There are benefits for North Dakota ranchers to finish their cattle locally, rather than outsourcing to feedlots in other states. “We have really awesome feedstuffs here,” said NDSU Extension Livestock Environmental Management Specialist Mary Keena. “Sometimes people think we can’t feed our cattle in North Dakota because it’s too cold in the winter, but we have many different types of feed, and available bedding, windbreak availability.” At the NDSU Feedlot School, Keena emphasized cattlemen are not only backgrounding cattle, but finishing them in the state “and showing time and time again that we can do it here.”
