Carpenter Cattle Company Recognized for Feeding Better Cattle Better

Kansas feeder earns the 2024 CAB Feedyard Commitment to Excellence Award.

by Kylee Sellnow, senior content manager

September 2024

Not everyone is cut out to be a cattle feeder. It’s an art and a science that comes with a need to overcome risk. Wayne Carpenter fed his first pen of steers in 1980 and lost money. But he stuck with it.

Today with their sons’ families, he and wife Leisha run the 15,000-head-capacity Carpenter Cattle Company.

The Brewster, Kansas, yard still has the same priorities it started with at 1,000 head: cattle care, facility management, profitability and commitment to high-quality beef. Learning and adjusting over time serve to temper the risk.

“We have to be aware and listening to all segments of the industry, including chefs, retailers and the consumer, we have to know what they do and don’t want,” Wayne says.

This dedication to feeding the best beef earned Wayne and his family the 2024 Certified Angus Beef (CAB) Feedyard Commitment to Excellence Award. They received their award in Verona, New York, at the brand’s Annual Conference in September.

An Art

Bunks are clean, waterers clear and cattle quiet. Not a day goes by that a pen isn’t fed within an hour’s deviation at the Carpenter yard.

You can find Wayne himself in the feed truck most mornings.

“It’s more than dumping feed and calling it good,” he says. “The little things in the yard, the ones you don’t think about here and there. Those add up to affect your bottom line.” The challenge drives him.

“Wayne’s not a quitter,” Leisha says. “From getting cattle marketed right to adjusting for the weather we have, he’s not afraid to take a chance to grow and try something different.”

The Carpenters have positioned their yard for success with all team members Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) certified and the business backed by Micro Technologies precision feed management.

“Animal health, feed inventory, feed truck scales, GPS, billing, all of it is tracked through one system which has made our life a lot easier,” Wayne says. “We can run any report we need for our veterinarian or nutritionist—you name it, we can analyze it. It’s made us better.”

His customers recognize that meticulous care.

Wayne McKinney runs a cow-calf operation near Weskan, Kansas, and has retained ownership of calves through Carpenter Cattle Company.

“He’s not a manager that is 200 miles away and has somebody else running it,” McKinney says. “He’s available at any time and can tell me how my cattle are doing. He’s a progressive go-getter, always making improvements.”

The Carpenter approach to embracing innovation and technology to improve results wins many admirers.

“Not only does Wayne do a quality job with the animals and the economics of the business, but the relationship is top shelf as well,” Keith Burcamp says.

The stocker and backgrounder at Cottonwood Feeders, Cunningham, Kansas, tips his hat to the business ethics.

“I don’t know many people who work harder,” Burcamp says. “I really appreciate his guidance. He’s always honest with me; he’s consistent and his character is top-notch.”

A Science

Carpenter commends the Angus breed for adding to the producers’ toolbox with genomics and data that point the way to CAB grid premiums.

Those tools cut down on guessing when cattle are finished and how long it will take to improve them.

“We used to eyeball it or maybe look at our grids and figure it will be two years before it gets better,” Wayne says. “Now, we’ve sped that up.”

Before joining U.S. Premium Beef, the Carpenters sold pens of finished cattle on the cash market, all for the same average price. But once they started to get individual carcass data back and saw the greater value of high-quality beef, they leaned into grid marketing. They haven’t looked back.

“If it wasn’t for grids improving carcass quality and putting that quality in front of the consumer, we wouldn’t have the demand for our product today,” Wayne says. “It’s made us better cattle feeders.”

He says it takes feeding the right kind of cattle to make the most out of the grid, and they’ve been lucky to have some great partners that have made it a successful business for all of them.

“You’ve got to have quality pounds,” Wayne says. “The whole industry is pushing over 80% Choice and Prime, and I’ve got to compliment the cow-calf side of this business. They don’t always get the recognition, but it all starts there with quality genetics. We’re just a piece of the chain here at the feedyard, and it all starts at the ranch and setting calves up right.”

pen rider at Carpenter Cattle Company feedyard

Risk Overcome

Wayne grew up in a family of dryland farmers and ran a few cow-calf pairs with his dad. After feeding out his first pen of steers, however, he was hooked.

“My dad told me one day, ‘You’re going to go broke feeding cattle,’” Wayne chuckles. “And he was right. We’ve been broke three times. We always come back. Like I always told him, ‘When you were a wheat farmer and you got hailed out, did you quit? No, you kept going.’”

Success over the long term means learning from setbacks in a series of calculated risks.

“Businesses take time to grow and mature. Just make sure you enjoy what you’re doing.”

For Wayne and Leisha Carpenter, the risk has paid off.

This story was originally published in the Angus Journal and Angus Beef Bulletin.

Like Father, Like Daughter

Triangle H accepts the 2022 CAB Feedyard Commitment to Excellence award.

By Morgan Boecker

Cattle have a way of stirring the soul.

It happened when Marisa Kleysteuber was riding through the cows checking for heats. The weight of this responsibility was light as a kid, but her dream to one day make decisions took shape as she sat horseback beside her dad.

For most of her life, she’s followed in her father’s footsteps.

Sam Hands attended Kansas State University for animal science with a business option, three decades later so did his daughter. He was a Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) student at K-State and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army to serve in Vietnam. He made his way back to Kansas in 1973. His daughter earned a Master’s in ruminant nutrition before coming home in the mid-2000s.

“This is a passion,” she says. “I’ve just always wanted to come back and be a part of the legacy that my dad created and carry it on.”

Home is Triangle H where they care for more than 8,000 fed cattle between a feedyard in Garden City and another 20 miles west in Deerfield.

For Hands, there’s no short answer to anything. Problems are approached with thoughtful consideration to every possible outcome. Solutions are executed with care. It’s more than a suggestion on how to treat everything from people to cattle to equipment, it’s simply the Triangle H way. They work to be the best in everything they do – a mindset that he’s passing on to his daughter.

The Right Tools

Located in the heart of prime cattle country, there’s no shortage of genetics that excel at the ranch and the feedyard. In their own commercial Angus herd, they select sires knowing those calves will be in their pens in 15-18 months.

“I just hope from a feeder’s standpoint that we don’t prevent them from reaching their genetic potential,” Hands says. “Whether we’re raising corn, alfalfa, wheat or beef, it all starts with good genetics.”

Then it’s all on the shoulders of the caretakers.

“Good cattle can’t afford to have a bad day,” Kleysteuber says. “So we do everything in our power to give them every opportunity to perform and express the genetics that are there.”

Optimizing a calf’s carcass quality has been their specialty since the 80s when they started marketing on the grid. At that point, Hands and his dad were already using artificial insemination (AI) and retaining ownership for years. Decades watching calves from conception through harvest means they know how changes at the ranch affect what happens in the yard.

Today, Triangle H consists of separate business entities – a feedyard, commercial cow/calf ranch and farm – that funnel into the other. The father-daughter pair take care of the livestock while Hands nephew Tyler manages the grains.

“We grow our own high-quality grain products and really pay attention to the details in our timing of feeding and timing of market,” Hands says. “It’s this dedicated effort that ensures our customers and us are competitive.”

Hands is the kind of man who wants to understand an entire process. In the 70s and 80s, he and his wife Janet spent hours in coolers of packing plants tracking their cattle through harvest to know exactly how they were performing.

“If I’m going to produce a product knowing I’m going to sell on the rail then I want to know if I’m getting the dollars that I hope to reach,” he says. “I’ve got to be on target.”

