Hometown: Adair, Okla.
In Town: Ethan Propps lives in Adair, Okla., where he graduated from high school. After attending Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami., Okla., for two years and subsequently graduating from Oklahoma State with a bachelor’s of science in animal science.
“I went to the University of Florida to coach their livestock judging team for a year. I returned to my hometown this year because year I accepted a position teaching agriculture at the high school in nearby Locust Grove and teach eighth- and ninth- grade Intro to Agriculture and Intro to Ag Communications, as well as livestock and horse judging. My father, Chell, is a veterinarian who specializes in horse care, so I grew up around horses and started horse and livestock judging early on. I really enjoy teaching and am and learning and improving all of the time, especially in classroom management.”
In the Country: Ethan, along with his father and grandfather Bill, have an 800-acre ranch in Adair and lease another 800 to support a commercial herd of 350 SimAngus momma cows and 30 bulls.
“I keep my 15-head cow herd on the ranch in exchange for helping out on (the ranch). I AI my cows, which are Charolais, SimAngus and Simmental, and I occasionally use embryo transplants to improve my genetics. My goal is to increase herd size and quality. I select semen from bulls that possess a good combination of both phenotypic and genotypic traits, and use semen from registered bulls on my purebred cattle. Part of my cow herd is composed of crossbred cows, so I utilize our own bulls to naturally service those cows and sell their calves at weaning. I retain the best heifers each year, and they are bred to a calving ease Angus bull for their first calf, which I usually sell at weaning. We raise all of our own hay and have 100 acres of natural grass hay ground with the remainder of the pastures being mostly fescue and Bermuda. Our ranch still contains the original 80 acres from our Cherokee allotment and is over 100 years old.
Future: “Even though I just started teaching, I am looking forward to a long teaching career while continuing to work on the ranch and developing my herd. Even further down the road, I would really enjoy being able to ranch full-time.”
