Wilke Custom Finished Beef

03/24/2026

As ranchers across the Great Plains assess options for their cattle after grazing losses due to drought and fire, the following webinar recording has some management options to consider.

Dr. Karla Wilke discusses key things to know when considering confinement feeding of cow-calf pairs. Additional resources are at beef.unl.edu.

03/16/2026

This is the link for a webinar at 6:30 MT tomorrow night on confinement feeding production pairs. Originally this was planned because of the drought. Now in light of the fires it may apply to more people. In addition, if you are in a cropping systems area, this webinar has some good information on integrating crops and livestock. Hope to see you there. It will be recorded if you can't make it.

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02/11/2026

Let's put this beef is too high nonsense to rest. This eyeliner is almost $1000/ounce not lb and its a cheap brand in a chain store. Priorities people 🙄

01/03/2026

Calves sell Thursday. Looks like a great line up of quality feeders and grass cattle.

12/25/2025

We were able to get some replacement cows bought a couple of weeks ago and today we branded, tagged and dewormed. Probably not what most people do to celebrate Christmas but I call it a win.

11/10/2025

The research shows providing confinement nursing calves a creep gate to get their own diet results in pounds ahead through finishing. We aren't set up for that so the next best thing is to feed them about 70 days after weaning to even them up before they are sold. We aren't a month in yet and they are already starting to be more uniform.

10/17/2025

Today was weaning day for the calves and pregging day for the cows. When the calves were sorted off they all loafed around the new pen until feeding time. The videos are of the feedtruck coming by which they are already familiar with so they lined the bunk. And yes, I'm aware they need a little more bunk space which they will get tomorrow after we can open up another pen. A cow customized a gate for us so we need to replace that first 🙄

10/17/2025

Calves waiting to be fed shortly after weaning. The diet is almost the same as when they were nursing calves eating with the cows.

10/14/2025

This is a great place to work in the heart of the Sandhills. Good crew to work with and good benefits package.

Ranch Technician (Whitman, NE)
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
West Central Research, Extension, and Education Center

Located in the Nebraska Sandhills near Whitman, the Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory (GSL) covers parts of Grant, Ho**er, and Cherry counties. This working ranch and research facility is dedicated to improving sustainable livestock and land management practices.

As a Ranch Technician, you will:
-Provide day-to-day care of cattle.
-Be responsible for maintenance and repair of facilities, vehicles and equipment.
-Assist in data collection for a variety of studies.
-Provide campus security and have the ability to respond in emergency situations.

Irregular work hours and strenuous physical labor is required. Must be able to work in inclement weather and temperatures from -30F to 100+F. Due to the remote location of worksite, housing is provided. Criminal history background check, preplacement physical, and driving record check will be conducted. Excellent benefits including staff/dependent scholarship program. Applicant review begins October 28, 2025. Please visit https://go.unl.edu/livestockjobs for details and to apply.

10/11/2025

With the increase in cattle prices, having to liquidate due to drought will become more costly (and painful). Being able to maintain pairs in confinement can ease that drought pressure and provide pastures much needed relief. These calves have learned to eat out of the bunk along side their mothers. They have also learned not to compete with most of them and tend to line up in the second pen. Next week is weaning. The diet we will offer the calves next week will be very similar to the one they are eating with mom now. It won't take them long to get over the missing milk snack. Happy weaning everyone. Here's to healthy calves, good gains, and phenomenal prices.🥂

09/23/2025

Seemed like yesterday the chopper was pulling us more than he was running beside us. Today was drier and we rocked on. All around us people were also doing silage, or harvesting dry edible beans, or digging beets. Flatbeds with stacks of hay bales were leaving the fields. Fall is in the air. Salute to the American farmers and ranchers who keep us all fed. 💙