CEDAR COUNTY, NE - Steve and Ron Heine come from a big family. Their parents had eight kids: five boys and three girls. The whole Heine crowd grew up on the farm in Cedar County, Nebraska.
It's a commercial size chunk of land that was once their grandfather's farm. In 2004, the brothers split up from the farm. Steve and Ron bought the business from their siblings. Now, they've found their groove together running the family farm.
The Heine Farms Feedlot features more than 3,500 acres where the Heine brothers and their team feed as many as 14,000 cattle at one time; a place they've always called home.
"We live right across the road. It's kind of nice to come outside the door and come to your job," said Steve Heine.
That working atmosphere is too familiar to leave.
Today, Steve and Ron have their duties cut out for the. Steve manages the outside chores and Ron handles the front office.
"It's easier than going to town and getting a job. That's for sure," said Steve.
Ron claims they usually agree with each other.
"It can be a challenge on occasions, but we stay so busy that we really don't have a chance to argue about a lot of things. We generally always get along," said Ron.
With the operation they're running, they definitely need all the help they can get.
"There's always something going on as far as cattle. They need to be fed morning, noon and night and there's always fences to fix and different things going on and we keep them all busy," said Steve.
"Just as a whole, it's a good place to work and it's a good family atmosphere and just a really nice, nice bunch of guys to work for," said T.J. Preston, a cowboy on the Heine farm.
These nice guys don't settle either.
"We want to do some expansion. It's mostly because if you stay status quo, you'll die a slow death," said Ron.
They are actually building a new office trying to help their growing business.
"It was a thing where we were just pretty much outgrew what we had and we just, we felt that we practically, we live in that place more than we do at home, probably. We felt that it was time," said Ron.
