Feedyard Tour!

It's nearing the end of the semester and I am looking for excuses to miss class. This week my trip takes me to Dalhart, Texas where I had an interview for a position working in the feedlot. Come along as I give a brief description of what goes on in this place.

Here it is the beginning of April and I find myself in Guymon, Oklahoma. One would never know it has been such a cold winter after seeing a temperature of 97 degrees in Childress, Texas yesterday afternoon. What a change of weather can happen in the matter of a few days in this part of the country!

I have found even more reasons to miss classes this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I was in Dalhart, Texas interviewing for a position with JBS Five Rivers Cattle Feeders. To give a little background on this company, they are based out of Greeley, Colorado. Recently purchased by meat company JBS of South America, Five Rivers consists of 13 feedyards from the Panhandle of Texas to lower Idaho. With a cattle on feed capacity of more than 830,000 head, this company is the largest cattle feeding operation in the world.

Growing up in the stocker cattle business, I have had some exposure to the cattle feeding business through my family retaining ownership of cattle through the finishing phase. I even worked with Cactus Feeders of Amarillo a few summers back. Something that I have learned about the feedlot business is that all feedlots are the same, but at the same time, every single one is different. Each yard is in the business of feeding cattle and at the same time, each yard is different in respect to its environment, landscape, and depending on location, the type of cattle that yard will feed. So it is very difficult to make a comparison between feedlots.

To continue reading about my interview and tour of the feedlot departments, please follow this link to the Working Ranch blog.