Many Americans love a good steak, and Zane Hagemeyer is no exception. “You can’t beat a good steak,” Hagemeyer said.
He is much more involved in the creation of steaks than your average American, though. As a member of Elmwood FFA in Ohio, Hagemeyer has been running a successful supervised agricultural experience (SAE) raising beef cattle since 2018.
“I was already feeding cattle when I got into high school, and so I just made that my project for FFA as my SAE,” he said.
Hagemeyer specializes in backgrounding — the intermediate stage between weaning calves and sending cattle to a feedlot. He started his SAE backgrounding 11 calves, and now he’s responsible for more than 350 head of cattle just a few years later.
After his cattle are finished backgrounding, Hagemeyer sells them to feedlots and finishers so they can eventually be processed into food. Naturally, Hagemeyer said his favorite breed of cattle is “anything that’s not dairy.”
He doesn’t work alone, though. The Hagemeyers are a farming family, and Zane said his parents have been a tremendous help for his operation.
“There’s a lot of work that gets done when you’re doing stuff like this,” Hagemeyer said. “They just help me out wherever they’re needed.”
He became a full-time farmer after graduating from high school, and has no plans to change that. Besides the cattle, Hagemeyer said he’s also spending a lot of time building new barns.
“I’m putting up cattle barns, trying to grow the operation,” Hagemeyer said. “I put one up last summer, and this summer, I put an addition on it. … I’ve got another one I want put up by the end of the year, but we’ll see how that works out.”
For FFA members interested in starting their own SAE project, Hagemeyer’s best advice is simple: don’t delay. “If you’re passionate about something, just do it, because you’re going to thank yourself later,” he said.
As for Hagemeyer, is he thanking himself later?“That depends on the day,” he said.
He shares more with Broadcast Desk Intern, Laura Wuebker.
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