Work Is Where the Family Is

2024 Commercial Producers of the Year, MAC Cattle Company, embrace new horizons where family is still the number one priority.

Story by Kaitlyn Zeedyk, Photos by Devin Bollman

Over on the western side of the state, in Adams County, sits MAC Cattle Company. If you were to drive by a few years ago, it would look just like any regular cow-calf operation, but today it is now a robust backgrounding operation run by the Maiers Family.

For most high school graduates, college on the horizon is an opportunity to leave the nest, stretch out your wings, and learn something new. It is a time to innovate and adopt advanced ideas. This is exactly what Trevor Maiers did at Iowa State University. During his college years, Trevor studied Ag Business, completed multiple internships with different companies, and traveled on a custom harvest crew.

Prior to 2020, the Maiers family ran a cow-calf operation for nearly 20 years, but this was all about to change when their new backgrounding operation was brought to life.

Switching Gears

Located up on a ridge in Payson sits the Maiers family’s home and operation, land with many generations of history. MAC is considered a sixth-generation farm, with secondgeneration cattlemen and first-generation cattle feeders.

Over the past five years, MAC Cattle Company has transferred from a cow-calf herd to their current set-up as backgrounders. Following his graduation from Iowa State, Trevor spurred this change. Trevor shared his dad’s interest in cattle, buying his first cows in the spring of 2020 during COVID on what would have been his college graduation day.

MAC changed from the cow-calf industry to feeding calves because of a unique circumstance with Trevor’s grandfather, but they did not totally leave the cow-calf operation either. Thus, the family decided to expand the cattle side of the operation through confinement backgrounding.

“He got out of his grain farming operation and was looking for a way forward, and I was looking for a way to expand in the cattle industry,” Trevor says.

For the Maiers, confinement backgrounding made more sense on a larger scale as opposed to a cow-calf operation. They now focus solely on backgrounding 4-5 weight calves. With the recent addition of two barns, a bed pack mono–slope barn and a deep pit gable barn, they can background roughly 800 calves and turn barns three to five times a year.

Back in 2022, the Maiers housed an open house to be able to view the new additions. With these new additions and an already existing mono-slope in place, MAC Cattle Company is able to minimize inputs and maximize outputs on 8-9 weight feeders.

Family Farming

Three generations working together as one is what it takes to keep MAC Cattle Company operating smoothly and effectively. Kenny Crim is Trevor’s grandfather, LeAnn’s dad. As the head patriarch, he is what some would call a Jack of all trades and does whatever job needs to be done, though he is a row crop farmer by heart.

Tim and LeAnn Maiers are the second generation. Tim is the most experienced cattleman in the operation according to his son. He has seen the most change in the cattle markets and really focuses on risk management, and fills in gaps where needed to complement the ongoing work. LeAnn oversees feeding the calves every day and has come to find out she really enjoys it.

“It is very peaceful. I enjoy taking care of calves and working the sick ones daily,” she says.

LeAnn loves being a mom and working alongside her children, nephew Curtis and daughter-in-law Sophie. Tim and LeAnn’s daughters, Megan and Amanda, grew up working on the farm and still lend a hand whenever they are home from college. Trevor “puts out a lot of fires in a day,” LeAnn says, and handles day-to-day tasks to keep everything running. Curtis enjoys working with the cattle and doing a lot of the daily labor tasks that need to be done.

Trevor’s wife, Sophie, is the newest addition to the family. She helps wherever she can while working another job and is Trevor’s sounding board to help find a solution to problems that may arise.

“It has just been fun to be a part of the beginning of all this. MAC itself has not been around all that long and so being around for the birth of the company to now has been great,” Sophie says.

Some things take time and cannot happen overnight. The progress that the Maiers have made with the switch is remarkable and the ability to all work together is something everyone should see.

“We get into our roles, and we keep this thing moving forward,” Trevor says. “So, it really is a true family operation. All the way down, all the family members are pitching in in various ways.”

Here and There

Like a cow-calf operation, calves are always rotating through the barns. The cattle are brought onto the farm from various states across the Midwest and Southeast at around 400-600 pounds and sold to customers and feedlots once they reach 800-900 pounds. The main goal at MAC is to keep them healthy and reach the target weight.

As a backgrounder, you do not have to be fussy about what cattle to purchase and when. A backgrounder’s job is to find those cattle to piece together to sell further down the road. With that said, body condition is not an issue for this family.

“We have always had an efficient nutrition program where the animals stay in ideal condition for our customers,” Trevor says.

The cattle are sold once they reach the ideal weight and are ready to perform in the feedlot.

“We take pride in being able to work cattle calmly and in an efficient manner,” Trevor expressed. “It is just the ability to handle those animals in a low-stress way and keeping yourself calm and in-check as well.”

Backgrounding is more than just throwing feed in and walking away. This family develops a relationship with the calves that circle through their facility. Each one is cared for specifically to their needs and as efficiently as possible.

The Outside World

Everyone who is involved with or surrounded by livestock knows there really is no break; something is always going on. For the Maiers, holidays are hard. Who is going to get the chores done? Who is going to take care of the sick calves? Who is going to be close by to make sure nothing is going wrong? These are all questions that pop up around a holiday.

“Sometimes it is hard to separate the farm from the family and it kind of gets intermixed a lot of times,” Tim says. “I think having your children involved in the farm does change the aspect a little bit.”

Tim and LeAnn both expressed similar thoughts about working together as a family. Amanda has expressed interest in being involved further down the road, and Megan continues to advocate for agriculture and help when she is home. Trevor, Sophie, and Curtis are around daily to keep MAC running smoothly.

Generations Going Strong

Each member of the Maiers family seems to know what makes their farm work every day. Trevor is grateful for the leadership and knowledge of those before him and Tim spells it out perfectly. “Do not take mentors or the previous generations for granted. They have paved the way to get to where we are today. It is important to have that impact of previous generations to allow us the opportunity to do what we are doing today,” he says.

As for the future of MAC Cattle Company, it will continue to look the way it does now, though it is still getting its footing, and will have a long road of new ideas to iron out. But there is no better way to do that than when being surrounded by loved ones who have the heart, passion, and drive for this industry.