Ben Siefring

The Siefring family has been rooted in agriculture for generations. Ben’s grandfather began milking cows on the homeplace in the 1940s, and the dairy stayed active until 1997. When Ben’s dad, Neil, and his uncle stepped out of dairying, they shifted the operation toward feeding cattle, laying the groundwork for the operation’s current focus. 

Now, Ben, his brother, Mitch, and their parents, Neil and Mary, who keeps the books, oversee a diverse and fast-paced operation near Coldwater, Ohio. Along with background and finishing, beef-dairy cross cattle, they raise corn, soybeans, and wheat. Mitch manages the turkey barns with Cooper Farms. Over the years, the family has converted former livestock facilities into productive cattle barns.

With five trucks on the road hauling livestock every day, three dedicated drivers and Zach, their main farmhand, the Siefrings keep plenty moving.

“We’ve always been pretty diversified,” Ben says. “The crops, the cattle, the trucking, the turkey barns, it all works together. It keeps us busy, that’s for sure."

Technology that makes an immediate difference

On the crop side, most farmers think auto-steer when they think technology. For Ben, the livestock equivalent is Performance Beef.

“We started using it a couple years ago,” he explains. “We use it every day to mix feed. Our rations are in there, and just about anyone can hop in the mixer and make a batch. It tracks your ingredients, your medication, your costs, it puts the numbers right in front of you, and that’s valuable.”

Before Performance Beef, the Siefrings leaned on binders, handwritten notes and old batch cards. If one person fed in the morning and someone else fed in the afternoon, confusion was common.

“We were always on the phone, asking how someone mixed the batch or which bunks got more," Ben says. With Performance Beef, it's no-nonsense. You put in what it tells you. You put the pounds in the bunk it calls for. It's pretty foolproof." 

Consistency that pays

Since adopting the cattle management software, the Siefrings have seen measurable improvements.

“Once we started calling feed tighter, our rate of gain came up,” Ben says. “Death loss went down. Overall profitability improved. When you know your numbers, the back end gets easier. You know what cards you’re working with.”

The team feeds morning and afternoon, hitting two drops on most bunks. The process has become second nature. Performance Beef automatically applies ingredient prices, yardage, interest and feed usage across every group with no extra math or guesswork.

“It figures it all for you,” Ben says. “Every group, every day.”

Performance Beef also keeps their treatment records organized. With the processing app, Ben logs the tag number and any shots given, and the system tracks everything until the group is closed out.

“You get to the end of a group and you know exactly what medication went into it,” Ben says. “It all bills right to that group and shows up on the closeout. It doesn’t get any easier.”

Support that matches the farm's pace 

Between feeding cattle, hauling livestock and managing crops, downtime isn’t an option.

“The support from Performance Beef has been great,” Ben says. “If you call, they answer. And if they don’t know the answer, they’ll say so and they’ll figure it out. We’ve never been stuck, unable to mix feed.”

For Ben, the biggest value comes down to one simple truth.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” he says. “And Performance Beef gives you a measurement for almost everything.”

By streamlining feeding, improving consistency and bringing clarity to their numbers, Performance Beef helps N. Siefring Farms & Trucking keep a diverse operation running with precision day after day, load after load.