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Nebraska’s largest feedlot to receive first shipment of cattle this month

A new feedlot with a 150,000 head capacity will soon be operational in southwest Nebraska.

Eric Behlke, one of the owners of the Blackshirt Feeders project, tells Brownfield they expect the first shipment of cattle to arrive the last week of September.

“It’s been a long time coming,” he says. “By the end of 2024, we will be at a capacity — we’ll have pen space for 50,000 head.”

He says the company plans to receive an additional 50,000 head in 2025 and be at full capacity in 2026.

“We’re buying high moisture corn. We’re buying dry corn. We’ve bought a significant amount of wheat, straw and corn stalks. The economic impact that we talk about, everything is in full swing,” he says.

Behlke says the location, along the Kansas border in Dundy County, Nebraska, has a lot of benefits.

“That availability of corn is very important because that’s a direct correlation to the price of the corn. Number two is availability of water. That location does sit over the Ogallala Aquifer and probably the third most important point is the distance to the different harvest facilities,” he says.

Behlke says annual cattle sales are projected to be near $300 million.

Behlke along with two other Canadian veterinarians came together to start the feedlot in 2022. Ground was broken on the facility near Haigler, Nebraska in May 2023.

AUDIO: Eric Behlke, Blackshirt Feeders