WOMEN IN RANCHING
World Champion Tie-Down Roper and Cattle Rancher Nixon Wears Many Hats By Allie Bohus T here is no such thing as a typical day for Kari Nixon. The Freedom, Oklahoma cowgirl and four-time WPRA World- Champion Tie-Down roper stays busy to say the least. Nixon won world titles in 2011, 2015, 2017, 2021 and was $85.40
SHY of winning a world title in 2018. “I work part-time for the Woods County Conservation District. I am over the whole county. I’m the District Manager, Secretary, Janitor, Landscaper… I’m the only employee, it’s a lot of fun,” she commented jovially. When she’s not working in town, she co-runs 300 head commercial cow/calf operation in Northwest Oklahoma that her late father founded. The daily aspects of ranch work vary significantly due to the season, amount of rainfall, among other things. “I go to work first, and when I get off work it’s just whatever you have to do. The last month has been feeding weanlings… whatever is required at the ranch,” she said. Nixon proudly runs predominantly Black Angus Cattle with a CN Brand freeze branded on the right hip. The brand was her father Connie Nixon’s. “The [freeze brand] looks really pretty! But it’s one of those deals, it takes about 6 months [for the hair to turn white] to know if you did a good job,” she said. Branding and vaccinating at the CN Ranch is done by running cattle through a chute, and quiet (low stress) cattle handling practices are important to Nixon. “We keep 53 replacement heifers that are very docile and are easy to work with,” she said. She and her brother Bret are training the replacements to come up to the feed bunk and get their ‘candy’ or cake (a protein supplement). “We have 6 [heifers] that come right up!” She and her brother alternate feeding, allowing Nixon time to ride her horses. Nixon refers to her horses as the ‘A-String’ horses and ranch horses. “Bubba, he’s way too expensive to do ranch work on, he’s A-String,” she said, of her main tie-down roping horse. The ranch horses are used to cover rough country, check fences and gather cattle. Since they don’t have any stockers/feeders, they don’t doctor very often. However, when they do, they acquired a Pneu-Dart gun, which has been quite handy because Nixon doesn’t rope to doctor cattle and there are no corrals available in every pasture. “My brother is the sharpshooter,” she said with a laugh. When breeding time comes around in the end of March, Nixon is the go-to for AI-ing. She took a weeklong class and is now certified through the State of Oklahoma Bureau of Animal Health to artificially inseminate (AI) beef cattle. She is really proud of the genetic program they have and have kept a few bull calves that turned out to be phenomenal bulls. “It’s not high in quantity but we’re getting very high in quality,” she said. The ranch holds a Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) Certification which is a ‘nationally coordinated, state implemented program, that provides systematic information to U.S. beef producers and beef consumers of how common-sense husbandry techniques can
be coupled with accepted scientific knowledge to raise cattle under optimum management and environmental conditions and educates producers in the areas of cattle health, stockmanship, marketing, emergency planning and meat quality. Ranching is fulfilling for Nixon who enjoys being outside and seeing the results of the genetic program do well. This year they have been ‘chasing grass’, after not receiving much annual rainfall so that has been a struggle – just simply finding adequate forage, but that, unfortunately, affects many producers nationwide. When Nixon has the time, she enjoys roping and tying calves. Interestingly, “I don’t rope anything in the pasture and never have… There is really no correlation between women’s calf roping and what I do out there.” However, when she was rodeoing more actively, she would rope in the morning on her good horse and rope at night on the horse she had in training. She would breakaway rope some ‘big ole Jersey calves,’ and followed a strict diet and exercise program. That was when she got her four World Championships. She enjoys helping youth and encouraging women to not only rope but tie, “It’s a lot of fun and a good investment in the future of our sport!” she said.
38 WPRA NEWS DNEOCVEMBER 20212
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs