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feedtruck at Magnum Feedyard

2023 Feedyard Commitment to Excellence

Magnum Feedyard Earns Certified Angus Beef Award

 

By: Morgan Boecker, Senior Manager of Producer Communications

September 2023

A sign in Steve Gabel’s office says, “three yards a down.” It’s a football recipe for steady progress based on every little bit of work and attention to detail.

The sights and sounds at a feedyard are predictable, but you don’t expect to find such pristine facilities and people who care about every aspect of the cattle feeding business. It’s all there at Magnum Feedyard just outside of Wiggins, Colorado.

For their drive to effectively hit the high-quality beef target and determination to get better every day, Magnum Feedyard received the Certified Angus Beef (CAB) 2023 Feedyard Commitment to Excellence award. The Gabels were recognized at CAB’s Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, in September.

“The world is run by people who show up,” says Christie Gabel, quoting one of her dad’s sayings and life lessons. “It’s a good daily motto to get up and go serve your purpose.” 

Each family member conveys their own strengths to Magnum. Steve brings years of operations and market wisdom as Audrey keeps the books and people balanced. Case handles risk management and cattle procurement while his sister Christie recently joined as the cattle clerk.

Since 1994, Steve and Audrey have modernized the infrastructure with steel pens, concrete bunks, a corn steam flaker and hay processor.

Loads of multihued cattle once stepped off the trailers, filling pens with calves from Mexico or Holstein influence. Now, they actively seek Angus-based cattle of Northern origin with hopes to excel in quality grade and hit a 1,500- to 1,600-lb. end weight.

“I think the icing on the cake becomes the grid and its potential to return premiums for the right genetic package fed right,” Steve says.

Magnum Feedyard pen rider

But quality isn’t the only change realized. Better genetics also improved gains and dry-matter conversions. The report card keeps improving, with pens of cattle averaging 40% CAB and 10% Prime – a big improvement from selling on a live basis.

“If you can’t quantify how cattle are going to perform, you can’t really manage your risk against that,” Case says. “With better cattle, you have more predictable performance in all aspects.”

Keeping the bunks stocked is the biggest undertaking at the feedyard, closely followed by caring for their health. Research and practice show a correlation between visits to the sick pen and ability to grade Choice, Steve points out.

“We’re not capable of eliminating every potential bad day,” he says. “Our job as stockmen and caretakers of these animals is to do everything to make the environment as pleasant and performance oriented as we possibly can.”

That includes the little details. Driving through the feedyard, nothing is out of place. At every sunrise, the yard office is clean for the many feet that will trek in and out of the front door, checking in at the scales.

“The Gabels don’t do anything half-heartedly,” says Dirk Murphy, Magnum’s feedyard manager. “They would tell you that a half-hearted work ethic receives half-hearted results.”

Whether you’re a feed truck driver, pen rider, office assistant, intern or cattle buyer, your work matters. The average Magnum employee has been there for more than nine years.

“Everybody understands value in their role because mom and dad make people feel valued on top of just telling them they are,” Christie says.

The office buzzes with energy from each of the Gabels, spilling out to the rest of the feedyard employees who spend the day hands-on with the cattle.

Progress is rarely a straight trajectory up – and the Gabels have seen their fair share of setbacks – but each day they bring a positive, driven attitude to get better. As responsibility continues to shift to the next generation, there’s just as much excitement and thrill to chase the moving target of success.

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feedtruck at Magnum Feedyard

Showing Up, Every Day  

Magnum Feedyard earns the 2023 Feedyard Commitment to Excellence award.

By Morgan Boecker

October 2023

It’s still dark when the first tires hit the gravel drive to Magnum Feedyard. The only noise is the hum of the feed mill and crunch of those tires as the crew arrives to begin the day.

“The world is run by people who show up,” says Christie Gabel, quoting one of her dad’s sayings and life lessons. “It’s a good daily motto to get up and go serve your purpose.”

Maybe that’s why sunrise is a favorite time for most of the family. A peaceful moment of illumination so invites participation that even the cattle stir in anticipation of breakfast.The predictable sights and sounds make a fitting start for a business that operates on finely tuned routine.

