Thanks, Diggerman for the explanation.

Not entirely , lot of feed yards, just very few over 500 head and even less custom yards.

And I am betting yall feed out a lot more 'steins than any of the feed yard states

1 Texas 2,510,000
2 Nebraska 2,430,000
3 Kansas 2,050,000
4 Colorado 970,000
5 Iowa 610,000
6 California 505,000
7 Arizona 275,000
8 Oklahoma 265,000
9 Idaho 225,000
10 S. Dakota 220,000

Source: NASS/USDA

Dairy breeds have amazing quality of meat and also uniformity of gain. I read this over and over in the farm magazines.

I don't know, we do at least 60.

The disadvantage of feeding distilled grain to feedlot cattle, is the steers get drunk and start fighting while the heifers stand over in the corner crying.
Yes, before some brainiac points it out, there's no to very little alcohol left in the distilled grain.

Run, around here there are a lot of small yards 1000-5000 head. 15 years ago every small yard had a corn roller or grinder as they are commonly called. When wet distillers grain (WDG) came on the market it completely changed that. Most smaller yards like our original feedlot. Feed corn or milo silage and add WDG at 10%-15% of the ration and don’t feed any corn. Steam flakers like the one pictured is around 1 million. Something small yards feeding there own cattle can’t justify.

Thanks, Pawnee.

Very cool Pawnee. I work in a feed mill, and while our process is slightly different the results look the same. We haven’t flaked in probably a year now though.

What yard is that Pawnee

We had a bean cooker hooked to a PTO that would make hot cooked crispy soy bean flakes, that looked just like corn flakes. I used to eat them hot they were good until I realized all the mouse poop in the beans lol

We fed them sprinkled on top of silage every feeding. the Other farmers would come around just to see it in action.

Where did you do this ?

That would be NE Iowa near Dubuque

A side note; when we bought the yard there where 2 flakers in the old feed mill running on two 90hp electric motors and a airlift system (giant vacuum cleaner) that delivered the flakes to the main holding area. The electric bill was $13-14k a month. Since I had experience with h VFD’s (Variable frequency drives) my older brother ask me to help out redesigning the mill. The electric bill for the mill now runs for $7-9k a month making more flakes on less hp. VFD’s have been a game changer. From corn flakes, Irrigation, slaughter houses, to automobile manufacturing you name it and VFD’s are making things more efficient. Thought the electric junkies would appreciate that.?

Are you talking belt drive?

No. A VFD lets you control a electric motor like a accelerator on a gas or Diesel engine. If a electric motor runs full speed at 1770 rpm at 60 hz you just tell the VFD to adjust the hz to 50 and then the motor is running at 1550 rpm amazing technology

I heard that these VFD 's are a stray voltage nightmare in a dairy parlor. But I guess your cows aren't close to the flaker machinery so it doesn't matter.

Just out of curiosity Pawnee how many head do you guys feed

20k+ at the commercial yard older brother runs it. I manage the farm and help out at the original feedlot my ggf, gf, and dad built. Younger brother, dad, and I hold the fort down at the homestead.