The Feedlot--A General Overview
The Harding Land & Cattle Company feedlot is an integral part of the operation
as a whole. When one simplifies what HLCC is all about, there are really three interelatted facets of the operation--the ranch,
the farm, and the feedlot. The ranch produces grass for the nearly 1,000 head of mother cows that are there for much of the
year and supplies the operation with about the same number of calves that are ready to be weaned each fall. The farm produces
alfalfa hay, corn silage, and shell corn. These crops are then fed to the calves that are brought over to the feedlot each fall.
In these terms, each of the three parts of this operation cannot function without the other one.
The HLCC feedlot is a backgrounding
feedlot, which means that the calves, upon being weaned in the fall, are brought to the feedlot and fed a certain ration to allow
them to grow at a decent rate (in terms of pounds/day) that is in line with their carcass size. The calves raised by the
HLCC operation are usually looking at reaching a slaughter time at about 14 to 16 months of age. Their time spent at
the HLCC backgrounding feedlot usually occurs from the time they are weaned at 6 months of age until about 9 or
10 months of age. At this point, the calves are shipped south to the McGinley/Shiltz feedyard in Nebraska, where they are
kept until they are finished. HLCC generally retains ownership on half of the calves, and sells the other half to
McGinley/Shiltz. In this respect, HLCC is a fully-integrated operation, which means that it owns the calves from the time they
are born on the HLCC ranch, until they are ready to be sent to the meat-packing plant.
While they are being backgrounded,
the calves are fed a ration that includes corn silage, ground hay, shell corn, and added supplements. The corn
and hay crops come from the HLCC farm and were harvested the during the summer that is just coming to an end when calves
start arriving at the feedlot.
In addition to bringing its own calves to the feedlot, the HLCC operation also feeds
other producers' calves as well. The feedlot capacity is somewhere around 2,000 calves, but rarely reaches those levels
because there may be a combination of calves and cows present at the feedlot.
There are many responsibilities that
come with managing a feedlot. The pens have to be cleaned of all the manure buildup. This is usually done in the
summer when the pens are empty and the pens are at their driest point during the year. The manure is either piled
outside the pens and spread on the farm fields later or spread on the fields when they are cleaned, depending on the time
of the year and whether or not the crops have been harvested yet. Soil samples are taken to ensure that the rates of
application of the manure are not exceeding certain limits.
Weather plays a big factor in managing the feedlot.
During falls when the weather is hot and dry, the pens become very dusty, which can cause a multitude of health problems
for the animals in the feedlot. In these cases, measures have to be taken to wet the pens down and minimize the dust.
In the past, trucks with water tanks have been used in the pens to settle the dust. If cold, wet weather
persists in the fall or winter, straw is usually spread in the pens to make the calves more comfortable. When it comes
to managing cattle in a feedlot, the least stress that these animals have to endure, the better. Less stressed animals
perform better, remain healthier, and gain more pounds per day, which are all benefits toward the operation's bottom-line.
The handling of the livestock in the feedlot is also an important factor. HLCC's feedlot tries to conduct its
handling of the livestock in such a manner that the animals are subjected to minimal stress. This is why it is so important
to the operation to have gentle cattle. When a calf is sick and has to be pulled from a pen and treated, it is so much better
for that calf, and the rest of the calves in the pen, if this can be done without exciting the animal.
Managing
the bunks is possibly one of the most important duties during the months that the calves are at the feedlot.
Being able to read a bunk in the morning and know whether certain portions of the ration need to be increased or decreased is
very important. After a while, bunks accumulate a certain amount of left-over feed that the cattle would prefer not
to eat. Therefore, the bunks are cleaned every so often, using shovels, in order to start over with a clean slate, so to
speak.
