How many pot loads of fat cattle can you load in an hour?

Christensen Farm, Beresford, S.D., built an indoor working and loading facility at their 2,000-head feedlot that enables them to load seven semis in hour.

The corrals feature "Bud Box" staging pens that utilize cattle's natural instinct get out of enclosed area by turning back to the way they entered it. The facility also has a double alley that funnels cattle into the single alley loading chute. Cattle move through the double alley side-by-side, which is how they act naturally. The animals can see each other through the pipe dividers that separate the double alley.

"It's made a big difference in how efficiently and safely we can load cattle," says Marlow, who operates the family owned feedlot with his wife, Donna, and their sons Dale, Doug and Don. "And it has reduced stress on the stress on the cattle."