Dallas Blackstone grew up knowing two things are true: he loves being in the business of cattle and there will always be challenges that go hand in hand with that line of business. Dallas’ dream of running a successful cattle operation was a part of his story since he could walk on his family’s farm. Growing up on a cow calf operation, the foundation of Dallas’ love for agriculture and his business’ success was built through witnessing his parents’ hard work and dedication.
Now furthering the family legacy, Dallas is providing those same strong foundations for each of his children through his successful backgrounding cattle operation.
“I’ve been in agriculture my whole life, and this was always a dream of mine to feed cattle. There are challenges that come with it, but we get through them every day,” said Dallas. “I do all of this to give my family a good life. That's what I'm proud of. The other stuff comes and goes, but the goal was to have a good life and provide for my family. And that's what we're trying to do.”
While running a successful backgrounding operation and providing for his family is at the core of his business, Dallas continues to find innovative ways to provide efficiencies and expand improve his operations bottom line. Dallas stays quick on his feet and pivots when needed, allowing him to stay one step ahead of both mother nature and his competition.
By hiring a custom outfit to harvest silage for his cattle and utilizing Farm Credit Mid-America’s crop insurance to provide protection, Dallas utilizes all of his resources and knowledge so he can maximize his margin and protect himself when the weather affects his corn yields.
“It's important to be doing new things because there's only so much money to be made in feeding cattle. So, we have to figure out how we can feed 'em cheaper and faster, how we can get better daily gains,” Dallas shared. “Crop insurance was a new thing to me, but Farm Credit Mid-America understands the reality of the risk that when you get rain, you get a good crop. The reality is sometimes you might not get the rain. You can do everything right and sometimes it turns out and sometimes it doesn't. That is farming.”
While Dallas understands there will be future obstacles and challenges ahead, he knows from experience that having strong partners and advisors is key to his operation’s success. With the help of his financial officer, Dallas experiences the stability of working with a lender who understands agriculture and will be there to help him face each obstacle, continue achieving his dreams and provide for his entire family.
“Everything's about relationships and I feel that we have a good relationship. I've proven myself over the years with Farm Credit Mid-America as they have with me. It's good to have somebody that trusts me and even though you're expanded and leveraged hard, this partnership is still working,” Dallas shared. “Nothing good comes easy and our operation proves that. It's been a lot of work to get to this stage, but we're proud of it and just doing the best we can with what we've got.”
