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- I get up dark early, put on my boots. I get to ride the four wheeler and check the cows and do other things. I help put cows away. - I just remember growing up when I was just short and little and falling asleep on the floorboard of the tractor or hauling cows to pasture or whatever it was and sleeping in the pickup so dad wouldn't leave you in the morning and I want to hand those to my kids and instill hard work and enjoy the time outside and just the time with being with family. One big thing about this operation is I get to be with my dad. I get to be with my sister and my kids get to be with them too. M and M feeders is a family operation. My dad and uncle, Marvin and Mel, started it back in the early nineties. - Well, basically, we moved out of Idaho in 1992 to come out here to feed cattle and the reason we moved because we could see the cattle industry was changing and moving this way. The packers were out here and the corn was out here and it was a good move for us. - It was tough, but we knew that's what we prayed about it in the driveway, and we prayed that it was God's will that the doors would open and they did open, and the biggest thing was when it did open, to have the faith to walk through the door and to keep going. - I just had a really good opportunity. I was going to school. I kind of had the path and I thought I was gonna. We just had the Elm Creek Operation. I think it was maybe looking at a nutrition field, maybe work with a feed supplier or just something tied to the ag industry, to the cattle industry specifically. When I was at school down there, I got a phone call from my dad. He said, "We've got a chance that feedyard "that we looked at five years ago, "we've got the opportunity to maybe purchase it. "We'd like to have a phone call with you and Marvin "and make sure this is what you want to do "because if we're gonna go forward, "you need to be involved in this. "If not, then we're happy with the operation "that we have in Elm Creek." It was like getting that winning lottery ticket. I mean, you have the opportunity to do what you want to do, to come back, to be large enough to establish and carry a family, take care of customers. I just felt that it was good timing and it was a blessing. I thought let's jump in with both feet and go. - Honesty is the best business advertisement you can have. We have always stuck to our guns on that, and it has always paid off. - It's about treating people right, treating people with integrity. We want to take care of the customer cattle the same way that we would take care of our own and even better because their trust is in us to take care of their cattle. - I really care about the animals, and so for me, it's very emotional. It's not just I clock in, feeds a bunch of animals, leave, they're on their own type attitude. I really put my heart into it and I'm on call. I tell people I'm like a doctor without doctor pay because if there's anything wrong, you got to drop everything you do and go help them. - God had brought us here and it's a servant's business, and if you don't have a servants heart in this kind of industry when it's 30 below and it's blowing snow and you got to go out and take care of the animals just like they're your own, it makes the difference, but you have that place in your heart before that day ever arrived, and you just keep on doing what you're doing and don't give up. - We treat your cattle like family because our family, generation after generation, we've been in the cattle business. We've just really appreciated the animal for everything it does, and we've cared for it. - We wouldn't be able to have this operation without the families and with the people that work here. It's definitely a team that we have to have. Everyone has to help the other person. There's one thing about our site is you have to be involved in a little bit of everything. Just over the years, the cattle have improved. We used to feed a lot of mixed cattle, put together cattle, a lot of colored cattle, unknown genetics. We've really seen the value of buying cattle off of one ranch or off of a bigger group of cattle from people that are really invested in improving their genetics all the way from reproductive trait, carcass traits, and the big thing that we see is on the finishing the cattle. We get to see that they've spent the money on bulls or on genetics and things like that where we could get a premium for the cattle. Yeah, one big difference in our operation is we have our own cow herd. We really emphasize on carcass traits. We do a lot of AI with superior genetics, all Angus. It's really been a valuable tool in our operation to see what using the top Angus genetics and what we can do to better our herd, and then we can also talk to our customers and say, "Hey, this is maybe some genetics or different bulls "or sires that we've used and we've liked it." We're not pushing anything on anyone. Everyone has to fit their operation, but we have the advantage that we get to see from the beginning all the way to the end, and we've actually picked up some customers that do the same thing, and we can work with them, and they can take advantage of the genetics, and then they get a see full circle when the cattle are harvested. If we bought the cattle we wanna know how good his cattle are so we can bring them back again, and we'd like to establish a relationship with that customer so that he could be part of the process, and he would understand that the improvements he's making in his cow herd are making full circle, and we're reaping what he sowed here at the feedyard. Certified Angus Beef has been a way that we can strive to add more value to our carcass to add more premium. Anything that we can do to add a premium for our own cattle or for the customer cattle and then also have a good product for the consumer. CAB allows us to be more profitable at this feedlot so that we can continue doing what we're doing, and we can pass it on to the next generation. - When I was in Idaho raised there, I stayed there till I was 40-years-old. I'd get up at 6:30, and we was milking cows, and we was feeding cattle, and I had to feed all the baby calves before I went to school. I just dream at anything I would be back here in the middle of Nebraska doing what we're doing. We've been blessed that we've given this area and this facility and I'm blessed with my kids because they love the business. You got to love what you do when you get out of bed in the morning. If you don't like what you're doing when you get out of bed, your day's not gonna go good. I can guarantee it. - One thing we've always been taught growing up is, no matter what you do, don't just do okay. Make sure that you improve something, make sure you make it better than the way you found it. Excellence, to me, means doing your best at every little thing, all the little things, that nobody else wanted to do. - As far as putting a lot of money in the bank at the end a generation, I don't know whether you do. You just pay for a lot of property, you pay for a lot of equipment, you pay for horses, and you pay for horse trailers, and you enjoy life, but if you get back to the basics to hang onto your family and keep them close to you, you influence them during their life. That would be about the most pleasing thing I can think of.