Town Creek Farm Since 1993
WINTER 2022
Vo l u m e 1 0 , I s s u e 1 • P u b l i s h e d b y To w n C r e e k Fa r m , We s t Po i n t , M i s s i s s i p p i • B r a n g u s a n d U l t r a b l a c k
Fire in Your Belly BY JOY REZNICEK SUNDBECK I CAME ACROSS A PODCAST THAT HELD MY ATTENTION LIKE NO OTHER. IT WAS AN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL ENLGER, OWNER OF CACTUS FEEDYARDS. HIS SUCCESS AND IMPACT IN THE BEEF CATTLE INDUSTRY IS EXTRAORDINARY – THE FIRST TO BRING CATTLE FEEDING TO TEXAS, 10 YEARS WITH IOWA BEEF PACKERS (IBP) AND FOUNDER OF CACTUS FEEDYARDS. PRIVATE TREATY BULLS ARE NOW AVAILABLE.
The Grit welcomes your inquiries and feedback. The Grit is published by Town Creek Farm, West Point, Mississippi.
Town Creek Farm Milton Sundbeck, Owner Office: 32476 Hwy. 50 East West Point, Mississippi 39773-5207 (662)494-5944 www.TownCreekFarm.com Joy Reznicek Sundbeck, President (205)399-0221 Joy@TownCreekFarm.com Clint Ladner, Bull Development (662)812-8370 CLadner@TownCreekFarm.com Cody Glenn, Herdsman (601)508-8689 Cody@TownCreekFarm.com Anne Sutherland, Quarter Horses (662)295-6144 Anne@TownCreekFarm.com South American Representative Ing. Agr. Federico Maisonnave (011) 595 981 362 898 Maisonnave.Federico@gmail.com TOTAL COMMITMENT
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Paul Engler grew up in a small town in northcentral Nebraska. His father had a filling station with bulk oil and gas delivery. At age six, Paul’s father put him to work at the station checking tires, airing tires and washing windshields. Later, Paul’s father introduced him to livestock. He bought one Jersey milk cow. Paul milked the cow. One cow doubled to two cows, then to three cows. They sold milk. Paul took care of the cows and delivered the milk. “People paid monthly,” says Paul. Sometimes customers would tell him they just didn’t have the money to pay him that week. The times were hard. They asked Paul if he could wait another month. Paul describes this as his first taste of business. Paul milked cows before he went to school. The business eventually got too big and they sold the milk cows and bought stocker cattle. “The stockers were calves weaned off their mothers in the fall. We kept them over winter and fed them for a minimum gain. Then we pastured them in the summer. They had to be hayed. That was my job after I got out of school,” says Paul. “My father was a great man and great father, says Paul. He never paid us money for our work. He’d buy us boots or coveralls when we needed them, but we just didn’t get paid. It irritated me so bad I had to do something about it.” So, Paul got a job at the local livestock auction in Bassett, Nebraska. He worked there on Wednesdays and was excused from school. “I observed what was going on at the sale barn and learned about the business,” Paul recalls. Paul’s father went on a business trip and was gone for three days. “When I went to the sale barn and bought 100 head of cattle,” Paul says. After the sale was over the owner of the auction told Paul he needed to speak to him. He asked if Paul had bought cattle that day. “Yes sir,” Paul said. He asked how many? Paul said, “100.” He asked Paul if he had any money? “Not a dime,” Paul said. Then he asked how he was going to pay for the cattle. Paul said, “I guess you will have to loan me the money.” Paul was only 12 years old. The sale barn owner made out a loan note and Paul got the cattle home. “When I told my mother, she had a fit,” Paul says. The first thing she thought was that Paul had been cheated; a 12year-old boy buying cattle in the auction? His mother asked a neighbor who had been at the sale.
The neighbor assured her that Paul knew what he was doing and had done a good job. Paul said that he had been planning this move for a while. He already had his brand and had it registered. Paul had the 100 head home and branded before his father returned from his trip. When his father returned, his father asked Paul to go out with him and look at cattle. My dad said, “Paul, the herd got a little bit bigger while I was gone?” Paul said yes. His father asked Paul to tell him about it. Paul did. “Of course, he wanted to know about the money,” Paul says. He told him. His father didn’t like someone other than him loaning Paul money. His father went to the bank, borrowed money, then paid off the barn owner. “Then something happened that I’ll never forget as long as I live, Paul says. I thought my father would come back from the bank upset and perhaps give him a tongue lashing.” Instead, his father stuck out his hand and asked Paul to shake it. His father said, “Son, I’m proud of you.” That stuck with Paul. The next year Paul bought more stockers. He graduated from high school at age 15 and thought he’d continue to run stockers. His father came to him and said, “Paul, let me suggest something. I think you should go to college. You will have enough money to get started if you sell out. There will be plenty of time after college to get back in the cattle business.” Paul graduated from college. PAUL SHARED HIS THOUGHTS ON HIS LIFETIME OF SUCCESSES. You must have a fire in your belly. “Early on, no cattle were being fed in Texas. Cattle were being hauled from Texas to Nebraska to be fed,” he says. Paul started the first feedlot in Texas at a young age. Today, Texas has number one cattle-on-feed numbers. To be successful you must be an entrepreneur. “You can get five Harvard graduates who are not entrepreneurs and put them in the cattle feeding business, I’d swear to God they’d fail, says Paul. It’s part of your belly – you have to be an entrepreneur because the nature of business is ups and downs.” “For the beef cattle system to work correctly you have to have freedom of markets,” says Paul. Historically, one sector will get along a little better than another. It’s a free market basis. Cattle feeders get a little short of numbers at times. Rancher’s numbers are a little short sometimes. Then ranchers get a little bit bigger piece of the pie.” “Most big failures have been something other than the cattle feeding business, Paul says. There is an old saying – you better know what the hell you are doing. Whenever you think you are smart enough to run someone else’s business, it doesn’t work out that way. Keep your fire burning,” Paul says.