Focusing on the future and creating the tools that help produce high-quality bulls for the beef industry – that's the message from the cattle feeding segment back to Angus breeders in this episode. A feeder’s top priorities are cattle that stay healthy, get big, marble well and use resources efficiently, and if cattlemen send those kind of raw materials, this episode’s guests pledge to make the most of them. If today's cattle are “high-performance athletes,” hear directly from those who are the final step in making them winners.

HOSTS: Miranda Reiman and Mark McCully

GUESTS:
Tom Fanning, general manager for Pratt Feeders Group, oversees the four yards that make up the feeding company: Buffalo (Okla.) Feeders, Ashland (Kan.) Feeders, Ford (Kan.) Feeders and Pratt (Kan.) Feeders.

Tom earned an agricultural economics degree from Oklahoma State University in 1987 and served as an Infantry Captain in the U.S. Army from 1982 to 1992. He completed his master’s in management at Troy State University in 1992. From 1992 to 2001, Tom was employed by Cargill, where he managed cattle feeding operations across the Texas Panhandle. Then he spent 22 years as manager of Buffalo Feeders, before assuming his current role.

Throughout his career, Tom has held various leadership positions in cattlemen’s organizations at local, state and national levels, including serving as chairman of the Oklahoma Beef Council. Under his leadership, Buffalo Feeders garnered numerous accolades, including the 2009 Certified Angus Beef Feedyard of the Year, the 2019 Beef Quality Assurance Feedyard of the Year and the 2023 Texas Cattle Feeders Association Feedyard Excellence in BQA.

Pete Anderson is director of research for Midwest PMS, and directs research all their research activities, provides technical support to nutritionists and clients, and oversees the company’s performance records analysis program. He also has quality assurance, feed safety and regulatory responsibilities for the firm’s production facilities.

In addition, Anderson leads the company’s initiative in business and operations consulting. He provides strategic planning, succession planning and management and leadership education to clients, and coordinates operations consulting efforts for the company. He applies scientific principles to solve business problems, based on 25 years of experience as a senior business executive.

Pete received his bachelor’s in animal science from Kansas State University in 1983 and a master’s and doctorate from Michigan State University in 1987 and 1989, respectively.

Pete has never made a hole in one, but he has climbed several fourteeners and has his own barbecue website (petesmeats.com). Pete and his wife, Denise, reside in Loveland, Colo., and have three adult children.

SPONSOR NOTE: This episode is sponsored by Ingram Angus LLC.

The entire Ingram team invites you to their annual production sale, Friday, Nov. 8, on the farm at Pulaski, Tenn., to see how they've harnessed the power of the Angus cow to make the herd bull your operation needs.

Visit IngramAngus.com for more information on some of the breed’s most proven cow families, and they’ll see you Nov. 8.

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