Okahoma Farm Bureau’s two newest grassroots leaders are no strangers to serving fellow farmers and ranchers as leaders in the agriculture community.
Jimmy Taylor and Gary Crawley have each spent a lifetime in agriculture as farmers and ranchers in addition to serving in numerous leadership capacities or Farm Bureau and other agricultural organizations in their counties, around the state and even across the nation. As newly elected district directors who will serve on the OKFB state board, Taylor and Crawley are once again stepping up to the plate to advocate for agriculture.
Taylor and Crawley were elected to the state board by fellow Farm Bureau members from their districts at the 2024 OKFB annual meeting in November. Taylor represents District 2, which includes nine counties in far west and southwestern Oklahoma. Crawley represents the nine counties of District 5, which encompasses the southeastern corner of the state.
While Taylor and Crawley may be recent additions to the OKFB state board, each of them has decades of leadership experience and service in the agriculture community beginning in their own local communities.
Jimmy Taylor • District 2
Taylor began his own Farm Bureau journey by attending meetings with his family as a child and attending a Farm Bureau event while he was still in high school.
As a rancher in Roger Mills County, Taylor and his wife, Tracy, raise Angus cattle with a focus on quality genetics that provide consumers with an enjoyable cut of beef on their dinner tables.
“We try to raise animals that have quality about them,” Taylor said. “What that will do is give the consumer a good eating experience where they’ll want beef again.”
Having ranched his entire life, Taylor knows the daily challenges that face Oklahoma’s farmers and ranchers along with the perennial issues that family agriculturalists have worked together to tackle through Farm Bureau. Meet our newest grassroots leaders
“It’s quite an honor to serve the agriculture industry in Oklahoma in this way,” Taylor said of his election to the OKFB state board. “Farm Bureau has been very important to my operation and to agriculture in Oklahoma – specifically legislatively. And I want to do what I can to help the organization move forward in a positive way.”
Taylor has served as an agricultural advocate with leadership positions in numerous organizations, including as a local electric co-op board member and as a trustee on the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives board. Taylor’s expansive résumé of agricultural service includes board member positions on the Oklahoma Beef Council, a recent term as the chairman of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, which oversees the beef checkoff program that promotes beef across the nation and the world, and a spot on the U.S. Meat Export Federation board.
In his time as both a Farm Bureau member and as a national leader in the beef industry, Taylor sees pressure from animal activists as an ongoing issue that Farm Bureau members can help step up and address.
“Animal activists are a big issue,” Taylor said. “They put out a lot of misinformation, and I think it’s part of everyone’s job who is involved in agriculture to be an advocate. When we see untruths and misinformation, we should get the right word out there and correct it.”
With a wide array of agriculture experience in his back pocket, Taylor is focusing his time on the OKFB state board to reach across the industry and make sure agriculturalists from around the state are making their voices heard.
“It takes us all,” Taylor said. “If you’ve been involved in agriculture for several years, your perspective might be a little different than other people’s. We need all perspectives on our county boards, and we need everyone’s ideas. All Farm Bureau policy starts with individual members coming to the county level.”
Gary Crawley • District 5
Gary Crawley spent a career helping Oklahoma’s agriculture community, and he is back in a seat of service as OKFB’s District 5 director, a position in which he served from 2012 to 2021.
Crawley grew up on his family’s Pittsburg County farm. After earning his bachelor’s degree in agriculture, he went to work as a loan officer with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Farmers Home Administration. Crawley had a 32-year career with USDA, retiring from the Farm Service Agency as a district director in southeastern Oklahoma where he oversaw 13 counties.
Crawley made a career out of connecting fellow agriculturalists with programs, resources and ideas to help farmers and ranchers improve their operations. His love for making connections with fellow agricultural producers is central to his service as a Farm Bureau board member.
“Over the years I’ve stayed involved with agriculture and gotten to know farmers and ranchers,” Crawley said. “It’s an enjoyment to get out and visit with them and to see their operations. It’s amazing how you meet people and they start asking your opinion or for input.”
Crawley stepped into Farm Bureau service as a Pittsburg County board member four decades ago, carrying on a legacy of leadership from his father, who also served as a county Farm Bureau board member. A love for the agriculture community and fostering conversations about the industry he loves is what drives Crawley to travel to meetings across OKFB’s District 5, working to ensure the voices of southeastern Oklahomans echo in the halls of state and national government.
“As I’ve worked in the agriculture field, there’s always a need for farmers and ranchers in southeastern Oklahoma to have a voice and access to programs and opportunities,” Crawley said. “With Farm Bureau, you have a more hands on approach to visiting with legislators and trying to get something accomplished that will help farmers, ranchers and our rural areas.”
Crawley said his previous time spent on the state board not only provided him with a wealth of agricultural knowledge he will use to represent OKFB members in District 5, but it also gave him a deep understanding of OKFB Insurance and the important role insurance plays in the lives and livelihoods of Farm Bureau members. The OKFB state board oversees the operation of OKFBInsurance as it serves the needs of Farm Bureau members.
“I feel like we’re in a position where we know the path forward for the insurance company to help our members out in rural Oklahoma while building the farm organization and representing our agricultural producers,” Crawley said.
In addition to his longtime work representing agriculture with Farm Bureau, Crawley also serves on the Pittsburg County Conservation Board as vice president, and is the area five commissioner for the Oklahoma Conservation Commission.
Crawley and his wife, Wilma, continue the family’s agriculture legacy as they raise cattle in the Savanna area with the help of their family. Crawley also continues to do appraisals and inspections on a contract basis.
Whether he is out working an appraisal job, attending the weekly livestock sale at McAlester Stockyards or at a local community event, Crawley said he works to make sure rural residents know the importance of Farm Bureau.
“Engaging with producers and seeing their operations and visiting with them is something I really enjoy,” Crawley said. “A lot of people don’t know what Farm Bureau is about. When I’m out and about, I try to educate people about Farm Bureau.”
