The third installment of the 2022 Kansas Livestock Association Young Stockmen’s Academy was held last week, September 19-21, with the group touring various segments of the beef and dairy industries in central and western Kansas. Merck Animal Health sponsors the YSA program.

According to the Organization, El Dorado Livestock Auction was the first tour stop. The group heard from co-owner Josh Mueller about the modern facility, where more than 50,000 head of cattle are sold per year. Frank Harper took the class on a tour of his new back grounding facility near Sedgwick, where both home-raised and purchased calves are grown before being sent to a feedyard. During a stop near Lindsborg, Erik Peterson explained how they use high accuracy sires and cow families at Smoky Valley Angus to raise bulls that meet the needs of their commercial cow-calf customers. Sam Hands and his daughter, Marissa Kleysteuber, gave the group an inside look into their fifth-generation operation. Triangle H consists of a cow-calf herd, stocker operation, feedyard and farming business.