Pati Law of Guymon elected to Oklahoma Pork Council board

Oklahoma Pork Council has elected Pati Law of Guymon to its board, giving Texas County another seat in the state-level discussions that shape pork policy, leadership and industry priorities. Law represents Prestage Farms, the family-owned pork and turkey company, and her appointment comes as the Oklahoma Panhandle’s pork economy continues to carry outsized weight in local jobs and agricultural output.

Law was not new to the organization’s leadership circle. Oklahoma Pork said she served as one of Oklahoma’s voting delegates to the National Pork Industry Forum in Chicago in March 2024, where delegates from across the state helped make policy and leadership decisions. That forum ran March 5-7, 2024, and Law joined representatives from Tyson, Seaboard Foods and Smithfield Foods in Oklahoma’s delegation.

Her election matters in Texas County because the pork sector is one of the area’s biggest economic drivers. Seaboard Foods’ Guymon plant has been described as processing about 21,500 hogs a day, and another company description says the facility handles roughly six million market hogs a year. The plant has also been tied to more than 3,300 jobs, making it a major employer in Guymon and one of the most important links in the region’s livestock supply chain.

That economic scale has also put pressure on local water resources. Reporting in 2024 said groundwater levels in the Oklahoma Panhandle’s three-county region had dropped 23% since Seaboard opened its Guymon plant in 1995, with the decline pace described as two-and-a-half times faster than in the 30 years before the plant opened. That makes board-level decisions about production, growth and long-term sustainability especially relevant for producers, workers and the employers who depend on both.

Oklahoma Pork’s board already includes representatives from across the state, including Guymon-area leadership through Cristina Carmona of Goodwell, along with members from Enid, Stillwater, Jones, Laverne, Seiling, Marietta, Hennessey, Holdenville and Stroud. The organization said board elections are part of its annual Oklahoma Pork Congress, and the 2026 congress is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 14, in Oklahoma City. For Texas County, Law’s election means the people closest to the pork plants and the labor force now have a stronger voice in the room when the industry weighs workforce needs, production issues and regulatory pressure.