Thirty-five thousand cattle may fill these pens, but it’s the Gabel family who set the tone for each day. Steve and Audrey persistently create a people-first culture, echoed by their son Case and daughter Christie, who work alongside them in the yard office.

Each family member brings their own strengths to Magnum, near Wiggins, Colorado. Steve brings years of wisdom through tried-and-true practice while Audrey keeps the books and people balanced. Ten years ago, Case moved home and took on risk management and cattle procurement while also managing and owning feedyards in Nebraska. Then in 2021, Christie left her 15-year career in pharmaceutical sales to join her family. She worked her way through each department at the yard before settling in as the cattle clerk.

There are many moving parts at a feedyard, but every detail matters to this family and team. For their drive to effectively hit the high-quality beef target and determination to get better every day, Magnum Feedyard received the Certified Angus Beef (CAB) 2023 Feedyard Commitment to Excellence award. The Gabels were recognized at CAB’s Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, in September.

Feedyard 1

Caption: (left to right, back): Harper, Case, Kelsi, Audrey, Stetson & Christie Gabel; (left to right, front) Cavin, Steve, Ansley & Hadli Gabel

Visible Changes

Before Steve owned the feedyard, he was hired to build its customer base. The worn-out wooden pens were stocked with buffalo back then, eating dry-rolled corn from a few cement bunks.

Soon, he and Audrey had the opportunity to buy the place and on July 1, 1994, Magnum Feedyard was born.

“We recognized early on that our survival and our ability to leave anything to the kids meant we had to grow and expand,” Steve says.

The young couple got to work welding new pen structures, splitting them to increase head count from 3,500 to 8,000 and reworked the business model. With each new year came another line of bunks until they reached 22,000-head capacity. The pens shifted to a colorful mix of calves imported from Mexico or Holsteins as their customer base grew.

“When we had an empty pen and someone called, we didn’t have the ability at that point to ask where the cattle are from and what their genetics were,” Steve says. “If we had an empty pen, we took them in.”

A few years ago, another expansion brought capacity to 35,000 head, but uniformity increased this time around. Today, you’ll see mostly black-hided cattle on rations from a steam flaker and an efficient hay processing facility.

Modernizing infrastructure and makeup of cattle called for another change.

Listening to the Market

Most of Magnum’s history was feeding cattle for someone else. Always a student of the markets, however, Steve watched customer report cards in the form of carcass data and payouts, noticing how and when money was left on the table.

This was about the same time Case moved home 10 years ago and picked up cattle procurement and risk management for Magnum.

“One of the bigger changes I’ve seen at the feedyard is a more consistent supply of high-quality feeder cattle,” Case says.
Better cattle led them to negotiate a new marketing agreement with JBS Packing that rewards cattle for hitting high quality targets. Not only are they incentivized to make cattle big, but also produce a carcass that make premium Choice and Prime beef.

They actively seek Angus-influenced cattle of Northern origin with hopes to excel in quality grade and hit a 1,500- to 1,600-lb. end weight. Now, Magnum owns 75% to 85% of the cattle that come through the yard.

“I think the icing on the cake becomes the grid and its potential to return premiums for the right genetic package fed right,” Steve says.

But quality isn’t the only change he’s seen. Better genetics also improved gains and dry-matter conversions. The report card keeps improving, with pens of cattle averaging 40% CAB and 10% Prime – a big improvement from selling on a live basis.

“If you can’t quantify how cattle are going to perform, you can’t really manage your risk against that,” Case says. “With better cattle, you have more predictable performance in all aspects.”

Dirk Murphy

Caption: “There’s a lot of other things that we could do to make money that are easier or don’t take as much work, don’t take as much time,” Dirk Murphy says. But at the end of the day, they’re following their passion and working with people they care about.

Consistent and Accurate

Back to the sunrise scene, feedyard manager Dirk Murphy makes his way through the yard reading bunks to provide the feed truck drivers an updated call for the day. Steers and heifers stand and stretch.

Meals consist of corn, wet distiller grains, liquid protein supplement, alfalfa hay and sometimes dried bakery surplus products. Each pen gets a customized recipe based on their stage of the feeding cycle.

Cattle are creatures of habit, so consistency is vital to each animal’s health and performance, Murphy says. That’s why the first feeding is all about timing and the second is for accuracy.

