Walt Sehnert

Louie Dinklage -- The National Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame

Monday, August 19, 2013

In July 2013 Leo Timmerman and Louis Dinklage were honored, posthumously by being inducted into the National Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame. It is quite appropriate that these two "giants" of the Cattle Feeding Industry would enter the Hall of Fame at the same time.

Both were products of Cuming County, Nebraska, and possessed similar attributes -- German background, strong work ethic, sticklers for honesty and a strong reputation, high regard for credit and the careful spending of money, and a long term vision of the future that was matched by few others. Leo's story was covered in the McCook Gazette on August 4th, 2013.

Though Louie Dinklage has been gone almost 30 years, scarcely a day goes by that some someone around Wisner, in Cuming County Nebraska -- a former employee, partner, or fellow cattle feeder -- does not ponder the markets, the weather, or the state of the country's economy, ending his thoughts with, "I wonder what Louie would do?"

Louie was born in 1902 to German parents, who had come to Wayne County in 1894, the fourth of six children. As was the custom of immigrant German families in that time, Louie went to work on farms after graduating from the eighth Grade. He apparently took his work seriously, to the extent that throughout his lifetime, work was his passion -- work was his fun -- there was little time for anything else.

By the 1920s, Louie was making plans for his life's work. He had 160 acres of land and 25 cattle. His ambition was to someday be the feeder of 1,000 head of cattle. By the 1960s Louie had the largest feeding operation of the country, with a capacity to hold some 170,000 head.

The stories about Louie's work ethic border on legend. At a time when to hand-pick 100 bushels of corn was considered a better-than-average day's work for a man, Louie once picked 237 bushels -- in 1923 he won the Nebraska State Corn Pickers Contest.

When a crew of cutters went into a field to cut silage, half the bundles would be Louie's. One time, by himself, Louie dug a trench 6 feet deep, one half mile in length, to lay pipe for water for one of his cattle yards.

The trouble was that Louie expected others to be endowed with the same strength and work ethic. One of his former feeding partners told of a quite regular occurrence at his house. The phone would ring at 4 a.m. Of course it would be Louie, "Bob, we need to talk. Bob knew that his sleep for that day was over and he was to hurry over to talk with Louie.

It was said that Louie never fired a man -- he just made the work so "dang tough that the fellow didn't choose to stick around very much longer." The other side of that coin is also worth noting. For a young man -- an employee, or friend -- who possessed the traits Louie felt were important, Louie could be a mentor, an inspiration, and a financial backer. A great number of successful cattle feeders in Nebraska, and beyond can point to Louie Dinklage as the fellow who made it possible. Warren Alfson, an All-American football player on the 1940 Cornhusker team, recalled that Louie helped him get his start, partnering with him until he had the experience and resources to be on his own, all the while lending sound judgment, encouragement, and financial backing. Alfson's story is typical of a good many in the Wisner area.

Louie Dinklage had phenomenal memory and an uncanny take on the markets. Bill Holland, another of Louie's boys, told of a time that the some "experts" from the Ag Department at the University of Nebraska made a statement to the press that cattle markets would be depressed for some time into the future. Later that same day, Bill was in a conversation with Louie. "Louie said I should buy cattle -- if the bank wouldn't lend me the money he'd lend it to me himself."

Bill gulped, then did what Louie had said and bought cattle. "The next day cattle went up 5 cents a pound (a big move for cattle). That's how good his sense of the markets were," said Bill.

In the '20s, when Dinklage was starting out, cattle were still being driven 10 or more miles to the rail yards, to be loaded onto rail cars By 1930, Wisner had more cattle cars coming in and out than any other station on the Chicago Northwestern Line. So, in 1930, Louie Dinklage built his first large feed yard on land just east of Wisner -- near the railroad. That feed yard is still operating today. Widespread hauling of cattle by truck began in the '30s., an event Louie called one of the great boons for the cattle industry. However, Dinklage considered the greatest boon to the feeding industry was the "bringing of electricity to the farms."

Dinklage was a fellow who could, and did, take advantage of opportunities, and resources. In Wisner, today, the imprint of Louie Dinklage is widespread.

For instance, in addition to Dinklage Park, near the grade school on the hill, there is the Dinklage feed mill, just off main street, in the heart of Wisner.

Louie could see the advantage of building his mill in Wisner, using the Wisner Public Power, the Wisner paved streets, and the Wisner water supply. The feed mill is noisy and there is chaff in the air when the mill is in operation. Yet people in Wisner don't complain. Rather, they take pride in that symbol of Wisner's place as the capital of Nebraska's Cattle Feeding Industry.

Dinklage was a real booster of Cuming County, which in the beginning he felt was the ideal location to feed cattle. Later, he changed his mind about that. In an interview in the early '80s he said that Cuming County was near perfect for raising feed, but for feeding cattle he would take Western Nebraska over Eastern Nebraska, and the Panhandle of Texas over Western Nebraska. And, by that time he was an authority. He had feed yards in all of those locations.

Louie and his wife, Abby Faye, were not blessed with children of their own, but children of Wisner and Cuming County (and probably other places where Dinklage feed yards are located) have benefitted greatly from this caring, favorite Uncle and Aunt.

Louie always liked children. Fellows around Wisner remember, as a child, visiting "Louie" at his office near the railroad on a summer day. After a bit of conversation Louie would take out a couple of quarters from his pocket. "Why don't you run down and get a couple of ice cream cones -- one for you and one for me." Then the two would have a little visit.

Louie Dinklage is remembered fondly by the officers of the National Cattle Feeders Association, formed in 1932. At one time the organization was having a tough time financially. The officers met in Chicago for the purpose of disbanding.

Louie got wind of the meeting. He immediately got on the phone and called 10 local feeders and asked them to pledge $5,000 each, to save the association. Then he dispatched one of his partners to fly to Chicago to make the presentation. He arrived just as the directors were about to vote. He made his presentation. The Feeders Association was saved. Those 10 benefactors received lifetime memberships. It is said that Louie always carried that membership card in his billfold, one of his proudest possessions.

In the years since Louie's death, the Dinklage feeding network has continued to grow and to flourish. In Western Nebraska alone, Louie Dinklage Inc. maintains feedlots in Scottsbluff, Sidney, Mitchell, Minatare, and Alliance, as well as Torrington in Wyoming.

During his lifetime Louie Dinklage did not flaunt his wealth. His feed yards were not fancy, but his cattle were well cared for. He drove a Chevrolet rather than a Cadillac -- by choice. He and Abby Faye lived in a modest home, and their social life revolved entirely around the cattle feeding business. Today, the Louis and Abby Faye Dinklage Foundation continues to benefit the folks in Cuming County, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, with grants to schools, volunteer fire and EMS groups, cities, villages, nursing homes, and worthwhile causes. The scholarship list, and the amounts of those scholarships, for graduating seniors of the Wisner-Pilger High School in 2013 was eye-popping, largely due to the Dinklage Foundation.