14 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN August 2026 Wesleyan University in Lincoln to play football and was not focused on agriculture. After college, he took a sales job and after about a year and a half, he got an interesting call from his dad, Bryce, who was the manager of Blue River Cattle Co. feedyard near Aurora, asking him to come work for him. “I did not like my sales job and knew I needed to get back into agriculture somehow,” Preston recalls. He started working with his dad, began immersing himself in the cattle feeding industry and taking the reins with the business. He even passed up several other job opportunities to work at or manage other feedyards. Seven years after joining his father in the business, Preston was presented with the opportunity to purchase the feedyard. He took ownership of the yard in September 2025. “Even with other good job prospects, the main reason I kept doing what I was doing was because I knew there was an opportunity on the horizon for me to buy the feedyard,” Preston says. Nearly a year and a half before the actual purchase occurred, the opportunity became a reality and Preston got serious lining things out for Franzen Feeders. “It took about a year and a half from once we were really serious about getting it done and the previous owner was ready to move on, and for me to get all the funds lined up, worked through it with bankers and really decided that this is what I wanted to do,” Preston explains. Preston credits his wife, Megan, for her support. Before the conversations of buying the feedlot started, the couple had been talking about building a house. When the opportunity arose to purchase the feedyard, they had to talk about choosing the house or the feedyard. Preston recalls Megan immediately asking, ‘When are we buying the feedlot?’ “It’s just so important to have a partner at your side who is 100 percent supportive of you; she’s going to have my back regardless of the decisions I make going forward,” Preston says. In 2020, the lot was expanded to hold more cattle, and today, father and son are the only two full-time employees running the 4,000-head feedyard, bringing in local help for cattle processing days and harvesting high-moisture corn. They each have their own roles and work together well. “It’s been a really cool development in our personal and professional relationship between my father and me,” Preston says. “It makes it really easy for us to be flexible with what we do when either one of us can do essentially any job that’s outside.” The feedyard has remained primarily custom fed, but their customer base has expanded. Since Preston started, they’ve grown to 21 different owners or ownership groups. “At the beginning, we were only backgrounding, and very shortly within the first two to three years, we realized we FEEDING THE FUTURE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 WADE.AG · TODAY Tue, Aug 4 · 6:02 AM CDT Good morning, Dale. ⚠ AI MORNING BRIEFING CRITICAL 3 deaths recorded since Friday bloat, BRD, chronic lameness. 27 intake alerts a ti e. Pen N12 flagged in 2 weeks. Pen S04 flagged 6 in 10 days. 18 treatments started this morning. Heat advisory 4 high, 68% h midity. HEAD ON FEED 38,400 all yards HOSPITA 64 +3 new today TREATED H 18 18 today MORT H 1 last h OPEN HED E POSITIONS 132 positions · 388 contracts Pen N12 DOF 38 · 38 hd ⚠ 7 alerts days Pen S04 DOF · 3 hd ⚠ alerts days ✦ PROJECTED CLO EO T PREDICTION MODEL Pen N12 · DOF 1 → projected close Aug BREAKEVEN $1 91 PRO . MAR IN +$78 PRO . FINA WT 1 8 MODE CONF. 92% 6:02 AM · YOUR YARD Know your yard before you leave the house. Wade.ag turns your operation's own data into a daily briefing pen alerts, treatments, hedge positions, and closeout pro ections from our proprietary prediction models. The whole yard, before your first boot hits the ground. wade.ag wade.ag B ilt for commercial feedlots
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