Changing with the Times: Dinklage Feedyards adopts new technology, doubles in capacity 

Three and a half miles east of Torrington on the north side of Highway 26, sits Dinklage Feedyards. 

Over the last quarter century, the operation has grown into a 30,000-head feedlot. 

Capacity

When Dinklage purchased the feedyard from Continental Grain Company in the 90s, it looked a little different than it does today. By adding additional pens and building a new feed mill, the company increased the capacity to nearly double what it originally was. 

“It’s a nice size,” said Yard Manager Rondel Carman. “It’s still small enough it gets the personal touch, yet big enough to operate from an economic standpoint.”

The feedyard sources 75 to 80 percent of the grain they feed within the local valley in western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming. In years like 2024, when production is lower than normal, sometimes the grain will come from as far away as the Dakotas. 

Dinklage is a finishing feedyard, meaning they fatten cattle which then go directly to market. This means as yearlings come off of grass in the fall, things get busy at the yard. 

At any given time, there are 13 to 15 employees on the job, and there are 20 full-time employees. 

Changes and innovations

Rondel has been at the feedyard in Torrington for over 30 years, first with Continental Grain Company and then with Dinklage when they bought the operation in 1997. He has seen the ebbs and flows of the industry and has marked the passing of time with the evolution of technology. 

What was once done with pen and paper is now tracked via computers and cellphones.

Every feed truck is equipped with GPS and its own computer screen, monitoring rations and giving drivers the ability to take notes as they go which can be instantly accessed by others. 

“The biggest change over the years is the technology. Every doctoring facility has scales on the chutes and computers right beside them. All of the cattle have an electronic identification tag in them, so we track every animal individually,” explains Rondel.

“It is the same way on the milling side of it. Back in the day, it took three or four guys to run a feed mill. Today, it’s 100 percent automated,” Rondel adds. 

These days, all of the equipment is monitored by computers and if something goes wrong, it sends Rondel a text to let him know. He jokes when the internet goes down, it is hard to get things done. 

Challenges

Rondel says a big reason many aspects of the job, especially the feed mill, have transitioned to technology is because it is hard to find people who want to do the work. He admits it’s been a challenge to find people who want to get up every morning and spend the day horseback riding through pens and looking at cattle or working in the feed mill. 

Just like producers, Mother Nature is a constant tribulation for the feedyard. As a business that is based on production performance, a winter storm is more than just an inconvenience when time is money. 

“Cattle today have been sitting here on feed all fall. The conditions are good. Cattle are comfortable. Cattle are performing amazingly. But if we get a foot of snow, it can turn it upside down for us in a hurry,” explains Rondel. “We spend a lot of money and time cleaning it up when it does happen to try to keep the cattle on track, but it still hurts.”

Dinklage Feedyard is always taking new customers. For more information, visit  dinklagefeedyards.com. 

Tressa Lawrence is a corresponding writer for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.