Pratt Feeders in Southern Kansas
Accu-Steel customer Pratt Feeders, a 38,000-head feedyard in southern Kansas, was recently featured in Angus Journal for earning the Certified Angus Beef (CAB) 2012 Feedlot Partner of the Year recognition in the over 15,000-head category. Manager of Pratt Feeders, Jerry Bohn, attributes the feedyard’s growing success to the operation’s dedication to inbound genetics and intensive individual animal management.
When extreme heat brought a dip in feed consumption and an uptick in death loss among the herd in 2012, Bohn took action. To help mitigate the heat, he placed Accu-Steel Cattle Covers in several pens and gathered data on cost-effectiveness and the benefit to cattle.
“It looks like those cattle held their consumption better than in the rest of the feedyard,” Bohn reports.
Gary Fike, beef cattle specialist at CAB, says numbers illustrate why Pratt Feeders was the solid choice for the recognition. “It’s not easy to increase quality at the same time as quantity, but that’s what [Pratt Feeders] did, moving up 4 percentage points to nearly 36 percent CAB or Prime. That amounts to more than 2 million pounds of branded boxed beef products that originated at this one yard.”
Bohn’s dedication to high-quality beef is displayed not only at Pratt Feeders, but industry-wide, as he shares messages and best practices with audiences ranging from beef industry leaders to chefs to consumers, at multiple seminars and symposiums across North America each year.
“I think it’s important for all of us to speak out and encourage and help get better returns to the people who are producing the kind of beef we’re looking for,” Bohn says, adding that a window of opportunity may present itself for improving more herds. “We need to get this drought headed in a different direction, and then we can begin to grow the cow herd again. I hope people will see the advantage in building back with higher-quality heifers.”
Source: Angus Journal