Born in 1960, Michael Sturgess was raised in Dumas, Texas, in the Texas Panhandle. He grew up on the family corn and wheat farm where they also operated a purebred swine operation and ran stocker cattle.
Michael graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Ag Business from Lubbock Christian University in 1982, where he was a member of the Livestock Judging team. He later served two years in 1984 and 1985 as the Executive Secretary of Texas Brangus Breeders Association, headquartered at the time in College Station, Texas.
In 1986, Michael moved to San Antonio, Texas to accept a fieldman position with Texas Farm & Ranch News. Later in that year, he married his wife of 23 years, Lauren. They have one daughter, Shelbi who is a graduate of Texas A&M University and currently resides in Washington D.C. It was also during this time period that he met his current business partner, Jim Banner.
Michael and Jim joined forces in 1989 to form Southern Livestock Publishing, Inc. They began publishing the Southern Livestock Standard (SLS) newspaper in August of that year. Since that time, SLS has served the commercial and seedstock industries with great distinction. As co-publisher, Michael has served the company and its valued customers in many capacities, including advertising sales, advertising development, consulting with customers on advertising and marketing both purebred and commercial replacement females and ring service.
Since 1992, Michael, partner Jim, and long-time friend and customer Anthony Mihalski, have also served as sale managers for the annual San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo All Breeds Bull & Commercial Female Pen Show & Sale, held each year during the Stock show. This event has grown into one of the premier annual events in the cattle industry with buyers coming from as far West as Arizona and as far East as Florida.
Michael is also involved in a family-owned purebred Charolais cattle ranch near LaRue, Texas, just east of Athens, selling primarily range bulls and herd sire prospects through an annual sale as well as private treaty.
Since August of 2007, Michael has also been a licensed agent through Silveus Insurance Group. He specializes in drought insurance for cattle producers with a product called a Pasture, Rangeland and Forage (PRF) policy. His customer base extends from New Mexico to the west and as far east as Florida and Georgia. Because of his extensive work with commercial and seedstock producers, Michael has a keen understanding of how producers operate within their environments.
As time has moved forward, the San Antonio office has made multi-peril insurance, Annual Forage and Whole Farm Revenue Protection(WFRP) available to farmers and ranchers alike.