Our feedlot has been custom feeding cattle for over 35 years just outside of Maple Park, Illinois. We have found that our location has given us great availability to quality low cost feed as well as a close proximity to several packing plants.

Our People

Our staff works diligently to provide the best care and well-being for the cattle on our farm. With over 40 years of experience our feedlot manager walks the cattle every day to ensure that each animal receives the care that it deserves. It also takes a team to ensure that each animal is being fed timely, uniformly and accurately.

Our Cattle Barns

Our entire feedlot is under roof and designed for the different seasons of the year. In the summer time each barn has the ability to open up curtains and turn on fans to bring air over the cattle to constantly keep them comfortable. In the winter the sun is allowed to come in on the south side of the buildings and the curtains can be raised and lowered depending on the weather outside. It is important to be able to provide the most consistent weather environment in order to maintain animal health and performance. Our pen sizes range from 30 head to 142 head. Each barn has slatted floors with rubber mats over the top of the slats to improve animal well-being.

Our Processing Facility

In 1996, we built a state of the art processing facility based off the designs from Temple Grandan. Weather can sometimes be a challenge to feeding cattle in Illinois, but our facility was built so no matter what the weather is outside our cattle get the same care inside. It’s important to have an all-weather facility to maintain vaccination schedules, treat sick animals as well as ship and receive cattle.

Ultrasound

We know that not every group of cattle is perfectly uniform. So by using the ultrasound data, we can sort each pen of cattle into three different expected sale dates. This then maximizes profitability of each group of cattle by not over-feeding the larger cattle as well as shipping smaller cattle too soon. Packing plants prefer this because they know the cattle they are buying is exactly the size they want hanging in their cooler.

Our Ration

Our rations are continually being evaluated by a nutritionist. Together we work to provide our customers with the most robust ration for the price. The ration consists of roller milled corn, a roughage, supplement pellet, and two different corn by-products. With several different ethanol plants and corn processing plants nearby, we can source a very economical feed package that is very efficient. All the corn that is fed is produced here on our farm.

Administration and Marketing

We provide customers with up to date picture of how their cattle are doing financially every 15 days. Each pen’s feed is recorded digitally from the truck so that the customer is billed for exactly what they got. We also have the ability to run breakeven projections and even put hedges on at the customer’s request. Currently there are 4 different cattle buyers that come to our lot and bid on cattle every week. Closeouts are run on every group to help determine profitability and provide constant feedback to our feedlot staff they we are moving in positive direction.

Financing

We will finance customer’s cattle and feed if needed. Financing is a great way to retain ownership of your cattle or just spread your risk out over more cattle. Our process is very simple and easy. If you are interested please call and ask us and we will explain the program.

If you are interested in feeding with us, please call Mike Martz at (815) 751-0519 or email mhmartz55@gmail.com