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Headquartered in Amarillo, Texas, Cactus Feeders operates feedyards in the Texas Panhandle and Southwestern Kansas. Under the Spike Box brand, Cactus operates three cattle ranches in Texas and New Mexico; raising more than 30,000 stocker calves and 2,000 mother cows on 140,000 acres. The company's total operations now employ more than 500 people with revenues exceeding $750 million.
 Co-Founded
in 1975 by Paul F. Engler and Thomas H. Dittmer, Cactus Feeders
was launched with the purchase of a single feedyard in Cactus,
Texas and a total capacity of 40,000 head. Today, 25 years later,
Cactus Feeders is the world's largest cattle feeder with nine
feedyards and a one-time capacity of 520,000 head.
The Early Years:
Expansion & Specialization
From its beginning at Cactus Feedyard, the company rapidly expanded operations during the late 1970s and early 80s with the acquisition of Frontier Feedyard in Gruver, Stratford Feedyard in Stratford, and Wrangler Feedyards in Tulia. With feeding and packinghouse experience dating from early cattle feeding in the 60s, Cactus developed and applied forward-thinking practices in risk management and the specialized management of feed production and cattle handling. Coupled with one of the largest production capacities in the business, Cactus soon became recognized as an industry leader in feeding efficiency and cattle production.
Industry Leadership:
Value-Based Marketing & Employee Ownership
During the
1980s, Cactus Feeders turned its experience and industry leadership
to an area critical for long-term viability and success; value-based
marketing. Recognizing that the live average method of selling
fed cattle had created market inefficiencies and placed the cattle
business at a disadvantage in comparison with competing meats,
Cactus developed and initiated the industry's first value-based
marketing program. Better known as "the formula," the
agreement with major packers provides financial incentives for
high quality beef and provides cattle producers with a way to
receive true value for each animal fed. Today, this method of
selling is in widespread use throughout the industry and commonly
recognized as the way producers receive value for their cattle.
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Headed
into the 1990s, Cactus Feeders came under the ownership of
the Engler Family and its employees with the buyout of Thomas
Dittmer and establishment of the industry's first Employee
Stock Ownership Plan (the ESOP). Through the ESOP, Cactus
employees own 32% of the company and share directly in the
financial rewards of ownership. For Cactus' customers, employee
ownership brings the security of knowing that their cattle
are being cared for and fed by people who have a vested interest
in the day-to-day well being of their animals. |
Looking Ahead:
The World's Largest Cattle Feeder
Throughout
the mid and late 90s, Cactus continued to expand operations with
the purchase of Southwest Feedyard in Hereford and the reopening
of Wolf Creek Feedyard in Perryton. Hale Center Feedyard in Hale
Center, Ulysses Feedyard in Ulysses, Kansas and Syracuse Feedyard
in Syracuse Kansas were purchased in 1999, bringing the company
to its current capacity of 520,000 head.
The start of the new Millennium signals new frontiers for Cactus Feeders. International operations were established in 2000 with the building of the first commercial feedyard in Argentina. Today, Cactus Feeders has been widely recognized by the cattle feeding industry for its innovation, foresight and entrepreneurial spirit receiving both the "Cattle Business of the Century Award" from the National Cattlemen's Association Foundation and the "Environmental Stewardship Award" from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.
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