“There’s a lot of other things that we could do to make money that are easier,” Murphy says. “But this passion we have for this industry is what really drives us. And producing a high-quality end product for consumers.”

Keeping the bunks stocked is the biggest undertaking at the feedyard, closely followed by caring for their health. Research and practice show a correlation between visits to the sick pen and ability to grade Choice, Steve points out.

“We’re not capable of eliminating every potential bad day,” Steve says. “Our job as stockman and caretakers of these animals is to do everything to make the environment as pleasant and performance oriented as we possibly can.”

Little Details, Big Results

Above the door between Steve and Case’s office is a sign that says, “three yards a down.” It’s a football recipe for steady progress based on every little bit of work and attention to detail.

Beyond the feedyard, Christie manages their cow-calf operation and Case oversees the farming side that grows crops for Magnum’s use along with silage for local dairies.

“Our ability to manage the little things allows us to leave this place better than we found it,” Steve says.

They compost mortalities through a screening system with end products applied on their farm area alfalfa fields for farmers who supply hay to Magnum. It’s a partnership with the farmers that also secures better quality alfalfa.

Water is a scarce and valuable commodity on the Front Range and Steve is required to report water use monthly. All runoff is captured in holding ponds that meet specific seepage and evaporation rates. The newest section of the feedyard installed a reclaim system where water runs through a gravel-and-sand filter medium and across ultraviolet light, until it’s clean and rejoins the main water supply. Every drop is either consumed and converted by an animal or recycled and reused.

“I want to be a good neighbor, too,” Steve says. “So, at the end of the day, we will continue to invest and research ways to improve our environmental footprint. Not just for water quality, but for sustainability as a whole.”

Gabel family

Caption: Why does any of the Gabel’s show up every day? Because it’s their family who’s counting on them.

“Really, the cattle business is a people business,” Case Gabel says. “We trade a lot of dollars, we trade a lot of animals, we trade a lot of risk, but we do it with people that we want to do business with every day.”

Care You Can See

Driving through the feedyard, nothing is out of place. At every sunrise, the yard office is clean for the many feet that will trek in and out of the front door, checking in at the scales.

“The Gabels don’t do anything half-heartedly,” Murphy says. “They would tell you that a half-hearted work ethic receives half-hearted results.”

Whether you’re a feed truck driver, pen rider, office assistant, intern or cattle buyer, your work matters. The average Magnum employee has been there for more than nine years.

“Everybody understands value in their role because mom and dad make people feel valued on top of just telling them they are,” Christie says.

The office buzzes with energy from each of the Gabels; it’s a family full of strong personalities. But it’s a family business where everyone is empowered to make decisions, even if they end in a mistake.

“We’ve had lots of discussions, we’ve had lots of disappointments,” Audrey says. “But with all those disappointments, that’s when we learn the most. That’s when we get the fulfillment of doing it right the second time.”

Progress is rarely a straight trajectory up. It’s more of a jagged line with setbacks and then big jumps forward. Everyone gets the chance to fall but get back up and try again. That’s a lesson the family knows too well.

For more than 20 years, Steve has been confined to a wheelchair managing the feedyard. But he says it’s only strengthened his team of employees and family through greater trust to get the job done. Seeing their kids choose to come back to the family business on their own has made both Steve and Audrey proud.

On the flip side, Case and Christie witnessing their parents’ resilience makes them want to continue the family legacy.
“To keep going in this business, you’ve gotta have a little of a daredevil attitude,” Audrey says. The harder the work ¬–physically and mentally – the more fun it is.

As they transition more responsibility to the next generation, there’s just as much excitement and thrill to chase the moving target of success.

 

This story was originally published in the Angus Journal.

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kendall hopp at shaw feedyard

Committed to consistency

Kansas feedyard awarded for commitment to excellence

Story and photos by Morgan Boecker

October 2021

shaw feedyard

He looks up at the sky, shading the sun’s rays with his hand wondering when it will rain. The phone in his pocket buzzes with a market update, corn futures are up again, and a text reads, “Headed to town, feed truck is on the fritz.” 

