Tour Recap

The tour began at Harold Engle’s working facility at the north edge of Madison. The Engle family’s operation began in 1950, when Harold Engle, Sr. made the original land purchase, then supplied the beef he raised to a grocery store he co-owned until 1984 when he sold his interest to his brother. The current operation was structured in 2010 after Harold retired from the banking business and son, Ryan, who is with Frontier Farm Credit, joined him on a part-time basis. Together with employees Mark Ott and Drew Stutesman, they operate 800 acres of cropland and 2200 acres of grass, with a focus on stocker cattle. The 2010 Soil Conservation Banker’s Award winner, the Engle family is passionate about land conservation, and utilize no-till and cover crop practices to preserve soil health.

The next stop was at Luthi Cattle Company’s processing facility, also in the Madison area. As Dallas Luthi explained, he and his siblings represent the third generation of family members to be active in their multi-faceted cow-calf and stocker operation that is synonymous with registered Simmental cattle in Greenwood County. A short drive east into the rolling Flint Hills vista provided tour members with a sampling of the cow-calf pairs that dad, Hal Luthi, manages.

Started in 2012 as part of the Sowder Seed network, Ranchland Feeds of Madison hosted a delicious barbeque lunch prepared and served by Greg and Carla Davis. Greg and ADM feed rep, Cole Camack, updated attendees on anticipated fall feed crop inventories. Greg then explained that a large segment of his business is to help customers “plan and create forage seed blends that provide grazing, haying, and soil health opportunities.” He introduced the concept of the seeding/spraying drone demo that would be seen at the Beeman headquarters, the final tour location.

Preston and Jeanna Beeman operate a diversified cattle and sheep operation northwest of Hamilton KS, where they currently custom start and background 400-800 lb. calves.  These cattle are maintained in various grass traps until their respective owners are ready for them. Summer grass is also utilized for custom grazing for 90-day cattle. Hair sheep have recently been introduced to help control sericea lespedeza.  Ewes are barn lambed in the fall; weaned lambs are sold at 8 weeks of age and ewes are grazed on pasture during the summer.  The Beemans have three children who help when they can.  Reid and wife Maddie live in Iowa and Tessa works for Kansas Department of Agriculture in Manhattan.  Jorja will be a 6th grader and helps daily on horseback. 

Kyle Criger, owner of Elite Ag Services LLC in Howard, KS, awed tour-goers with his demonstration of two DJI AgriSpray T-30 drones, each with a 10-foot wingspan and a yet larger spray pattern capability. Kyle was raised in the ag community and runs his own cow-calf and stocker operation. Also having a background in the aviation industry, he came naturally to adding ag drones to his business when he could not find other vendors available to meet his spraying and seeding needs. While Kyle explained the capabilities of drones as “another tool in the rancher’s toolbox” his young assistant, Trenton Varney, operated the controller of each. One interesting observation was that none of the dozen or so cattle in the trap paid much attention to the drones operating overhead.

The Cattlemen’s Association wishes to recognize and thank board member, Zach Teter, for his work to organize the tour, Ranchland Feeds for providing lunch and Frontier Farm Credit for the bottled water.