Bejot feedlot farm is located in the small rural town of Ainsworth (population c. 1,500), Brown County, Nebraska. Joint-owner Tom Bejot describes the farm enterprise as a “small family-run business”.

While he speaks the truth in relative Nebraska terms, the operation’s scale is hard to fathom from an Irish perspective.

  • 13,300 – farm’s Environmental Protection Agency-granted cattle capacity.
  • 3,400 – farm’s acreage, 250 of which makes up the feed yard with the vast majority of the balance under corn.
  • 7 – different diet specs fed
  • 2.5 – kilos of daily weight gain in Tom’s top finishing heifers

  • 25-60 – % of animals typically fed on contract, the Bejot family own the rest

  • 16 – employees on the farm, including management
  • 15 – GPS-driven irrigation pivots on the farm to grow the corn, averaging 1,250ft in length
  • 300 – gallons per minute of water usage on the farm
  • 70 to 100 – estimated added value in dollars per head generated via the use of hormone-based implants
  • 2 – feeding trucks operating full-time. Cattle are fed twice daily

  • 2 – different presidential votes in Tom’s household. He voted Trump and his wife for Clinton
  • 12,000 – tonnes of corn silage pitted in the yard. Along with 265,000 bushels of high moisture corn

  • 70 - % grain in finishing diet
  • 71 – cost (cents) per pound of weight gain on the farm (equivalent €1.44/kg)
  • 230 - bushels per acre of yield from corn, on average
  • 60,000 – capacity of a neighbouring feedlot

    • Read full reports on Bejot feedlot in the coming weeks on farmersjournal.ie