Much of the cattle feeding business is outside a manager’s control. But quality cattle caretaking, that 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 because Hopp knows happy folks manage cattle more consistently, leading to healthy cattle that perform.

He shared this philosophy with Bill Shaw 14 years ago. At the time, Shaw Feedyard in Ashland, Kan., felt like any other commodity yard where color, shape, and size would vary with a ride down the row. Today, Hopp manages a sea of pens dotted with high-quality Angus feeders that return on the rail. 

Different skillsets make their business thrive. Hopp manages the feedyard, Bill handles the money, 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.

Evolution

In 1964, with just four pens, Bill’s father, Jim, began feeding cattle. He made up for what he lacked in experience in market knowledge, the cushion of capital, and a desire to figure it out. The yard grew with small successes, Jim invested dollars into infrastructure as he learned. 

As a kid, it was Bill’s playground. From drawing in the dirt, he grew to fiddling with rations. Then, after earning a degree from Kansas State University, the feedyard became his full-time job. 

“I can remember coming out first thing in the morning when I was a little kid and riding the feed truck with dad,” Brett says. 

There weren’t any computers or the “fancy stuff” they have today. Bill made do with paper and pen, writing rations and ingredient weights down as he went, scribbling observations as he checked bunks.

“I can still see him walking around, feeding cattle with that little piece of paper hanging out of his mouth,” Brett says. 

Now, it’s Hopp who runs the bunks and formulates the rations, working in tandem with the father-son team. 

brett and bill shaw
kendall hopp

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. The Kansas wind keeps even the hottest summer days bearable. 

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.

“Certified Angus Beef put targets for us to beat, and then they rewarded us for that,” Hopp says. “I guarantee you, if you give us, an American rancher or farmer an incentive, we’ll meet that target. And man, the purebred breeders are really producing something we can work with.” 

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.”

They make the most of their resources. Every year, Brett puts nearly 1,000 stockers to graze grass in the summer, and 1,000 more are put on wheat in the winter. Then they’re brought into the feedyard at the end of the grazing period, where they’re finished.  

High-quality input equals high-quality output when managed with precision. Hopp’s punctuality means cattle feeding starts at 6:30 a.m. and not a minute later. 

“I’m very particular about when the truck drivers get here,” he says. “They get the same sheets every day, so it’s the same routine. That’s how we train our cattle.”  

He closely monitors the bunks ensuring they have just enough – a few crumbs are a good sign he’s feeding the right amount.

shaw feedyard angus steers
pen rider

Handled with care

Once feeding is underway, pen riders saddle up. They track cattle exhibiting signs of sickness – treatment date, medicine administered, and withdrawal time. Hopp says his pen riders are worth their weight in gold.

“It’s more of an art than a science,” he says. “You can train someone, but some have it, and some don’t.”

Comfort is a priority. The pens are kept clean, dry, and stocked with freshwater giving them everything they need to convert feed to beef.

Everyone at Shaw’s specializes in individualized cattle care. 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.

“The packer knows when he comes to Shaw Feedyard, he’s going to find animals that have been treated humanely,” Hopp says.

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.

Everything is weighed when it enters the feedyard. While cattle with the same owner stay together, they may be sorted three or four times as they grow.

“If you have 100 head, about 30% will finish a little quicker,” Hopp has learned. Because genetic potential is often consistent, weight is the best gauge.

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.”

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Darnall quality aim honored

 

by Jen Gillespie

November 30, 2011

One of the first and best Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) feeding partners, Darnall Feedlot, Harrisburg, Neb., was known for quality even before licensing in early 1999. Gary and Lane Darnall, father and son, signed on with their 20,000-head yard and quickly gained a wider reputation for consistent quality.

A few years later, CAB created the 30.06 Program to highlight harvest groups of cattle that hit the target with at least 30% Certified Angus Beef ® brand or Prime and no more than 6% outliers.

That’s not as easy as it might sound, especially for a large feedlot. But Darnall had previously won the CAB Partner of the Year for large yards (2006) and the Quality Focus Award (2008), as well as numerous awards in the National Angus Carcass Challenge a few years ago. So they know how to get the job done.

In September, Darnall reached the milestone of having enrolled more than 500 head of 30.06-qualified cattle. In fact, those 506 cattle earned a 43.92% CAB acceptance rate.

