Like many people in the agriculture industry, Circle 5 Beef owner Alan Janzen was introduced to cattle farming by his family at a very young age. “I’ve had cattle since I could walk, basically,” Janzen said.
Those early experiences taught him a lot of life lessons, including strong problem-solving skills.
“They’ve always said Midwest kids or farm kids are good employees, because they have to find a way to make things work,” he said.
Through the York-Hamilton Cattlemen’s Association, he aims to ensure that youth have opportunities in the agriculture industry.
“Our opportunities to provide education opportunities for youth, to help with fundraising and sponsoring scholarships, those types of things — I probably feel the most rewarded by those activities,” Janzen said.
Other Cattlemen Association activities include an annual banquet, promotional steak feeds, being present at county and state fairs, and helping farmers across the Midwest who are in need after disasters such as fires.
“It’s a good place to get together and share ideas,” Janzen said. “But, you know, a lot of it is providing service back to the communities and counties that we work in.”
He has been involved with the Cattlemen for decades — “nearly a lifelong involvement.” He joined as a junior member in the early ‘70s, when the organization was called the York County Livestock Feeders Association.
Since then, he has held several leadership roles, including county president and state president. He has also been involved with the Cattlemen Association at the national level.
Now, he’s the York-Hamilton Cattlemen Association’s honored guest and will be recognized at the annual banquet Jan. 27.
Despite his early farm experiences, it wasn’t always obvious that Janzen would go into the cattle business. When he first started college, he was studying to be an engineer.
“I always have liked building, and so I thought that would probably be someplace that I could find a career in,” Janzen said.
A change in direction
However, the unexpected death of his uncle, then the operating manager of Circle 5 Beef, made it necessary for someone to take over the business. Janzen had been spending his weekends and summers assisting his uncle with bookkeeping and digitizing records, so this knowledge made him the most well-prepared of his family members for the role.
“I was the only one that knew (how), and this was somewhat of an emergency situation,” he said.
To prepare to fill the operating manager role, he switched to a dual major in accounting and animal science. Of the two, he found that accounting was the most helpful.
“I always tell kids, if you take anything in college, take accounting,” Janzen said. “Because those principles were from 1854, and we still use the same basic accounting principles. Everything else changes.”
He learned a lot while studying animal science, too, but technological changes quickly made that knowledge obsolete.
“Here in the yard, we were already beyond what they were teaching in school,” he said.
In many ways, that rapid technological change has been beneficial, Janzen believes.
“Now we have much bigger, better, heavier (equipment),” he said. “We can basically do what we want to in whatever weather conditions there are. We used to be a lot more held back.”
Additionally, efficiency has increased and fewer employees are needed.
That’s a welcome change at a time when recruiting farm labor can be difficult. Many farm owners have struggled to recruit and retain employees, and Janzen is no exception. This is largely a result of young people’s reluctance to work weekend and holiday shifts, a necessity in agricultural work, Janzen believes.
The COVID pandemic was the most difficult time to find employees for Circle 5 Beef, but since then, they’ve returned to full staffing levels.
He thinks very positively of his employees.
“I think of them as family,” Janzen said. “I’m maybe harder on my kids than I am, sometimes, on them.”
He doesn’t ask them to put their job at the top of their priorities.
“When we hire somebody, I say, ‘It’s faith, it’s family, and then it’s the job,’” Janzen said.
In turn, he is rewarded by the positive relationship he has formed with his employees and colleagues.
“What keeps me in (the business) is the friends that I’ve made, and the people that I work with,” Janzen said. “It’s fun. They’re good people, hardworking and like-minded people.”
The York-Hamilton Cattlemen’s Banquet is set for Tuesday Jan. 27 at the Holthus Convention Center in York.
Written by Parker Garlough for the York News-Times and reprinted with permission.