Members of the Colorado Agriculture Hall of Fame

Carl Beverly “Bev” Bledsoe served as a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 1972 to 1991. Bledsoe was elected Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives in 1981, and continued to serve in that position until his retirement in 1991. He occupied the House Speaker’s office longer than anyone in Colorado history.

As a legislator, and later as speaker, Bledsoe fought for agriculture and for rural Colorado. He was very careful to accommodate the interests of those in urban areas, but his greatest impact was in the area of agriculture. He strengthened trespass laws as part of general tort reform measures that he pushed through to make sure that hard-working Colorado residents did not lose their farms or ranches through unfair litigation. Bledsoe supported early childhood education programs and rural health care measures. He served as chairman of the National Conference of the Council of State Governments in the mid-1980s and promoted agricultural issues on a national scale.

Ben R. Houston After serving four years in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean conflict, Ben R. Houston returned to Colorado and pursued his love of ranching and cattle breeding. In 1966, Houston and his wife, Anita, founded the Aristocrat Angus Ranch on the St. Vrain River near Platteville. Houston has had an artificial insemination program since 1952. Additionally, he is a pioneer in embryo transplanting. In 1980, he built a modern lab at his feedlot. Today Houston’s staff artificially inseminates 2,000 replacement heifers annually which return to commercial ranches.

Houston has served as able council to the governments of Turkey, Japan and Costa Rica. He has exchanged cattle business information with the U.S.S.R. and the Republic of Ukraine. Ben served as a member and has held offices on many boards in agricultural and non-agricultural business sectors.

In 1963, Eugene “Gene” Ritchey founded the Ritchey Manufacturing Company in Brighton. He began as a small dairyman in Fort Lupton and is now credited with developing the flexible ear tag.

The flexible, one-piece ear tag was established in 1964. It also contributed to the USDA’s program for carcass information in the packing plant. Ritchey ear tags have been used by the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Foundation for tagging and banding antelope, geese and other wildlife. Ritchey tags are sold in 60 countries, primarily in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Gene is the “idea man,” who came up with an idea of a magnet to prevent cattle from getting hardware disease. He also did a lot of research on freeze-branding cattle. Ritchey’s motto, “Give me a minute, I can make it better,” has sparked more than two decades of innovation and refinement in livestock identification. In 1989, he was honored by the national beef industry for the contributions he has made to the animal industry.

Paul Hoshiko Jr. (1925-1996) began his agriculture career as a member of the Kuner 4-H Club. He began with a steer project and later managed projects in swine, sheep and small grains. Hoshiko nurtured his love of the industry into a thriving commercial feeding operation and a large-scale produce production enterprise. He purchased the Kuner-Empson plant in Greeley and converted it into an onion storage and marketing warehouse. It is now known as the North Weld Produce Company. The company grades and markets 20 million pounds of onions annually. After 20 years as the company’s president and general manager, Paul passed away in 1996.

With their marriage in 1949, Bernard (1918-2004) and Hazel Neill began a partnership that lead to many farming and ranching innovations. Bernard was a founding member of the Plainsman Agrisearch Foundation, a research organization that farms on a large scale in cooperation with Colorado State University. Until 1994, he served as one of the original directors of the Southern High Plains Groundwater Management District. Bernard was also a charter director of Baca State Bank and is a director of the Colorado East Bank and Trust of Holly, Lamar, Granada and Springfield. The Neill’s have worked tirelessly to garner support for youth in agriculture and to support a strong agricultural future in Colorado.

Lloyd Sommerville, a Mesa County farmer-feeder, has been praised for his stewardship of the land and award-winning corn and sugar beet crops. Sommerville helped rebuild the Mesa County Farm Bureau, where he served as president for two years. He served on the Colorado Farm Bureau Board of Directors and was president from 1957-1974. In 1974, Sommerville received the Farm Bureau’s Service to Agriculture Award.

Sommerville served as executive director of the Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service from 1981 to 1993. In that position, he worked extensively to protect agricultural producers from eminent domain and devastating agricultural land tax increases in the 1960s.

