Stacy Simunek, Oklahoma Farm Bureau’s new president, shares his hopes to protect agriculture and create a better future for rural Oklahoma through farm bureau.
Stacy Simunek understands the importance of strong roots.
As a third-generation farmer in northern Oklahoma’s Kay County, he has spent a lifetime in his family’s fields and pastures ensuring both the crops they grow and the grass they graze cattle upon have the nutrients and care needed to flourish in Oklahoma’s red soil.
As Oklahoma Farm Bureau’s newly elected state president, Stacy continues his family’s legacy of growing strong, deep roots as he draws from decades of personal experience as a grassroots Farm Bureau leader to help the organization stand strong for agriculture.
“Protecting agriculture is job number one for me,” Stacy said. “I don’t think there’s any job for Farm Bureau bigger than that.
“Farm Bureau is who protects what you eat. Whether you’re a farmer or not, we help protect agriculture and the food that you eat.”
Stacy and his wife, Debbie, farm near Blackwell where they grow a variety of crops, which in any given year might include wheat, soybeans, grain sorghum and more. They also raise cattle with a commercial cow/calf herd.
The Simunek family also sells and services farm equipment for farmers and ranchers with their Vermeer farm equipment dealership, which the family has operated since 1996. Stacy said the family sells equipment all across the state of Oklahoma and has even sold balers, rakes and other implements to agricultural producers in other states including Texas, Nebraska and Utah.
The family works together on the farm with Stacy and Debbie handling day-to-day management of the operation. Their three adult children, Lauren, Kody and Kristen, each pitch in at various times through the growing season. The family’s generational roots continue to deepen with five grandchildren – and one more on the way — who are farmers- and ranchers-in-training — as they soak up every minute of farm life. Three hired hands help keep all the enterprises running smoothly, ensuring crops and livestock are all tended to and cared for.
Stacy’s own story of Farm Bureau leadership began when a friend and neighbor invited him to a Kay County Farm Bureau meeting. While Stacy was initially hesitant to take the time to be involved as a leader in the organization due to his already-hectic schedule of farming and running a farm implement sales business, Stacy said he soon realized the importance of taking an active role in Farm Bureau and developing his own roots in the organization.
“If you really want to just farm and be left alone, you have to be involved in politics,” Stacy said of the organization’s advocacy work. “Otherwise, someone else is going to make the decisions that will tell you what to do day-to-day. And those ‘someones’ need to be ag people. I know we’re busy out there farming, and we think we don’t have time to put anything in, but if you don’t put that time in, you won’t get to farm the way you need to.”
Stacy dedicated himself to advocating for fellow farmers and ranchers as a Kay County Farm Bureau board member. In total, he served on the county board for 24 years with 14 of those years at the helm as president.
Stacy’s transition to state-level Farm Bureau leadership started with fellow grassroots Farm Bureau members tapping him on the shoulder when the OKFB district seven director position came open in 2020. Farm Bureau members from his area teamed up at their district Farm Bureau August Area Meeting and asked him to represent them on the OKFB state board, a proposal that Stacy initially dismissed.
“I told them, ‘I’m just as busy as you are,’” Stacy said. “‘I understand what you are wanting, but I’m just as busy as you are.’
“I went home, and later that weekend, two of my grandkids were visiting, and they always want to get in the tractor with grandpa and go feed. We were out feeding and one of them said, ‘You know, grandpa, in a few years we can go out feeding, and you can sit in the barn.’
“And then it hit me just like a rock – it was meant to be said in the way he said it – if
we don’t stand up, these boys may never have that opportunity.”
Having decided to throw his hat into the ring to serve on the OKFB state board, Stacy ran for the position of district seven director and was elected by fellow Farm Bureau members from his area in 2020. After serving five years on the state board and feeling rooted in state-level leadership, he decided to continue the fight to advocate for future generations of agriculturalists by running for president of the organization.
He was elected as the organization’s 12th president by Farm Bureau members at the 2025 OKFB annual meeting in Oklahoma City.
Stacy said his excitement that drives him to serve the state’s largest general farm organization as president is fueled by the grassroots members who gave him the opportunity to be the president of OKFB.
“Hands down, it’s the people,” Stacy said. “It’s our members, it’s our boards that drive me. I won’t have 77 counties to visit; I’ll have 77 families.”
As he begins his first two-year term as president, Stacy said he is focused on working in Farm Bureau just the way he works on his farm – by focusing on stewarding a fertile environment for the organization to deepen its own roots and elevate its reach.
“Farm Bureau has always been from the grassroots up, but every now and then you have to re-test the soil,” Stacy said. “We need to test the soil, make sure every county has what they need and figure out how we can help. We may not be able to solve every problem or situation, but if we are not at least trying, nothing will grow.”
As president, Stacy said he intends to visit each of OKFB’s 77 county Farm Bureaus during his initial two-year term of service. He said his aim is not solely to meet fellow farmers, ranchers and organizational leaders, but he plans to bring ideas back from counties to strengthen the organization at every level.
“I honestly feel that the strength of this organization is our counties, and the stronger we make the roots in those counties, the stronger our whole organization is to fight for us,” Stacy said.
Stacy said that in order for OKFB to accomplish its mission of supporting Oklahoma’s agriculture community, every member needs to take an active role in the organization to make their voices heard as Farm Bureau members advocate together for agriculture and our rural way of life.
While farmers and ranchers have no shortage of tasks, chores and jobs to tackle on any given day, Stacy said that the time needed to represent agriculture as an OKFB member is well worth it.
“You have to think of it just like if your tractor broke down and you were out of the field for an hour and a half,” Stacy said. “That’s all the time it will take to attend a Farm Bureau meeting. And if it costs you $40 or a little more each year for a membership, you can’t even go to the parts store for that, but being a member is worth so much more than that at the Capitol.”
Stacy said that as OKFB president, he wants to strengthen OKFB’s presence at the state Capitol, build stronger connections with fellow agriculture groups and speak as one voice for the farmers and ranchers who have their hands in the soil and their eyes on the horizon each and every day.
“What makes me the most excited about what we can accomplish is when I think about a member telling me, ‘I knew you’d come – I knew you’d be here,’ knowing that they can depend on us.” Stacy said. “Some of our issues that we deal with might stir up some opposition from people who don’t understand the importance of agriculture and our way of life, but if it’s what our members need or what agriculture needs, we will step up.”
Stepping up is exactly what Stacy has chosen to do as a Farm Bureau leader. That same mindset of advocacy is one he encourages fellow Farm Bureau members and Oklahoma agriculturalists to adopt in an effort to grow OKFB’s roots even deeper to advance agriculture. As he takes the helm of OKFB and continues to lead the grassroots tradition of farmers and ranchers working to protect and grow agriculture, Stacy said he is excited for the work that Farm Bureau members can accomplish as one.
“If I can look back and know people are proud and excited that you’re coming to help them because you built something strong for them, that will make my day right there.”