Marisa Kleysteuber and Sam Hands in feedyard pen

The Right Customers

Size and scale allow them to uniquely serve their customers’ individualized data on cattle performance. Electronic identification (EID) tags track calves at each stage of finishing. Once slaughtered, Triangle H customizes an index with each animal’s carcass and feedyard data.

“This is a powerful tool that we can share with our customers to make improvements with their herd and add more value to their bottom line,” Kleysteuber says.

A tool regularly put to the test. After working for Hands for seven years, Shannon and Rusty Wharton stepped out to pursue their own Angus herd with Wharton 3C Cattle in the Kansas sandhills. They send calves to Triangle H at 900 lbs. to be marketed through US Premium Beef (USPB). Fifteen years ago, they were grading 30% Choice, but with the data they get from Triangle H, now they’re hitting 100% Choice and Prime.

But data and the right genetics can’t replace a knack for knowing when cattle are ready. For that, there’s no one better.

“Sam just knows. He knows their genetics. He knows how to feed them and what to expect. He’s the best about sorting cattle to make sure we get the best premiums,” she says, noting their two-year average of $280 per head over cash for cattle grading 40 to 60% Prime and 50% CAB.

Through the USPB grid, Hands knows each carcass’s performance. As long as they stay above average, they see black in their bottom line.

And they do. In the first quarter of 2022, Triangle H averaged 97% Choice or better, 18% Prime and 44% CAB resulting in a $91.60 per head premium. But at certain times of the year, premiums can reach more than $200 per head.

“We need cattle that have high-quality carcasses,” Kleysteuber says. “At the end of the day, the consumer needs to have the best eating experience possible so that the demand for our product stays strong.”

It’s this sharp focus on quality and thoughtful customer service that earned the Hands family the 2022 Feedyard Commitment to Excellence Award from Certified Angus Beef (CAB). In September, they accepted the award at the CAB Annual Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

(left to right) Fernando Obregon, Brodie Sweeney, Kris Rose, Bill Hager, Marisa Kleysteuber, Sam and Janet Hands

“Good cattle can’t afford to have a bad day,” Marisa Kleysteuber says. “So we do everything in our power to give them every opportunity to perform and express the genetics that are there.”

The Right People

Rocking in Adirondack chairs on the patio, a glass of tea in hand, the duo make their game plan. The only slow part of their day is now, reflecting on what happened, how to improve and what needs attention next.

A reoccurring question is how to bring in good employees to help them grow and develop.

“We may not be a big yard, but we feel there are some natural niches where we can give opportunities to a person to have a career opportunity,” Hands says. “Especially those who may not be in a position to marry into ag or inherit it.”

Their investments pay off with tenured employees.

“We give them a lot of responsibility to make decisions and keep things moving,” he says. “This lets us focus on more of the business side at the office.”

Even at 74 years old, Hands puts in his share of hours.

“Growing up and even watching my dad today, he’s the hardest working person I know,” Kleysteuber says.

She follows his lead and starts each day with the team helping process cattle, cover silage pits or clean water tanks. Mutual respect comes from being part of the three-man crews at each yard.

“They give it their all and I feel like I need to be right there alongside them,” Kleysteuber says. “Because if I ask them to do it, I need to be there doing the same thing.”

“We’re only here for a short time,” Hands says. “Hopefully we can provide an environment for people that gives them a reason to get up in the morning and go to work and feel good about what they do.”

Knowing No Different

Every day Kleysteuber accepts more of the daily weight that comes with managing a feedyard.

“Over time dad has helped me gain more confidence in different areas of the business,” she says.

Planning, learning and teaching are integral pieces of succession preparation, though not an easy process. “Blessed” is how Hands describes having his daughter step up in their cattle business.

“I haven’t ever known anything different,” Kleysteuber says. “It’s just always been natural for me to be out working the cattle.”

The succession plan isn’t etched in stone. It’s more of an understanding that the Triangle H values will continue to pass through the generations, either through the Hands family or the people who are integral there today.

She naturally fills the role but continues to take full advantage of the time she spends with her dad. “As long as he can get up and come out here, I plan on us working side-by-side.”

USDA Prime Eclipses Select

by Paul Dykstra | Apr 24, 2025

In a twist unthinkable just two decades ago, USDA data reveals that the current percentage of Prime carcasses has averaged 11.9%, surpassing Select carcasses that are averaging 11.1%, in each of the last five weeks.

Gardiners Highlight Service, Strength at Foodservice Leaders Summit

by CAB Cattle Crew | Apr 16, 2025

Making Sense of Supply, Pricing and Navigating the Market

by CAB Cattle Crew | Apr 6, 2025

Kansas Feedyard Honored by Certified Angus Beef

Story and photos by Morgan Boecker

September 22, 2021

Much of the cattle feeding business is outside of a manager’s control, but quality cattle caretaking is one thing Kendall Hopp can guarantee.

He plans for the volatile, hopes for the best and deals with the rest as it comes. The first thing on his list begins with treating people right. Hopp knows happy folks manage cattle more consistently, leading to healthy livestock that perform.

Different skillsets make Shaw Feedyard thrive. Hopp manages the feedyard, Bill Shaw handles the books and his son Brett Shaw takes care of the farm, stockers and other duties as assigned.

Their teamwork, values and ability to consistently raise high-quality beef earned Shaw Feedyard the Certified Angus Beef (CAB) 2021 Feedyard Commitment to Excellence Award.

Optimized management

The 7,500 head feedyard is in an area Hopp likens to Main Street for prime cattle country. 

Just 45 miles from two major packing plants in Dodge City, with a network of quality-minded cattlemen nearby, Shaw Feedyard fits the locality like a trendy restaurant downtown. The climate is favorable for keeping pens of fed steers and heifers comfortable and thriving.

They’re surrounded by rich grain resources, chopping silage and grain from their own fields. Any outside feeds – like hay, wet distillers grains and corn – are sourced within a hundred-mile radius.

Like the restaurant, if they can’t sell a good plate, there won’t be a customer tomorrow. As a custom feeder, it takes the right genetics (or ingredients), and Hopp focuses on making them reach their full potential.

It’s a different sense of local. Accessing their supply and supporting the state economies until harvest, when much of their beef is shipped to higher populated areas. 

“It’s our job to feed strangers,” Brett says. “It’s not a burden because I know the beef that we’re putting in front of them is a consistent, efficient, sustainable product. And it will be for generations to come.”

Handled with care

Everyone at Shaw’s specializes in individualized cattle care where comfort is a priority. The pens are kept clean, dry and stocked with freshwater giving them everything they need to convert feed to beef. 

It’s vital to both customer and cattle management. Healthy animals are crucial to performance, and as a custom-feeding yard, their reputation for top-notch management keeps the pens full.

Everyone at the yard is Beef Quality Assurance certified. It’s their guarantee that animals have been well taken care of and will produce a good product.

A mix of human touch and technology power the yard today. Steam-flaked rations, mixer trucks, GPS monitors, a consulting veterinarian, nutritionist, digital data and reporting support the Shaw crew in their mission for quality.

It’s not unusual to see pens grade 100% Choice with a high percentage meeting CAB and Prime. 

“Certified Angus Beef provides the best consistency of any product I’ve seen,” Brett says. “And that’s a direct result of how we handle our cattle.”

They are just one piece of the larger puzzle that supplies premium beef, but hitting the high target is no accident. For the team at Shaw, it’s intentional management, planning each day to do their best for each other and the livestock.

