Becky Simpson (center) of Redfield is presented the 2025 National Hereford Woman of the Year award by incoming National Hereford Women (NHW) President Bellana Putz (left) and outgoing NHW President Beth Mansfield (right).
Special to the Times Vedette
Becky Simpson of Redfield was honored as the 2025 National Hereford Woman of the Year during the annual meeting of the American Hereford Association, held in Kansas City during the World Hereford Conference. Each year, the National Hereford Women recognize an outstanding woman who tirelessly promotes the Hereford breed and supports the organization. Selection is based on contributions to the breed, service and philanthropy.
Simpson, who retired a year ago as administrative secretary of the Iowa Hereford Breeders Association (IHBA), has been around Hereford cattle her entire life. Her family raised purebred Herefords on their farm in central Illinois, and she showed her first 4-H heifer in 1959. A charter member of the Illinois Junior Hereford Association, she showed cattle at the state and national levels. Her biggest showring accomplishment was winning the 1967 Illinois State Fair reserve grand champion steer title with a homebred calf, the day after being crowned Illinois Hereford Queen.
She and her husband, Mike, whom she met when they both worked at the American Polled Hereford Association, became involved with Iowa Herefords in the 1980s through their two sons’ participation in the junior association. Around the same time, she became an active supporter of Panora-Linden/Panorama Community Schools, where she served as a volunteer aide in second grade for more than 20 years, helped start the Panorama PTO and worked on several bond issues
In 1997, Becky began nearly three decades of service to the IHBA, beginning with producing the association’s newsletter, a task that afforded her the opportunity to make use of her communications degree from the University of Illinois. What started as a black-and-white newsletter hand-folded at her kitchen table grew into 118 issues that connected and inspired Hereford breeders across the state. In addition, she and Mike managed the state sale for five years and the association’s directory for more than 20 years. She was inducted into the Iowa Hereford Hall of Fame in 2014.
She served two terms on the IHBA board of directors beginning in 2001, often as the only woman at the table. Her steady leadership as secretary prepared her for what would become her calling: serving as the IHBA’s first paid administrative secretary beginning in 2007. For the next 17 years, Becky worked alongside 10 presidents and more than 50 board members, with her trademark attention to details, respect for rules and commitment to doing things right, all fueled by her love of Herefords and the people who raise them. She says that her father, a lifelong Hereford enthusiast, was right when he would say, “You meet the best people through cattle.”
Mike and Becky dispersed their Simpson Polled Herefords herd in December 2024 but stay involved with the IHBA and the breed in an unofficial capacity — which this past summer included their annual vacation trip to the Junior National Hereford Expo and assisting in the ring at the Iowa State Fair.