By Larry Stalcup Contributing Editor
Cattle feeders can be as hard-headed, hard-driving and opinionated as anyone in the beef business. It comes naturally. Thankfully, for four decades, Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma feeders have had Shannon Standley on their side to help smooth things over.
Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA) Executive Assistant Shannon Standley recently celebrated 40 years on the staff at the organization. Since 1985, she has worked with some of the most powerful leaders in the nation’s cattle business – Charlie Ball, Richard McDonald, Ross Wilson and current CEO Ben Weinheimer. Hundreds of TCFA Board of Directors members and chairmen have had their terms made easier by Standley’s dedication to the TCFA territory.
A native of Happy, Texas, she was one of seven children raised on a farm/cattle operation. She attended West Texas A&M University and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. After briefly working for an oil and gas attorney, she joined TCFA in Amarillo. “I felt fortunate to come here because I wanted to get back into agriculture,” she says.
She was baptized in the association during Ball’s stern reign before his 1989 retirement. Standley wasn’t the first TCFA staffer whom Charlie nearly brought to tears. “He expected no less than 110 percent from everyone on staff,” Standley recalls. “But he was a good man. Under his leadership, the association made its mark nationally as an industry leader.”
She was close to Brenda Higley, executive assistant to Ball and McDonald. Standley took that position when Brenda retired in 2004. “Richard knew everything possible about TCFA and knew the importance of serving the members and the TCFA Board of Directors,” she says. “I learned a lot from him.”
“Richard also put me in charge of arranging for convention hotel reservations for all attendees,” she says. “There was no internet or email, so I kept a list of hotel rooms for every convention guest on an old dot matrix printer. That was a real headache. But the assignment helped ease the job of making hotel and other hospitality reservations for government affairs sessions in Austin and D.C., and for the TCFA conventions.”
Wilson became CEO in 2006 after McDonald retired. Standley’s administrative experience with both men helped facilitate the transition flow. When Wilson retired in 2021, Weinheimer became CEO. He counted on Standley’s knowledge to help manage TCFA committees, the convention and many other duties.
The TCFA staff is like a family. The easy-going, but detail-oriented Weinheimer praises them. He expressed his appreciation for the staff during the recent annual convention in Fort Worth. He recognized Standley for her lengthy service.
“For 40 of TCFA’s 58 years in operation, she has served us, our team and staff, and done it tirelessly, with dedication and commitment, living her life for the love of the cattle feeding industry,” Weinheimer said.
Standley has a few retirement plans. She’s at home at TCFA. But she looks forward to spending more time in Canyon with her son, Tanner, his wife, Elizabeth, and grandchildren, Boston, Zoey and Caroline. She will also head to the Rockies more to visit her daughter, Jillian, in Basalt, Colo., near Aspen. And Standley’s significant other, a cattleman, of course, will enjoy her company even more.
“People in this organization are wonderful,” she says, describing her TCFA family. “Our staff is second to none among livestock associations. Our many member feedyard operators and additional members are dedicated to their communities and the overall industry.”
And they’re all better off with Standley by their side, especially the orneriest ones.
