​If you ask, they will come through. That, more than any, describes the value that the people in cattle feeding bring to their communities.
 
Wheeler County in the eastern Texas Panhandle isn’t the largest county in the state. Nor the most populous. In fact, with a population around 5,000, the county is home to more cattle
than people.
 
It is, however, likely the biggest county in the state to, per capita, boast the highest number of Eagle Scouts at 54 and counting. And that’s not all. “We’re building a brand-new baseball field,” Pat McDowell, rancher and county judge said. The feedyard in Wheeler County is the title sponsor.
 
Those things don’t just happen, McDowell said. They happen because the people who live in a place where cattle fuel the economy make it happen.
 
In communities throughout Cattle Feeding Country, they do that by showing up to help, to offer leadership. They do that by contributing money and resources to local causes. They don’t brag about it. They don’t do it for recognition. They do it because it’s the right thing to do to make their community better, stronger, more resilient.
 
Wheeler County is just one of many points of light that illuminate how important people are to creating a thriving, vibrant community. And in the rural areas of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, where cattle and cattle feeding fuel the economy, it’s the people who make it happen.
 
Just ask Cathy Bunch. She’s the mayor of Hereford, Texas, and the wife of a feedyard manager and owner. Her dad shod horses for feedyards. “I worked for a feedyard growing up as a teenager. So I’ve been around feedyards and know how important they are to our community.”
 
She recalls the first time she asked feedyards for a community contribution. It was to fund an air-filled arch for the high school football team to run through at home games. “And the response was, ‘Yes, whatever we need to do for the community.’” She’s never been turned down since when she makes a request to help. “The feedyards are who we go to if we need something for our community.”
 
Like Wheeler to the northeast on the other side of the Texas Panhandle, Hereford will build a new baseball complex. “And I feel comfortable going to the feedyards to ask them to contribute, because they are always willing to give back to the community.”
 
While that community pride helps everyone, it’s part of how a feedyard helps its employees. “Their employees live in this town and I feel like they want to provide and help support their employees outside of the job to make sure their families have quality of life in Hereford,” she said.
 
“That’s good for the feedyard because if the employees are happy and their families are happy and they’re content living in Hereford and have a quality of life here, the community is better off and the feedyard is better off.”
 
While financial contributions are important, it doesn’t stop there, Bunch said. “They (feedyards) really like to donate hamburger meat. If an organization, 4-H or the Booster Club or something like that cooks hamburgers, we can go to the feedyards and they’re willing to support.”
 
Kevin Carter, CEO of the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation, sees it as two sides of the same coin. “I’ve lived in a small town and I know how dependent on agriculture that these small towns are from the economic standpoint, but also as a major employer in those towns.”
 
McDowell agrees. The feedyard in his county supports 24 families. Those families go to church, their kids go to school, the parents are involved in their children’s activities and likely are involved in other community groups as well. “The manager told me that his people may leave for the oilfield, but they always come back because they know he’ll always be there.”
 
Feedyards don’t operate in a vacuum and community involvement doesn’t begin and end with feedyards alone. “Another very important business to Hereford is Caviness Beef Packers, whether it’s meat for hot dogs at a parade or any other need,” Bunch said.
 
Then there are the companies and businesses that provide the goods and services feedyards need. They’re an essential part of the cattle feeding world and an important part of the people equation that strengthens the fabric of small towns.

​That “cooperation combination” came together in a very special way about six years ago when the cattle feeding world rose to fulfill a critically important need—food insecurity.
 
“Kids can’t learn if they’re hungry,” according to Dyron Howell, founder of Snack Pak 4 Kids. “The cattle feeding community has stepped up to make sure communities have the beef protein that kids need every weekend. The people have been instrumental in making that happen.”
 
While school children facing food insecurity get meals at school during the week, weekends can be a hungry, scary time. Snack Pak 4 Kids works with the schools in communities in the Texas Panhandle and South Texas to provide food bags on Fridays for kids to take home.
 
Those food bags now contain beef sticks, thanks to the people
in the cattle feeding world.
 
It came about with a meeting between Howell and TCFA staff to discuss the protein needs for food-insecure kids. “Then feedyard members got involved and asked, ‘What can we do?’ Then other companies that support the cattle feeding industry got involved and also asked, ‘What can we do?’”
 
That simple question, “What can we do?” has resulted in more than $600,000 raised from an annual cattle feeders’ golf tournament, all of which goes to buy beef sticks that are included in the Snack Pak that kids in need get every week.
 
