Taylre Zempel

Montana’s Sitz Angus Ranch began raising Angus cattle in 1923. Over 100 years later, the family’s third and fourth generations operate the ranch and aims to strengthen the ranch’s legacy.

Sitz Angus, near Harrison, Montana, sells approximately 800 registered Angus bulls and 700 females annually while running a 5,000-head capacity feedlot.

“We’re proactive about nutrition, health and acting consistently to achieve the optimal outcomes,” says Taylre Zempel, daughter of third-generation co-owner, Bob Sitz. “We believe proper care is the key to success. It’s extremely important to keep our animals progressing by regularly providing high-quality care.”

Leaving pen and paper behind

Sitz Angus used the often-unreliable pen-and-paper method to track feeding, inventory and expenses. Finding and retaining good feed truck drivers was difficult, which increased mistakes and added guesswork to the day’s challenges.

“We had issues with measuring, consistency, efficiency, keeping tabs on expenses, intake rates, delivering accurate rations and creating uniformity in diets,” Taylre explains. “We needed something to exert more control over the feeding process for better measurement and management.”

User-friendly system promotes accuracy

The operation found its answer when a South Dakota cattle producer recommended they try Performance Beef.
“We were a little hesitant but getting started with the software was so easy,” Taylre says. “Once we finished the provided on-the-job training, the basics were so simple.”

Consistency quickly improved. When regular drivers took days off, different operators fed accurate rations throughout the pens.

“Performance Beef’s user-friendly system makes it so anybody can pick up the iPad and go out and feed the exact ration,” Taylre says. “The simple ‘green, go; and red, stop,’ interface makes training new people a breeze, even with language barriers.”

An improved feeding program

Taylre believes Performance Beef’s greatest benefit is the ability to proactively measure and manage intake rates and ration data points. This knowledge helps the family determine which areas need adjusting to increase uniformity.

“It’s revolutionized our feeding program,” she says. “Having these capabilities for proactive measurement and management clarifies the costs of producing our cattle. We know exactly how much we're spending on a per-day, per-pen and per-animal basis.”

An added benefit is looping their nutritionist into the Performance Beef software to allow real-time communication with the on-site feeding specialist. The result is more effective ration formulation on the go to maintain or improve weight gain.

Looking ahead

“Additionally, we’ve had great experiences with Performance Beef's customer service team,” Zempel says. “They’re always happy to answer questions or get on a Zoom call for any technical issues.”

In the future, she’s excited about new Performance Beef features, including an inventory tab to enter different commodities and an alert to keep track of levels. She looks forward to using the program’s health feature to correlate data as cattle are worked through the chute.

“I think technology is a beautiful thing and will improve the livestock industry in so many ways,” Taylre. “It will help producer’s quest to raise quality animals and feed the world. Performance Beef gives us the resources to be successful in this.”