“We had to diversify large enough to create an income for another family on the farm,” said Brian, who is now 28. “We added pens and upgraded facilities in order to switch from running a backgrounding lot to running a finishing lot. In the past we backgrounded weaned calves in our feedlot only from fall until April. Now we use the pens year-round for finishing cattle. We feed from 2,000 to 3,000 head of cattle per year.

Brian oversees the expanded feedlot and manages his own herd of 250 beef cows along with 1,000 acres of land at the headquarters of the family’s ranch. He employs three people full time to help with the labor. His father, in partnership with two other farmers, grows potatoes, corn, and edible beans on irrigated land 50 miles from the original family operation.

At the home ranch, Brian finishes calves from his own beef cows in the feedlot and purchases additional weaned calves which are fed to finish weights. But about two-thirds of the cattle in his feedlot are fed and marketed on a custom basis for rancher and farmer clients in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota.

Brian turns the modest size of his feedlot to an advantage by sorting cattle into uniform groups for efficient feed use and marketing. “As a moderate-sized feedlot, we have an advantage over a larger feedlot because we have the time and labor available to sort cattle according to their condition,” said Brian.

“The calves people bring us are of varying sizes due to differences in age, genetics, and performance. During a feeding period, these calves finish at different times. In order to realize the most profit from these cattle of mixed sizes, we sort them and market them in groups as they reach the condition that’s appropriate for processing.”

Instead of just visually judging the finished condition in the feedlot animals, Brian uses the technology of ultrasound. About a month before he expects a group of cattle to reach their optimum quality grade of Prime or Choice, he runs the cattle through a chute equipped with an ultrasound sensor and monitor.

“The ultrasound machine sends sound waves through the animal’s body,” he explained. “The sound waves reflect off the varying densities of bone, muscle, fat, skin, and layers of connective tissue. The refraction of the sound waves presents an image on the monitor, and the machine records various measurements, such as the percentage of intramuscular fat, which is marbling. It also provides a depiction of external fat, backfat, and the size of the animal’s ribeye.” The imaging process takes about a minute per animal.

Scanning cattle by ultrasound is usually cost-effective in Brian’s experience because of what it can save in feed costs. Feed can cost $1.25 to $1.50 a head per day, he explained. “By scanning a pen of cattle by ultrasound, we’re sometimes able to market 20 percent of the pen 20 to 30 days earlier than the time when we originally thought they were going to be ready.” The cost of scanning is $3.50 per head.

Brian owns an ultrasound machine together with partner Jason McClennan. McClennan uses the machine to scan cattle on a custom basis for feedlot and seedstock clients throughout the northern tier states and Canada.

In his efforts to sell cattle by grade, Brian has made use of as many as 10 marketing outlets. Most of his cattle, however, go to three major packers.

He also direct markets some beef carcasses to local consumers. In 2001 he sold about 100 head directly to private households and a local processor.

“Consumer confidence is the big selling point for direct sales,” he said. “Some people like knowing that the product was raised locally. They like being able to associate a name or a face with the beef they purchase.”

Some customers like buying beef directly from his farm, he said, because each of his feedlot animals is “source verified.” That means he can tell them the origin of each animal as well as if and when it was treated with antibiotics or other drugs.

To keep the cost of his feedlot ration as low as possible, Brian grows most of the feed on his own farm and purchases low-cost by-product feeds available in the area. These economical feed products come from the region’s growing food-processing industry. He feeds a potato by-product as well as a blended distiller’s grain from a plant that processes ethanol from corn. Corn and alfalfa, grown on the farm, are also used in the feedlot ration.

In addition, the feedlot ration includes about 5 percent sorghum sudan. Though sudan is a lower-quality feed, Brian said he likes to grow it because it yields well, and requires few inputs. A warm-season crop, it can be seeded later in the spring.

He grows 250 to 300 acres of sudan each year, seeding it in early to mid-June on land that grew corn the year before. No fertilizers or chemicals are applied to the crop. The sudan is harvested as dry hay in big, round bales in late August or early September. The crop yields from 3 to 6 tons per acre.

Brian believes several factors work together to make his modest-sized feedlot economically viable. “It hinges on marketing, and on the employees we have working for us,” he said. “It depends, too, on customer relationships, because without customers we wouldn’t have many cattle in our lot. And another important factor is being able to find the most economical feedstuffs.”

There’s a lot of detailed management involved in keeping all these aspects of the operation running efficiently. Yet it’s precisely that daily challenge that drew Brian back to the family farm in the first place.