“Every year we have 28 teams play in the golf tournament. It’s just been a snowball that has been rolling downhill once people were aware our kids needed what they needed,” Howell said.
 
In Howell’s mind the program is more than food. “It’s not a bag full of food. What we’re giving kids is a bag full of tools that lets them open their minds and opens up opportunity that we all have been blessed with,” he said.
 
While it’s true that kids can’t learn when they’re hungry, Howell offers this perspective: “Kids can change the world when they’re full. And making this investment gives them the tools they need to be successful. And then, you unlock all this potential for these kids.”
 
Unlocking the potential in kids—all kids—is what Mike Ray is about. He’s a cattleman from Guymon, Oklahoma, and part owner in a feedyard. He epitomizes the ethic and mantra of the people who make the cattle business strong.
 
“I believe if you live in a community, you’ve got to work to make it better. And that’s volunteer work, whether it’s the school board or being involved in civic clubs or whatever.” He served on the Guymon School Board for 15 years, then rose through the system to become president of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association.
 
While the Oklahoma Panhandle is home to a strong cattle feeding community, Guymon is a packing plant town, he said. And that creates interesting and sometimes controversial dynamics. “I’ve worked with schools all over Oklahoma, and we’re probably the most diverse school system in the state.”
 
In fact, 38 different languages are spoken in Guymon schools. While that’s a challenge, it’s also an opportunity in his mind. His kids and kids from feedyard families in the area were part of that dynamic. “My kids got to see what the real world was before they ever got out of high school, the diversity and the different cultures,” he said. “I think it gave them insight into how to function in society that sometimes you don’t get if you don’t have multiple cultures.”
 
He passionately believes that a school’s responsibility is to educate every kid it gets, regardless of where they’re from. And when that occurs, good things happen in a community.
 
“The kids of feedyard employees, packinghouse employees, they get established in the community and they become the community leaders,” he said. “It’s amazing how many of those kids have gone to Guymon schools, gone to Oklahoma Panhandle State University, and have started businesses or are involved in a business. They’re the next generation of leaders. And that’s what you need.”

Junior Division Results
Best Written Exam
3rd Place Written Exam – Tate Fritsch 
2nd Place Written Exam – Crockett Guenther
1st Place Exam and winner of a $250 prize – Jenna Stevenson 
 
Best Presentation
3rd Place Presentation – Tatum Fritsch
2nd Place Presentation – Virginia Stevenson
Best Presentation and winner of a $250 prize – Crockett Guenther
 
Best Individual Carcass
3rd Place Individual Carcass – Bailey Kubecka and Clint Kubecka
2nd Place Individual Carcass – Trinity Hernandez and Jenna Stevenson 
Top Individual Carcass and winner of a $250 prize – Kennedy Wilhelm and McKinley Wilhelm
 
Best Pen Steer Points
3rd Place Carcass Pen – Trinity Hernandez and Jenna Stevenson
2nd Place Carcass Pen – Baiden Beavers
Top Carcass Pen and winner of a $250 prize – Kennedy Wilhelm and McKinley Wilhelm
 
Top Rookie Award
2nd Place Rookie – Tate Fritsch
Top Rookie and winner of a $250 prize – Bailey Kubecka and Tatum Fritsch

Senior Division Results
Best Written Exam
3rd Place Written Exam – Jake Ressler and Logan Kainer
2nd Place Written Exam – Emma Stevenson
1st Place Exam and winner of a $500 prize – Kade Lawrence
 
Best Interview
3rd Place Interview – Ryan Janak
2nd Place Interview – Kade Lawrence
Best Interview and winner of a $500 prize – Emma Stevenson
 
Best Individual Carcass
3rd Place Individual Carcass – Cason Cribbs, Quannah Dudley and Ryan Janak  
2nd Place Individual Carcass – Kade Davis and Ryan Janak
Top Individual Carcass and winner of a $500 prize – Logan Kainer, Pierce Wilhelm and Kade Zinnate
 
Best Pen Steer Points
3rd Place Carcass Pen – Ryan Janak 
2nd Place Carcass Pen – Cason Cribbs and Quannah Dudley
Top Carcass Pen and winner of a $500 prize – Pierce Wilhelm
 
Top Rookie Award
3rd Place Rookie – Macey Putska 
2nd Place Rookie – Logan Kainer
Top Rookie and winner of a $500 prize – Ryan Janak