Submitted
(MANHATTAN) – Victoria native Troy Sander, a cattle feeder now based in Oklahoma City, OK, is the new president of the Kansas Livestock Association (KLA). He began his one-year term in the volunteer position during the group’s annual membership meeting November 22 in Manhattan. Members chose Ty Breeden, an ag banker and rancher from Quinter, as the new KLA president-elect. Sander and Breeden will lead the 5,600-member organization during the next year.
Sander is the chief operations manager for Heritage Beef, which operates feedyards in Haskell and Labette counties. His interest in the cattle feeding industry began early in life as he worked alongside his father, Vernon, who was the assistant manager at the former Hays Land and Cattle near Hays. Sander graduated from Fort Hays State University with a degree in animal science in 1991 and took a job as a management trainee with Continental Grain Company’s XIT Feeders near Dalhart, TX.
After completing the training program, he continued gaining experience, first as the animal health manager at Grant County Feeders in 1995 and then as assistant manager at Colorado Beef in 1999. After 12 years with Continental Grain Company, he moved to Heritage Beef, where he served as general manager at Heritage Feeders in Wheeler, TX, and eventually was promoted to his current role as operations manager. For nearly 20 years, he has been responsible for buying feeder cattle and overseeing marketing, operations and commodity procurement.
Sander has been a KLA member for more than 25 years and has served the organization in varying capacities. He currently is a member of the board of directors and the KLA Executive Committee. Sander was chairman of the KLA Cattle Feeders Council in 2020 and has served on the KLA Policy & Resolutions Committee. He also is active on the national level, serving on the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) board of directors and as chairman of the NCBA Live Cattle Marketing Committee from 2023-2024. Sander was a member of the NCBA Live Cattle Marketing Working Group as well.
Breeden’s family has been farming and ranching in Sheridan and Gove counties since the late 1800s. While he works full time at the First State Bank in Hoxie, he also is continuing his family’s agricultural legacy by running a commercial cow-calf and hay operation with his wife, Jamie, and their two daughters, Nyla and Hazel.
Breeden graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in agricultural economics and started his career in Kansas City before moving back to western Kansas in 2005. Following his return, he began his involvement with KLA and NCBA—first participating in the 2012 Young Stockmen’s Academy and serving as the Gove County KLA chairman, then attending the NCBA Young Cattlemen’s Conference in 2018.
Over the past several years, Breeden has become extensively involved in these organizations and others. He is vice chairman of the Kansas Beef Council (KBC) and serves on the KBC Executive Committee. He also holds a seat on the KLA board of directors. Breeden is a past chairman of the KLA Stockgrowers Council and has served on the KLA Executive Committee and Policy and Resolutions Committee. At the national level, he is a member of the Federation of State Beef Councils board of directors and serves on the Checkoff Safety & Product Innovation Committee.