“If we can do that consistently,” Bill says. “We know we’ll keeping feeding cattle.”

Gardiners Highlight Service, Strength at Foodservice Leaders Summit

by CAB Cattle Crew | Apr 16, 2025

Making Sense of Supply, Pricing and Navigating the Market

by CAB Cattle Crew | Apr 6, 2025

Every Issue Has Its Moment

by Lindsay Runft | Apr 4, 2025

« Older Entries

How to pick a feedyard

A dozen tips for finding the right fit for your cattle, goals

by Abbie Burnett

July 22, 2021

Have cattle to feed? Avoid the cookie-cutter plans, says Warren Rusche, Extension feedlot specialist at South Dakota State University.   

Not every ranch, pen or feedlot is alike or ideally suited to handle the same class of cattle. 

David Trowbridge, longtime manager of Gregory Feedlot, Tabor, Iowa, says a manager should be able to look at a customer’s pen and know, “I have a good market for those cattle.”  

There is a long checklist of ways cattlemen can help themselves when selecting a feedyard. Here are the top 12 tips: 

1. Do your homework. Ahead of marketing season (early summer for spring-born calves), make phone calls to narrow the list and follow up with yards that fit the bill. Don’t wait until just before the sale to make contact with buyers.

2. Stick to a timeline. If selling direct or partnering in a private-treaty transaction, share the timeline to solidify an agreement with a buyer. Talk with the feedyard well in advance about available spots and when the calves will be ready.

3. What’s the marketing strategy? The feedyard should know the best way to market your cattle. That includes grid marketing experience. Ensure the yard can capitalize on your genetics. 

4. Know financing options. A cow-calf operator could sell outright, retain ownership or partner with the feedyard, the choice often depending on financing options. “It can be an attractive option for cash flow or the ability to forego income for a few months,” Rusche says.

5. Make sure the yard can handle your specific needs. Can it manage the age of your calves? Unvaccinated heifers? Preconditioned feeders? 

6. Cost is important, but so is cost of gain. “Make sure you’re comparing ultimate bottom line, not just some of the components that go into it,” Rusche says. 

7. Be data wise. If data collection is important, discuss that with the manager, so they’re prepared to make it available. 

2021_USPB_FairleighFeedYards_KS_MR-5951-web

8. Provide key information. Being open about the source of genetics, health protocols and veterinary receipts can add value. There’s opportunity for commercial producers using Angus genetics and offering extra information through programs like AngusLink™, Rusche says. 

9. Ask about risk. “You need someone that’s going to give you an honest assessment of what the situation is. I don’t always recommend that a producer finish cattle,” Trowbridge advises. “But you have to look at what your options are, what your risk adversity is and make a decision.” 

10. Value the relationship. If you’re happy with your feedyard, avoid the temptation to go elsewhere. “It’s about the relationship, having that personal touch where the manager calls you when there’s a problem or when there’s success,” Trowbridge says. 

11. Get it in writing. “Even if we never have to pull that piece of paper out again, the fact that it’s written down helps people remember exactly what we agreed to and know what the expectations are,” Rusche says.  

12. Be up front. A successful feedlot accurately assesses and values risk. “The more questions the rancher can answer, the less risk those calves present and the more valuable they become,” Rusche says. Opportunity cattle – those with unknown genetics and health – are attractive only when they’re cheap. “No rancher I know has a goal to sell cheap calves,” he adds. 

The human element 

Relationships only build over time, so continue conversations every year. Don’t underestimate the human side of feedyard selection. 

Visit the yard, and take note of its overall appearance. Is there feed outside the bunks? How do personnel act around the cattle? 

Trowbridge says cattlemen should meet with the management team and learn their business philosophy. “You don’t really feed cattle with Gregory Feedlots, you feed cattle with David Trowbridge,” he says.  

Also, get references from the feedyard’s nutritionist and veterinarian, plus current and former customers.  

“The really good, professional yards aren’t going to be afraid of you knowing who their customers are that are happy,” Rusche says. 

Ranchers and feedyards should align their ideals. 

“Do they have the facilities, management, skills and labor to manage health risks and get cattle to convert as efficiently and cheaply as possible and then deliver a product that is going to have as much value as it can in the marketplace?” Rusche says. 

After all, that’s good for all involved.  

“We’re providing a product that our customers have to use,” Trowbridge adds. “Ultimately, the customer has to make money for the feedlot to continue to make money.” 

Matching the yard

Find the right fit for your cattle, goals

by Abbie Burnett

July 6, 2021

Choosing a feedyard is a bit like selecting a life partner: success comes from clear communication and shared goals.

“It’s maybe not as serious as picking a spouse, but probably not too far away either,” says Warren Rusche.

The South Dakota State Extension feedlot specialist says it all starts with a conversation.

“Not every ranch is alike, not every pen of cattle is alike, and not every feedlot is ideally suited to handle the same class of cattle,” Rusche says.

Understand the options

Feedyards offer different marketing opportunities and strategies. A manager should be able to look at a customer’s pen and know, “I have a good market for those cattle. I can handle it.” 

That’s according to David Trowbridge, longtime manager of Gregory Feedlot, Tabor, Iowa. 

For Angus genetics, Rusche suggests a yard with grid marketing experience. A cow-calf operator could sell outright, retain ownership or partner with the feedyard, the choice often depending on financing options. Gregory Feedlot offers cattle and feed financing, hedging and risk management.

“It can be an attractive option for cash flow or the ability to forego income for a few months,” Rusche says.

Just what a yard offers may be linked to the number of cattle to be fed, he says. Having enough to fill a semi-trailer load and pen may provide more options; fewer cattle may require commingling with other producers to fill a pen.

“If you have a sizeable ranch where a portion of the calf crop is sold right off weaning and another portion is going to get backgrounded or leave the ranch at another point, and another is open replacement heifers, sending those groups of cattle to different yards might make sense,” Rusche says.

Make sure the yard can handle your specific needs. Can it manage bawling calves? Unvaccinated heifers? Preconditioned feeders?

Outline the objectives

Trowbridge says customers and feedyards should align their ideals. “We’re providing a product that our customers have to use,” he explains. “Ultimately, the customer has to make money for the feedlot to continue to make money.”

A realistic conversation about cost of gain is paramount.

“The feedlot manager can’t guarantee it, but should be able to give you some estimates or expectations on feed costs, what their history says and what your cattle should convert at,” Rusche says.

If data collection is important, the yard should be prepared to make it available.

“There are cattle feeders that do a great job, but collecting data is not part of what they do,” Trowbridge says. “It wouldn’t be a great partnership if that’s what you want.”

Some rancher-feeder relationships begin when the latter buys a set of calves.

There’s opportunity for commercial producers using Angus genetics and offering extra information through programs like AngusLink™, Rusche says. Providing key information about the source of genetics, health protocols and veterinary receipts can add value.

“That may attract an extra bid or two and have a few more people looking at them versus well, here’s another set of black-hided calves,” he says.

Ask about risk, Trowbridge advises.

“You need someone that’s going to give you an honest assessment of what the situation is. I don’t always recommend that a producer finish cattle,” he says. “Sometimes I recommend they go ahead and sell them as feeder cattle, or grow them in a grow yard and get them to 800 or 900 pounds and then sell them. But you have to look at what your options are, what your risk adversity is and make a decision.”

