More on our Midwest trip

Luggage on the bus since we were moving to North Platte Hotel from Alliance. It was nice not having to pack up every morning, as we used to have to when traveling with Dick Crow, Pete’s father, 20 years ago.

The historical section of Alliance had brick streets making for a rough ride on the bus. Lilacs were in bloom and beautiful. We noticed on some ranches there were tires surrounding the power poles and some fence posts and learned that was to keep the cattle from rubbing on the pole or post and dislodging it in the sandy soil.

We had a two-hour drive to Haythorn Land & Cattle Company, Arthur, and Nebraska doesn’t have rest stops along the state highways, so the tour leader and our bus driver were persuaded to make a stop at Panhandle Coop System, a gas station, (gas $ 3.55 and diesel $ 3.75) that sold livestock feed, snacks, pop, beer, whiskey.

A roll of Copenhagen was $31 in NE and $51 in CA, one fellow told me. We were opposite large Lake McConaughy with a long coal train moving on the other side of the lake.

There were four loaded semi livestock trucks heading 60 miles to fresh feed. Heard there were 71 heads aboard for a load of 77,000 lbs per truck. The truck and trailer were 99,000 lbs.

The population of Arthur, NE, was 128, and on every tour, we make a wrong turn. We saw a ranch sign and drove in for a couple of miles, but it was the wrong part of the ranch.

Haythorn is known for its Quarter Horses and was the first Nebraska ranch to register Quarter Horses, receiving the first-ever Remuda Award in 1993. Craig Haythorn is the 5th generation, and on Nov. 3, 2023, he will receive the National Golden Spur Award. A prestigious award from the cattle industry.

He and his wife, Jody, greeted us in their beautiful event center, which was originally built for horse auctions and now weddings. Many interesting things (clothing, jewelry, artwork, books, etc) were for sale in the adjacent bar, with many longhorn heads, ropes, hats, horse collars, and even a stuffed pheasant on a high shelf surrounding the room.

There is a lot of King in the bloodlines and the foals are born in pastures. At one time, they used to breed 200 mares, but now their son, Sage or Cord Haythorn, breeds 25 to 30 mares using AI. They start them as 2-year-olds, and they took a young horse to a branding, and four people wanted to buy him.

They have 2,500 Angus cows and retain 700 heifers, selling 5 and 6-year-old cows. Haythorn is not in the bred heifer business but used to have registered longhorns.

We saw a ‘Western Horseman’ video about the ranch and Craig using horses to feed and he said it takes 3 hours to hitch and feed 12 tons of hay each morning using 6 Percheron.

“Sand Hills used to have stacks,” now going to round bales, but he still uses horses. The number of teams has scaled down since it used to be 56 horses.

Lunch was Tri Tip smoked on mesquite, small red potatoes, green salad, pinto beans, roll & butter with cookies, iced tea, coffee or water. I think Craig did the barbecuing since he was wearing an apron.

The traffic on I-80 was a shock after miles of none as we approached North Platte and the opportunity to see the packing house for Sustainable Beef LLC is built on the sandy soil near the South Platte River. It will process 1,500 heads a day with one shift employing 800 people. David said they started in August and be completed in 2025. It will be a precast concrete building, 545,000 square feet costing $ 250 million. The plant is designed to be efficient, needing 100 fewer workers. The company has built 17 other packing plants.

At first, North Platte was concerned but now realizes what the plant will do for the community. $ 35,000 is the average wage, and the 500 workers will be receiving $ 55 to 60 thousand. Need to work on housing.

700,000 gallons of water are pumped from the aquifer to the river as they build the base of the building. The rendering facility will use 80% of animals.

We learned more about Sustainable Beef when we visited 7D Angus at Rishel Ranch, North Platte. Their business plan was the 4 C’s. C- City: North Platte. C-Cows: Cattle supply from 28 local feed lots. C- Capital: Co-bank. C-Commerce: Walmart. They have a Board of Directors of 13 businessmen & cattlemen. They want people to invest for the long term of 20 to 50 years, not the short term.

Jerry Person, CEO, proposed to build on the abandoned lagoon sewer plant. In 18 months, they had public hearings and worked with public agencies.

“Sustainable Beef LLC is a rancher-driven and owned beef processing facility. “The project received a boost when Walmart announced on Aug. 31 it would acquire a minority stake in Sustainable Beef and have representation on the board of directors. Walmart‘s partnership offers the startup access to its large retail outlets nationwide.”

TD Angus at Rishel Ranch is where Trey & Dayna Wasserburger talked to us from the sale ring, where they sold 280 yearlings and 100 falls Angus bulls on March 17th. They sold to 29 states in the bull sale. They breed 3,000 commercial heifers for customers. And do 400 to 500 embryos a year. Trey was a dynamic speaker. We had an opportunity to view some cattle before a Tri-Tip dinner with potato and green salads and a platter of salami, cheese, tomatoes, pickles, grapes, and cookies.

North Platte Telegraph printed, “Trey Wasserburger, 33, runs about 800 head of Black Angus cattle on his home place, the 4,000-acre Rishel Ranch southeast of Lake Maloney near North Platte. Having bought the ranch in 2017, the Wyoming native and his wife, the former Dayna Olson of Hershey, are part of Sustainable Beef LLC’s organizing group in the hope its proposed 875-employee beef processing plant at North Platte will improve the odds that one of their four young children can take over from them one day. Wasserburger’s TD Angus operation also leases the 15,000-acre Vierson Ranch north of North Platte.”

Bill Rishel started Sustainable Beef LLC during COVID since a packing plant was needed. The story behind the mantra “Most of the Best.”

“When Dayna and I first bought the Rishel herd, we had not owned a registered female before, all our experience was in the commercial cow/calf sector and feedlot industry. One day we were sorting replacement heifers in the alley and I asked Bill how do we go about this with all the pedigrees and data available and still keep them structurally and fundamentally correct, and he simply stated, “Make her have the most of the best.”

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