Crop Tour Day 7 - Strategies for Managing a Large-Scale Beef Operation

By: Dominik Jackl, Solana Jimenez, Carlyn Laan, & Ian Lawton

Foote Cattle Company is a massive beef feedlot facility housing around 280,000 head in 5 different feedlots one being a cow calf ranch. This farm was established in the early 90’s and now three brothers own and run the operation. Each pen houses anywhere between 100-200 heads and is an all-steer operation. They come in at around 800 pounds and leave the facility after 150-180 days weighing around 1400-1500 lbs. This operation is highly automated, with people working alongside the machines to ensure the process from feed production to cattle runs smoothly. The feed is made and mixed on-site and consists of starter and finisher rations. The high volume of production is maintained by constantly scouring the market for cattle to bring in with the lot moving 15,000 head in and out of the yard every week!  

Feeding 

At Foote Cattle Company, feed is a full-time job where they have 4-5 trucks running from 5:00 AM to 3:30 PM. They feed 3 times a day equaling around 75-80 loads a day. Each load is typically 30,000-35,000 pounds but can vary depending on which pen they are feeding. They are sorted two ways, starter pens and finisher pens. These loads total 2.2 million pounds of feed a day! Their goal is to gain 4 pounds per cow per day so that they can get them to finishing weight as quickly as possible. This company is one of the few who can get them in and out in around 180 days, which allows for more turnover per year! This would have to do with the ingredients they feed their cattle, for example, their rations consist of corn silage, high moisture corn, haylage, distillers’ grain, flaked corn, palm oil, and their own blend of starter or finisher protein.  

Flaking corn is not very common in Canada but it has been a common practice in the states since the 70’s and has seemed to work extremely well as it allows the corn to become more digestible. Feed efficiency is huge and by flaking corn, it allows for 15-20% more efficiency when compared to rolled corn and even more compared to standard grain corn. Flaking corn is a simple process where whole corn kernels get steamed/heated in a 208-210F box for about 35-40 minutes where they then go through a roller and get flattened into flakes. From here, they go into a commodity bay and then get fed.  

A few struggles they partake in the feeding area is having cows eat too much. Due to inconsistent weather, it can be hard on the cows, especially during the hot days in the summer. Foote Cattle Company prepares for such issues where they create storm rations. Storm rations have more roughage in them to prepare the body of the cows for what is to come. For example, on hot and humid days, cows sometimes refrain from eating as they don’t have an appetite. This causes them to binge eat at night and bloat. Their bodies cannot handle this and do not survive the feed overload. Feeding roughage can prevent this. 

Liquid Supplement Plant  

Foote Cattle Company’s in-house liquid manufacturing and blending plant is high-tech and one-of-a-kind. The Liquid component of the TMR is composed of minerals including calcium, potassium, salt and ProMgand magnesium. Additionally, components such as urea, monesin, and palm oil are added. The minerals are mainly stored at the plant in powder form either in bulk bins outside or small stainless steelstainless-steel hoppers inside for some of the ingredients in smaller quantities. The smaller hoppers inside all sit on scale platforms or scale blocks and are all connected to digital readouts and the computer system. The liquid products are stored in bulk tanks outside the facility. Liquid products are metered out into one of two hopper bottom mixing vats attached to scales. The first vat has three augers attached for dry mineral additives. This vat sits on scales so that the computer can measure how much of each mineral is needed for the ratio. A similar process is used to measure out the liquids in the second vat with pumps. When all ingredients are measured out, the dry vat is augered into the wet vat and agitated to dissolve the minerals, with clay being added to hold them in suspension. The Liquid reaction is further pumped outside into the storage tanks where it is available for trucks to pull up and load tankers to haul it to all 5 feedyards. Each day, 10-14 batches are mixed and pumped out, with each batch being 25 tons. 

Company Structure 

There are approximately 400 employees between all 5 feedlots working different jobs from trucking to cowboy wranglers. All the workers are local, their wages are $18.5/hwith decent wages, and and they get paid overtime after 54 hours of working making up a generous compensationto $70,000 a year. Managers can make up to $100,000-110,000/year and tThe companyhey also hires about a dozen of 12-15 interns. They are offered good health insurance health plans that cost them about $300 a month, and dental benefits cleanings are also included every 6 months free of charge. Their shifts are 10-hour days working from 5:30 am till about 3:00 pm, and . tThe workers typically take 5-8 days off monthly as needed but are lenient if an emergency or special occasion arises. They were also all gifted nice winter coats worth $300 for the cold winters!  

Overall, this stop was a fantastic learning time, and besides sharing all their knowledege, the hosts grilled some burgers to share with us for lunch!