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Feeders, Packers and Industry Leaders

Bill Foxley: The Omaha Feeder Who Built the Nation's Largest Cattle Feeding Company

From a three-acre family pen near the Omaha Stockyards to 300,000 head on feed, Foxley turned hedging, steam-flaked feed and sheer attention to detail into a feeding empire.

Who is Bill Foxley?

Bill Foxley is one of the best-known cattle feeders of the twentieth century, a Nebraskan who spent his career turning fed cattle into a high-volume, tightly managed business. According to the Drovers profile of his 2019 induction, he built the largest cattle feeding company in the country by 1980, with 300,000 head of company-owned cattle on feed.

His name sits beside other pioneers on the roll of the Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame, which launched in 2009. The 2019 class paired Foxley with James Herring, and Foxley's record shows why the selectors chose him: early adoption of new feed technology, risk management with futures, and an operation scaled well past anything his father imagined.

Early life at the Omaha Stockyards

Foxley learned cattle from his father, W.J. Foxley, who took him to the Omaha Stockyards on weekends and on summer buying trips. The family had a small feeding pen of about three acres on the edge of Omaha, where two-year-old steers were fattened for market.

Before high school he was sent to Montana's Flying D Ranch, an 80,000-acre place that his father leased for $50,000 a year. He spent eight summers there digging post holes and helping cowboys work roughly 10,000 heifers on mountain pastures. He was a student at the University of Notre Dame when his father died in 1957, and the estate was divided among the eight children, with each holding a share of Foxley & Co.

How Foxley built a 15,000-head feedlot in 1962

After three years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps, Foxley decided that cattle would be his life. A visit to the family's South Dakota ranch settled it. He found fewer than 400 of an original 500 calves left, fired the manager, brought in a veterinarian and took over the cattle's care himself. Drovers reports that only one more calf was lost before spring turnout.

In 1960, at 25, his net worth was $125,000, the book value of his inherited ten percent interest in the family firm. His siblings invested alongside him for about ten years before he bought them out. In 1962 he purchased a farm near the Omaha Stockyards and built a 15,000-head feedlot with good drainage, the foundation of everything that followed.

Steam-flaking, futures and rapid expansion

Foxley built the first steam-flaking feedlot mill in the Midwest, an idea borrowed from California feeders. He noted that shipping mill parts from the West Coast cost little compared with hauling corn, a point that shaped where he put his mill.

When the Chicago Mercantile Exchange introduced cattle futures in the early 1960s, he became the first, by Drovers' account, to use them successfully to hedge a highly leveraged inventory of fat cattle. From there he added feedlots at Bellevue, Manley, Mead and Bartlett in Nebraska and at Ordway, Colorado, and bought operations in Texas and Washington.

The Key to Foxley's Success

The documented record points to a feeder who combined borrowed money with unusual attention to systems. He adopted technology early, hedged price risk when few others did, and expanded by buying and building at the same time.

He also had a hands-on streak. The South Dakota calf count and his later reading of Flavorland's management show a man who checked the details himself. His own explanation, as Drovers quotes it, credited good people, the times and high energy.

  • Hedge the inventory: he used cattle futures on a leveraged herd soon after the contracts existed.
  • Adopt proven technology: he moved steam-flaking from California to Nebraska rather than waiting for neighbors to try it.
  • Spread the yards: he added lots across Nebraska and into Colorado, Texas and Washington.
  • Buy what is mismanaged: he noticed that Flavorland was poorly run and bought into it.
  • Own the problem: he credited his worst setbacks to a few bad apples and his own lack of attention.

Flavorland Industries and the move into packing

In March 1974 Foxley sold his Mead, Nebraska, feedlot to Flavorland Industries of Sioux City, Iowa, for an estimated $6 million plus 125,000 shares of company stock. He then judged the packer to be poorly managed, bought another 15 percent of its stock and became the largest shareholder.

A leveraged buyout followed, making him chief executive and owner of 85 percent of a Fortune 500 company. Drovers reports that fiscal earnings topped $4 million by 1976, which was 76 percent above the 1973 record, and that he took Flavorland private in 1977.

The Sandhills feedlot and the manure question

In 1980 Foxley bought 10,000 acres in Nebraska's eastern Sandhills and built a covered feedlot surrounded by sprinkler-irrigated farmland. The Bartlett yard holds 65,000 head under half-mile-long sheds, with waste pits beneath that are emptied twice a year to fertilize adjoining irrigated corn.

He defended the system against environmental criticism, describing it as close to an ideal ecological loop and one of the lowest-cost operations in the country. The design tied manure, corn and silage together on one site.

Legacy and honors

Dan May, a former Foxley employee who later built his own feeding group, called Foxley energetic and highly intelligent with an uncanny feel for the markets. May also described him as an honest businessman who brought many progressive methods to feeding and cattle care. May's own Drovers profile notes that he was head of cattle operations for Foxley Cattle Co.

Foxley's 2019 induction into the Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame is listed in the hall's official roster. For more beef industry history, see the ranching section of farm.FM, and for related reading try a farm.FM story about feedlot country.

Timeline

  1. c. 1935Born; raised around the Omaha Stockyards and a family feeding pen
  2. 1957His father dies while he is a student at Notre Dame; the estate passes to eight children
  3. 1960After Marine Corps service, commits to the cattle business at age 25
  4. 1962Buys a farm near Omaha and builds a 15,000-head feedlot
  5. 1974Sells the Mead feedlot to Flavorland Industries, then buys control of the packer
  6. 1977Takes Flavorland private
  7. 1980Foxley & Co. has 300,000 company-owned cattle on feed; buys 10,000 Sandhills acres
  8. 2019Inducted into the Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame

Frequently asked questions

Who was Bill Foxley?

Bill Foxley was a Nebraska cattle feeder who built a 15,000-head lot near Omaha in 1962 and grew Foxley & Co. into the largest U.S. cattle feeding company by 1980. He entered the Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame in 2019.

How big was Foxley & Co.?

Drovers reports that by 1980 the company had 300,000 head of company-owned cattle on feed, the most of any U.S. feeder at the time. Its yards included Nebraska, Colorado, Texas and Washington locations.

What innovations is Bill Foxley known for?

He built the first steam-flaking feedlot mill in the Midwest and, by Drovers' account, was the first to use CME cattle futures successfully to hedge a leveraged fat cattle inventory.

What was Flavorland Industries?

Flavorland was a Sioux City, Iowa, meatpacker. Foxley sold it a feedlot in 1974, took stock, bought control, led it as chief executive and took it private in 1977.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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