“The Darnall focus on high-quality Angus genetics starts on their ranch,” says Paul Dykstra, beef cattle specialist with CAB.

“Gary and Lane have a good sized cow herd of their own and they understand the ins and outs, from birth to harvest, choosing Angus cows as the factory for their own operation,” he says.

 With that background, the Darnalls understand the challenges cattlemen face. That helps them in building relationships.

“The customer has to have confidence in the feedlot, knowing they’ll do a good job at protecting and enhancing the value of their investment,” says Gary Darnall.

Consistent quality is a team effort. “It’s the cattle, the producers that engineer those cattle, and the genetics,” Darnall says. “We feel pretty humble in saying that we get to add some value to that product to a point where it will grade in the upper Choice category.”

Being a CAB partner is just a win/win deal, he adds: “It provides incentive to produce a higher quality product, all the way from the rancher to the retailer.”   

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Tell the story, curb those regs

By Miranda Reiman

Agriculture stays ahead of the curve in caring for land and livestock, but that’s too much of a secret, according to a Nebraska Cattlemen environmental specialist.

One of Kristen Koch’s first slides at the Feeding Quality Forum in Omaha this August set the tone for her talk with, “Eat our dust, EPA.” She talked about public misconceptions and strategies to rebuild the beef industry image.  At the Garden City, Kan., event a couple of days later, Clayton Huseman of the Kansas Livestock Association (KLA) delivered related comments on regulations.

“I want to arm you with an arsenal of scientific facts so you can feel comfortable and confident talking about the great job the beef industry does managing its environmental impact,” Koch began.

Shooting down bogeys in order, a myth about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock was first. Noted at 18% of the total by a still-quoted 2006 United Nations report, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2009 put it closer to 3%.

M&M feedyard pen

Efficiency helps the planet, she pointed out, as we generate more beef with less feed, energy, land, water, fossil fuels and even fewer cattle. Of course, that also decreases the GHG methane and ammonia produced per unit of beef.

“We can talk positively and confidently, with our heads held high,” Koch said. But even though the livestock industry’s impact is small and technology is further reducing that impact, “we’re one of the most heavily regulated industries.”

Huseman, director of KLA’s Feedlot Division, said in Garden City that all those regulations began by targeting issues outside of agriculture. He detailed how the regulatory aim shifted and expanded its impact on the beef industry, especially large confinement operations, and then reviewed current and pending laws.

Koch and Huseman agreed beef producers must become more efficient communicators. They see public misinformation as a big reason for the increase in governmental control, which Huseman said brings even more operational challenges and uncertainties.

As a call to action, he said producers must become more aware of what they are actually doing. “Too many times we obtain permits for production without truly knowing the contents, except for how long it lasts.”

He also stressed the need to look at regulations, in and outside of agriculture, in a new light: Consider not only the effects they could have today but in the future as well.

“We’ve got to review absolutely everything,” Huseman said.  “Even if it’s not directed at our industry now, someday it will be.”

Gaining that awareness, producers need to pass the information along.

“I think every single environmentalist, animal activist, scientist, homemaker—anyone in the world—would agree the purpose of animal agriculture is to generate high-quality food at an affordable cost, low environmental impact and in an animal-welfare friendly way,” Koch said. “Find the common ground on the purpose of the industry.  Then start speaking up about your practices.”

The Feeding Quality Forums were co-sponsored by Pfizer Animal Health, Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB), Feedlot Magazine and Purina Land O’Lakes. More information and proceedings are available at www.cabcattle.com.

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Relationships rule

Will Feed honored by CAB

by Miranda Reiman

Matt and Anne Burkholder earned their degrees at Dartmouth—an Ivy League college in Hanover, N.H.—and considered jobs in Midwestern cities, but the Burkholder family’s central Nebraska diversified agriculture operation was calling.

“When we told Matt’s dad that we wanted to come back, he about dropped his coffee cup,” Anne recalls. “But the double surprise was when Matt said, ‘Anne wants to try to work at the feedyard.’”

Dave Burkholder laughed. 

