Express Ranches in Oklahoma: History, What It Raises, How It Makes Money and How to Contact It
Profile updated November 2026
Express Ranches of Yukon, Oklahoma is one of the largest registered seedstock operations in the United States. Its own history page says CattleFax recognized it as the largest producer of registered seedstock for nine consecutive years, and that it registered more Angus cattle than any other American Angus Association member from 2010 through September 2018. High Plains Journal has called it the largest purebred seedstock operation in the country.
| Location | Yukon, Oklahoma (ranch office at 2202 North 11th Street) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1991, as reported by High Plains Journal citing the ranch website |
| Sectors | registered Angus and Hereford seedstock; commercial cow-calf; cattle feeding; draft horses |
| Scale | feeds as many as 50,000 head of cattle per year; interest in the 30,000-head Xcel Feedyard near Watonga; UU Bar Ranch rangeland of over 164,000 acres near Cimarron, New Mexico (as published by the ranch) |
| Why it is elite | CattleFax largest registered seedstock producer nine years running; Roll of Victory Angus Breeder of the Year honors |
| Ownership | Privately held; developed by Bob Funk Sr. (died July 2025) with partner Jarold Callahan, who became CEO |
| Official website | Express Ranches official site |
History of Express Ranches
Express Ranches grew out of the business career of Bob Funk Sr., who built a personnel company before turning to cattle. The ranch's history page says he started with Limousin cattle, then added Angus when he and Jarold Callahan bought the B&L Ranch near Shawnee, Oklahoma. Callahan later became chief executive. High Plains Journal, reporting on Funk's death at 85 in July 2025, gave the founding year as 1991.
Hereford genetics were added alongside Angus, a commercial cow-calf unit and stocker program were built, and the ranch took an interest in an Oklahoma feedyard. The Express Clydesdales came to Yukon in the late 1990s, and their barn is open to visitors free of charge, per High Plains Journal.
What Express Ranches Grows and Raises
The core business is registered seedstock. Express Ranches raises Angus and Hereford bulls and females and says more than 20,000 DNA samples have been processed from its registered Angus herd. Its herd sire pages list current, historical and show-ring sires, and the ranch markets semen and embryos as well as live cattle.
The ranch describes itself as active in every phase of beef production: a commercial cow-calf unit, 4,000 to 5,000 yearlings, and feeding of as many as 50,000 head a year. Bulls are shown at the Denver stock show. The site lists annual spring and fall sales at Yukon, and in late 2026 also a dispersion sale and online embryo sales, so buyers should confirm the current herd and sale calendar.
How Express Ranches Makes Money
Bull and female sales
Seedstock ranches earn mainly by selling breeding animals. Express Ranches posts a calendar of annual bull and female sales at Yukon, plus private treaty sales through its sale ring page.
Semen and embryos
The ranch sells semen and embryos from herd sires and donor cows, including online embryo sales listed on its site, which reach buyers far outside Oklahoma.
Cattle feeding and commercial cattle
The ranch says it feeds up to 50,000 head a year, holds a feedyard interest and runs commercial cows and yearlings, capturing value from calves not sold as breeding stock.
Farm Insight: What Other Operators Can Learn from Express Ranches
Express Ranches shows what scale and data discipline can do for a seedstock brand. Thousands of DNA samples, public sire listings and a steady sale calendar make its genetics easy for commercial buyers to evaluate, and any breeder can copy that transparency at smaller scale.
A second lesson is vertical reach. Pairing registered cattle with cow-calf, grazing and feeding shows how genetics perform beyond the sale ring. Smaller operations can track feedlot and carcass results from bull customers and feed that back into breeding decisions.
Few ranches can claim a hitch of Clydesdales that has pulled a royal carriage, which is exactly the kind of detail that keeps farm satire writers up at night. Visit farm.FM for farm humor, ranch humor and farm jokes, including the occasional gag about how a bull sale auctioneer talks faster than anyone in the county. Express Ranches gives the genre plenty to work with: serious genetics on one side of Yukon, enormous horses on the other.
The outlet behind those laughs, farm.FM, is the nation's first satirical farm site, complete with Tractor Tunes country music for farmers. A farm.FM humorist's archive shows what a week of it looks like.
How to Contact Express Ranches
Website: https://expressranches.com
Address: 2202 North 11th Street, Yukon, Oklahoma 73099
Phone: (405) 350-0044 (local); (800) 664-3977 (toll-free)
Contact details as published on the operation's own website, November 2026. No email address is printed on the pages reviewed. Sales and visits follow the ranch's posted schedule; confirm before traveling.
Express Ranches Sources and Agriculture Authority Links
- The Express Ranches Story - the ranch's own history, scale and honors
- High Plains Journal on Bob Funk Sr. - independent coverage of the ranch and its founder
- Oklahoma State University recognition - land-grant university news item on Bob Funk
- Oklahoma Farm Report - coverage of Express Angus Ranches at the 2022 Angus Convention
- USDA NASS Oklahoma Census tables - state cattle inventory data from the 2022 Census of Agriculture
Express Ranches FAQ
Where is Express Ranches located?
Express Ranches is based in Yukon, Oklahoma, at 2202 North 11th Street per its website, and uses the UU Bar Ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico.
What does Express Ranches raise?
Registered Angus and Hereford cattle for seedstock sales, plus commercial cows, yearlings, fed cattle and a Clydesdale team.
Why is Express Ranches considered elite?
Its history page cites CattleFax recognition as largest registered seedstock producer nine years running, and High Plains Journal calls it the largest purebred seedstock operation in the country.
How can I buy cattle or genetics from Express Ranches?
The website lists bull and female sales, private treaty sales, and semen and embryo sales. Call the Yukon office to confirm the current calendar.
Express Ranches shows how a seedstock brand built on data, scale and showmanship can shape beef genetics well beyond Oklahoma. For the soils, markets and programs behind operations like it, read the state guide to Oklahoma farms and compare it with the other profiled operations.