Forrest L. Roberts currently serves as the President & Chief Executive Officer of an online cattle marketplace, Central Stockyards. Since January 2019, he has led all technology application development efforts for this new and innovative startup business representing a unique platform and portfolio of exchanges for marketing all classes of cattle. Roberts recently acquired the ownership of Central Stockyards in March 2023.
Roberts is also the Principal and Managing Member of his own agribusiness consulting firm, K3 Ventures, LLC that he founded in August 2015. Through his agribusiness consulting firm, he currently serves as the Executive Chairman of the Board for 406 Bovine, Inc., an innovative startup company that has developed a patented facial recognition technology for animals.
Previously, Roberts served as the President & Chief Executive Officer of AgStrata, LLC from June 2017 through December 2018. Prior to AgStrata, Roberts served as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), a role he held from January 2009 through July 2015. For the previous 16 years, Roberts held several marketing and sales positions in two global animal health companies. He started with Upjohn Animal Health in 1992 and remained with the company through two mergers with Pharmacia Animal Health and later Pfizer Animal Health. In 2004, Roberts left Pfizer to join Elanco Animal Health where he served as the marketing manager for Elanco’s Beef Business Unit.
Roberts grew up on a family-owned, diversified livestock operation in Uvalde, Texas. He worked with his family when their operation expanded to include a retail meat market for fresh, locally grown, corn-fed beef and pork. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science from Texas A&M University in 1992 and a Master of Business Administration from University of North Carolina in 1999.
Roberts founded ARB Cattle Company, LLC in 2021 focused on producing American Red beef cattle, a new composite breed consisting of Red Angus and Santa Gertridus genetics. He and his wife Janet are also engaged in raising registered red and black Angus cattle through K3 Cattle Company, LLC a partnership that involves their three daughters: Kylie, Kinley and Kalleigh.