But he wasn’t about to tell his daughter-in-law “no.” After all, he could use another hand at Will Feed Inc., the 3,000-head yard he’d built in the early 1970s.

“It took a tremendous leap of faith to give a job to a 22-year-old woman who had no background in agriculture,” she reflects. “But he didn’t give me the manager job right from the start. I went to work for $6.85 an hour, running the feed truck, scooping bunks and processing cattle.”

As manager today, she still does most of those tasks.

Perhaps it’s because she’s a woman in a male-dominated field. Maybe it’s her Florida “city girl” roots, her perspective as a mother or her psychology degree. Likely it’s all that rolled into one, but whatever the impetus, Burkholder has made many changes at the feedyard and within the greater beef industry.

One of the more recent was Will Feed signing on as Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB)-licensed feedlot in 2008. The overriding quality focus, data-gathering and details management took hold long before, but those became increasingly apparent.

They helped earn recognition as the 2011 CAB Feedlot Partner of the Year for operations with up to 15,000-head capacity. Matt and Anne accepted the award at the CAB annual conference in Sunriver, Ore., Sept. 20-22.

“The niche we’ve really tried to get into is tracing calves from ranch to rail,” Burkholder says.

She’d dreamed of a business plan where she was the only “middleman” sharing information between ranch and packer. Then the rising oil market gave her an additional incentive to give that a try.

Rather than pay several hundred extra dollars to truck in a calf from Idaho or down South, she tapped into the local pool of high-quality genetics.

“I can give a good chunk of that money to the rancher instead of putting it into freight,” she says. It’s also a stress-reducer for the animals.

She started working the connections she’d made from involvement on Nebraska Cattlemen committees and the list grew. Today there are times when the yard is 100% full of Nebraska-born, age- and source-verified calves.

Many of them are Angus and sold on the U.S. Premium Beef (USPB) grid.

Pat Laird, who lives just a few miles down the road, starting selling his calves to Burkholder in 2002.

“She’s very conscientious about their environment, and I like how she treats the cattle when they’re there,” he says, noting he appreciates all the feedlot and individual carcass data.

“I can make management decisions based on that,” he says.

Like many customers, he has Burkholder wean his calves.

“Through a real focus on the minute details, we’ve come up with a plan that really works,” Burkholder says. “We do all the little things right. If somebody doesn’t get to the bunk that day, we make sure we get them looked at. We exercise and acclimate our calves when they come in.”

Exercise goes on for five to seven days. During that time they’re being fed mostly prairie hay with “just a touch” of wet distillers on top and that gradually that gives way to a calf ration before they work their way through the normal feedlot formulations. 

Nothing gets an implant until it’s been there for 30 days.

“When you implant an animal and they’re under stress, your implant isn’t as effective and it can impede the animal’s ability to marble,” Burkholder says.

Health programs are all coordinated, and everybody—from suppliers to consultants—knows her end goal.

“I want to produce something that tastes good and something that’s tender,” she says. “Beef is not inexpensive, so it’s something that a lot of people have to sacrifice to put on the dinner table.”

So there’s the greater good, plus a monetary benefit.

“Even when the Choice-Select spread isn’t very big, if you can get your animals to go CAB, that’s a really nice kicker,” she says.

From June 2010 to May 2011, more than 1,300 head of Will Feed cattle enrolled in CAB’s Feedlot Licensing Program went 59.8% CAB and CAB Prime.

In addition to her feedlot work, Burkholder has become an “agvocate” who puts a face on that segment.

“I want to put good content out there so people can understand what I do every day,” she says.

For more of her story, visit her blog at http://feedyardfoodie.wordpress.com/.

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What the heck is a CAB- licensed feedlot anyway?

March 14, 2011

I’ll admit it. Some myths are of our own making. We throw around terms like “CAB-licensed” when talking about everything from restaurants to packers to feedlots.

So what exactly does that mean? Well, various things on various levels. Ultra-simplified, it’s a close working relationship with the Certified Angus Beef ® brand. It is the right to advertise and sell CAB burgers or stamp carcasses as accepted. When it comes to the feedlot sector, I can tell you what it doesn’t mean, as I debunk this puzzler:

Myth—Cattle must be fed at a “CAB feedlot” to qualify for the brand.

