Largest cattle feedlot in Nebraska to begin taking feeders later this month

Blackshirt Feeders feedlot operation near Haigler, Nebraska. (Courtesy of Settje Agri-Services & Engineering)

LINCOLN — Construction workers are hurrying to put the final touches on what is planned to be the state’s largest feedlot for feeding cattle.

Blackshirt Feeders, led by a trio of Canadian veterinarians who are veteran feedlot consultants, plans to begin shipping in cattle within a month to its sprawling complex of pens north of Haigler, a village in the far southwest corner of Nebraska.

The first shipments will slowly ramp up to 50,000 head, and over the next two years, the feedlot is projected to expand to hold up to 150,000 cattle, the largest such complex in Nebraska and among the largest in the nation.

It’s been billed as a “beyond a state-of-the-art” feedlot with a rolled, compacted concrete base that will reduce odors and flies and be easier to clean, improve the health and weight-gain of the cattle, and eventually allow the tons of manure to be used by biodigesters to produce methane.

“It will have as much innovation as any feedlot in the state, much less the nation,” said Dean Settje, whose Lancaster County-based company is managing construction of the facility.

“ I want this to be good. I want to really showcase this thing,” said Eric Behlke, a native of Benkelman and one of the three Canada-based veterinarians behind the project.

Behlke, speaking from Alberta before stepping onto an airplane for a return to Nebraska, said the Blackshirt ownership group identified southwest Nebraska as “ probably one of the best areas in the world to feed cattle.”

Original site discarded

Initially, a site 23 miles of north of Benkelman was chosen and given initial approval as the location for the feedlot two years ago. But opposition to that site over concerns about groundwater quality and quantity prompted a move to a location about seven miles north of Haigler, along the Colorado state line, a site with fewer nearby residents.

Conditional use plan

The conditional use plan for Blackshirt Feeders approved by the Dundy County Board includes the following conditions:

• Approval by the Upper Republican Natural Resources District.
• Development of a fly and dust mitigation plan.
• Road maintenance agreement with the county board prior to construction.
• Commitment not to convert the facility to dirt pens.
• Grading for water and waste runoff on the site.
• Monitoring of wells downstream from the feedlot.

In this arid corner of the state, the $200 million project was required to retire 13 center-pivot irrigation systems to offset the water use projected for the feedlot, though Behlke said that probably only nine will have to be shut down when the site is fully operational.

More than 100 construction workers are putting the final touches on the first phase of the project. The feedlot is projected to employ more than 120 workers with a projected annual payroll of $25 million to care for the livestock, mill the feed and run the digesters.

That is a major influx of population for Dundy County, which has seen its population drop by 21% over the past dozen years to about 1,500 residents today.

Local residents are divided on the project, with concerns raised about increased traffic and impacts on the locally depleted aquifer. Supporters cite the new, local market for corn, some increase in local housing and increased business for local merchants.

At the Haigler Country Cafe, owner Barb Wheaton s ays she’s already seen more customers and more traffic through town. And they’re cleaning off lots in the village, population 140, in anticipation of use for new houses or trailers. There’s even hope that Blackshirt Feeders will establish a new headquarters in town.

But like some other residents of Haigler, Wheaton is taking a wait-and-see attitude about the new feedlot rising north of the village.

“Progress is good. It will be interesting to see how everything pulls off. If they can pull it off,” she said.

“A lot of time plans don’t go as they planned,” Wheaton said.

Paul Olson, a Dundy County commissioner who lives three miles from the feedlot, said one major concern is a temporary railroad crossing that is on the route of a concrete road Blackshirt built to the facility. A semitruck driver died in a collision with a train in June.

Some express skepticism

Olson said county officials and Blackshirt are working with the railroad to improve the crossing, but making such a change is taking more time than expected.

The project could also increase the local population, though most of the new housing being built for workers is in Wray, Colorado, about 20 miles from the feedlot.

