Former Texas A&M student wants to share the College’s ‘best-kept secret’
Casey Bradshaw ’95 chairs agriculture development council that matches scholarships for students in need
When a college friend invited Casey Bradshaw ’95 to an informational dinner in 2012, Bradshaw did not know much about the College of Agriculture Development Council, COADC. He walked in curious. He walked out convinced.
More than a decade later, he is now the one doing the convincing.
As board chair, Bradshaw’s top priority is visibility. Not just for the council’s sake, but because a longer membership roster means more money matched to student scholarships, and more scholarships means more students have the opportunity to pursue an education with the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
To put it simply, the council is a group of former students who pool their annual dues to match endowed scholarships, fund competitive student teams, and keep a direct line open between industry stakeholders and the College.
“We are getting them piled up,” Bradshaw said of the growing list of scholarships waiting for matching funds. “It’s so exciting that there’s that many people willing to commit to helping create scholarships for students. Scholarships are a way that we can continue to get the right students here.”
Bradshaw calls the council the best-kept secret in the College, but he wants to change that. From his perspective, the council should be the first thing former students think of when they want to give back. The fastest way to get the secret out is also the most straightforward: more members. And his own story makes a pretty convincing case for joining.
First-generation Aggie
Bradshaw grew up in Lazbuddie, a small community on the western edge of the Panhandle where his family raised corn, cotton and wheat, and ran a few head of cattle. He was the first in his family to attend Texas A&M University, a path largely carved by a high school math teacher who happened to be a very loud and proud Aggie.
“She pushed me to apply and pushed me to do everything I could do to get in,” Bradshaw said. “We’d been down there for 4-H Roundup and various contests, and I fell in love with Aggieland pretty quickly in high school.”
He was accepted and enrolled as an animal science major. He joined the livestock judging team and became active in Saddle and Sirloin, a student organization connecting agricultural students to industry. Bradshaw’s experiences built the kind of practical, industry-facing network most textbooks cannot replicate, ones that would shape the next three decades of his career and life.
His first job out of college was with Cargill, where he worked as a cattle buyer on the company’s procurement team. He trained in Plainview, transferred to Dodge City, Kansas, and eventually was assigned a territory in North Platte, Nebraska.
“The livestock judging team really set me up to start as a cattle buyer when I graduated,” he said. “I traveled around the country, met a lot of great people and competed in different contests.”
In early 2001, a new idea pulled him back to Texas.
Building a career close to the land
Bradshaw joined Consolidated Beef Producers in 2001, drawn by the cooperative model and the chance to return to Texas. Twenty-five years later, he is still there, now serving as president and general manager.
The work keeps him rooted in the same production realities his family faced on the farm. But staying connected to the College from more than eight hours away in Canyon was harder.
“It’s very easy to just get disconnected from what’s going on when you’re not right there in Aggieland,” he said.
That changed in 2012 when a college friend, a banker in Canyon, invited him to an informational dinner for COADC. Bradshaw walked in not knowing much about the organization. He walked out knowing he had found a new way to connect with Aggieland as a former student.
“The goal and mission really resonated with me,” he said. “I saw it as a way to give back, a way to stay connected and a way to get involved. And man, I’ve never looked back.”
The work he does every day at Consolidated Beef Producers, helping feedyards navigate market volatility and stay viable, is not entirely different from what COADC does for students who are navigating the cost of a college degree. In both cases, collective investment creates opportunities that would be difficult to accomplish alone.
“COADC members are the biggest champions of the College,” he said. “We want to be that platform for potential students — to connect with them and make sure they know Texas A&M is where they need to be if they truly want a great degree and want to be a leader in agriculture.”
Quietly shaping student opportunity
Founded to bridge the gap between the classroom and the working world, COADC brings together former students and industry leaders who want to invest directly in the future of the College.
“COADC members are the biggest champions of the College. We want to be that platform for potential students — to connect with them and make sure they know Texas A&M is where they need to be if they truly want a great degree and want to be a leader in agriculture.”
– Casey Bradshaw ’95
Board Chair of the College of Agriculture Development Council
Members meet twice each year, once on campus in the fall and once off campus in the spring, where the group tours Aggie-owned or Aggie-connected agricultural operations across Texas. The meetings are designed to keep members connected to each other, to the College and to the industry they represent.
That connection translates directly into student opportunity. The council’s primary purpose is scholarship matching: when former students or donors establish new endowed scholarships, the council contributes matching funds to help meet the endowment threshold faster.
Council contributions also provide financial support to competitive student teams including livestock judging and meats judging, offsetting travel and competition expenses for students representing the College nationwide. Among its recent contributions is $18,000 in competitive scholarships for students who attended AGLS on Tour, a series of recruitment visits hosted in cities across Texas for prospective students who might not otherwise make it to College Station.
A bridge between industry and academia
What makes the council such a best-kept secret, Bradshaw said, is not just the money it raises but the relationships it creates and sustains. Members bring decades of industry experience into regular contact with the College’s faculty and staff, a feedback loop he considers essential to keeping a land-grant institution genuinely connected to the stakeholders it serves.
College of Agriculture Development Council at a Glance
- MEMBERS: 175 + active former students
- DUES SUPPORT SCHOLARSHIPS: $1,000 annually
- $500 for recent graduates
- IMPACT: $4.5 million given to Aggies
“Our faculty are so bought in on keeping us involved,” Bradshaw said. “We have a seat at the table, and they want to know our thoughts. That keeps the College grounded in what’s coming, how industries are changing and makes sure what they’re teaching connects to what’s really happening in production agriculture.”
That bridge runs in both directions. Council members also serve as recruiting champions, connecting College leadership to high-achieving students who might not have Texas A&M on their radar.
“We have to get the best and the brightest looking at all the opportunities the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has to offer,” Bradshaw said.
Membership deepens that network. At any given meeting, ranchers sit alongside engineers, longtime implement dealers swap stories with recent graduates still finding their footing, all connected by their role on the council. Bradshaw said the council has brought him friendships he never could have found elsewhere.
“I’ve gotten to meet Aggies from all over the state — really the nation — who are passionate about the same things I am because of the council,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’re all rooting for the same thing. We all love Texas A&M, and we all love the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.”
Invest in the next Aggie.
Become a member of the College of Agriculture and Development Council.
