Welcome
and thank you for visiting the Brennan Cattle Company of Lanark, Inc.
website! We hope you enjoy your visit!
There are many changes and
updates throughout the month so make sure you check back often.
The Lanark feedlot has a
capacity of 5,000 head with varying pen sizes from 60 to 600 head. The pens are
dirt mound with good drainage and some with windbreaks and sheds. Services
include on-site tested scale, feed wagons with scale and printer, state of the
art processing and health care treatment area, a nutritional program with Ph.D.
Nutritionist, stock insurance for catastrophic loss, to mention a few. Expense
posting is performed daily on a computer program designed to meet our exact
needs. We recommend a combined program of custom feeding and hedging to
safeguard the customer's interest. Tim Brennan, brother of Jim, is a well-known
commodity broker at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and can assist with a
hedging program.
Our History
In
1929, John P. Brennan had a dream to offer a service of Western type cattle
purchased from ranchers to Midwestern cattle feeders. As his dream became
reality and business grew, he expanded East from Sioux City, IA, along the
Milwaukee Railroad across Iowa in NW Illinois and his four brothers joined in
the expansion. 1935 found them in Lanark, IL at a railroad receiving stockyards.
As their sales increased and the agricultural world mechanized, the five
brothers spread out again and acquired the Kirkland, IL feed yards in 1946,
originally designed and purported to be the largest sheep collection facility in
the U.S. In 1954, a farm on the North edge of Lanark was purchased with the
intent to build a cattle feedlot to utilize local feedstuffs available. At
different stages over the next 50 years from 1948 to 1999, the brothers ventured
in ranching and grazing, owning ranches at Arvada, WY, Milan, MO, and Viola, WI.
As time and attrition have a way of doing, the original founders were replaced
by the next generation. The cattle business continues today at Lanark with James
E. Brennan as President and Manager bringing 36 years of personal experience to
the challenge of an ever-changing cattle industry.
Today, in an updated facility,
the same farm purchased 44 years ago offers a wide variety of sales and services
to the Midwestern cattle feeders in the heart of corn country. Jim Brennan loves
this industry and has done nothing else all his life. Since 1962 he has worked
in every capacity from throwing hay bales, to feeding cattle, to managing staff
daily. Although sales has always been the #1 focus, as the industry changes, all
participants must be ready and willing to change with it. With so many large
feedlots (50,000 hd +) today, the small farmer feeder is fewer. A smaller
feedlot has a lot to offer, mainly personalized care on every level.
Since 1929, Brennan Cattle
Company has built its reputation on honesty and integrity and these values have
sustained the company for 70 years. The same tradition is carried on today.
Brennan Cattle Company is proud to offer this service to Midwestern cattle
feeders and looks forward to an opportunity to serve you.
