Taking The Reins

Jay Wolf – 2007 NC President

By Mike Fitzgerald

    Incoming NC President Jay Wolf and his family own and manage the Wagonhammer Cattle Company, a diversified cattle operation with farming, feeding and ranching enterprises near Albion and Bartlett. It includes a reputation registered Angus herd that supplies performance-tested bulls and heifers to commercial cattlemen throughout the central U.S. Calves from a 1,500-head commercial cowherd and purchased calves are finished in the family’s feedlot. The elite cows of the commercial herd are bred to raise club calves, many of which win nationally. Past winners can be viewed on the Walk of Fame at http://www.wagonhammer.com.

   This successful operation was founded in 1910 by Jay’s grandfather and great uncle, Julius and Max Wolf.  Julius and Max emigrated from Germany and began their ag businesses by scraping together enough money to buy a dairy calf. They parlayed that little enterprise into a draft horse importing business and, by WWI, they had become cattle traders. When the drought of the ‘30s came, many people abandoned the Sandhills, calling them the Great American Desert. However, Julius and Max saw the grazing potential and put together what is now the Wagonhammer Ranch near Bartlett. The founders were followed by Julius’s son, Jim, a state and national leader in agriculture, public service and charitable organizations. After WWII, Jim converted the ranch from a stocker to a cow-calf operation. Registered Angus were added in 1960.

   Jay’s wife, Susie, is originally from Holdrege. Her father, Jess Keifer, was Holdrege’s longtime football coach and is in the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame. You had better be pretty darn knowledgeable if you want to take Susie on in Husker football trivia. Susie and Jay have three children. Mitchell is a junior at Colorado State University where he is studying horticulture; Alex is a freshman at UNL where he is studying agribusiness; and Hilary is a sophomore at Boone Central High in Albion. Jay is the third of four children. Debbie and her family live in Kansas City, Sue and her family live near San Francisco, and David and his family live in Denver.

   Jay received a B.S. in Agriculture from UNL in 1980. Following graduation, he moved to Denver to work as a loan officer for the oil and gas industry. He returned home in 1984 when his father retired. Jay brought managerial, accounting and finance skills, but he credits a large part of the operation’s success to long-time employees who have been with the company an average of 13 years. Myron Benes joined Wagonhammer in 1978 and is in charge of sales and the breeding program. Jim Brown has managed the cattle feeding enterprise since 1990. Others Jay relies on include Dennis Suhr, herdsman; Steve Shermer, commercial cow-calf foreman; Chris Sock, assistant farm manager; Pat Neidhardt, office manager; Don Kahl, Tom Shaw, Alan Snider, Andy Drueke, Billy Keys, Steve Cloeter, Neal Mock, Rick Temple and Dwain Seier. “My task is to help where I can without interfering,” Jay said.

   Jay first became involved with the association in 1988 when he attended the convention that formed the Nebraska Cattlemen. In addition to serving at the committee level, Jay has served as president of the Nebraska Corn-Fed Beef program. “I have tried to follow my parents’ examples of service and philanthropy. We have all benefited from what others have done before us and we have to do our share of giving back,” Jay said. “Besides, I enjoy the people I work with. They’re cattle people and I like cattle people.”

   Looking forward, he expects natural resources issues will be the top challenge for cattlemen. “We have to find ways to protect the environment without putting producers out of business. This has and will continue to be a huge challenge. There are an overwhelming number of issues here, many under the radar and we cannot be passive. There will always be a variety of challenges for cattlemen, but long-term, I believe environmental regulations are going to be at the top of the list.”

   On another front, NC is committed to working with UNL. “We need UNL to fulfill its land-grant mission of teaching, research and Extension. NC must be proactive and assist UNL by recruiting students and raising funds. We have to help them so they can help us. It is a two-way street.”

   The explosive growth of the ethanol industry is another high profile topic in which NC is deeply involved. “There are opportunities, but also serious challenges. This is going to bring about major changes to our state’s cattle industry and NC must help our members as they go through it.”

   The tradition of mobilizing past presidents has been renewed in the past couple years and Wolf plans to continue that effort. “The past presidents are many of our industry’s best leaders. We need and want their involvement.” 

   Other upcoming challenges include working with the Unicameral, almost 50 percent of which will be first-year senators. “We want them to think of NC as a group they can work with and trust as a resource.”

   The Wagonhammer Ranch derived its brand from the wagonhammer used on the Conestoga wagons that brought our forefathers to Nebraska. The wagonhammer was a wagon’s lynch pin, but also served as a lug nut wrench and as a hammer. It is a symbol of strength, efficiency and ingenuity and provides lessons from the past that Jay can use as he steps to the Nebraska Cattlemen’s helm.    By Mike Fitzgerald, vice president of communications for Nebraska Cattlemen and editor/publisher of Nebraska Cattleman magazine.