CALF_News_Feb_March_2019

36 CALF News • February | March 2019 • www.calfnews.net It takes a family. Jim Friemel and his wife, Melanie, have had that philosophy their whole married life. Jim was raised on a farm and Melanie on a ranch. They knew the importance of everyone doing their chores. When it got down to buying a feedyard, it took them and their kids to make it work. They own and operate F-Troop Feed- ers southeast of Hereford, Texas. Sons Laramy and Landon are heavily involved in keeping the yard going. Daughters Cydney of Florida and Max of Minnesota both feed cattle there. “We bought the feedyard in 2008,” Jim says.“It had been the old Deaf Smith County Feedyard owned by Bartlett Cattle Co. I was with Dawn Cattle Feed- ers nearby when the partners bought the yard from Bartlett to make room for more cattle. Then the recession and tough times hit the cattle industry. That’s when my family took a chance and decided to purchase the yard ourselves.” It took some convincing at a small Lub- bock bank to get financing before the deal was done. Bartlett had refurbished the mill a few years earlier, but the feedyard office was a mess. It became a family proj- ect to rebuild the office, run new electri- cal, phone and computer wiring and get the place in order. “We all helped make this a good place to do business, something we could be proud of,” Jim says. Jim handles the majority of the cattle procurement, marketing and general feedyard operations. Melanie keeps the books and helps with marketing deci- sions. Laramy runs the family farming operation, which supplies much of the roughage for the feedyard rations. Landon is a millwright whose fabrica- tion skills help keep the feed mill run- ning efficiently. He also keeps the farm’s tractors, implements and harvest equip- ment operational and adds his touches to expand equipment capabilities. Landon is also on the local Farm Bureau Board and is a volunteer firefighter. “We work closely together. Dad runs the feedyard, Laramy runs the farm, I keep them both going, and mom pays the bills,” Landon quips. Mixed bag of cattle The feedyard can hold 45,000 head, but the Friemels like to keep numbers at about 22,000.“That’s about what we averaged in 2018,” Jim says, adding that the types of cattle are typical for cattle fed at other Panhandle yards. “We get cattle from all over Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas, Ala- bama and other states,” he explains. “We also handle a lot of Mexican cattle, and they seem to handle the feeding process about as well as a lot of precon- ditioned cattle we feed. We both back- ground and fatten cattle. We’ve had cows on feed during drought periods, but we don’t like that situation if calves are born in confinement.” About two-thirds of the cattle are custom fed, with the remaining one-third being family owned, either from calves out of their 180-cow commercial Angus operation or stockers purchased for wheat pasture grazing. Cattle are placed at every- where from 300-800 pounds or heavier. “We don’t mind feeding those light- weights for a year if needed,” Jim says. Animal health is always a concern for backgrounded and fed cattle. The Friemels By Larry Stalcup Contributing Editor Friemel Family Makes It Happen LEFT: Landon, Jim and Laramy Friemel – part of the F-Troop family. ABOVE: Mexican cattle perform with the best at F-Troop. F-Troop Feeders