Fact—For cattle to be evaluated for the CAB brand, they simply need to be marketed to a licensed packer. Good news: that includes 85% of the North American packing base. All the “big” packers, like JBS, Tyson, Cargill and National Beef are on that list, so it would be more likely that you bring cattle to a CAB licensee than not. Continue reading “What the heck is a CAB-licensed feedlot anyway?”

Enough, but not too much

Research shows a beef quality benefit to modest use of distillers grain byproducts

 

by Miranda Reiman

A decade ago, distillers grains were not common feedstuffs. Today they’re routinely included in cattle finishing diets, at levels that can boost beef quality grades.

Chris Calkins, University of Nebraska meat scientist, says when “wet distillers grains plus solubles” (WDGS) are fed at moderate levels, marbling scores increase.

“It tends to be a quadratic effect. If you do not feed any distillers grains, you get a given level of marbling,” he says. “As [WDGS] in the diet increases, we see an increase in marbling score up until about 30% to 40%; beyond that the benefits to marbling tend to disappear.”

At national animal science meetings last summer, Calkins presented a meta-analysis of studies that looked at WDGS feed effects. Larry Corah and Mark McCully of Certified Angus Beef LCC (CAB) cited that presentation in a recent research review of factors responsible for a spike in beef quality grades. Through July 2009, 60.1% of cattle in the nation’s harvest mix were grading USDA Choice, a 7.5-percentage-point leap in just two years.

 An abrupt departure from the 30-year decline in grades, the recent turnaround may be partly explained by judicious use of WDGS.

“Marbling increases, but if you get the levels too high it starts to trail off,” Calkins says. The data he presented showed a marbling score of 518 for animals fed no WDGS. The score increased 14 to 15 points, up to 533, for animals fed WDGS at 20% to 30% on a dry-matter (DM) basis.

“That seems to support earlier findings that at inclusions above that 30% to 40%, distillers can actually hurt quality grade,” says Corah. “Fortunately a large majority of feedlots are using the byproducts at a fairly low rate.”

A 2007 survey estimated most feedlots used WDGS at 16.5% of diets, but that has likely jumped in recent years due to availability.

Calkins says the marbling score increase is probably related to fat content of the feedstuffs.

“When you make ethanol from corn you’ve basically driven off about two-thirds of the components,” he says, noting that both ethanol and CO2 are produced from the starch that comprises two-thirds of corn grain. “So everything else is concentrated by about three-fold. That includes the fat content.”

This higher-fat diet promotes marbling development. Theoretically, it can increase external fat as well, but Calkins says that’s a fairly small shift.

“I don’t think there’s a big worry for producers in terms of cutability issues with using wet distillers grains,” he says.

WDGS also seems to increase DM intake, especially in starter rations. One Nebraska study shows nearly a 30% increase.

“It’s a highly effective feedstuff in terms of increasing average daily gain and dry matter intake,” Calkins says.

From a meat quality standpoint, the only drawback to feeding WDGS seems to be the increase in polyunsaturated fats. They can cause discoloration and off-flavor more quickly than other fats when exposed to oxygen.

“That’s dose-dependent,” he notes. “In other words, the more distillers we feed, the bigger issue it can become.” Feeding WDGS at 20% to 30% should pose fewer challenges for retail beef than those higher percentages. However, at any level the problems can be easily managed by supplementing diets with vitamin E, Calkins adds.

Although the WDGS effect on marbling score seems slight, Corah estimates it accounts for around 5 percentage points of the grade increase. That’s based on applying the shift to packing data, where many cattle grades sit on the line between Choice and Select or low- and premium Choice.

“That’s going to increase the proportion of cattle that could conceivably qualify for the Certified Angus Beef ® brand,” Calkins says. “When you draw a specific line in marbling, that 15-point shift can be pretty meaningful.”

To read “Quality Grade: What is driving the recent upswing?” in its entirety, visit www.cabcattle.com/about/research.

Seek answers for better beef

 

by Miranda Reiman

Cattle feeding conditions vary by location. One yard might be knee-deep in snow, while the other is dealing with piles of mud. Record high temperatures might cause heat stress in one area while cattle in another region are enduring torrential rainfall. 