When feedyard shopping, remember these principles:

Cost is important, but so is cost of gain. “Make sure you’re comparing ultimate bottom line, not just some of the components that go into it,” Rusche says.
Avoid greener grass. If you’re happy with your feedyard, avoid the temptation to go elsewhere. “It’s about the relationship, having that personal touch where the manager calls you when there’s a problem or when there’s success,” Trowbridge says.
Get it in writing. “Even if we never have to pull that piece of paper out again, the fact that it’s written down helps people remember exactly what we agree to and know what the expectations are,” Rusche says.
Don’t be stingy with information. A successful feedlot accurately assesses and values risk. “The more questions the rancher can answer, the less risk those calves present and the more valuable they become,” Rusche says. Opportunity cattle – those with unknown genetics and health – are attractive only when they’re cheap. “No rancher I know has a goal to sell cheap calves,” he adds.

The human element

When visiting a yard in person, take note of overall appearance and how it’s maintained. Is there feed outside the bunks? How do personnel act around the cattle?

“Most feedlots are well–run, well–managed places that look pretty good,” Trowbridge says, “but you can run into places where you see spilled feed, fences that aren’t fixed, pens not maintained. Overall appearance of the feedlot is probably most important.”

Meet the management team and learn their business philosophy.

“You don’t really feed cattle with Gregory Feedlots, you feed cattle with David Trowbridge,” Trowbridge says. “You need to form a personal relationship with that person because you’re entrusting that person with, in a lot of cases, most of your cattle income for the year.”

Rusche suggests getting references from a feedyard’s nutritionist and veterinarian, plus current and former customers.

“It’s no different than interviewing someone for a position on the ranch,” he says. “Any kind of background information you can gather is valuable. The really good, professional yards aren’t going to be afraid of you knowing who their customers are that are happy.”

Continue those conversations every year.

“If I can find the right partner, I want to stick with that one person as much as I can to really build that relationship,” Rusche says. “When people are looking at seedstock providers, a lot of people use one or just a couple because it’s become a business relationship and information flow, and this should work the same way.”

When to begin

Do the homework ahead of marketing season (early summer for spring-born calves), make phone calls to narrow the list and follow up with yards that fit the bill. Don’t wait until just before the sale to make contact with buyers, Rusche and Trowbridge agree.

If calves are consigned to a specific sale, indicate the date, location and auction company. If choosing to sell direct or partner in a private-treaty transaction, share the timeline to solidify an agreement with a buyer. A week or two prior to the sale date, remind the interested buyers of the auction date or begin talking about a private-treaty agreement.

Talk with the feedyard well in advance about available spots and when the calves are ready.

The bottom line

Rusche emphasizes shared values.

Trowbridge agrees. “It’s about finding someone you can communicate with, who understands your objectives and business plan and is willing to work with you to make it successful.”

Originally published in the Angus Beef Bulletin.

2020 Hindsight

Dichotomies, erratic patterns, stabilization–last year had it all

by Paul Dykstra

June 10,2021

The late-December ritual of swapping out the prior year’s calendar from the refrigerator or office wall has never been such a unanimously welcome experience as that which drew a close to 2020. A light toss toward the trash can wasn’t enough to punctuate our collective distaste with the year that will become a major historical footnote.

The cattle business year in review is painted primarily with COVID-19 irregularities. The year began with a semblance of normalcy on the heels of the tumultuous 2019 market, sent haywire as Tyson Fresh Meat’s Kansas fire-damaged plant lay idle more than five months. A year ago few could have imagined the more widespread and lasting pandemic impacts that lay in wait.

Panic buying household essentials and food items sent U.S. consumers to stores in droves last March. Beef supplies were not in jeopardy, nor was weekly production hindered at the time. Yet fear of scarcity drove the masses to fill their freezers, effectively clearing out retail meat case supplies.

Packers immediately responded. By the fourth week in March, fed cattle slaughter ramped up to 549,000 head, 13% more than a year earlier and what would be the year’s largest volume week. That response withered in April and May as a varied mix of packing plant personnel experienced COVID-19, forcing shutdowns and slower production. At its worst, commercial steer and heifer slaughter slowed to 318,000 head for the week of April 27, roughly 60% of normal.

Prior to the pandemic anomalies, 2020 began with fed cattle carcass weights on a 17-pound (lb.) year-over-year increase through February. Carcass weights typically slide toward their lows in May, but it was quickly apparent they’d departed from normal—a foreboding trend as April saw curtailed processing capacity. Cattle inventories backlogged as feedyards learned of plant closures and slowdowns. That caused carcass weights to increase unseasonally through mid-May.

Two diverging price patterns emerged early in the pandemic. Exaggerated consumer demand coupled with processing slowdowns culminated in record-high boxed beef prices. The comprehensive cutout value peaked in early May at $4.22/lb., the highest ever one-week average, nearly double the price in recent years for that week.

Two weeks earlier, fed-steer values, already erratic, fell to a spring low of $97/cwt., a level that would be revisited and further depressed in late June. The dichotomy of cattle-versus-product pricing sent the production sector into what can lightly be termed “discontent,” rekindling long-standing questions about price discovery and congressional proposals to legislate trade.

Packer margins were record high, but packers had their own challenges to deal with. They went to work implementing preventative health measures within their plants and invested rapidly in personal protective equipment.

connections-2020-hindsight_Kans_MR-20-web

Weekly packing throughput recovered at a surprising pace. The federally inspected slaughter total reached 95% of the prior year at 627,000 head for the first week in June. July weekly totals came in at 99% of the 2019 head counts while the remainder of the weeks in 2020 saw harvest totals bounce above and primarily just below those of the prior year.

The unprecedented carcass weights recorded in the past year—a byproduct of extended days on feed through the backlog—notably impacted carcass quality grades and fat content. The chart clearly shows how Choice and Prime quality grades responded to these two factors as early as mid-April, when the backlog began.

From May through September, combined Choice and Prime quality grades improved an average 5.5 percentage points (ppt.) over the prior year. The industry has seen a gradual increase in quality grades since 2006, with Choice improving an incredible 20 ppt. in the period, with Prime up 6 ppt. However, the two categories combined managed only a 5.5-ppt. gain in the last five years. The 2020 grade improvement was abnormally high, but we’ll likely see that pattern soften in the coming year as carcass weights align with more normalized weekly harvest rates.

The enormity of the carcass weight chasm was highlighted as USDA steer carcasses averaged 52 lb. heavier, year over year, the week of May 11. Fourth-quarter data showed the trend unresolved, but slowly moderated to a 17-lb. differential.

Feedyards, faced with no alternatives in the face of either packer logistics or too many overfed cattle, largely shifted away from grid marketing in the height of the backlog. Thus, they were unable to capitalize on carcass quality in early June when the boxed beef price spreads seasonally widened on time, amid the market disarray. By late November the Choice/Select spread gradually widened again to $21/cwt., while grid premiums for the Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand peaked near a $6/cwt. average in early December. Demand for premium quality product was as strong as ever while tonnage of Choice, CAB and Prime beef edged out the 2019 figures.

CAB carcass supplies mirrored industry-wide trends early in the pandemic. Brand product shortages sent committed retail partners scrambling for quick-delivery amidst exploding demand. The short-term phenomenon forced flexibility when shorted CAB product orders meant substitutions.

By year’s end, the retail grocery sector was the unintended beneficiary of mandated restaurant shutdowns, boosted further by on-line ordering and curbside pickup. CAB retail sales ran 12% higher by the brand’s September 30 fiscal year end and grew from 43% of the overall total to 51%. October went on to mark the second largest sales volume for that month in the brand’s history, supported by both renewed demand and larger fall supplies.

The flip side of that good news is its opposite.

