Dax DeLozier is a budding busienssman, a cattleman and hopes to be a veterinarian
FFA members have a plan. They’re taught this in both course work and life lessons; short-term goals, long-term goals and immediate goals.
Dax DeLozier of Adair, Okla., FFA has a plan and is financing the way with a few jobs. One of them is a dealership for B-5 Enterprises Show Supplies.
“Tanner Taylor, who is now State FFA President, had it before,” Dax said. “He asked if I wanted to take this over. He started doing it with products from several companies like Weaver and Outback, and then he got hooked up with B-5.”
B-5 is owned by the father/son team of Monty and Brady Womack and is headquartered in Morris, Okla. It offers products from a number of companies, including their own. B-5 stocks a trailer with supplies and Dax takes it to livestock shows and events where he sets up to offer products.
“As a matter of fact, I have two trailers now,” Dax said. “I have all this stuff on site, but if anyone makes a special order or wants something I don’t have in the trailer, I will meet someone (from the company) with it at a truck stop or somewhere and get it delivered.”
“I get 10 percent of everything I sell,” Dax said. “If we are set up somewhere like Tulsa State Fair, I get paid by the hour to man the booth.”
Everything to supplement feed, fit and show sheep and goats is offered by B-5, and many items for cattle and hogs.
“I have grooming products, halters, blankets and anything else for sheep and goats, and electrolytes for all species,” Dax said.
Dax has all sizes of clippers and any kind of blades to groom any species, as well as blowers and fans. Possibly the most important service is clipper repair and blade sharpening.
Dax, 16, is in his junior year in high school. He comes from a Mayes County agriculture and FFA legacy, which includes his grandfather Dennis DeLozier, who taught agriculture at Adair for 32 years. His dad Devin DeLozier is currently one of the Adair agriculture teachers, a position he’s held for 24 years. His mother Becky DeLozier is the high school principal, but she also holds an agriculture education degree.
Dax has a variety of ag-replated projects, including showing cattle and hogs. He works for his grandpa as part of his Supervised Agriculture Experience Program, which earned a third-place honor at the state level last year in Beef Placement.
Dennis runs 200 momma cows and Dax said being out of school for COVID worked out just right to do the spring work.
“He usually has a hired hand to help,” Dax said. “But this year with me horseback and Dade on his four-wheeler, we got them all up and worked and he didn’t even have to use his hired hand.” Dade is Dax’s 13-year-old brother. Dax also has a 9-year-old brother named Dacen.
Dax said Dennis took full advantage of quarantine with cattle work, haying and “we built a lot of fence,” Dax said.
“My family runs 100 cows,” Dax added. “We sell about 20 young bulls a year.”
The family has concentrated on Angus blood, but bought a Charolais bull this year to breed Charolais Composites.
“And we always keep a Hereford bull around,” Dax said. “Herefords is what they raised when Dad was a kid.”
The family cattle herd is another job, and anyone would think two jobs would fill Dax’s time, but for the last year he has worked for Dr. Clint Gardner at Pryor Vet Clinic, a large-animal practice with five veterinarians on staff.
Dax said Dr. Gardner focuses on treating cattle, and Dax is getting good experience for his long-term goal, attending vet school. He wants to run for a state FFA office, and if he is successful, Dax plans to attend a junior college on a judging team scholarship for horses or livestock – because he is also a member of both those teams.
Devin is the horse coach and Dax was the high individual at the Buckskin World Horse Show in Tulsa in July. Although he is a successful horse judge, Adair’s other teacher, Shane Johnson, is the livestock coach and he recruited Dax to his team.
“He said because I show cattle and hogs, I should be judging them. He has helped me develop my eye (for judging livestock),” Dax said.
That is a mild understatement. Dax was the high-point individual at the Tulsa State Fair contest in 2018 and eighth high individual at the state contest. He was third-high individual at the American Royal, where his team placed second. He will be judging on both teams this year. Dax also holds the office of sentinel in his FFA chapter.
The whole family is goal setters, and no grass grows under their feet. They’ve recently purchased the American Farmer’s and Ranchers Insurance Agency in Pryor, Okla., and it’s being run by a former Adair FFA member, Abby Hendrickson.
