Many Oklahomans have turned to Travis Meyer for the last 34 years to find out about Oklahoma weather.
Travis was born and raised in Nebraska, growing up on a farm and ranch that has been in his family for 130 years.
“We weren’t the first ones to settle the land there but, we were second,” Travis said. “My parents are still there and have willed it to my brother. I know God doesn’t make more land so I don’t want to ever see it leave the family.”
Travis’ parents are in their mid 80s and still operate the farm with help from his brother and Travis, when he can get away.
Travis’ mother was a rural school teacher in a one room school. When they replaced the blackboards and she brought one home for Travis as a Christmas present. He was 5.
“I made the state map of Nebraska. I started filling in the temperatures and pretending I was a weather man,” Travis recalled. He would eventually go to meteorology school at the University of Kansas, the closest place he could find so he could help his dad on the farm in the summer.
“As soon as school was out, I booked it straight back five hours to central Nebraska and started farming dust to dawn. Then I would wait until the last minute to go back to school,” Travis remembered. “In the fall, I would go back for a week for the corn harvest.”
After graduation, Travis sold Red Wing boots during the day and worked for a private weather consulting company in Topeka, Kan., at night.
“They needed a meteorologist to forecast winds and temperatures for construction projects and clients like Kansas City Power and Light.”
Travis ended up in front of the camera for two days when everybody else came down with the flu. A few weeks later, his boss offered everyone an opportunity, as a friend in the Tulsa market was trying to fill a job as a television meteorologist. Travis applied for the job.
The station manager was unsure of hiring Travis, but the owner wanted to give Travis a chance because he was a farm boy.
“That was KTUL Channel 8, Don Woods’s station,” Travis said. “When he retired, they gave me a chance to take over. I worked for them for 23 years.”
When the Channel 6 meteorologist retired, the general manager turned to Travis. Looking for a new challenge and the chance to work for local owners, Travis jumped at the chance.
Outside of television, Travis has returned to his farm boy roots.
“To me the peaceful surrounding of the ranch is a necessity,” Travis said.
He has a 50-acre ranch between Jenks and Glenpool, Okla., that he bought 20 years ago.
Travis leases acreage from neighbors and currently is working 270 acres, raising cattle and producing hay. Travis has cut back his operation a bit and is down to 30 head, 10 Hereford and 20 Angus. Travis prefers Angus/Hereford crosses because they sell well.
Travis’ father gave him some of his Angus cattle descended from his uncle’s herd and Travis feels they are a family legacy.
“I have pure Hereford so, I like to keep the Hereford heifers for retention or I sell them to some of my friends,” he said.
Travis puts a Hereford bull on his Angus cattle and an Angus bull on his Hereford cattle to get his preferred cross. Travis prefers to calve in the fall because there is less severe weather.
“I can’t really watch spring calves real close because of my job,” he added.
Travis is trying to recover from making a breeding mistake and having two bad bulls in a row.
“That really messed me up,” he said. “Right now, I am kind of split. I have some spring and fall calves.”
Travis has two grown daughters Anna, 28, and Leah, 24. Anna is also the mother of his first grandchild, Hadley. He also has two sons Aston, 14, and Crosby, 13, he is trying to teach to appreciate the ranch.
“Getting the boys to understand work isn’t bad, especially if you are growing something and making something happen. To me that is a blessing.”
