Hometown: Vinita, Okla.
Family: Husband Bailey and son Jack
In Town: Tara Martin has been with Oklahoma State University Extension for three years. She started her career with Extension as an executive assistant in Craig County and is now the agriculture educator for Craig and Nowata counties.
Prior to her tenure at Extension, Tara worked at the Natural Resource Conservation Service as a soil scientist, a program specialist, a conservationist and finally a district conservationist.
She left the NRCS to care for her young son and help out after her mother was seriously injured.
In the County: Both Bailey and Tara have agricultural backgrounds. Tara was raised in Kinta, Okla., on her family’s horse ranch, where they raised foundation Quarter Horses, having was many as 80 broodmares. After many years in the industry, her mother, Laura Thomas, introduced a homozygous Appaloosa stallion to the breeding program and began breeding and marketing cow-bred Appaloosa horses.
“Some of my favorite memories are in the arena,” she said. “In the evenings, Mom and I would be in the arena, and we would watch the sunset. It would be dark going to the barn because that’s when we would quit.”
When her son Jack was about 2 years old, he wanted goats. Tara, Bailey and Jack teamed up with her parents and bought goats, having as many as 130 nanny goats, with the mission to produce market show goats. As they grew the goat side, the Martins disbursed their cattle herd to focus their efforts on one species.
Jack is now 11 years old, and the family is still in the show goat business.
“We haven’t done too bad,” Tara said. “We have had a division champion at a national show, a grand champion at the North Dakota State Fair, and others that have placed well at nationals; nothing to be ashamed of.”
The family has incorporated AI and flushing in their goat operation and utilizes 10 to 30 Spanish-cross females as recips for their Boer herd, depending on their needs.
Since Tara started her career with Extension, they have reduced their herd size to about 20 high-quality Boer females. “I am glad we have cut down on the numbers, but the quality is still there,” Tara said. “You can do a lot with quality over quantity.”
Jack acquired two show lambs, which he will show at the Oklahoma State Fair and Oklahoma Youth Expo.
“We take our showcation,” Tara said. “As a family, I can’t think of a better place for a kid to grow up than in a barn.”
The family has also returned to the cattle business with commercial Angus females and a registered Angus bull.
“We are focused on replacement heifers,” Tara said. “We are using those EPDs on the bull side, and all of the heifers we have are AI babies themselves.”
