John Paul Pendergrass

Born and raised in Franklin County, John Paul Pendergrass sustained and expanded a family cattle operation started in 1870.

As co-owner since 1979, the sixth-generation rancher grew Pendergrass Cattle Company into one of Arkansas’s leading stocker and feeder cattle outfits with close to 3,500 acres for grazing and an on-site feedyard/grow yard. Pendergrass provides a consistent market for many small producers across western Arkansas and millions to the local economy. 

The University of Arkansas graduate with degrees in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness also serves on the board of directors of Innovative Livestock Services, a cattle feeding and farming enterprise with more than 40,000 farmed acres and up to 200,000 head in Kansas and Nebraska. His leadership in the vertically integrated company influences modern cattle feeding and sustainable agriculture in America. 

As Arkansas’s representative on Farm Journal Foundation’s Farm Team, Pendergrass engages national and international discussions on global hunger and modern agriculture’s role in the feeding the world. He served as a panelist for multiple forums, including Farm Journal Foundation in Washington D.C. and as commencement speaker at UA’s Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences in 2017.