W.D. Farr: The Greeley Feeder Called the Founding Father of Modern Cattle Feeding

Who was W.D. Farr?

William Daven Farr was a third-generation Coloradan who built Farr Feeders east of Greeley and became one of the most respected voices in American cattle feeding. The Greeley History page on Farr describes him as a pioneer rancher, visionary, statesman, water expert and banker.

The Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame named him one of its first inductees on May 20, 2009, picked by fellow feeders from twelve nominees. Farm Progress covered the announcement and called him a pioneer of Colorado agriculture for innovative management and environmental stewardship.

Growing up in Greeley and leaving for Wisconsin

His grandfather homesteaded in Greeley in 1877 and worked as a blacksmith, on land that is now the Hillside neighborhood. His father farmed and fed sheep until 1931. At 15, W.D. worked on a ranch near Hayden, Colorado, which may have sparked his interest in cattle.

He left in 1928 or 1929 to study at the University of Wisconsin, but sources say illness and the Depression brought him back home sooner than planned.

From sheep to Farr Feeders

Back in Greeley, Farr pushed his father to add finishing cattle to the sheep business. Greeley History says that in the 1940s the family bought 125 cattle and built the feedlot called Farr Feeders. Farm Progress describes the family operation becoming a cattle business after he returned.

In the 1930s he helped form the informal Greeley T-Bone Club, where feeders swapped ideas on efficiency and profit. The Colorado Cattle Feeders Association grew out of that group. In the mid-to-late 1940s he worked closely with fellow feeder Warren Monfort.

Inventions, data and drainage on the Farr lots

Farm Progress lists a string of practical improvements. Farr installed fence-line feedbunks, modified trucks to deliver feed so crews shoveled less, used tractor power takeoffs to run augered feed wagons and filled them with adapted tractor loaders. He also built pens with enough slope to drain water without eroding manure solids from the surface.

In the 1960s he arranged with a bank for daily printed reports on feed prices, ingredients and pounds mixed and delivered to each pen, and he started a separate company that provided computing services to other feeders. He also worked with Colorado State University veterinary researchers, and he tested products for animal-health companies in the 1950s and 1960s.

Water, public service and the cattlemen

Working with irrigation ditch companies convinced Farr that Greeley needed more water to grow. He was active in the Colorado-Big Thompson Water Project, which carries Western Slope water to eight northern Colorado counties, for 40 years, and served as president of the Greeley Water Board for 39 years.

He was active in the National Cattlemen's Association for more than two decades and served as its president in 1970. Greeley History says he advised the U.S. Department of Agriculture under Presidents Truman, Kennedy and Nixon and represented the U.S. Feed Grains Council abroad. He also led a minority of producers favoring a uniform grading system, which eventually passed.

Honors and legacy

The Colorado Business Hall of Fame lists his 1991 induction, the Colorado Agricultural Hall of Fame followed in 1995, and the Denver Western Stock Show named him Citizen of the West in 1999. The National Cowboy Museum's Hall of Great Westerners recognized him in 2007, the year he died on August 13 at home at age 97.

Farr Park, Farr Library and the Farr Pumping Plant near Lake Granby carry his name. His family helped build the Union Colony Civic Center, and he helped raise funds for the Denver Coliseum to host the Western Stock Show.

More on the feeding country he helped shape appears in the ranching section of farm.FM, and a farm.FM story on Colorado feeding country adds local color.