Roger and Idella Maschino of Guymon were named the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Farm Family of the Year during OKFB’s 75th Annual Meeting Nov. 11 in Oklahoma City.
“It’s very humbling, but very honoring,” Roger Maschino said shortly after being named farm family of the year. “We’re proud to be Americans, and we’re proud to be in agriculture, and we just pray that we will be a lighthouse and a good example of American agriculture and Farm Bureau for the state of Oklahoma.”
The Maschinos raise cattle in Texas, Cimarron and Delaware counties. The couple is focused on quality animals, which produce quality beef for consumers.
“We have developed our beef to where our calves are grading 100 percent choice and higher,” Roger Maschino said. “They go into an all-natural beef program that is sold through the website 44steaks.com.
“We like quality and our quality is good enough that it is now featured in 200 restaurants across the United States.”
Roger and Idella continue to develop their cattle herd by collecting detailed harvest data and careful selection of breeding stock.
Idella, a Colorado native, still holds an interest in her family’s farm in southeastern Colorado, where the family raises white wheat, which produces a unique, high-quality flour.
Ranching is a passion for the Maschinos, who raised two children on the family’s ranch, and who now work alongside their grandson, passing along their love for agriculture.
“In the ag environment, whether it be farming or cattle, there’s two things that you have to have, and that’s passion and commitment,” Roger Maschino said. “You either love it or hate it, and if you love it, it doesn’t matter how tough things get, you will find a way to survive.”
“I remember my dad saying, ‘It wasn’t what you made in farming that kept you farming. It’s what you’re going to make,’” Idella said.
The farm family program, sponsored by the OKFB Women’s Leadership Committee, recognizes farm and ranch families who embody the best traditions of Oklahoma agriculture and rural life.
Caption Information:
(L to R) Oklahoma Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Commitee Chairman Kitty Beavers, OKFB Executive Director Monica Wilke, Cameron Colter with Vance Auto, and OKFB President Tom Buchanan present the OKFB 2016 Farm Family of the Year award to Idella and Roger Maschino, pictured with their son, Austin, daughter, Fayla, and grandson, Dakota.