The restaurant trade was one of the most dismal business stories of 2020 in the wake of closures and capacity restrictions. During the worst of it, restaurant sales were off by well over 50%, with many businesses closing permanently, unable to pay vendors, landlords, staff or creditors. Government assistance helped a little, but most restaurants took extreme measures in attempts to stay viable. While eateries adapted menus to curbside and take-out only, foodservice distributors also made significant staffing cuts.

These business aspect are vitally important, yet intertwined with the great loss of lives, careers and livelihoods that can’t be ignored.

On the supply side of the equation, backlogged cattle and extended days on feed factored heavily in recovery for the brand. The April-May weekly CAB carcass supply deficit near 24% righted itself to a 2% surplus by the second week in June. That turnaround only strengthened as seasonal grading records pressed CAB carcass qualification to similar records.

Record Prime grade tonnage matched inconveniently with restaurant dining restrictions and closures to keep a lid on Prime premiums. First-quarter Prime premiums ran near 40% higher than the year prior but the imbalance quickly turned Prime premiums 37% below 2019 for the second and third quarters. Holiday rib demand and strong overall beef demand turned the tide again by November, pushing the Prime premium 14% above the 2019 trend.

Strong demand for the brand throughout 2020, and CAB premiums above Choice boxed beef values defied market disruption. Extreme shortages logically sent the CAB price as high as $33/cwt. above Choice in the most extreme example in late May. Yet even as supplies normalized and outperformed the prior year beginning in June, the CAB/Choice price spread, counterintuitively, averaged near 60% higher than the year before.

Cattle and beef trends will chart a different path for the remainder of 2021. Seasonal slaughter rates continue to reflect the pandemic-influenced placement patterns. Yet, we’ve learned in the past 12 months that in the face of legitimate food-security concerns, consumers ran to beef.

Demand surged even in what was an economically devastating year for many Americans, and consumers ate at home under unique circumstances. The unintended surge in high-quality beef supply in the second half of 2020 held cattle prices artificially lower than retail beef demand justified. As the industry inches toward equilibrium, one thing is certain about the path forward: we are on the right track as it relates to product quality.

Originally ran in the Angus Beef Bulletin.

The market or the management– which comes first?

A modern day chicken-or-egg question

by Miranda Reiman

June 8, 2021

The crystal ball is nonexistent. There is no magic fortune teller. No matter how good the market forecast nobody is right 100% of the time.

That doesn’t mean cattlemen have to look at the future as nothing more than a blind guess.

In the ever-changing cattle marketing world, where more information is better and the bar keeps lifting higher, what’s the next thing that brings additional revenue? How does a producer know if it’s a flash in the pan or a long-term trend?

“You’re always trying to understand the future and moving to where the future will be,” says Ken Odde, former Kansas State University animal science department head. “But at the same time, you have to recognize if you get too far ahead of the trends, it may be at an economic loss for you as well.

“I would describe it as a balancing act.”

When Scott Whitworth, of Silver Bit Angus Ranch near May, Idaho, wants some direction, he takes a look at what’s already gaining traction. He turns to feeder-calf sale reports.

“It’s kind of like taking a test when you have a copy of what the questions are going to be,” he says

Somebody has to be first

Do you make a management change in good faith that the reward will grow, or do you respond to a strong market signal with a management change?

“I think there’s always an optimal time, but usually you only know that retrospectively, some time after the fact,” Odde says, noting experience on his family’s South Dakota cow-calf operation. “We probably stick our neck out further than most ranchers do and sometimes that turns out to be a good business decision, and sometimes it’s not such a good decision.

“But part of doing that is also the learning,” he says. “I don’t think you ever want to underestimate that because the more you participate, the more you learn and the more you learn, the more you know and the better decision maker you are in subsequent years.”

As a researcher, Odde has worked with Superior Livestock Auction data for more than 25 years. He says the introduction of the value-added calf 45-day (VAC-45) weaning program in the mid-1990s makes a good case study.

“The evidence is pretty clear that weaned and vaccinated calves are lower health risks,” he says, yet they aren’t bulletproof. The market had to decide how much that risk reduction was worth.

An analysis spanning more than 80,000 lots from 1995 to 2018, shows the original $2.47 per-hundredweight (cwt.) premium peaked at $10.24/cwt. in 2015 before leveling off to $6.19/cwt. in 2018.

“Since then, the premium has really stayed pretty much the same, pretty stable for several years now,” he says.

It’s an indication the market found out how much cattle feeders value that health protocol, Odde says.

The premium quadrupled at the same time that the number of cattle qualifying was still on an upward incline.

In 1995, only 3% of all lots sold through that video company qualified for VAC-45. Two decades later, that had grown to just under 30%. In that same time period, the percent of non-weaned lots with no vaccinations went from 40% down to zero.

Commercial cattlemen responded, Odde says.

Added work, added value

Whitworth was one of them. The first “program cattle” he marketed out of his commercial herd carried the VAC-45 designation, and after that he signed his registered Angus ranch up as a Superior Progressive Genetics Program and became a rep for the video auction.

“We were able to see what other people were doing, the premiums they were bringing on Superior,” Whitworth says. Today, he also uses AngusLink^SM to enroll his own cattle in source-and-age verification (SAV), non-hormone treated cattle (NHTC), and Global Animal Partnership (GAP) 4.

Whitworth helps market 13,000 commercial Angus cattle each year.

“Another rep told me he had every one of his customers signed up on the programs, and I thought that was a model for us to try to achieve, to bring more value to our customers,” he says.

Most are using some sort of process verified program (PVP). Whitworth grants it is more paperwork but they often report an extra $80 to $120/head above the market.

“Once they get in and get a premium, nobody has quit doing these programs,” he says.

Deciding where to go

That doesn’t mean it’s a cookie-cutter approach

“The size of the premium necessary to change the behavior is always going to vary, because every ranch is in somewhat of a different situation,” Odde says.

Labor, facilities, marketing method and premiums all figure into the decision. A large Western ranch may have more difficulty implementing a process than a smaller Midwestern spread. A bigger herd may capitalize on economies of scale, while a smaller outfit has fewer animals to spread the initial fee across.

“You can’t chase every rabbit hole, but you’ve got to figure out what makes sense,” Odde says.

Troy Marshall, director of commercial industry relations for the American Angus Association^® says that’s where a good cost-benefit analysis could help. “You can really look at your management, your marketing scheme, your goals, and see which of those programs fit.”

The steady and constant serve as good base decisions, a place to launch from.

“There are some hardcore things that you’ll always be rewarded for. That’s superior genetics and cattle that are going to perform for the segments after you in the feeding, packing and ultimately at the consumer level,” he says. “Those trends are long term and well established. There are economic drivers that are driving that bottom line and you can feel pretty comfortable embracing those.”

Quality grade has climbed rapidly in the last decade with more than 70% of the fed cattle supply hitting Choice in 2020. The Certified Angus Beef ^®(CAB^®) brand regularly represents more than one-fifth of the total (more than one-third of eligible black hided), and Prime has been as high as 12%. Last year, the percentage of cattle grading top Choice and Prime added up to more than 40% of fed cattle and at the same time, cutout premiums for Prime or CAB continue at $15 to $20.

Marshall says that’s clear direction.

“I’ve always been amazed at how efficient our marketplace really is at assigning value and responding to consumers, even though we give it a lot of grief sometimes,” he says.

But what’s next?

