How One Local Feedlot Uses Performance Beef to Serve Their Community

How One Local Feedlot Uses Performance Beef to Serve Their Community

Making any rural business work requires knowing the needs of the local community. Feedlots are no exception to this. Brother-in-laws, Connor Buchholz and Jacob Steiner with Dakota Prairie Beef, have found success in making this their focus.

“The goal of what we're doing over there is to fit our area,” says Buchholz, owner of Dakota Prairie Beef.

Dakota Prairie Beef is a feedlot located in the southwest corner of North Dakota. Its original owner focused on fat cattle, but Buchholz and Steiner have pivoted to focus on developing replacement heifers and backgrounding.

“The economics of feeding 40 heifers in in your own little lot, that's pretty tough,” shares Buchholz. “We’ve really done our best to lean into what the actual demand in the region is, which is somewhere where you can go to get your heifers backgrounded the way you want them.”

Tailoring business to the local community doesn’t come without its challenges. Depending on market fluctuations and drought conditions, feed cost is the biggest challenge Dakota Prairie Beef faces.

“On a dry year like this, they're primarily on a roughage ration just to grow right, develop their frame right, keep from getting too fleshy,” shares Steiner, the feedlot manager.

Shifting from feeding fat cattle to backgrounding created another challenge for Buchholz and Stiener – learning to adapt to slow business seasons.....



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