2020 Pioneer Dairy Leader Award

Bob Braswell

In Bob’s later sales career, he established the Ozarks Dairyland Sale series, held in Mt. Vernon, Missouri each spring and fall, where dairy producers could consign animals for auction. This avenue brought in quality animals that oftentimes were not broke to lead but were high enough quality to need a solid avenue to bring buyer and seller together.

Bob was born and raised in Payne County Oklahoma, near Glencoe and Cushing. He received his bachelor’s degree, the first in his family from Oklahoma State University in animal husbandry.

Bob was a sales manager, managing dairy sales in the four states of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. He managed around 50 sales a year for many years, and sold literally thousands of head of dairy cattle in the U.S.

Bob’s company was Braswell Sales Service, located in Ozark, Missouri. His wife, Idonna, clerked his sales, and in his early years, Gary Estes was his auctioneer and in later years, Richard Melton.

While living in Oklahoma, Bob bred the dam of Carlin-M Ivanhoe Bell, B & W Heilo Creamelle. One of Bell’s lasting legacy was Regancrest Elton Durham, one of the most dominant Holstein bulls in the last 20 years.

Bob died in 2000, far too soon to go from the scene. What he accomplished was to provide a vital service in the marketing of dairy cattle, and he made a lot of cattle worth more in bringing buyers and sellers together.

Bob and Idonna have two children, Bob Braswell and Kathy Gross. They have six grandchildren and ten great grandchildren.