Jack Annan has invested his life in education and youth leadership development. His focus on vocational student organizations helps prepare the leaders of tomorrow to take their places in increasingly complex industries. Annan was instrumental in founding the Colorado Young Farmers Educational Association in 1970, and still serves as its executive director. Since 1996, Annan has also served as executive director of the NJC Alumni Association.

Dale Ferguson left Kansas in 1950 to work in the Palisade peach orchards on Colorado’s Western Slope. After his first purchase of 25 acres of peach trees in 1962, Ferguson began forming partnerships with other growers in the state, as well as in Arizona, to produce and market top-quality tree fruit. He was instrumental in forming the Western Colorado Fruit Growers Association in 1973, and has held several top offices in the organization. Ferguson also served several years on the National Peach Council board, including a term as president in 1979-80.

Ivan Grein, a Brighton farmer and dairyman, has rarely let his commitment to agriculture stop at his own fence line. After serving in the Army, Grein began testing prototypes of new agricultural equipment for major agricultural supply companies. As a result, his farm was one of the first in the nation to use satellite-based, computer-generated soil analysis and fertilization techniques. Milking equipment tested on the Grein herd assisted in bringing farm-based milk-fat and quality evaluation equipment to market. Grein’s interest in and patience with the research needed to bring cutting-edge agriculture products into the marketing channel have enhanced agricultural production practices worldwide.

Grein was instrumental in creating the Colorado Foundation for Agriculture and served on its board for many years. He helped launch the foundation’s Agriculture in the Classroom program, which brings information about agriculture and food production to thousands of elementary-school students across the state. He is a member of the Adams County and Colorado Farm Bureaus, and served for a number of years on the Colorado Farm Bureau board.

E.L. “Shug” Hatcher (1969-1989), a wheat and cattle producer from Lamar, served as one of agriculture’s most ardent supporters during the 1960s and 70s. Hatcher was elected president of the Colorado Association of Wheat Growers in 1965 and again in 1971. Hatcher also served as president of the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee in 1972-73. His leadership, however, didn’t stop at the state line. In 1968, Hatcher was installed as president of the National Association of Wheat Growers. In this position, which he held for three terms, Hatcher was instrumental in the passage of many pieces of legislation, which were vital to the U.S. wheat industry.

Shug traveled extensively on behalf of the wheat association. He testified before the U.S. Congress on a number of occasions and became known as “Mr. Wheat.” Hatcher always presented himself as “just a farmer,” but he worked his way around Capitol Hill with the skill and diplomacy of a national leader.

Bob and Joanna Sakata of Brighton are renowned for their super sweet corn, but have a much larger story to tell. During World War II, Bob was held in a relocation camp in Topay, Utah, and was released in 1942. Sakata started farming 40 acres near Brighton in 1943 and slowly built his operation through hard work and innovation. Today, Sakata Farms owns and farms more than 3,200 acres of vegetables.

Bob has served on numerous state and local boards. Nationally, Bob has served as president of the National Sugarbeet Growers Association and has served as a director for the National Onion Growers Association for the past 24 years. He was appointed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Commodity Credit Advisory Board by President Nixon and reappointed by President Ford. Joanna is an elder at the Presbyterian Church, serves on the hospital board, and serves on many committees of the Brighton Japanese American Association.

Alton L. Scofield was born and raised on a farm near Joes, Colo. In 1948, Scofield became executive secretary of the Eastern Colorado Cooperative Education Association and began providing educational programs to farmers, ranchers and members of rural communities across Eastern Colorado.

Alton was selected by the Colorado Cooperative Council as executive secretary in 1952 and served in that position until his retirement in 1970. During this period he became known statewide for his commitment to improving the economic plight of Colorado’s farmers, ranchers and rural residents. Alton was also very concerned with agricultural education. He traveled across the state with Al Bunger, state supervisor of vocational agriculture, and visited every vocational agriculture program to discuss their importance to the future of Colorado agriculture.