“Traceability, sustainability and animal welfare—they are probably going to be the next wave,” Marshall says. “I can’t tell you what those metrics are going to be, but early adopters are going to be more positioned to take advantage of it.”

Those who are already involved in record keeping and verification stand ready to capitalize.

“You’re used to documenting it. You’ve already started to gain reputation with those buyers,” he says. “There are dollars to be had out there.”

This is the first year Odde will use AngusLink^SMand GAP 4 enrollment on his herd.

“If we go to the work that we think we need to do to qualify,” he asks, “is that going to be something that in the long term is going to be beneficial? Do we think that’s going to be something lasting?”

History helps inform the future. When the animal scientist started working with Superior data there were a dozen attributes to sort on, such as weight, color and sex. Today there are 26.

“We continue to describe feeder cattle more precisely than we ever used to describe them,” he says.

It’s not a crystal ball, but a strong signal: more information will continue to be more valuable. There’s no need for a fortune teller for those at the ready.

Originally ran in the Angus Journal.

CAB Connection

Producing for the brand

by Miranda Reiman

June 8, 2021

“Do we just sign up? Or get special ear tags?”

Those are questions we hear quite often from producers who want to raise cattle for the Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand. Some days I wish the answer were “yes.”

On one hand, it’s not that simple. On the other, it’s even simpler.

How do I certify my herd?

You don’t. In fact, neither our company nor its licensed packers certify cattle or carcasses. Instead, third-party USDA graders apply the CAB logo to each carcass that meets our specifications. First, the animal must pass the live evaluation as Angus type. (That’s a predominantly solid black hide from tail head to shoulder above the flank.) Then it must meet our 10 carcass specifications (see box). For those that do, the CAB trademark leverages marketing opportunities and increases profitability for licensed packers, distributors, restaurants and grocery stores that market the beef. This adds value to those cattle, typically paid to producers in the form of grid premiums.

By working to improve the carcass quality of your Angus and Angus-cross cattle, you can become a part of the program. It is a long-term process with no such thing as signing up. There are no commitments other than the ones you make because of market forces.

How do I get my cattle to qualify for the brand?

There are no guarantees, but you can improve the odds of raising more qualifiers through a combination of genetics and management.

Since cattle can’t be better than their genetics allow, selection is an important first step.

Lack of marbling is the top reason carcasses are kicked out of the brand—only 35% of all Angus-type cattle make the cut. Out of the pool of eligible cattle, 92% of those falling short miss that premium opportunity because they don’t meet the marbling threshold of Modest or higher. We don’t advocate single-trait selection, but we do talk about marbling a lot because it’s the No. 1 spot where producers leave money on the table and easily included among balanced traits. Marbling matters.

The next three specifications where genetic selection may have the most impact are the 10- to 16-square-inch ribeye, hot carcass weight no greater than 1,050 pounds, and back fat thickness of one inch or less.

No amount of management can overcome poor genetics, but superior genetics can easily be minimized through poor management. Paying attention to all the little things along the way means using the best health, nutrition and animal handling practices, and then coordinating those with whoever finishes your calves.

How does CAB fit into my bottom line?

It can be hard to explain. How does a company that owns no cattle, no beef, no retail outlets or restaurants, no packing plants or processors add value in the beef business?

Of the 75 different USDA-certified Angus brands, CAB is the only one owned and operated by the American Angus Association®. Our company, Certified Angus Beef LLC, is a not-for-profit arm of the Association, taking no dollars from registration fees, transfers or membership. The brand is entirely funded by licensed packers and processors, which pay commissions of about 2 cents per pound for every CAB product sold. When a carcass is certified, the packer can choose to market it as Certified Angus Beef ^®–and most of the time, they do. Why? They can sell it for more money, because the distributors know they can sell it for more money, because the restaurants and retailers know a consistent eating experience has inherently more value to their customers.

That pull-through demand has funded the brand for more than four decades, and puts more than $92 million in grid premiums into cattlemen’s pockets each year. Anyone who retains ownership at the time of finishing and sells to a CAB-licensed packing plant (with access to 85% of North American fed cattle) has an opportunity to see those dollars directly. Last year’s average CAB grid premium of approximately $50 per head does not include the related premiums for grade and yield.

For those who sell at weaning or soon after, communicating your calves’ carcass quality potential gives buyers more information to encourage higher bids. For example, the AngusLink^SMGenetic Merit Scorecard lets you denote groups with CAB’s Targeting the Brand^™logo when they have an above-average chance of qualifying for the brand (see page XX). Short of that, it can be as simple as a phone call to potential buyers, or even a social media post with information on the genetics and management behind the calves for sale.

Demand for high-quality beef is strong and steadily increasing for decades, so even though you can’t sign up, you can join the quality movement. And you can join our e-mail list to get the latest information on high-quality beef production delivered right to your inbox. Just visit cabcattle.com.

See, I told you it was simple.

Originally ran in the Angus Beef Bulletin.

His will, their work

M&M Feeder wins CAB honors for feeding the right kind well

Story and photos by Miranda Reiman

September 2020

A land auction that didn’t go the right way. A cattle deal that didn’t get done. Anyone who has watched their best-laid plans take a detour, take heart in the Huyser family’s story.

With a small feeding operation already established at Elm Creek, Neb., brothers Mel and Marvin Huyser put in an offer on a larger yard just down the road near Lexington. They got outbid.

“We felt like we needed to be here, but it just wasn’t the right timing,” says Mel’s son Daron, who was in high school at the time.

Five years later, as Daron was about to earn his animal science degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UN-L), the yard came up for sale again.

“I woke up in the middle of the night, and I got this figure come out of my head and that’s what we offered,” Mel says.

The real estate agent doubted they’d get it bought, but called back shortly after with the news that it was theirs. They and their wives took a leap of faith when they signed on the dotted line.

Prayer and patience were both at work.

Perfect timing

“It was just a God thing,” Daron says, that they had a second chance. “There was no doubt this time. Before, it was like, ‘I want it, I want it, but this isn’t going to work.’ You can’t force it to happen.”

Daron had been planning a career in allied industry, perhaps as a livestock nutritionist or in sales, when his dad asked if he’d like to join the family business.

“It was like getting that winning lottery ticket,” Daron says. “You have the opportunity to do what you want to do, to come back, be large enough to establish and carry a family, take care of customers…I thought, ‘Let’s jump in with both feet and go.’”

His dad shared that no-hesitation outlook.

The family business now includes two yards, with his sister Jamie tackling the daily tasks at Elm Creek and Daron helps manage operations at Lexington. Mel does everything from keeping up customer relations to driving the feedtruck, while Marvin handles commodity trading from his home in Idaho.

“We’ve got that family touch. It’s somebody in the family feeding the cattle, taking care of the cattle day-to-day,” Daron says. “We don’t have to sit and look off a computer and tell you exactly whose cattle they are. We know what the cattle are. We have relationships, we talk with the people weekly.”

For the kind of people they are and the kind of cattle they feed so well, M&M Feeders earned the 2020 Feedyard Commitment to Excellence award from the Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand.

A place and a purpose

With that 2005 purchase, they had a weed-overgrown feedyard, a lot of hard work before them and a need for 6,500 cattle to fill the pens.

It was a bit like their move in 1992, when they left their Idaho farming and feeding operation for the western edge of the Corn Belt. Daron was in fifth grade and Jamie was a junior.

“We could see the cattle industry was changing and moving this way,” Mel says. “The packers were out here and the corn was out here and it was a good move for us.”

A handful of customers came with them, shipping calves to that Elm Creek location, but they had to build their base from there. Both times the family grew their list without a set strategy or formula, by just being themselves and living their values.

