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Texas Agriculture Archive

March 3, 2006

Meet the new board members

BILLY BOB BROWN
State Director, District 1

Billy Bob Brown of Panhandle was elected to the Texas Farm Bureau Board of Directors in December 2005.

The TFB board member is a fourth generation farmer raising irrigated and dryland wheat, cotton and seed milo.

Brown attended the University of Houston, Amarillo College and the University of Texas, where he majored in Broadcasting and minored in Journalism and Public Relations. He worked in public television while in college and later worked for KMID-TV of Midland, KVII-TV of Amarillo, and KWTV of Oklahoma City, prior to coming back to farming.

While serving as president of the National Grain Sorghum Producers Board, Brown lobbied for agricultural legislation. He also served on the Executive Committee of the U.S. Grains Council and on the Advisory Committee of NAFTA as an agricultural representative. Brown was a member of the Panhandle Texas Economic Development Committee. He was named the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Sorghum Farmer of the Year and also Carson County Conservation Farmer of the Year.

From 1982 to the present, Brown has been a board member of Carson County Farm Bureau, where he was serving his fourth term as president when elected to the TFB Board. Brown has served as a member and as chairman of the Texas Farm Bureau Wheat Advisory Committee. He was a member of the TFB Project 2000 Committee, whose goal was to determine the direction of TFB after the year 2000.

Billy Bob Brown and his wife, Linda, attend the First Methodist Church of Panhandle. They are the parents of five children and nine grandchildren.

LARRY PRATT
State Director, District 3

Larry Pratt of Eliasville was elected to the Texas Farm Bureau Board of Directors in December 2005.

He raises cattle, wheat, oats and coastal hay on his Young County farm. Pratt does some custom farming and serves area ranchers with a hay and feed store.

Pratt has been a Young County Farm Bureau board member since 1972 and is the county president serving since 1991. He served as vice president five years prior. Currently, he is on the board of the Foster's Home for Children in Stephenville.

Pratt earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Abilene Christian University in Animal Husbandry. He was honored with the Texas Farm Bureau Outstanding Young Farmer and Rancher award in 1976.

He attends the Church of Christ where he is a minister. Pratt and his wife, Karen, have two sons: Gabe and J.T.

THOMAS L. PABEN
State Director, District 11

Thomas L. Paben of Waller was elected to the Texas Farm Bureau Board of Directors in December 2005.

Paben has been farming since 1972 in Waller County. He is a corn, cow-calf and hay producer. In addition, he was elected to the Waller CFB board in 1981 and has held the positions of president, vice president and secretary several times. Paben also served on the Young Farmer and Rancher Committee from 1979-1980, the Peanut Advisory Committee, American Farm Bureau Federation Peanut Committee from 1995-1996 and the Resolution Committee in 1982 and 2000.

He is a graduate of Waller High School and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Sam Houston State University in 1974. Paben was named the Texas Farm Bureau's Outstanding Young Farmer and Rancher in 1978.

He and his wife, Dianne, have three children: Wesley, Tommy and Robert.