Livestock Feedlots in Morgan County, Colorado

Named, working feedlots supplying the local beef economy

Morgan County's cattle-feeding operations are concrete and locally clustered, not a generic agricultural footnote. Feedyards in the Fort Morgan area include Dinklage Feed Yards, also operating as Cattlco Feedlot, on County Road 21, and Bullseye Holdings LLC on County Road O; Cattleman's Resource Inc. operates in nearby Brush. These operations sit within the same supply chain as Cargill's beef-processing plant covered on the county hub -- Fort Morgan's role as a beef-processing center has deep roots: Sterling Colorado Beef Company, a processing facility jointly operated by four cattle-feeding firms, opened in the region in January 1966, part of a broader Colorado boom that saw the state's cattle feedlots grow from roughly 1,400 to almost 20,000 between 1950 and 1964.

For a buyer, this history matters as context: Morgan County's land market and rural economy are built around an active, decades-old cattle-feeding industry, not a speculative or declining one, which shapes both the kind of agricultural land available and the kind of practical considerations (odor, truck traffic, water use, manure management) that come with land near an existing or historical feedyard site.

Colorado's statewide CAFO framework, applied locally

Whether you're evaluating land to establish your own cattle-feeding operation or simply buying land near an existing one, the operative regulatory framework is Colorado's statewide Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation program, administered by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment rather than a Morgan County-specific ordinance. CDPHE's Regulation 61 governs permitted CAFOs seeking a state discharge permit satisfying federal Clean Water Act requirements, while Regulation 81 applies more broadly to protect surface and groundwater from animal feeding operations of all sizes, requiring a Facility Management Plan and, for registered CAFOs, an annual registration fee of $0.06 per head based on maximum capacity. No Morgan County-specific feedlot ordinance beyond this state framework was identified during this research pass -- if you're planning to establish a new feeding operation, CDPHE's Environmental Agriculture Program (303-692-3520 or cdphe.cafo@state.co.us) is the right first call, not the county.

If instead you're buying residential or smaller-acreage land near an established feedyard, ask specifically about its permit status and scale (registered versus permitted, and approximate head count) with CDPHE, since a larger permitted CAFO carries different groundwater-monitoring and management-plan obligations than a smaller registered operation -- and either can mean real odor and truck-traffic exposure for nearby land that a listing won't necessarily disclose. Combine this with the hub's existing water-augmentation guidance for the South Platte basin, since a feedlot's water use and manure-management practices intersect directly with the same over-appropriated groundwater picture the hub describes.

What to verify before buying

• Whether a specific feedyard near land you're considering is a state-registered or state-permitted CAFO with CDPHE, and its approximate head-count capacity.
• Distance and prevailing wind direction relative to any nearby feedlot, for odor and dust exposure on residential or smaller-acreage land.
• If establishing your own feeding operation, CDPHE's current Regulation 61/81 requirements (Facility Management Plan, registration fee, groundwater-protection standards) rather than assuming a simpler county-only process applies.
• Whether the Morgan County Planning, Zoning & Building Department requires its own land-use application for a new or expanded feeding operation, per the hub's existing zoning coverage, on top of the state CAFO requirements.