12 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN August 2024 Leaving a Legacy JESSICA WESSON | CONTRIBUTING WRITER Paul Engler was known for many things – trailblazing the cattle feeding industry, being a life-long learner and having a passion for others. Engler was born in 1929 to Henry Paul Engler and Jenny Gill in Stuart. From an early age, he loved cattle and wanted to be an entrepreneur. At 12 years old, Engler bought his first herd of cattle without telling his father. From that day on, he kept making leaps and bounds in the cattle industry. Trailblazer Engler graduated high school at 15 and attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), where he graduated in 1951. He founded the Hereford Feedyard in 1960 and became an executive at Iowa Beef Packers in 1972. He moved to Dumas, Texas, three years later, where he founded Cactus Feeders. Cactus Feeders would become one of the nation’s largest cattle feeders, processing approximately 20,000 head per week. “He recognized that the industry was shipping feed and cattle out of the Texas Panhandle to be fed and finished elsewhere,” says Tom Field, director of the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). “He knew that there were margins to be captured by developing an industry right here and making sure there was packing capacity within an arm’s length of feeding capacity to make transportation efficient.” Not only was Cactus Feeders innovative by combining several links in the food supply chain, it also started a whole new generation of formula pricing. “He understood that the large-scale, commercial feedlot was the industry’s future,” says Ronnie Green, Chancellor Emeritis of UNL, who worked closely with Engler over the years. “Cactus Feeders was the first entity to sell cattle on the formula to IBP, Inc. in the early 90’s. It was unheard of and very rare at the time.” Engler was concerned about the formula and wanted to ensure that all parties got a fair shake. “He contracted the Texas Tech meats group to do a full carcass cutout on 36 head, statistically designed to determine if the formula was fair,” Green says. “I was a green assistant professor at Texas Tech at the time, and I helped with the data analysis and interpretation. When the final report was sent to Paul, he had some questions about the interpretation.” Green’s department head instructed him to meet Engler to answer his questions. “I rushed out to the airport at Lubbock and walked out on the tarmac to meet his helicopter,” Green says. “I talked to him in the helicopter for 10 minutes to answer his questions, and he took off again. Needless to say, the formula got changed.” Most people would consider that an impressive career and sit back to reap the rewards of their hard work, but Paul Engler wasn’t done with his work. In 1996, he was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against Oprah Winfrey after her talk show stirred up controversy in the beef cattle industry. The episode included a segment on BSE; her guest predicted the disease would eventually reach America. Winfrey stated that the discussion “has just stopped me cold from eating another burger.” The Texas Beef Group sued under a law that made a person liable for making false statements about food safety. While the court’s decision did not favor Engler, he believed the action was valuable for the beef cattle industry. “After that, I think they were more careful about getting good experts and people with good reputations and so forth that could make statements on an authoritative basis. I think we cleaned up her act,” Engler told the Amarillo Globe-News in 2011. Lifelong Learner Engler was passionate about education and entrepreneurship and wanted to reignite that at his alma mater. CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 PEOPLE
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