Anne Burkholder was raised in West Palm Beach, FL, and is Ivy League-educated with a degree in psychology from Dartmouth, where she met her future husband. Yet, today, she operates Will Feed, Inc., a 3,000-head capacity feedyard in Cozad, NE. This progressive cattle feeder is also in the vanguard of beef producers reaching out to establish relationships with consumers and providing a face to beef production.

“I think the industry is behind the eight ball on transparency, in particular when it comes to feedyards. Consumers have a pejorative idea of a cattle feedyard. I think a lot of it is just because consumers don’t know what a feedyard is, and we’ve allowed activists to portray it as a things they’re not. We can fix that by being more transparent,” she says.

Her blog, Feedyard Foodie, is designed to be that window. She is BEEF magazine's 2014 Trailblazer Award winner.

Read the full feature story on Burkholder here.

(All photos from Anne Burkholder or Miranda Reiman)

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