Brooks honored as Stockmen’s Association’s Top Hand

Posted 09/27/2025

For immediate release:

Sept. 26, 2025

For more information, contact:

Randy Schmitt, NDSA president: (701) 537-3440 • [email protected]

Julie Schaff Ellingson, NDSA executive vice president: (701) 223-2522 • [email protected]

Brooks honored as Stockmen's Association's Top Hand

Bowman, N.D., cattleman Steve Brooks always knew he was going to be a rancher - but a couple family tragedies, including the untimely death of his father, catapulted him into the role more quickly than he expected as a young man. Brooks was also not expecting to assume a host of state and national beef industry leadership roles with influence around the world, but he set himself apart with his passion for agriculture and common-sense approach and was tapped time and time again to take the reins and lead in various beef organizations.

Fellow Angus breeder and friend Richard Tokach said, "Steve is most comfortable at home and on the back of a horse, and I don't think he ever tried to be a chairman of anything, but he's got vision, leadership skills and work ethic, which propelled him forward."

Brooks was recognized with the North Dakota Stockmen's Association's (NDSA) prestigious Top Hand Award at its 96^th Annual Convention & Trade Show in Minot, N.D., tonight. He joined an exclusive group of 28 who have received the award over the organization's history when he accepted his bronze statue at the annual banquet.

"The Top Hand Award is the highest honor the NDSA can bestow, and recipients are ranchers who have given monumental, exceptional service to the association and the beef industry. Steve certainly fits that ticket," explained NDSA President Randy Schmitt of Rugby, N.D.

The Slope County Angus breeder served as the NDSA president from 2014 to 2016, Brand Board chairman and on various committees. He attended the first Young Cattlemen's Legislative Conference. He recalled driving from Bowman to Bismarck, N.D., a dozen times during the 2015 legislative session, along with traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with the state's Congressional delegation and others in the agricultural industry while at the organization's helm. Among the issues that Brooks helped address were endangered species classification, Waters of the United States, state school land tax laws and the checkoff.

Brooks likewise was the president of the American and North Dakota Angus Associations and the chairman of Certified Angus Beef, the Breed Improvement Committee and the North Dakota Beef Commission. He served on the U.S. Meat Export Federation and National Cattlemen's Beef Association Board of Directors and the State Board of Agricultural Research and Education. He was also part of many state and local agricultural efforts, including the building of the Bowman Auction Market and the development of the North Dakota Angus Bull Test.

The Brooks family operates the Brooks Chalky Butte Angus Ranch on 16,000 diversified, contiguous acres, including pastures with rolling hills and rough, chalky buttes, as well as 1,000 acres of hayland. The herd numbers 500 registered Angus cows and 150 yearling heifers. They utilize artificial insemination and embryo transplant and host a production sale each spring. They plant and harvest 5,000 acres of corn, wheat, durum, chickpeas, sunflowers, lentils and cover crops, with their eyes ever focused on caring for the land.

Brooks and his wife April married in 1982. They have three daughters and four grandchildren. Their oldest daughter, Calli, and her husband Joe live in Seattle, Wash., where she is a nurse/nursing educator and he is a software designer. Cassi and her husband Levi live at Shields, N.D., where she is employed at a preschool and he works on the Weinhandl Ranch. Their youngest daughter, Skeeter, ranches and farms with the family.

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