global basis for both Continental Grain Co. and Archer Daniels Midland. Lanita is a member of the Kansas Bar Association and cofounder of the Young Survival Coalition (YSC), a 20,000+ member young women's breast cancer advocacy foundation.
MARK and TED McCOLLUM own and operate McCollum Cattle Co. headquartered in Fort Sumner, NM. Both were raised on the family ranch purchased in the late 1950s by their father and grandfather. Mark received Associate degrees from Texas State Technical Institute and the TCU Ranch Management Program. He then managed ranches in Texas and New Mexico for 11 years before returning to manage the family operation in the early 1990s. Ted received an M.S. and Ph.D., Ruminant Nutrition from New Mexico State University. He conducted research and taught nutrition and management of beef cattle at Oklahoma State University. In 1995, he accepted a position with the Texas A&M System and currently serves as professor and extension beef cattle specialist at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Amarillo.
McCollum Cattle Co. originally focused on cow-calf production, but over the years has expanded into other areas. Today, McCollum Cattle Co. continues cow-calf production, along with a backgrounding operation, stocker cattle grazing in New Mexico and Texas, and retained ownership of cattle into custom feedyards.
JIM KOONTZ has a lifetime involvement with agriculture. He received a degree in Animal Science with an emphasis on business from Texas Tech University. Jim served as a managing partner of Pecos Valley Nursery, a wholesale grower of large shade and ornamental trees for the landscape business, from 1983 to 2008. Now in Fort Sumner, NM, Jim is the sole operator of Koontz Ranch, Inc. He also partners with the McCollum brothers, leasing another ranch in the Fort Sumner area. Jim and his wife Marilee have two sons; one living in Albuquerque and the other in Lubbock.
PRESTON WRIGHT is a member of the third generation Wrights to manage the Marys River Ranch in northeastern Nevada. Since 1921 the Wright family has been involved in cattle operations along the Marys River and currently runs a resident herd of mother cows and seasonal stocker and custom pasture operations.
The Wrights have always been involved in cattle industry politics and policy. Bill Sr. was the founding president of the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, and also served as President of the American National Cattlemen’s Association. Bill Jr. served as the chairman of the Better Beef Marketing cooperative in the early 1980s. More recently, Preston Wright served as the president of the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, and as chairman of the Private Property and Environmental Management Committee of NCBA. He just finished serving a term on the Cattlemen’s Beef Board.
The Wrights are committed to demonstrating the social and ecological sustainability of western livestock production, as well as preserving and conserving the resource base of that industry.
MARK and TED McCOLLUM own and operate McCollum Cattle Co. headquartered in Fort Sumner, NM. Both were raised on the family ranch purchased in the late 1950s by their father and grandfather. Mark received Associate degrees from Texas State Technical Institute and the TCU Ranch Management Program. He then managed ranches in Texas and New Mexico for 11 years before returning to manage the family operation in the early 1990s. Ted received an M.S. and Ph.D., Ruminant Nutrition from New Mexico State University. He conducted research and taught nutrition and management of beef cattle at Oklahoma State University. In 1995, he accepted a position with the Texas A&M System and currently serves as professor and extension beef cattle specialist at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Amarillo.
McCollum Cattle Co. originally focused on cow-calf production, but over the years has expanded into other areas. Today, McCollum Cattle Co. continues cow-calf production, along with a backgrounding operation, stocker cattle grazing in New Mexico and Texas, and retained ownership of cattle into custom feedyards.
JIM KOONTZ has a lifetime involvement with agriculture. He received a degree in Animal Science with an emphasis on business from Texas Tech University. Jim served as a managing partner of Pecos Valley Nursery, a wholesale grower of large shade and ornamental trees for the landscape business, from 1983 to 2008. Now in Fort Sumner, NM, Jim is the sole operator of Koontz Ranch, Inc. He also partners with the McCollum brothers, leasing another ranch in the Fort Sumner area. Jim and his wife Marilee have two sons; one living in Albuquerque and the other in Lubbock.
PRESTON WRIGHT is a member of the third generation Wrights to manage the Marys River Ranch in northeastern Nevada. Since 1921 the Wright family has been involved in cattle operations along the Marys River and currently runs a resident herd of mother cows and seasonal stocker and custom pasture operations.
The Wrights have always been involved in cattle industry politics and policy. Bill Sr. was the founding president of the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, and also served as President of the American National Cattlemen’s Association. Bill Jr. served as the chairman of the Better Beef Marketing cooperative in the early 1980s. More recently, Preston Wright served as the president of the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, and as chairman of the Private Property and Environmental Management Committee of NCBA. He just finished serving a term on the Cattlemen’s Beef Board.
The Wrights are committed to demonstrating the social and ecological sustainability of western livestock production, as well as preserving and conserving the resource base of that industry.