“Honesty is the best business advertisement you can have. We have always stuck to our guns on that. It has always paid off,” Mel says.

Still today, word of mouth, long-time relationships and industry connections keep funneling commercial ranchers back to them.

“It’s about treating people right, treating people with integrity,” Daron says. “We want to take care of the customer cattle the same way that we would take care of our own—and even better—because their trust is in us to take care of their cattle.”

At UN-L, Daron met the Connealys of Connealy Angus, near Whitman, Neb. That was the first place he went for advice when he got a Young Farmers and Ranchers Loan to start a cow-calf enterprise.

“They helped us see the value of genetics and helped us with our own cow herd,” he says. “We could see that the improvement starting with the calves carried all the way through onto the carcass traits and the different premiums that we could get.”

A first purchase of 74 cow-calf pairs in 2009 has snowballed into a large-scale commercial cow operation. “Having skin in the game at the base level of the cattle industry gives us a little different perspective.”

Besides carcass traits, he says they’ve improved calf vigor, disposition and mothering ability. The operation consists of a mix of rented and owned ground that spans 70 miles.

The Huysers artificially inseminate the entire herd, calve early in the year and hit the April market with 14-month-old finished cattle. Most go right up the road to Tyson, where they’ll often bring $5 to $10 above the market and reach 60% CAB acceptance and 10% to 15% Prime. Trying to hit that earlier market, they sell them “a little green,” Daron says, noting their 10% yield grade 4s.

“Certified Angus Beef has been a way that we can add more value to our carcass,” he says. “Anything we can do to add a premium for our own cattle, or our customer cattle, and then also have a good product for their consumer.”

It’s a relatively unique vantage.

“Everyone has to fit their operation, but we have the advantage that we get to see it from the beginning all the way to the end,” he says.

The feeding family can share feedback on performance and carcass, along with examples of what’s worked in their own herd. They’re split about 50/50 in customer vs. owned pens, and that experience in the cow business helps inform their purchasing decisions into the yard, too.

“We used to feed a lot of mixed cattle, put-together cattle, a lot of colored cattle of unknown genetics,” Daron says. “We’ve seen the value of buying cattle off of one ranch or off of a bigger group of cattle from people who are really invested and improving their genetics.”

When Daron watches the Northern Livestock Video Auction, he’s already highlighted the sale order—either because he’s fed them before or knows the lineage of the calves on the sheet. He’s fed several rounds of AngusLink^® calves.

“I figure if they’re going to spend the money on enrolling in Angus Link, they’re going to spend the money on the genetics,” Daron says. “We’ve seen the results on the other end.”

Other investments are less about the immediate payoff and more about the long-term vision. Hayley works as an attorney and her office handles their estate planning, lien checks and compliance.

“We understand that guys whose cattle we’re taking care of have a lot invested and we want to make sure all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed,” Daron says.

Family values

For the family, it’s not just about keeping a business in the black. It’s about building a life, one they can share together now and pass down later.

Daron and Hayley have three boys: Emmett (5), Cooper (3) and McClain (6 months)—the older two already budding cattlemen. This summer Emmett traded daycare for job shadowing Dad at the yard.

“He’s the cattle baron around here,” Daron laughs. “He’ll tell you how things are and where to go and what cattle need taken care of.” And if the kindergartener can talk Aunt Jamie into checking cows, even better—he’ll get his fix of being horseback.

It’s all the ordinary things like time spent with a nephew, having each other’s back when there’s a problem, and being able to talk freely that make the family business more appealing than Jamie’s previous career in the retail field.

“For me it’s enjoyable because it’s more personal,” she says. The work is more than punching a timecard—it supports four families.

The only downside seems to be when a Sunday dinner turns into mapping out the week’s to-do list. But their mom Connie is used to it by now. She and Mel have been married for 47 years, having met when Marvin and wife Reeta married in 1972. She’s embraced being a cattle feeder’s wife, and raising two more cattle feeders of their own.

Idaho to Nebraska, careers in between, new lives brought into the family, newer-still brought into the world, all with lots of figuring, working and hoping in between: It wasn’t a straight line.

But as things often do, they worked out even better.

“We prayed that if it was God’s will, that the doors would open, and they did open,” Marvin says. “And the biggest thing was when they did open, to have the faith to walk through the door and keep going.”

What started as a few names on a dotted line and a conviction that they could make a Nebraska feedyard work has more than just worked, and the Huysers aren’t the only ones better off for it.

This story originally published in the Angus Journal.

Beyond a buzzword

Wilson Cattle Company & Beef Northwest earns first CAB Sustainability Award.

By Nicole Lane Erceg

Photos by Nicole Lane Erceg and Kylee Kohls

The water flows with strategic design through pastures enclosed by precisely kept barbed-wire fences. Bee boxes seem as ordinary here as the pine trees, homes for ranch pollinators. A hawk leaves the sky to land gently on its perch, placed there decisively, long before he thought to rest his wings.

Little goes on without specific purpose at Wilson Cattle Company.

It’s not the work of fancy technology, though spreadsheets of data and consultants lend their hand. It’s six generations of meticulous puzzle masters who focused on making better each piece of the bigger picture.

It’s a philosophy: one plus one should always equal more than two.

Cattle, of course, are a critical part of the equation. It’s their measurement of performance that determines success.

But the people, they are the multipliers.

The Ranch

He looks a little more East Coast than his western cowboy genes. The sixth generation to manage the land, Zach Wilson is a modern cattleman. The hybrid thinker multitasks on a drive through the ranch, maneuvering his pickup to check grass, chat with cowboys, cuss the things that could get better, all while his to-do list at the office tugs at him to get back to work.

Like his visionary ancestors who followed the Oregon Trail, raised horses for the Cavalry during World War I and started a feeding enterprise in the Pacific Northwest, Wilson pushes boundaries. He’s on a mission to amplify his resources to make things better.

“What I hope to leave on this ranch when they put six feet of dirt on me is an improved water system,” says Wilson. “The flood irrigation is a good way to do things, but I think there are great ways to do things.”

It might sound like a minor detail but the 6,000 acre ranch near North Powder, Ore., gets an average rainfall of just 12 inches. Most soil moisture comes from snow and it’s irrigated pasture that makes their land stand out in sage brush country.

Their system is based on intensive rotational grazing combined with making the land the best habitat possible for more than the 2,000 Angus-based commercial cows and 12,000 stocker cattle that call it home.

“If it’s good for the little bugs in the soil, or the migratory birds or larger mammals like elk or deer, even rodents, it’s going to be good for the cattle,” he says. “If you treat it more as a holistic system, rather than simply inputs for the cattle, then you’re going to get better performance out of your cattle.”

It’s not, as Wilson would put it, “hippy woo-woo.” He has the data to prove it works, boiling down the economic input into gains and head-days in pasture. Limited input, maximum production output tracked on a per-head basis gets the most for his resource dollar.

“Our job is to work with Mother Nature,” he says. “She knows best. We try to figure out the best incentives for what is going to help her be her most productive self.”

It’s a high road that takes discipline.

“The ranch is like a muscle,” Wilson explains. “We’re working it out to make it stronger, just like we’d go to the gym and do pushups. It’s a living organism and it should be treated as such.”

The natural resource company’s riparian barriers, waterfowl habitat and soil microbiology aren’t just feel-good projects. They are strategic investments to raise better beef, more efficiently.

