During the past few years, I’ve frequently shared my experience working in and with a cattle feedlot. From a young age, my family sent our cattle to feedlots in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and our Spring Break “vacation” involved a drive to Amarillo to see those cattle.
During college, I had the opportunity to work with employees in every position on feedlots with Cactus Feeders and followed by more in-depth studies on the subject in college. Then I worked at JBS Five Rivers Cattle Feeding following graduation. Today, I work with cattle ranchers and feeders on the marketing side of the business.
Cattle Feeding Experiences
All this experience has been great to gain a more complete perspective on how our business works, raising cattle from the very start and following the process through to the point of enjoying a steak on your plate. You can review my posts on cattle feedlots here – encompassing everything from what cattle eat, daily activities in the feedlot, aerial images, controversy over feeding corn, antibiotics, hormones, environmental impacts and taking care of cattle during the winter.
Cattle feeding has been one of the quieter sectors of our business when it comes to sharing their story on social media (read: where our customers consume information). So it is great to see a blogger like Feedyard Foodie in Nebraska take the challenge of sharing more online. I am also thankful for Jason Hitch, of Hitch Feeders in Oklahoma, who my family has done business with for several years, join me on the blog earlier this year to talk about taking care of cattle during a terrible blizzard. I encourage you to check out both of those stories.
Cattle Feedlot on Twitter
Today, I’d encourage you to follow another feedlot company and their employees to learn from another perspective of the cattle business. I recently found Friona Industries of Texas embracing Twitter (@FrionaBeef) to share their story of feeding and taking care of cattle. Not only does their business account have several posts from the feedlot, but several of their employees are jumping in on the conversation as well. Below is a sample of their tweets. I encourage you to follow them and even ask a few questions to learn more about cattle feeding and how this is an important part of bringing beef to our plates. If you prefer, you can also follow Friona on Facebook. Follow more of their tweets using #FrionaBeef.
Kudos to these cattle feeders for jumping on social media to share their story. I encourage others in this part of our business to do the same and to help us (and our customers) learn more about this important link in the chain of raising cattle!
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Tweets from Cattle Feeders
We mix the feed for 2 1/2 minutes to ensure adequate distribution of ingredients in our ration. #FrionaBeef pic.twitter.com/gJRWpAd0ZS
— Dave Link (@Link13Dave) July 14, 2016
Using manure as fertilizer saves fuel that it takes to manufacture synthetic fertilizer #FrionaBeef #sustainability pic.twitter.com/RK540BP36P
— Trevor Peterson (@TPSwisher) May 23, 2016
Yes sir!!!!! #FrionaBeef pic.twitter.com/DM57qW8FGd
— Dave Link (@Link13Dave) July 13, 2016
My #cowcalf pairs looking pretty good. When I'm done at #FrionaBeef for the day I have my own herd to look after. pic.twitter.com/MS060lB2te
— James Glover (@JAGLOVER1979) July 16, 2016
Fresh feed delivered 3 times per day #FrionaBeef #feeddelivery truck driver Chewy Briones !! pic.twitter.com/kMc1NqRknc
— Trevor Peterson (@TPSwisher) July 9, 2016
New water tank pad installed. #cattlecomfort #FrionaBeef pic.twitter.com/bYh2BvJviJ
— Jerrid Vincent (@jerridv13) July 6, 2016
Strange to think of winter now but Heron is scraping pens and shaping mounds for winter preparation! #FrionaBeef pic.twitter.com/E25s4CNY2q
— Dave Link (@Link13Dave) July 11, 2016
Sometimes you just have to stop and soak it all in. Passionate about what we do! #RandallCounty #FrionaBeef. pic.twitter.com/qqMgC0XB8y
— Jerrid Vincent (@jerridv13) July 1, 2016
Jesse is feeding the 2nd round of 5 ration, keeping on schedule and feeding level end-to-end. #FrionaBeef #feed pic.twitter.com/JqYJa8Royt
— Dave Link (@Link13Dave) July 11, 2016
Dr Portillo going over pen riding expectations with our crew of bovine health technicians #FrionaBeef #animalwelfare pic.twitter.com/UBC42OPTiV
— Trevor Peterson (@TPSwisher) June 21, 2016