Two people who track such feedlot facilities expressed skepticism about whether all the touted innovations will work.

John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, recalled the grand opening of the AltEn ethanol plant in Mead, which was touted as a similar, innovative, “closed loop” operation that would generate power from methane as well as brew ethanol. The methane operation was later abandoned as infeasible at AltEn, which became notorious — and was closed — for producing ethanol using pesticide-laced seed corn rather than regular field corn.

“There’s no precedence for this (Blackshirt Feeders) in Nebraska. It’s a wing and prayer, it really is,” said Jonathan Leo, an Omaha-based lawyer who specializes in environmental issues.

Hansen said such a huge facility will increase competition for smaller feedlot operations, driving some out of business.

Overall, he said, the massive feedlot to fatten cattle fits with the trend in other livestock sectors, where dairies and hog facilities have grown larger and larger, pushing out smaller operations.

Back in the day, Hansen said, four dairies operated near his home place in Madison County, and every farm raised pigs — called “mortgage lifters” then because they rarely lost money. But they’re all gone now.

The profits from such large farming operations, he said, don’t end up in the pockets of the local hardware store, feed supplier and lumber yard like they did when local owners, rather than hourly workers, are raising the livestock.

“Where will the profits go to that facility? A lot of those owners don’t live in the U.S. or in the community,” Hansen said.

Owners point to experience

Behlke dismisses such skepticism, pointing out that veterinarians behind the project — Kee Jim, Calvin Booker and himself — have a combined 70 years experience in the cattle feeding business. New investors, with experience in feedlot ownership and operation, have come on board in recent months, adding even more expertise, he said.

Biodigesters and rolled concrete are in use at several feedlots across the country, Behlke added.

A review by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy indicated that while the local aquifer had “declined” and had limited resources, it could be “vulnerable to impact” if rainy conditions returned to the area. State records indicated that groundwater levels were within 5 feet of one of the runoff holding ponds at the facility.

But Behlke said the concrete pad on which the feedlot will be constructed provides more protection for the surface water and groundwater. All the collection ponds at the facility will be lined with high-density polyethylene, he said, to protect against leaching into the aquifer.

“With a project like this, everything has to be right,” he said.

Massive amounts of manure

Galen Erickson, a feedlot Extension specialist with the University of Nebraska, said such larger operations have advantages such as efficiencies of scale in purchasing grain and other supplies. But there are downsides, including the large amount of manure that needs to be disposed of safely.

Feedlot cattle produce an average of 11 tons of manure a year each, according to Utah State University. That’s 550,000 tons over a year for a herd of 50,000 and would be more than 1.5 million tons if Blackshirt Feeders gets to its capacity of 150,000 head.

Behlke said the operation has contracts with local farmers to spread the manure as fertilizer. The waste will be used to produce and sell methane when the digesters are operational, which will be put in operation later when there will be enough volume to make them workable.

The concrete pad on which the feedlot is being built — which will eventually cover nearly three-fourths of a square mile — makes the digesters feasible, Behlke said. Traditional, clay-lined feedlots mix too much dirt with the manure, making it impractical to produce methane.

Another major innovation for the Blackshirt Feeders project is the use of so-called “beef-on-dairy” cattle, which are dairy cows impregnated using beef cattle semen. They produce a higher quality meat, according to Behlke, and come with better data to track the best performing cattle, which helps managers produce the best beef at the best cost.

“The more efficient an animal is, the more protein we produce with a lesser amount of resources,” Behlke said.

Settje said use of a concrete pad and digesters to handle the waste isn’t new to the feedlot industry, though Blackshirt appears to be the first in Nebraska that will use a digester and the first built entirely on a rolled concrete pad.

Behlke said the project has a good relationship with its neighbors and is designed to be “the most environmentally friendly feedlot on the planet,” as well as the most efficient in producing meat.

“We have always said what we’re going to do,” he said. “There’s plenty of evidence now that we’ve made good on our promises.”

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