Even with all that variability, one fact rings true: Better conditions mean better beef quality.

“Animals that are able to devote more of their dietary intake to gain will have better carcass quality,” says Joe Young, vice president of AgSpan.

In a research review, Larry Corah and Mark McCully of Certified Angus Beef LCC (CAB) point to several factors that have caused quality grade to rebound 7.5 percentage points in just two years, following a 30-year decline.

“In general, feeding conditions for cattle the past two years have been very good,” the authors say, noting data from Elanco’s Benchmark® Performance Program, managed by Agspan. Hundreds of feedlots report performance, carcass and health information to the database, which now numbers more than 100 million points of data.

From 2006 to mid-2009, dry matter intake (DMI) increased by about 1 pound for both steers and heifers. At the same time average daily gain (ADG) improved.

“Driving intakes, improving intakes, maintaining consistent intakes – they all do the same thing,” Young says. “We’ve got to have intakes to get performance and enhance carcass quality. If anything takes those animals off feed, then you’ll channel more of that energy to other needs within the body.”

For example, higher ADGs through the winter months probably indicate mild weather.

“If they’re not fending off blizzards, severe cold or deep snows, more of that intake can be devoted to gain verses maintenance,” he says.

Health affects cattle in the same way. Iowa State University research shows that cattle needing multiple treatments don’t grade as well as healthy pen mates. Those requiring no treatment graded 74.5% Choice versus 57.5% Choice in those cattle treated two or more times – a difference of 16.5 percentage points.

Benchmark mortality data confirms that feedlot health has seen a slight improvement over the past few years.

“Animals closed out in spring 2004 had the highest mortality rate of anything we’d seen up until that time,” Young says. “It was a fairly steady trend higher.”

Heifers showed an average death loss of 2.64% at the peak, but that recovered to less than 2% last spring.

“We’ve seen those rates adjust somewhat, and the higher mortality rates have generally subsided,” he says.

The fact that this happened as quality grade started to climb could be more than a coincidence, Corah and McCully say.

“While there are no definitive correlations, the trends within DMI, ADG and feedlot health would all suggest improved feeding conditions have had a positive influence on quality grade,” the research paper says.

To read “Quality Grade: What is driving the recent upswing?” in its entirety, visit www.cabcattle.com/about/research.

Garden City feed yard joins CAB team

 

by Jackie Eager

A big feedlot can stand out for personalized custom cattle feeding, if it has the right people. Consider Garden City (Kan.) Feed Yard, LLC, where employees stay on for 20 years or more because the programs they manage work so well.

“The stability of our staff is a great thing,” says manager Mark Boos. “You know if anyone stays for that long, they are people who care about their jobs and the quality of care given to the animals. They just take a lot of pride in what they do.”

Both customers and their cattle take comfort in that.

The feedlot, operated by AzTx Cattle Company since 1994, covers an expanse of sandy soil that is well suited to drainage and dry pen conditions. That’s important for any yard, and certainly for this one with 88,000-head capacity.

Despite that size, or perhaps because of it, Boos and his staff don’t operate as if one generic program should fit all customers. They get to know each customer and customize to fit their needs and build working relationships.  

“If I can understand their ration, I can better start their animal onto our ration,” Boos says. “If I understand their health program, I can adapt our health program to fit, so we complement each other.”

Locally grown feeds support area crop farmers and help keep ration prices relatively low for feeding customers, he adds.  Attention to detail at Garden City Feed Yard means making sure the proper amount of the right feed is delivered on time for each pen, and producing the highest quality beef for each customer.

Late this summer, after a year of changing economic conditions, Boos decided to build on the stability his feedyard could offer by signing on with the world’s leading beef brand, as a Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) partner. The CAB Feedlot Licensing Program includes 64 partners in 15 states.

Over the years, Boos saw that CAB had developed market opportunities to sell the better quality cattle for a premium price.

“We need to focus on meeting consumer needs,” he says. “The day the animal is born, it’s all for the consumer, but Certified Angus Beef is the only marketing group that approaches it that way.”

“I think we are on the right path with the CAB program,” he says. “Combining that brand’s 31-year history with our own long-term base brings even more stability to our relationships with Angus producers.”