Laphe LaRoe still had his baby teeth when he cleaned his first feed bunk and scooped his first manure pile. At 54, he hasn’t stopped monitoring cattle feeding operations since then.
LaRoe, director of operations for Smith Cattle Co., LTD, headquartered in Amarillo, is the new Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA) chairman. TCFA represents 163 member feedyards in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Those yards finish more than 5 million cattle per year, some 25 percent of the nation’s fed-cattle supply.
Among those are five Texas Panhandle feedyards that operate under the Smith Cattle Co. umbrella. Under the direction of Levi Berry, the feedyards include CanTex Feeders in Hedley, Quality Beef Producers in Wildorado, Quien Sabe Feeders in Happy, Tejas Feeders in Pampa and Tierra Blanca Cattle Feeders in Hereford…