Now That´s Rural Warren Weibert - Decatur County Feedyard

What happens when cattle meet computers? That sounds like one of my kid´s riddles. Actually, it could be a way of describing a scientific process for evaluating and managing cattle that is being used by an innovative beef feedyard in rural northwest Kansas. It´s the subject of today´s Kansas Profile. Warren Weibert is owner and general manager of Decatur County Feed Yard near Oberlin, Kan. He is the innovator who is utilizing this high-tech management system. Oberlin is a town of 1,955 people. That´s rural - but there´s more. Warren actually grew up near Durham, Kansas, population 114 people. Now, that´s rural. After growing up at Durham, Warren went to K-State and then into a business management career. He married Carol who is originally from Oberlin. In 1971, some 45 local investors around Oberlin went together to create a cattle feedlot known as Decatur County Feed Yard. In 1977, Carol Weibert´s father bought the feedyard and invited Warren and Carol to come back to Oberlin to manage it, which they did. Warren and Carol now make their home in Manhattan. The feedyard expanded through the years and now has a capacity of 40,000 head. During the 1980s, Warren set out to work more closely with the ranchers who supplied cattle to be finished at the feedyard. He and the ranchers were seeking to get more data to add value to the cattle...more