One of the richest blessings a family business could have is a patriarch or matriarch (I’ll use patriarch for both roles for simplicity in this article) who has moved out of their day-to-day leadership role yet is still available to share their unique wisdom when the need occurs.

There have been large amounts of price movement for feeder cattle this spring and summer due to a variety of factors, including strong domestic retail and export beef demand, meat processing issues, a run-up in feed prices, worsening drought conditions and the loosening and retightening of local COVID-19 restrictions.

All beef producers understand the importance of feed efficiency; it’s the ratio of the pounds of feed required to achieve a pound of gain.

Nothing influences an outcome more than getting off to a good start, or a bad one.

Individual animal identification allows livestock producers to maintain profit-generating records, such as production and breeding, health and treatment history, weight and more for every head of livestock on their operation.

Cow-calf producers must consider additional factors than what breed to buy when adding females to their herd.

The JW Freund Farms has been family-owned since the mid-1960s, when Jack Freund and his brother, Chuck, added a feedyard to their farming operation near Lewis, Iowa.