Dan May, Lavaca Trading
Wedoany.com Report-Feb 13, Growing up on a farm in Stratton, Colo., Dan May learned the value of hard work at a young age, milking cows, feeding cattle, and farming.
After graduating from Colorado State University with a degree in Farm & Ranch Management and a minor in Economics, he became a commodity broker, working for Seckler Cattle Company (in partnership with Louis Dreyfus Corporation) as the Head of Cattle Procurement and Commodity Trading, and as Head of Cattle Operations for Foxley Cattle Co.
“I wanted to be a good trader, whether it was cash or futures, and that’s where my concentration was,” May says. “As we made money trading, we acquired more land, more assets, and it just grew over time. I was also fortunate enough to work for Bill Foxley who helped me in so many ways. He was the greatest person I ever worked for.”
May says the market has a lot of different dynamics. He remembers having individual brokers in the pits, but now he trades against hedge funds and algorithms.
“That was a big change for me, going from the personal relationship as a floor broker,” he says.
Through the years, Dan has worked with his brothers, Jim, Tom and Steve, to scale their small family farm and 2,500 head feedlot into numerous farming, feedyard and ranching operations in Colorado, Nebraska, and Nevada. They feed 150,000-180,000 cattle among 4M Feeders, Herd Co and Magnum Feedyard. The family also farms 35,000 acres of grain and forage.
With almost 95% of the cattle in their yards being company owned cattle, the family purchased working ranches in Colorado and Nevada to create a pipeline to keep the pens full. They run about 10,000 mother cows.
“We were purchasing 3,000-4,000 cattle a week for the yards, so this gives us an advantage to have a consistent supply of cattle,” May says.
While many challenges arise, May notes packing house closures and slowdowns during COVID, and labor have been the biggest ones.
“Labor is definitely a challenge,” he says. “We have very close personal relationships with our employees, and we work closely with our management team to get the job done as well as possible.”
May says building a great team has been one of the most helpful improvements to the business.
“We have people like Case Gabel and Chad Mathews working for us, who I would put up against anyone in the business,” he says. “We also have many key family members in our operations. My brothers Jim, Tom, Steve and I started this a long time ago and we are pleased to have the next generation involved now. My sons Zach and Josh work in our Littleton office every day with me. My wife Becky is also in our office and has been by my side through the best and the worst times. We would not be here without her. My nephews, Matt, Todd, Kyle and Phil are also involved in various capacities in our industry and operations.”
May says they are also blessed to have the Gabels, Steve, Audrey, Case and Christie as partners in Magnum Feedyard.
“Their passion for the business in unrivaled and I could not ask for a better family to partner with,” he adds.
The cattle business isn’t for the faint of heart and May offers this advice to others.
“If you are not passionate about it, don’t do it,” he says. “You must be passionate about it, and you have to love the business. Otherwise, nobody wants to work that hard.”
While he acknowledges the hard work, May has gained much satisfaction from cattle business.
“I think it’s the satisfaction that every day I’m doing and enjoying what I do and am making a living at it,” he says.
May markets more than 300,000 head of beef cattle yearly and is active in commodity trading. He and his wife Becky have been married for 37 years. They have three children, Zach, Alyssa and Josh and nine grandchildren.
“The cattle business has given me a good life and for that and my Catholic faith, I am thankful,” May says.
