The 11th stop of a cross-country journey to paint 40 barns across the country with the Certified Angus Beef ® brand logo took place on April 27: also recognized as “Pfeiffer Family Brand the Barn and Certified Angus Beef ® Celebration Day” in the State of Oklahoma.
Ranchers, community leaders, foodservice and retail brand partners, government dignitaries and other special guests gathered at Pfeiffer Angus Farms, Mulhall, Okla., to celebrate with the Pfeiffer family as they watched paint dry. Officials in attendance also shared the proclamation from Gov. Mary Fallin.
The gathering was one of 40 planned in 2018, as the Certified Angus Beef ® brand celebrates 40 years of bringing the best Angus beef to consumers, the farmers and ranchers who created the brand in 1978 and lead it today, and the connections and community that ties it all together from the farm to the table.
Each of the 40 barns has a unique story, much like the Certified Angus Beef ® brand and its family farmers and ranchers. The Pfeiffers are representative of this heritage.
Angus rancher John Pfeiffer, the vice president and vice chairman of the American Angus Association® and a former president of the Certified Angus Beef ® board of directors, officially began his lifetime association with the Angus breed as a six-month-old, when he was given a membership to the National Junior Angus Association by his grandpa. But in truth, it began even earlier: Pfeiffer is the fourth generation to raise cattle in Logan County, on land originally homesteaded the day after the historic Land Rush.
When John and Gaye married in 1981, they had 30 cows – and today, with their sons John Christopher, an Oklahoma state representative, and Andy, who raises pigs, they care for 10 times as many on 2,300 acres. Says Gaye, “We see ourselves as caretakers of our animals, caretakers of the land, and caretakers of our resources.”
The Pfeiffers’ barn was painted by Troy Freeman, of Free Sky Studios of Springfield, Ill. Freeman is an experienced mural and large-scale painter for businesses, cities and townships, amusement parks, schools, residences and more, as well as the illustrator of 15 books and the founder of a graphics and web design business. While painting barns for the Certified Angus Beef ® brand, he enjoys meeting farming families like the Pfeiffers and learning more about their unique stories, while celebrating their shared goals and values.
Painting takes two to three days at each barn site. The first barn was painted the week of Jan. 15 in Ocala, Fla., at Baldwin Angus Ranch, located along the well-traveled Interstate 75. The journey ultimately concludes in October near the brand’s headquarters in Wooster, Ohio.
