CALF_News_February_March_2021

28 CALF News • February | March 2021 • www.calfnews.net A city on the Missouri River north of Omaha is a far cry from Oklahoma’s largest mesa. But with cattle feeding on his mind, Scott Anderson made the transi- tion easily from Blair, Neb., to outside Guymon in the middle of the Oklahoma Panhandle. The Husker-to-Okie move wasn’t just temporary. Anderson is now in his 32 nd year at CRI Feeders, where he is man- ager. He’s also the 2021 chairman of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, which includes some 175 member feedyards in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Those yards range from small yards with fewer than 20,000-head capacity to mega brands like Cactus Feeders and Friona Industries. “Our feeding capacity is from 42,000 to 45,000,” Anderson says. “Most cattle are customer cattle owned by producers, stocker operators and backgrounders from California to the Carolinas and the Southeast. We feed a lot of cattle from South Texas and Mexico, which perform well in our typically dry climate.” A Culture of Care CRI is located in the region once known as No Man’s Land. In its early days, some quipped that CRI stood for “cowboys, renegades and Indians.” Anderson is quick to note that descrip- tion “doesn’t come close to depicting the culture we’re working to develop and maintain here. CRI stands for ‘care’ of our customer’s cattle, ‘respect’ for our custom- ers and our employees, and a staff with ‘integrity.’” He learned those “CRI” traits while growing up on a crop and livestock farm at Blair. “We grew corn and soybeans, had a cow-calf program and also a farrow-to- finish hog operation,” he says. Anderson earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science and a master’s in rumi- nant nutrition from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He finished those studies in 1986 and headed to Garden City, Kan., for a job at the Kansas State University research feedyard, and then with Farr Better Feeds. “That’s when Doug Schmidt [now CRI general man- ager] talked me into coming down here,” he says. “I joined CRI in 1989 and have been here ever since.” CRI was reorganized in 2004 and began operating as an LLC. It created a relationship with Midwest Feeders, Inc. of Ingalls, Kan. “Midwest Feeders was considered one of the premier feeding facilities on the High Plains and still is,” Anderson says. “We had a lot of common customers, so it made sense to link with them. This alliance with a respected organization like Midwest enables the leveraging of our collective strengths and to better serve our respective customers.” Even though CRI normally doesn’t handle All-Natural or age- and source- verified cattle, many are marketed through the U.S. Premium Beef program and sold to National Beef Packers in nearby Liberal, Kan. With tight cattle markets, CRI is seeing more retained ownership. “Stocker operators and background- ers are our biggest share of customers,” Anderson says. “There is more market pressure on them. More of them are feed- ing out their cattle. They’re working to lock in a breakeven price to protect what they have made at their operation as well as potential grid premiums. “We can help with price risk manage- ment for these and other customers. We can also help with feed and cattle financing or procurement. On occasion, Scott Anderson sees great opportunities to meet consumer demand for high quality beef. With a 42,000- to 45,000-head capacity, CRI welcomes cattle from coast to coast. Custom Feeding Cattle From California to the Carolinas By Larry Stalcup Contributing Editor