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Feeders, Packers and Industry Leaders

Jerry Adams: The Broken Bow Feeder Who Turned a Family Lot Into a Data-Driven Giant

After a 1971 land purchase and a punishing 1973 price freeze, Adams stayed on and helped build one of the most technology-minded feedlot companies in the country.

Who is Jerry Adams of Broken Bow?

Jerry D. Adams is a native of Broken Bow, Nebraska, and the co-owner with his brother Bill of Adams Land & Cattle. The University of Nebraska's IANR news release on his Block and Bridle honor calls the company one of the premier beef feedlot operations in the world.

He joined the Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame in its 2023 class, the fourteenth, at a January 31, 2023, ceremony in New Orleans. As Beef Magazine reported, CattleFax CEO Randy Blach presented his plaque.

A family company that began with calves

The company's own telling, published on the hall's success-story page, starts with Jerry's father, Russ Adams, who began in 1951 with 100 head of calves alongside milk cows and crops. Russ had four sons: Bill, Lawrence, Dwayne and Jerry. He guided the business until his death in 1990.

Sources differ on the starting date. The hall's Adams Land & Cattle success story says the company was incorporated in 1973, while the Beef Magazine summary dates the brothers' start to 1972 with five employees, 5,000 calves and 3,000 acres of farmland near Broken Bow. The two accounts fit a family business that grew in stages rather than from a single founding day.

The 1971 land deal and the 1973 price freeze

In 1971 Russ bought 1,063 acres south of Broken Bow, which became the start of the South Lot. According to the success story, he would buy it only if one of his sons helped. Bill and Lawrence were in college and Dwayne was flying planes in Vietnam, so Jerry agreed to help for a couple of years. Jerry had finished his University of Nebraska-Lincoln degree that year.

Then came the 1973 price and wage freeze. The company could not sell cattle at a profit and lost about $300 a head, which the page equates to roughly $1,700 today. It nearly broke the family business. Jerry stayed on after the freeze and is still with the company.

How Adams Land & Cattle is organized today

The success story lists feedlot capacity of 125,000 head across three Nebraska locations, two at Broken Bow and one at Bertrand, plus backgrounding capacity across more than 85 locations in the United States. Beef Magazine gives the backgrounding network as up to 100,000 head, so figures differ by source and year. The page also lists 6,000 acres of farm ground and more than 150 employees.

Practices include mobile pen-side animal care units, a fully automated feed mill and a modern load-out facility. A proprietary software system called Revoro tracks each animal from purchase through processing, and the company has partnered on Climate-Smart Beef work, concrete pen-surface trials and anaerobic digesters in a feedlot setting. It has described itself as the technology company that feeds cattle.

The Key to Adams's Success

The record shows a feeder who stayed through a near-disaster and then invested in information. From 1990 the operation focused on research and technology in cattle feeding, according to Beef Magazine, and became known for a data-driven model of production.

The success story also says the company never had a long-term growth plan. It expanded by taking opportunities as they appeared, which only works if the books can survive the bad years.

  • Stay through the downturn: Jerry remained in the business after the 1973 freeze losses.
  • Keep it in the family: brothers and a father's land purchase supplied early capital and labor.
  • Track every animal: the Revoro system follows cattle individually from purchase to processing.
  • Build a backgrounding network: sourcing calves from many locations feeds the finishing yards.
  • Take opportunities as they come: growth was reactive and opportunistic rather than planned.

Leadership beyond the feedyard

Adams serves on the boards of Adams Land & Cattle, Bellevue University, Custer Economic Development Corp., Custer Campus, Cattle-Fax and Blueprint Nebraska. He is a founding leader of the Beef Alliance and the Nebraska Beef Producers Committee, and he has been active in University of Nebraska strategic planning. The university release credits him with a vision for animal traceability in feedlots that it says will be key to meeting consumer demand.

He supports 4-H, including youth animal quality assurance training with the county Extension office, as well as FFA and the Custer County Foundation.

Honors and recognition

Besides the Hall of Fame, the university lists the 2018 Ag Builders of Nebraska Award, the 2019 Nebraska Bankers Association Agri-Business Recognition Award, the 2019 Broken Bow High School Distinguished Alumni Award, two Wheel Horse Awards from the Custer Economic Development Corporation, and the 2020 Block and Bridle honor.

For more on how feeders fit into the beef chain, browse the ranching section of farm.FM. A related read is a farm.FM story on Nebraska cattle families.

Timeline

  1. 1951Russ Adams starts the family cattle business with 100 head of calves
  2. 1971Jerry graduates from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Russ buys 1,063 acres south of Broken Bow
  3. 1972Jerry and brother Bill start in business per Beef Magazine, with 5,000 calves
  4. 1973Company incorporated; the price freeze costs about $300 a head
  5. 1990Russ Adams dies; company sharpens its focus on research and technology
  6. 2018Receives the Ag Builders of Nebraska Award
  7. 2020Named a UNL Block and Bridle honoree
  8. 2023Inducted into the Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame in New Orleans

Frequently asked questions

Who is Jerry Adams?

Jerry D. Adams is co-owner of Adams Land & Cattle in Broken Bow, Nebraska, a major cattle feeding company he runs with his brother Bill. He entered the Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame in 2023.

How big is Adams Land & Cattle?

The company reports feedlot capacity of 125,000 head at Broken Bow and Bertrand, plus a backgrounding network across more than 85 locations. Backgrounding figures differ by source, from 100,000 to 125,000 head.

What is Adams Land & Cattle known for?

It is known as a technology company that feeds cattle, using the Revoro system to track each animal from purchase through processing, along with an automated mill and pen-side care units.

When did the family business begin?

Sources differ. The company says Russ Adams started with 100 calves in 1951 and incorporated in 1973, while Beef Magazine dates Jerry and Bill's start to 1972.

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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