At Pratt Feeders Group, we’re convinced that long-term success in the beef business is equal parts mindset and management. Few people speak to mindset like Chadd Wright, a retired U.S. Navy SEAL turned entrepreneur and ultra runner. And few bring more clarity to the management side of our industry than Randy Blach, a veteran analyst of cattle markets. Together, their perspectives capture what we strive to deliver for our customers everyday: discipline, resilience, and data-driven decisions.
The Chadd Wright Playbook: Discipline Over Feelings
Chadd Wright’s story is built on perserverence — overcoming an initial medical disqualification to become a SEAL, leading teams downrange, then reinventing himself after service as a speaker, business owner, and elite ultra runner. His core themes resonate in a feedyard setting:
Win the day: small, repeatable standards beat sporadic bursts of effort.
The Harder the Challenge the smaller to goal: when facing an enormous task ahead of you, don’t get mentally discouraged by the size, break it into much smaller tasks and goals that are easier to focus on what needs done immediately to complete it.
Lead yourself first: discipline and integrity when no one’s watching.
Faith and purpose: adversity can refine you — if you let it.
Team > individual: the mission succeeds when everyone owns their role.
That mindset mirrors our culture on the yard and in the mill. From steam-flaking consistency to close-out accuracy, we believe excellence is simply the byproduct of doing the right things the right way — every day.
Chadd Wright, retired U.S. Navy SEAL turned and ultra runner
Michelle Fanning, Chadd Wright & Tom Fanning
Randy Blach’s Reality Check: Markets Reward Preparation
Randy Blach’s long view of beef supply, demand, and carcass quality reminds us that volatility isn’t a surprise, it’s a constant. Tight supplies, shifting weights, packer capacity, consumer demand, and macro costs all push and pull margins. The takeaways for feeders and ranch partners:
Plan for swings: risk management and timing matter as much as genetics and gain.
Quality still pays: value flows to consistency, health, and grade.Certified Angus Beef’s Prime Product continues to gain market share year over year.
Data is leverage: the more precisely you measure, the better you market.
These insights drive how we structure placements, financing options, sorting strategies, and marketing — so customers aren’t reacting to the market; they’re positioned for it.
Randy Blach, CEO of CattleFax
Where Mindset Meets Management at Pratt Feeders
Standards you can see: Accurate individual cattle weights tied to electronic ID and DNA testing to provide a projection of the genetic potential for each individual, disciplined feed delivery, bunk calls, and animal health protocols that hold up under pressure.
Transparency you can use: clear cost tracking, intermediate individual weights checks and sorting based on DNA and Cattle size to improve packing plant performance and reduce feed conversions, providing timely closeouts, and performance reports that inform hedging and grid decisions.
Partnership you can feel: we help align genetics, rations, and risk tools with your marketing plan — not just feed cattle, but manage outcomes.
Innovation that adds value to your cattle: With our next generation genetic data analysis we analyze the available Profit Margin available and pair the cattle (and their genetic profile) to the best grid and the proper market window to achieve the Optimum Value of each animal. A Word to Our Customers, Whether you’re backgrounding calves or finishing fats, the path forward is the same: discipline in the daily work; clarity in the numbers. That’sChadd Wright’s ethos and Randy Blach’s guidance — brought together in how Pratt Feeders operates.
A Word to Our Customers
Whether you’re backgrounding calves or finishing fats, the path forward is the same: discipline in the daily work; clarity in the numbers. That’sChadd Wright’s ethos and Randy Blach’s guidance — brought together in how Pratt Feeders operates.
Ready to talk spring placements, sorting, or marketing strategy? Contact us at Pratt Feeders Group • (620) 672-6448 • Pratt, KS
