The modern feedlot is a sophisticated hub of technology, science and commerce. A recent feedlot immersion event hosted at Irsik & Doll’s Ingalls Feed Yard, Ingalls, Kan., brought together high school students from across the region to learn more how the cattle feeding sector relies on diverse expertise far beyond traditional pen riding.
More than 40 students from eight high schools attended the event on April 8. Organizers say their focus with the event is to strengthen the workforce pipeline while creating a new generation of informed beef advocates.
“Educational programs like this are very important for kids in high school and any age,” says attendee Braylee Kraisinger from Hugoton, Kan. “It helps us see more job opportunities that most people have never really thought about before. Programs like this are helping give kids a head start in understanding different industries and what it takes to succeed in them.”
She stresses there is so much more to a feedlot than cowboys and pen riders.
“There are hundreds of other jobs,” she says. “Everyone’s job at the feedlot is very important to make sure everything runs smoothly. Each job is connected in some way, and they all have to work together to be successful.”
The Workforce Pipeline: Recruiting for a High-Tech Future
One of the main goals for the event is to highlight the jobs behind the scenes; everyone sees those jobs from the highway but getting as hands-on as possible with those careers in the back office and out of sight is the real purpose.
A major theme is career awareness: showing students that feedyards and allied businesses offer many different jobs, not just riding horses.
“Our initial goal was to have every station be a real experience of getting the students to do just a snippet of what that person does on a daily basis,” says Russell Plaschka, Kansas
Cooperative Council CEO and president. “As you know, you can see it, hear about it, but if they get to do the job it starts to stick and make an impression on career decisions.”
The event organizers developed a program to showcase the diverse career paths available in cattle feeding.
“Finding skilled employees is challenging, and I wanted to help strengthen the pipeline of quality talent for our industry,” says Trevor Cox, Zoetis strategic account manager. “Many young people don’t realize how many different kinds of careers are available in cattle feeding, so this event was a way to give back — by educating, inspiring and sparking interest in roles they might not have considered. Our goal was to showcase real, rewarding career paths and encourage the next generation to see themselves in this industry.”
From Drones to Necropsies: Seven Stations of Complexity
Cox says students had a chance to see how feedyards aren’t just about cattle and cowboys — the industry thrives on diverse expertise, from technology and safety to nutrition, equipment and marketing.
Participants were divided into small groups and rotated through a series of stations around the feedyard exposing students to potential careers in cattle feeding and adjacent industries.
Highlights of the seven sessions include:
- A feed mill tour focused on animal nutrition
- An animal health and necropsy session facilitated by Zoetis’ Dr. Shawn Blood
- Headcount’s demonstration of drone-based cattle counting
- MWI’s session on its feed technology
- KLA’s safety trailer where students learned about managing risk
- Equipment showcases from Roto-Mix and Murphy Tractor
- A cattle marketing discussion led by Irsik & Dolls’ David Ast and Daniel Berg
The Marketing Matrix: Understanding How Cattle are Valued
Attendee Kayden Holstein from Scott City, Kan., says, “The most interesting rotation to me was the marketing portion, because it provided a new perspective on how decisions are made and how cattle are valued within the industry.”
During the cattle marketing rotation lead by Ast and Berg, students got the chance to predict quality and yield grades as well as carcass value on a pen of finished steers.
Advocacy in Action: Creating Informed Beef Consumers
Brandon Depenbusch, Irsik & Doll vice president of the cattle division and one of the event organizers, summarizes, “While the primary goal is educationally focused — exposing high school students to feedyards and the related industries that support them — we also wanted to expose them to production agriculture practices so they become informed beef consumers and advocates.”
He notes they hope students can counter misinformation later in life and “speak intelligently” when others say negative or incorrect things about feedyards.
“Students were engaged and asked thoughtful questions throughout the event,” Cox explains.
During a Q&A session following lunch Cox says students shared what they learned.
“Three key takeaways for me were getting to see the marketing side of the cattle industry, learning how feedyards are increasingly focused on finishing cattle and seeing how advanced technology has become within feedyard operations,” Holstein summarizes. “I was especially impressed by how efficient and well-managed the mill was.”
Kraisinger adds three fact about feedlots that stood out to her were:
- Lots of technology is used in feedlots. Technology is used from tracking feed rations to flying drones.
- Safety is key in a feedlot. The most common injuries are due to slips, trips and falls. It’s important to make sure you have a safety harness on whether you’re climbing a ladder or going into a silo.
- Employees need to work together and make sure they always have someone aware of where they are or what they are doing.
Both Cox and Depenbusch confirm they plan to make it an annual event and rotate it around to different locations in the region.
“It’s a small investment of time and resources with a big payoff for building the workforce our industry will rely on for years to come,” Cox says.
Sponsors of the program were Irsik & Doll, Zoetis, HeadCount, MWI Animal Health, Roto-Mix, Ascendance Truck Centers, Murphy Tractor, KLA, Kansas Cooperative Council and Kansas State University Southwest Research-Extension Center.