He points to an elevated bird box: “Some goose pair has probably been coming here for 15 years, raising their goslings and then moving on.”

Their droppings fertilize the soil. With them comes a diversity of bird populations that help manage flies, in turn helping the cattle. He sees each detail as a piece of a bigger cycle. His job is steward of it all.

“It means a lot to me to take care of the land. Six generations on this land means a lot of people have put a lot of sweat equity into it and I want to make sure that I’m treating it the way it should be treated,” says Wilson. “Feeding the world with what we do, I take that to heart.”

The systems thinking extends beyond the ranch to Beef Northwest, which feeds the cattle that leave his ranch.

The two entities are halves of the same whole. One feeds, the other breeds and stocks a steady supply ready to fill the pens as they empty. Wilson’s cattle harvest the grass in Baker Valley while Beef Northwest, started by the fifth generation of Wilsons, expands the enterprise with yards throughout the Pacific Northwest. It’s a symbiotic relationship, both dependent on each other — challenging even for those who serve inside to determine where one ends and the other begins.

The feedyard partnership gives Wilson a long-term view of the product and access to carcass data that indicates wins and losses.

It’s a system built on synergies.

The Feedyard

“No, I don’t have a background in agriculture. I just started here as an intern.”

It’s a story told by many employed at the cattle feeding business. From the voice answering the phones, to the manager at the yard in Quincy, Wash., to the pen rider monitoring cattle health in the Nyssa feedyard near the border of Idaho, people are the hub of this wheel.

Together they care for more than 100,000 head in four locations, the other two at Hermiston and Boardman, Ore.

“I believe the quality of the beef that comes out of Beef Northwest is directly related to the quality of the people,” says Wes Killion, Chief Operating Officer (pictured below on the right). “It’s a window into the company that goes with every aspect, be it environmental stewardship, animal health, animal performance or consumer eating experience.”

The cowboy at the top takes the commitment to consistently producing quality beef as seriously as the fresh new graduate a few weeks into her career.

Growing and equipping leaders is key to the strategy.

Giving people what they need to do a good job, that’s what Liz Nielson does. Last summer her title was intern; today it’s training coordinator.

“We try to give people the tools, experience and attention they need and make them feel like this is their home,” she says. “By boosting their confidence, work ability and skills — that directly relates to cattle performance.”

The bubbly, energetic young cattlewoman came to the feeding business with no experience, but acts as a sponge of knowledge, quickly grasping new techniques and teaching others.

“When someone truly understands why scraping a pen translates to cattle feed conversion, then they understand that every day when they go out, they are making a difference,” says Nielson. “When cattle go to harvest and consumers get their product, they’ve directly had a hand in making that experience a good one.”

It’s a business that’s less transactional, more relational. A system built on motivating people to do the right thing.

“I was the first intern,” says Pete Szasz (pictured below with his son). Today, with 15 years of experience under his straw hat, he’s the manager at the Boardman yard. Szasz and his team have 40,000 heartbeats relying on them for a meal three times a day.

“We’re trying to make high-quality beef that’s wholesome,” Szasz says. “You don’t do that without quality ingredients, no matter how hard you try.”

Eastern Oregon isn’t known for cattle feeding. Far from the Corn Belt and High Plains, the model requires progressive thinkers who harness a resource the landscape does offer: potatoes.

The feeding facility sits just down the freeway from french-fry factories. The highly nutritious and palatable carbohydrate provides energy. Tater tots, fries and jojos that don’t make spec become the basis for a high-quality mixed ration.

“If we weren’t here to utilize the potatoes, they would end up in a landfill,” Szasz explains. “That’s where they were going, prior to us being in the area.”

It’s in their DNA to look for opportunities to innovate around every corner. At the same time, the Beef Northwest team fiercely protects the best traditions of the past.

Pen riders trot with purpose, communicating via mailboxes at the end of the pen rows. Their path is mapped using GPS and drones for precise nutrient management and a responsible water run-off strategy. Each animal they check has electronic identification in its ear, the feed in their bunks quality-control tested.

It’s cowboys and cutting-edge technology, a commitment to excellence in every chore. Quality cattle-feeding requires focus beyond the feed bunk, and they hold themselves accountable through Progressive Beef.

The Buzzword

Sustainability was a mindset at Beef Northwest and Wilson Cattle Company long before the term became a buzzword, earning the sister organizations the first-ever Certified Angus Beef ^® Sustainability Commitment to Excellence Award.

“The more we can take care of the environment, the better opportunity there is for a better outcome for the cattle, be it health or performance as well as quality,” Killion says. “All of those play a vital role. If we don’t do that, then we’re probably putting employees at risk as well. We want to be leaders and not followers on the environmental aspect of feeding.”

It’s not just asking how to make better cattle, but how to create a better system.

“It’s a big web and at first glance we might not see why we do it, but it all comes down to the product we give to the consumer,” Nielson says. “That’s the most important thing: raising beef that not only tastes good, but that we’ve done everything we can to make sure it’s the best quality they could get.”

Szasz agrees. The ideal animal coming into his yard begins with quality genetics. He’s looking for an Angus-type, 750-pound steer that won’t have any health challenges.

“It is something we truly value and when we go out and procure cattle,” says Killion. “We’re always looking at cattle that would qualify for Certified Angus Beef premiums.”

Because sustainability includes a black bottom line.

“I think there’s a disconnect when people talk about sustainability, that it’s either profit or environmental improvement,” Wilson says. “It’s the exact opposite. To me it means working with the weather, the land, the people and the cattle. Letting nature and the environment tell us what to do because if you do that, then the bottom line will show you’re doing the right thing.”

The idea is that the great cattle make the land better and the people make better cattle.

“When I think about sustainability, it’s creating relationships with ranchers and people we do business with year in and year out,” Szasz says.

It shows. Many of their feeding partnerships measure in decades and second-generation employees ride to work with the first.

Sustainability is a nebulous term, one so all-encompassing as to challenge grasp. In this corner of the world, though, it’s a clear, shared vision that the business is much bigger than any one individual. Each person’s commitment to consistent betterment in their area of ecology, cattle health, genetics, technology or people creates collective value.

Sustainability isn’t just about the end product, the ranch or the feedyard.

It’s everyone in between.

This story originally published in the Angus Journal.

Carpenter Cattle Company Recognized for Feeding Better Cattle Better

Kansas feeder earns the 2024 CAB Feedyard Commitment to Excellence Award.

​

by Kylee Sellnow, senior content manager

You may also like

Like Father, Like Daughter

Triangle H accepts the 2022 CAB Feedyard Commitment to Excellence award.

​

By Morgan Boecker

You May Also Like…

Kansas Feedyard Honored by Certified Angus Beef

Story and photos by Morgan Boecker

You may also like

How to pick a feedyard

A dozen tips for finding the right fit for your cattle, goals

by Abbie Burnett

You may also like

Matching the yard

Find the right fit for your cattle, goals

by Abbie Burnett

You may also like

2020 Hindsight

Dichotomies, erratic patterns, stabilization–last year had it all

by Paul Dykstra

You may also like

The market or the management– which comes first?

A modern day chicken-or-egg question

by Miranda Reiman

You may also like

CAB Connection

Producing for the brand

by Miranda Reiman

You may also like

His will, their work

M&M Feeder wins CAB honors for feeding the right kind well

Story and photos by Miranda Reiman

You May Also Like…

Beyond a buzzword

Wilson Cattle Company & Beef Northwest earns first CAB Sustainability Award.

By Nicole Lane Erceg

You May Also Like…