Farmers

About Mclane Steidinger

This is where your food comes from

I raise cattle with my father-in-law, Clark, in Gridley, IL. We want to share our story about our farm and how we take care of our animals. The amount of beef raised in this barn equals 2 million quarter-pounder hamburgers every year, and quite a bit of it ends up in Tyson products. This is where your food comes from, and we’re thankful we get to raise it for you.

New barn improves sustainability

We built a new barn in the fall of 2015, and it has been a blessing to our family ever since. The rubber mats make the slats comfortable for the cattle, and the deep pit under the floor has safe storage for the manure that falls through. We test the manure and use it on our crop fields as a natural fertilizer. It really helps our farm be more sustainable and closed-loop.

Even our cattle eat local, sustainable food

Clark and I mix the feed for the cattle each day. We store a number of feed ingredients on the farm that we source based on what’s available locally and what our cattle need for nutrition. As soon as our corn is harvested, we break up the leftover cornstalks up and plant rye. We chop the rye into silage and store it as a year-round feed source for the cattle. We use some of the corn we grow as a feed ingredient, but we also source distillers grain from local ethanol plants and even some brewers grain from a Chicago brewery. That is essentially their “waste” product after fermentation, but it’s a great protein source for the cattle.