Quality people, real beef, healthy families

Our Roots

Embracing innovation,
technology and economic opportunity

From the beginning Beef Northwest has always had the attitude that, with the right partners, 1 plus 1 can be more than 2. With that core value and focus on people, the company has grown into one of the nation’s largest feeding and backgrounding operations today.

The roots of Beef Northwest trace back to the green pastures of the Baker Valley in Eastern Oregon where the Wilson family started ranching in the 1870’s. Wilson Cattle Company continues to be a main part of the business today . Starting with 5th generation cattle and businessmen John Wilson and Jim Wilson, who saw a need for finishing options in the Pacific Northwest for local ranchers, the first feedyard in Nyssa, Oregon was started.

Through vertical integration, up and down the supply chain and the growth of employees the single yard has grown into four main feedyards located in Boardman, OR ; Nyssa, OR; Quincy, WA and 3 growyards in the Hermiston, OR area, with a collective, one – time capacity of 110,000 head. Beef Northwest also has extensive grazing operations for cows, calves, and feeder cattle across the northwest United States.

While cattle are the core of the business the people are the heart. Here at Beef Northwest we pride ourselves on employing good people who are committed to teamwork, animal care and food safety. This allows us to grow and take on challenges and be innovative while maintaining our high standards of animal welfare.

We believe the future of cattle production depends on the development of new markets for cattle both domestically and abroad, and that changes in consumer preferences should be embraced as opportunities rather than resisted as challenges.

Beef Northwest has pioneered new management and marketing opportunities producing beef for a wide array of consumer – focused efforts, everything from Country Natural Beef to Certified Angus Beef.

“We’re a forward thinking company, embracing innovation, technology and economic opportunity,” says John Wilson, Managing Partner/Owner. “We believe in rural America. Our business ensures the economic viability of farmers and ranchers across the West by providing them with a wide range of viable marketing options for their cattle and crops. We strive for quality of life. Our commitment to the environment protects and enhances water quality, wildlife habitat and open  space ranches and farms. Our team is composed of quality, skilled and professional people who recognize our livelihood depends on the production of safe and nutritious products.”

MISSION Statement

A progressive, relationship – driven cattle feeding company committed to profitability and sustainability through operational excellence

Vision Statement

A continuing standard of excellence through leadership, innovation and experience

Core Values

  • Commitment to employees and our community
  • Animal well- being
  • Environment
  • Customers
  • Innovation and Food Safety

Our Commitment

Our success rests on five guiding principles:

 Hard work, good animal handling, and cowboy ethics are ingrained in our company culture. We are committed to our people and consider every employee a part of the family. Our team is composed of the best people in all of agriculture. We want each of them to challenge themselves, to grow personally and professionally, and we work hard at providing them with a safe and productive environment in which to excel. Working together, we produce high-quality, safe and nutritious beef for our friends and neighbors across America and around the globe. Beef Northwest Feeders believes in rural America and recognizes our local and agricultural communities are essential partners. Unfortunately, as America has urbanized and as political policy and focus have shifted to urban areas, many rural communities have been left behind and suffered tremendously. We are true partners to many of the organizations in our communities that are trying to fill the void. We specifically focus on under – privileged and local youth. We are regular supporters of youth educational organizations, school lunch programs, 4H and FFA to name a few. We stand by our local businesses to help strengthen the local economy and local families in our rural communities. 

Beef Northwest recognizes that our industry depends on the sustainable use of the earth’s natural resources. Our future depends on the regenerative stewardship of land, water and air. We understand that consumers depend on us to protect the environment and we embrace conservation and regenerative practices as a way of producing healthy and nutritious food products.

Ranches owned by Beef Northwest on the Zumwalt Prairie in Northeast Oregon were among the first to partner with The Nature Conservancy and Climate Trust to place thousands of acres into Conservation Easements. This program will protect one of North America’s largest original and undisturbed prairies from any future development while still allowing judicious and responsible grazing by cattle. We have many other partnerships in projects with organizations such as NRCS, Sustainable Northwest, Ducks Unlimited and Pheasants Forever that we love to talk about and showcase.

Providing the best for the cattle in our care is the main focus in everything we do. Through verified animal husbandry programs and practices like Progressive Beef and Beef Quality Assurance, our employees are trained in the best techniques to take care of these animals. Beef Northwest was the first feedlot in the nation to be certified under the third-party auditing standards of Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.). One of our partners was a founding G.A.P. board member and has served for over 10 years helping the organization develop and implement animal welfare standards for multiple species. Every new employee at Beef Northwest goes through a rigorous animal welfare training and we routinely bring animal behaviorists to our facilities to put on refresher courses for all of our animal handlers.

Ultimately, feeding cattle is a business, and we invest heavily in ensuring our partners and customers achieve profitable results from feeding cattle with us. Beef Northwest customizes partnerships to fit the ranch with dozens of western ranchers. We focus on partners and suppliers that have produced cattle with the highest quality genetics. We have negotiated packing house grids that prioritize quality carcasses and offer substantial premiums for choice and prime. We are proud that our average returns for cattle from our yards are substantially higher than the USDA 5-state averages.

We offer a wide array of financing, marketing and risk management services and combine these services with top-flight expertise on our team. We work with a wide array of customers, from small family ranches to large investors, and we’re committed equally to the success of both.

Technology, animal handling and animal husbandry are the keys to producing healthy food for our communities, neighbors, friends and world. Beef Northwest Feeders is an industry leader in using progressive technology to provide beef you trust to feed your family. Every animal that goes through the Beef Northwest system carries an individual electronic ID tag that allows us to monitor the individual animal from start to finish. We track individual health, gains, consumption, and finish quality in order to sort, then harvest every animal at exactly the right time.

We are a forward-thinking company, embracing innovation, technology and economic opportunity.
— John Wilson, Beef Northwest