CALF_News_April_May_2019

43 CALF News • April | May 2019 • www.calfnews.net R ecollections BY BETTY JO GIGOT PUBLISHER EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE I GET ASKED, "IF YOU COULD HAVE LUNCH WITH SOMEONE LIVING OR DEAD, WHO WOULD IT BE ? " Instead of some famous politi- cian or movie star, my list is a bit differ- ent. I would love to visit withWarren Monfort about leaning on a fence at the railhead north of Greeley, Colo., discuss- ing feeding heifers over the winter with W.D. Farr. Or I would have talked with “Big” Earl Brookover about irrigating from the Ogallala Aquifer. Unfortu- nately, they were both gone before I got into the reporting business. My fondest wish would be having a chance to meet and interview Louie Din- klage from eastern Nebraska. I under- stand from visiting with his friends and relatives for a story in 1990 that he was not much of a talker except with a little good scotch and someone who liked the cattle business – I could qualify for both. A legend in the cattle feeding indus- try, Louis “Louie” Dinklage was a great deal more. He single handedly started more people in the business than any other feeder, ever. Louie was a teacher, a mentor and a financial backer for an untold number of young men through the years. Many of his protégés have become major forces in the industry. Those who knew him remember him with fondness, humor and, most of all, with a multitude of stories. Louie was one of a kind. At the age of 21, Louie put 23 head on feed at his father’s feeding spot in Wayne County, Neb. His ambition was to feed 1,000 cattle a year. Eventually, he was finishing over 65,000 per year. He remembered starting cattle on green corn that was cut with a corn knife and make comments and listen. According to Dinsdale, Louie told Herman that after the meeting,“You start on down to Amarillo, and anything that looks good, you buy it.” Story has it that he also told him to buy everything on the way back, too. Dinsdale went on to say that Louie was not the kind to moan and wait around for the slow pace of the legal pro- cess. The list of stunned feeders milling around wondering how they were going to get their money was long. Nothing of this magnitude had happened that they could remember, and lawsuits were plen- tiful. Louie, however, was into action, not regrets. “There were people with no guts and no money,” Dinsdale remembered. “Louie had both, and he had made his money back before the rest got through with the attorneys.” Dinsdale said Louie as a man who liked a down market. He thought that kind of market presented money-making opportunities. “When [the market] was going up, he pulled back,” Dinsdale said.“When the interest rate went to 20 percent, he put money into CDs.” Dinsdale called Louie the “Warren Buffett of the cattle feeding business.” While writing this column, I couldn’t help thinking about the terrible flooding going on in “Louie country.” He would have just picked up and moved on, as will the brave cattle people there today.  NEXT TIME: MORE LOUIE STORIES scattered out on pasture. The cattle were then fed snap corn, and feeders would break the ears over the side of the bunks. If they were feeding shelled corn, Louie’s dad insisted that they mix the shell corn with wheat straw. Louie said whenever his dad wasn’t looking, they wouldn’t put the wheat straw in because they didn’t think that it did any good. Years later they combined about the same mixture in a blending wagon at just a little different weight. His dad was right. Known for being Nebraska strong, one of the favorite stories about Louie was during the demise of American Beef Packers (ABP). Banker and best friend Roy Dinsdale told the story, which started with Louie inviting Dinsdale to come up and talk: “Louie had about $100,000 in the deal … the market was bad, the mud was knee deep and the economy was as cloudy and cold as the weather,” Dins- dale said. There was a public meeting about ABP, and Louie told his nephew, Herman, to go on down to the meeting, Louie Dinklage photo from dtnpf.com